The main focus of the stage was a giant Screenco LED screen. This had been rigged to facilitate a C4 broadcast of the Ashes cricket from Edgebaston on the Thursday through Sunday. However, Channel Four then decided it would create a great local buzz of they threw a party on the Friday night, offering an opportunity to groove the summer evening away with the best in contemporary club vibes with local hero - the Fatboy himself! They then decided to broadcast parts of the party a week later on C4’s ‘Fatboy Slim Night’.
The Fatboy Slim event originally started out just as a just live show, with Rainmaker initially asked by production company Skybridge to supply four Space Cannons to reveal spectacular architectural illuminations on Brighton’s famous West Pier at a strategic moment late in the evening. However, a few production meetings down the line, it turned into a filmed event for Channel 4 and became obvious that additional stage lighting would be required as the event gathered pace. Rainmaker’s Paul O’Brien produced a dynamic lighting design for the stage. Using the two 10 metre high PA towers featuring a L-Acoustics’ V-dosc system supplied by Delta Sound and engineered by Andy Jackson, plus two additional six metre towers, Rainmaker installed a spectacular, highly flexible lighting rig consisting of High End Studio Spot 250s and Martin Mac 300 moving fixtures, plus 24 PAR 64s for extra oomph and four 7kW Xenon Space Cannons, supplied by Essential Lighting.
Also rigged on the roof of the Brighton Centre venue were eight MAC 2000s and four Xenon Super Trouper followspots, plus six Molefeys with scrollers and more PAR 64s for ‘Audience Reaction’ shots. These were specified by LD Nick Jevons (Super Furry Animals, et al) who was brought in by C4 to oversee general audience/TV lighting. These were hooked in to Rainmaker’s Avolites Pearl 2000 console for control, together with the stage system supplied by Rainmaker. As darkness fell, by prior arrangement, the festoon lights on the West Pier were killed. When Fatboy Slim reached the crescendo of his set, the Space Cannons burst into life, beaming stunning effects onto the Pier.
The show was production-managed by Skybridge’s Lee Eld and Rainmaker crew included Toby Hoggarth, Dick Stedman and programmer John Harris.
