From Riverdance to Dance of Death
Here are an interesting interview to Martin Brennan, the Maiden concert light designer:Brennan is a "Light Designer", he worked at many shows, since Riverdance to rock band´s tours. He has been "Light Designer" with Maiden since Virtual XI World Tour.
Martin answered some questions that we send to him, about himself, the road and his work with Maiden.
Which are the last projects that you worked?
Before the "Gimme 'ED" tour, I had been working on "Riverdance" since the end of the "Brave New World" tour. They fitted in together quite nicely. I was also able to fit in the Clive Burr shows at Brixton, as well as a few one-offs, such as the "Festival of Speed" at Goodwood and a couple of TV commercial shoots.
How is the life on the road?, do it compensate the good moments with to be so far from your family?
Life on the road is hard, but it is all I have ever done for a living, so I do not know anything different. It is hard, but it is fun as well. There are days when you never want to see a gig again, but the good days are brilliant. Working with Maiden is, in many many ways, the best gig I've ever had, because I love the guys in the band, I am a Maiden fan of old, and enjoy the music, and I love the "family" of the crew.
I do the job for many reasons. I'm good at it, I love it, and the adrenalin of the gigs is irreplaceable. I now also have a young family, and touring means that I can keep a roof over their heads. I miss them very much, and so it does get harder to leave home every time. There is a much larger Maiden family, however, like the Chicago Mutants, the Belgians, the Americans, the Japanese, and of course the mad South Americans who travel all over the world to see the band. I is nice to say hello to a friendly face, miles away from home, in the place you least expect to see them!! Thank you all.
Which is the strangest thing that has happened to you in your work?, and the most funny?
Strangest??? Good question. I think coming full circle with Maiden, to be honest. Coming from being a fan, to working in lights, to seeing that Maiden needed a Lighting Designer (LD), to meeting Dicky Bell and being offered the job, to having my opinions asked for, and even listened to, and deciding how IRON MAIDEN, one of the biggest bands in the world, should look. Great feeling.
As for funny; most of the funny things come from the people you work with. We spend most of the time on stage during the day laughing at each other. We have a very good reputation as a crew for being easy to work with, and having a laugh while we do it.
One time, in Montreal, however, on the "Virtual XI" tour, the rope snapped on the Big Eddie head. It was the big inflatable, and we were doing an outdoor gig with quite a strong wind. The rope broke, and our carpenters were last seen chasing this bouncing plastic lightbulb-shaped head across the stage, never to be seen again!!
What is the first thing that you think when during a show you have a blackout?
First thought "OH SHIT!!!" It has happened a couple of times. Once I pulled the wrong fader down, so nothing would work. It was only for a moment, but it seemed like a lifetime! Otherwise, we have blown power supplies, and ,earlier this year, someone on stage knocked the handle of one of the supplies. This killed the desk, but some of the lights stayed on, thank God. We got it all running again very quickly, but it looked very odd!! Obviously, I hate it, because it gets in the way of the show, but you cannot worry about it too much because it is no-one's fault. The band are brilliant, as well, because they understand that problems happen, and as long as you give a good reason, they understand. They take the piss,but they understand!!!
What job did you have if you don't works in this?
The only other things I ever wanted to be were either a cricketer or to swim with sharks as a marine biologist!
What do you do when you don´t have to be on the road?, relax only or do you test other systems and "toys" also?
I have 3 beautiful little daughters (aged 5, 3 and 16 months), so I spend all of my time running around after them, so I never get to relax!! I work for other bands, and for lighting companies, so I get to see a lot of other types of lights and rigs. When I don't work, I don't have much to do with rock & roll. I like to keep my distance from it, and spend time with my family, or catching up on films, playing cricket, golf or suba diving.
Does which is the price approximate of a rig in a "big" production?
Another good question. It depends on which territory we are in, who is the lighting company, what is the length of tour etc. I tend not to get too involved in the money side; that is up to the Production Manager. I am asked to design a rig, which will work within the time available in the working day, and fit into 2 trucks, and give the band the big rock look they want and need.
In the last shows that you have worked with Maiden, how many lights, lamps (etc) have the rig?
The "Dance of Death" tour had the following equipment:
48 x bars of 6
12 x bars of 4 ACLs
6 x 8-lites
6 x 4-lites.
18 x Mac 2000 moving lights
20 x Studio Color moving lights
66 x colour changers
20 x single pars
5 x follow spots
The 2004 part of the tour was a smaller rig, and slightly simpler in lay-out, but kept the same kind of look.
Are there many differences between the productions in which you worked?, for example, from Riverdance to Maiden, or is it everything same?
Every production is different, because every artist is different. There were even a lot of changes between "Gimme 'Ed" and "Dance of Death", because the stage sets were different, and the songs they were playing were different, so they neede different things, but having to stay within the Maiden "look". You must give each artist what they want, and each artist should hopefully look different. A metal band would look silly under a lighting rig meant for girly dancers!!
What is the process for the light design of the maiden shows?, for example, how come the idea of the lights in a song like Paschendale?
I know how Maiden should look, and how the audience expect to see the band. Then, I am told the dates, and where we shall be playing. Then the budget comes in to play, and then I am told what songs the band are playing. The band trust me to do the best job I can, and normally leave me to it. Sometimes, however, the band, and especially Bruce, come up with ideas, which I have to include in the design. We were able to talk about "Dance of Death", and Bruce being the "narrator". From there came the blue up-lights, and the movers becoming stars when Bruce came up with the line "looking up at the stars", and also the red up-lights when Bruce sang about "walking on the coals". Very simple stuff, but Bruce is very good at hitting the right spot, it gives him something to play off, and i is a slightly different look for a metal band.
"Paschendale" was a big number for the tour. Rod Smallwood wanted the song lit only in "red, white and black"!! From there, Bruce's ideas for the intro tape, the barbed wire and the dummies came up. Rod did not want to see the dummies being put on stage, so the intro tape dictated how the intro should look. There were a lot of dramatic strobing looks into the audience, as well as fleeting glimpses of the crew putting the barbed wire out. When the song actually started, the great highs and lows of the song gave me so much to work with, but it was such a complicated song, that it took a while to remember all of the changes, solos, riffs and big bumps! It is a song I am very proud of, because everone was very involved with it, and wanted it to look right, and I think that it looked superb. I was even able to get Adrian to stand in the same place every gig for his great riff, half way through the song!! Not easy!
The rest of it involves going for the big changes, and trying to make every song look different, which is not easy with metal, but the band have so much varied material, that the music does a lot of the work for me.
Source:Maidenzone.com
4 Comments
Moved to main news, put a new title (sounds cool, heh ?) and edited the text little for better presentation (italics).
Cheers
that was an interesting read thx 
ty much 
\m/
that passd the time for a bit
Quite interesting