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What do Dick Pratt, Molly Meldrum and John
McFarlane - chief executive officer of the ANZ Bank - have in common?
They all strutted their stuff on stage during Australia's first corporate battle
of the bands held at the Hordern Pavillion on May 25.
This was a rare change to see the nation's leading bizoids in a way they've
scarcely been seen before.
Corporate Countdown, sponsored by Sydney City Lexus, aimed to bring the huge
pool of musical talent that usually resides in the nation's boardrooms out onto
the stage in a unique fund-raising event for the Alzheimer's Association of
NSW.
Fifteen bands performed on the night, and they had to include a senior executive
to qualify for inclusion.
Hosts of the evening were music men Molly Meldrum and Richard Wilkins.
Highlight of the night was a "Travelling Wilburys" style performance by a number
of melded '70s bands including Sky Daddies, which contains remnants of Skyhooks
and Daddy Cool.
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Chameleon Touring Systems were also one of the sponsors that night supplying
the latest in lighting technology. Lighting designer was Michael 'Simmo' Simpson
who worked closely with the event producers Harrow Productions.
"We wanted to show people our latest 'toys' that we've purchased over the
past six months so I had nearly everything Chameleon own that is new," said
Simmo. "I had two MA Lighting grandMA desks (one for the stage and one for
the room), and the new MAC2000 Performance fixtures. I also had the new Vari*lites
and Quartzcolor 1K fresnels making the system top of the range.
Not only did Simmo have to light the main stage but also a stage for the presenters
and the room itself. Lighting the room were eight MAC2000 Performance, fourteen
MAC500, eight VL1000 and forty 1K fresnels.
"The room had to be fairly dark but the people still needed to be able to
see around as there were a lot of auctions and raffles happening," said Simmo.
"On stage we had a straight truss system with four trusses. The back truss
held a black curtain, scrim and a cyc. Eight CityColors were used to rear
project coloured light on to the cyc.
"The first truss held four VL2402 wash units, the second
truss held ten MAC2000 as well as four more VL2402 units and the third truss
held four MAC2000 and four VL2402s. A front truss held six MAC500 fixtures
which had their positions individually recorded for each act to ensure each
act had their 'specials'."
A standard MAC2000 was used as a main centre profile. On the floor were eight
more MAC2000 and four VL2402.
"I find I'm becoming more and more biased towards the grandMA desk," added
Simmo. "It's such a practical desk. I used a WholeHog on a show last week
and having not used one for a couple of weeks, I had already forgotten things.
You don't get that with the grandMA."
EQUIPMENT LIST
2 x MA Lighting grandMA desks
8 x CityColors
20 x MAC500
23 x MAC2000
8 x MAC2000P
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