Blackburn-based HSL supplied full lighting production and all lighting and video rigging for the recent Happy Mondays tour. This culminated in a massive sold-out late night show in Manchester Evening News Arena, taking the legendary Madchester dance gurus right back to their clubbing roots.

Lighting designer was Andy Liddle, who last designed for the Mondays back in the mid eighties when they were supporting New Order. He was asked onboard to do these shows by tour manager Neil Mather. The tour was project managed for HSL by Mike Oates …. It was the first time Liddle has worked with HSL and it proved an incredibly positive experience.

Liddle designed an adaptable rig based on four upstage/downstage ‘fingers’ of truss which were assembled in 10ft modules. This was for easy break down and installation into the smaller venues, whist still retaining the look and aesthetics of the stage. The fingers were raked with the upstage ends lower and the downstage ends higher points. At Manchester they appeared almost vertical in perspective when viewed from the auditorium.

For Manchester, each of the fingers - constructed from Tomcat 12 x 12 Truss - was rigged to their full 40 ft length, containing 4 Robe ColorSpot 1200 and 4 ColorWash 1200 moving lights, 8 JTE PixelLine battens, four Martin Atomic strobes and four linear Moles.

The creative idea behind the fingers was to form a 4 x 4 matrix of lighting sources, which fitted in neatly with the 6 video/LED screen arrangement. On the floor were 10 MAC 300s and a selection of PARs. Liddle ran the show himself using a WholeHog II console and an expander Wing, with the PixelLines driven via a PixelDrive triggered by the desk. All dimming was Avolites ART. HSL supplied their own customised power distros and their newly purchased Luminex Boxes that have been recently added to HSL’s hire stock.

HSL supplied two crew for the tour - Toby "Tobz" Dennis and Rupert Reynolds. At the MEN show, they were also aided and abetted by another X-Monday’s LD, Pete Ainsley, who came onboard at Liddle’s request as third crew person and caller for the four FOH follow spots.

HSL also supplied and undertook lots of additional rigging at Manchester, primarily for the video kit from MCL. HSL provided five 20 ft runs of Litec QL76 heavy duty truss and six 2 tonne Lodestar motors to hang the three onstage LED Barco D-lite video walls. The centre one had a back projection screen above it, and the two side LED walls each had back projection screens positioned directly below them, making a total of 6 screen surfaces - three wide and two deep - for video.

At the FOH position HSL rigged a further 8 Robe ColorSpot 1200s and ColorWash 1200 moving heads, plus 8 Atomics on an X shaped truss for audience lighting and for when DJ Clint Boon surfed the dex during changeovers. This was suspended by another four Lodestars. The Manchester show featured special guest appearances by fellow Mancunians The Farm and the Stereo MCs.

There were no production rehearsals, so before the tour went out, the entire rig was set up in HSL’s prepping area. This gave Liddle a valuable few hours of pre-programming opportunity in which to get his basic palettes and building blocks stored in the console. Liddle comments "HSL really looked after me well - the support was absolutely exemplary, the kit was in great condition and the crew were superb".