That non-existent Christmas break!

Just when we thought we were going to have a relaxing few weeks over Christmas, we got busy again! Dan and I lit an amazing event on Sydney Harbour with Hannafords events which featured performers on boats and islands all over the place, and then got a bit swamped with paperwork and preparations for a series of new and exciting projects for the new year. At the moment we have Andi working with us, a German intern who is finishing studying his lighting degree. Apart from all the German beer he brought with him, he's great to work with and we've had some great opportunities to show him the Aussie industry as well as the touristy bits and pieces. 2008 is already shaping up to be a huge year with jobs all over the world already being booked in. It's going to be an exciting one as we light and technically direct events both within in and outside Australia. Special thanks have to go recently to Martin Philips and Eric Belanger who took the time to show me some behind the scenes action at Daft Punk last week, and Paul Marin who took me around the new look Home nightclub in Sydney last night while DJ Ferry Corsten blew the crowd away. To all our followers, clients, staff and friends, have a great, prosperous and safe new year and we look forward to working with everyone again soon! cheers rich

Christmas in China

I have just experienced Christmas "Macau style". There are decorations everywhere which is nice, and there is piped Christmas music everywhere which is annoying. Inescapable really. The other thing you cant escape here in Macau is casinos. They are everywhere too, and more are being built. I have visited a few for "educational purposes" to look at the lights and entertainment aspects !! In short its pretty impressive. CATS is the reason I am here in Macau. The China tour comences here and continues for the next few months. Again Richard and I are lighting directing the tour. The Christmas / end of year season is behind us now. We did quite a few gigs. All good. All busy. All will return next year. Now we are heading into 2008. The year starts off with a dance party. What a perfect way to start. The year is shaping to up to be really interesting. Already gigs are unexpectedly appearing and they are new and exciting. Seems like this year will be huge. Anyway interval is nearly over, so its back to CATS and then to eat Chinese food and have a Tsing Tao. Bye Bye GY

Cold in Birmingham

After a week of blistering heat in the Domain for the Citi Client Party, I'm back in the Northern Hemisphere for the annual Good Food Show and Jamie Oliver LIVE concerts. We've put together a great rig that uses a mix of lighting and projection to create a whole new range of effects with the set. Ben's got his Christie 20k projectors, and I've got a bunch of moving lights and it's brighter, bigger and bolder than last year. Day 1 has just finished and I've got 30 shows ahead of me before flying back to Sydney mid next week to tackle more Christmas parties and finalise preparations for January's Planetshakers National Tour. My body is really hoping for a break sometime soon but every other part of me is still having a heap of fun. See you all back in Aus soon. PS - For everyone on Facebook, you can now become a fan of Mandylights - so add us by visiting our page here.

Cold in Cleveland...

I'm in Cleveland USA this week for the 2nd Fabulous Food Show in the massive IX Center next to the international airport. We're about to start three days of shows with a cool theatre design that includes a bunch of LED truss toners and other toys. It's freezing cold and we've seen snow, sleet and ice in pretty much every other form. Looking forward to being back in Sydney next week for a few weeks with a bunch of awesome shows coming up. It's hard to imagine that I'm going from being rugged up here to playing with Harbourlife on Sydney Harbour in two short weeks....

All around the world

Greetings from another international airport- Roma. I have just flown here from Athens after lighting a conference for a large financial company. Next port of call is Bangkok where I play with CATS for a couple of weeks. Dan and Richard have been or will be around airports lately too. Dan up in Brisvegas with the Jim Beam Bourbonfest (Dan still no samples!!!) and Richard heads off soon to the USandA to light the Good Food show in Cleveland (Richard please dont bring food samples back- it will be a bit off by the time it reaches Australia). The end of year season is upon as now and we have jobs for many of the large corporates lined up, with a few more to be confirmed. Its all go. To help us actually do all this work we have taken on a new fulltime staff member- Mike Gearin. So if you see a new face on the jobs its probably Mike. We are really excited to have him on board and he will be a great asset to Team MANDY. Watch this space for a full profile on Mike to come soon. Time to find a plane... Till the next airport Greg

Calm before the storm

We're enjoying a few days of planning, quoting and catching up with everyone in the office in Sydney before the busy season 'officially' begins for us this weekend. Greg heads off on Monday to light a massive conference in Athens, while I'm jetting off a week later to light Cleveland's Fabulous Food Show again in the cold, cold Ohio. November sees us spread all over the place, with Greg in Bangkok lighting the next leg of the Cats tour, myself in the USA and UK, and Dan jetting around Australia too. We've got a heap of interesting projects, including performances on islands around Sydney Harbour, live shows with Jamie Oliver, a few innovative and exciting product launches, a DVD shoot for Christian City Church, Bourbonfests in both Sydney and Brisbane as well as a host of end of year Christmas parties, performances and concerts. It's going to be a busy few months! This week we took delivery of our shiny new brochures - get in touch with us if you'd like to see a bit of what we've been up to in the past year - even we can't believe it was our first birthday a couple of weeks ago! So it's full steam ahead for us, watch this space for more blogs from all corners of the world! rich

Gearing up

I've had a busy few weeks since arriving back in Australia. Last weekend was spent on two all night dance parties - the enormous 2007 Sleaze Ball and then Fuzzy's Afterlife party - both at the Hordern Pavilion. With a slightly less busy week I've got a chance to start on paperwork for upcoming Jamie Oliver shows in the UK, and also to get ready for projects around Australia and the US. This afternoon I got a chance to return to the Favela club and add some tricky programming for a Australian television network which saw their logo rocketing through the roof of the venue for a corporate party. It's definitely getting busier and will be good to have the whole crew back in town next week.

Meowmemory

3 more times to hear Memory from CATS here in Korea. It has been a great five months touring Korea. Richard and I have had a ball up here together and individually. We have played 4 cities, renumbered all the cues in the show, transfered from HOG to GrandMA and even managed to go to a few roller coaster parks too (they are not the best, but better than nothing) and eaten TONS of Korean BBQ. The three of us are back in Sydney together for the first time since May 22, and its not for long with projects in Athens, Bangkok, Cleveland, Brisbane and Melbourne in the calendar for the next while. Then there are the jobs in Sydney..... its all go . Stay tuned to the website for announcements of developments at Mandylights. We are excited...you just have to wait!! Nearly show time here, but just so you get a taste of what I and Richard have been looking at recently heres the GrandMA set up in the stalls for the plotting session here in Daejeon Korea. Till the next time from somewhere GY

Back to it

My feet haven't touched the ground since landing in Sydney yesterday after a hectic but fun month in Japan and Korea. Tomorrow I'm off to light the McDonald College Dance Gala at Parramatta's Riverside Theatres, before gearing up to light the main room (Hordern Pavilion) at next week's massive Sleaze Ball. Both shows have great looking lighting rigs going in, and I should say a huge thanks to the respective equipment houses who are supporting the events. The next few weeks are flat out for us, and with Cats finishing it's Korean season soon, we'll be glad to have the three of us back in the same country for a month or so. Stay tuned for a bunch more updates in the next few weeks, I'll post when I get a chance to breathe between shows! Cheers Rich

The McDonald College Season

A very special time has rolled around in the MandyLights Calendar... Its The McDonald College Season. Over the next three weeks The McDonald College showcases its vast array of talent in not 1, not 2, but 3 big concerts!

Today is the Dance Showcase and is followed by a Music Gala next week at the City Recital Hall and another Dance Showcase the week after that.

I'm currently sitting in front of the very first rehearsal at the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta and the performers are definitely winding up to what can only be expected to be a very impressive performance. 

Stay tuned to the MandyLights Blog to see all the latest from these concerts including an impressive 40 panels of Colour Web at next weeks Music Gala.

Live from....

Greg brings you another update, this time live from the Hordern Pavillion in Sydney where he is lighting the Dream Ball charity fundraiser event for the Look Good Feel Better Foundation. Should be a bit of fun tonight with Mel and Kochy acting as the hosts. The room has come up a treat with a positive forest of chandeliers. We have about 12 hanging over the main floor- looks very cool. I head back up to Korea in the morning for a few weeks more of Cats. I operate the last Seoul show on Sunday afternoon and then do a transfer to the next city. Great timing on my part to turn up for a load out!! Keeps me busy. Anyway back to rehersals Cheers!

Here and There

Hi All Once again team MANDY is all over the world...well Asia and Australia this week. Im sitting in the Qantas lounge in Hong Kong awaiting a flight to Sydney, Richard is sitting in the National Theatre Seoul Korea operating CATS and Dan is in Sydney doing something lighting wise I hope !!! I have just finished up a stint in Seoul looking after CATS ligting matters and handed the batton to Richard the other day. Instead of just handing Richard the controls to the HOG2, I also gave him a GrandMA to play with. Our project is to transfer the show from HOG to GrandMA. It's a huge project to undertake. I made a great start and Richard will finish it off. I get to head back to Sydney for a week or so and attend a load of meetings and light the Dream Ball next Friday. The next few weeks are filled with more CATS and some corporate events and Richard even gets to have a holiday, which he will well deserve.

Richard hard at work battling it out with a HOG and a GrandMA

Till the next installment from somewhere.....GY

The pace picks up

  I'm back in Seoul for a couple of weeks to finish up Cats' highly successful, sellout season here. We just did our 50th show in the city last night and the show will move on in about three weeks. It's pretty cool to be playing to packed, enthusiastic houses every night.  

  Back in Australia, Sleaze Ball is coming up and I'm designing the Hordern Pavilion for the event. It's a great room to work in, and Bytecraft are once again supplying Mardi Gras with the gear and the guts to make it work. The theme for this year is 'Zirkus' - a twisted, gothic take on a circus theme - which I'm looking forward to making work with the awesome team at MG scenic. Without giving too much away, all I can say is it's going to be a spectacular show from beginning to end, with more than a couple of huge surprises throughout the night.

  In other news, the Christmas party season is fast approaching, with Mandylights already lighting around a dozen of the country's largest corporate Christmas events at locations all over the place... more news on that later. Other upcoming work includes a lot of overseas trips for all the Mandylights team, with shows in the UK, US, Thailand, Greece and China all coming up in the next few months.

  We've also just put into production our new corporate brochure which is a pretty nice piece of artwork that we designed completley in house and that should be printed and delivered to us in the next couple of weeks, so make sure you pick one up.

  Till next time

rich

Change in Seoul but different

Much excitment yesterday here on the CATS set in Seoul Korea when our care package from Australia turned up. Pretty cool and important package too- not just your jar of Vegemite and a can of VB. We recieved a Grand MA console and bits and pieces to plug it into our dimmers and moving lights. Now begins the project of transfering Cats which is currently on a HOG 2 to Grandma. This will prove to be a interesting project for sure as we are planning to do most of it in an " off line " situation and not in the normal way of sitting in the theatre with the lights on. We are planning to transfer the information over just by entering values from the HOG and then do a tidy up. Richard turns up here next week to be part of the fun of the transfer and look after the last few weeks of Cats here in Seoul. We also got a box of spares so we can fix some moving lights now. Ryan is happy too. The photo is backstage at dimmer world- Ryan is busy fixing lights and I am busy setting up the GMA (and taking the photo) Till soon- GY

2007 The year to come.

Found this great photo from last years christmas party season and it made me excited about the rest of the year to come. 2007 has been great so far and the second half of the year is looking like it will be great fun too. There's alot on with corporate christmas parties, more theatre tours and the festival season quickly approaching so stay tuned to Mandy Central for all the latest from some of the biggest events Australia wide.

Rocking the Eisteddfod

We've been having an absolute ball at Rock Eisteddfod this year and with all the MandyLights team now inducted into the Rock crew its definitely an event that we look forward to. Last week I was in the sunny state on the Brisbane event and this week its Woolongong and Sydney. This is an event that I really enjoy and is almost like a chance to have a bit of fun and get back to what our job is all about.

Rocking in Melbourne

Once again the Mandy boys are spread all over the place. Greg's about to begin reprogramming Cats in Seoul, Dan has returned from Rock Eisteddfod heats in Brisbane and Wollongong and is now working at the event in Sydney, while I've shipped off down to Melbourne for a week and a bit of RockE south of the border. I'm typing this from FOH about an hour before the third heat begins which features eleven schools from around Victoria. It's my first season of RockE and hopefully not my last - it's been heaps of fun working with the different schools and I'm pretty amazed at how hard a lot of them try to stage a huge show. So far, I've seen UFOs and SETI experiments, tons of global warming, a 12 year old version of U2, a few circuses, some Irish dancers and a salute to Judy Garland.... surely the only gig with more variety is Eurovision... Looking forward to spending the weekend off with the crew and then returning to Sydney for a week before heading off again to Korea and Japan for another month. More blogs to come... till next time rich

All change in Seoul

I'm about to start my last show of Cats in Seoul this evening, with Greg coming back out to take over for the next month or so. It's been a good run so far despite a pretty crazy bump in week when we transferred the show from Daegu to Seoul. I've had a bit of a chance to explore the city - we even managed to find the disco district which was filled with every kind of disco lighting toy ever made... some real antiquities to be found - even an old Lee Colortran lighting console that was sitting for sale by the side of a road! This weekend I'll be working on the PLC College musical which will make use of some interesting projection that I'll be controlling. After that, there will hopefully be a few slightly less-hectic weeks where I can start some planning for the huge number of end of year jobs that we already have planned. Meanwhile, it's time to go... we've got a show to do...

Hillsong half way..

Well its Wednesday afternoon and I'm having a great time here at ACER. Kelsey, who is operating MAXEDIA, decided that she could do some words on the Martin LC panels. So what else to put up except....

Hillsong Conference

Greg is busily in the middle of bumpin for the Annual Hillsong Conference at ACER Arena. HE was the first to get his FOH position set up complete with coffe and internet. The crew from Lots of Watts and Chameleon are busy building some funky shapes using Martin LC panels. Its a fidly and slow job but will look amazing when finished later tonight. We cant wait!!. Greg at the control of his empire Greg MANDYS the ACER

On stage with Cats

Greg and I met up in Daegu this week as part of the Asian Cats Tour. Greg has operated and overseen the last few weeks and I'll be taking over from this Sunday. We've had a chance to do a bit of sightseeing, gamble with our lives with the Korean road system and eaten lots of things that we didn't really know the origin of. The show moves to Seoul next week so we have one more week of Daegu shows and a pretty intensive bump out and in ahead of us. Below is a photo of the crew - GY and myself with Ryan (systems) and Wing (head followspot operator). If you happen to be in Korea, stop in and say hi! Cheers Richard

All over

After our birthday party last month we've headed off all over the place. With Dan holding the fort back in Sydney, Greg headed of to light the Asian touring production of Andrew Llloyd Webber's Cats in Daegu, about 1000km south of Seoul in South Korea. I ventured back to Birmingham in the UK for the BBC Summer Festival to light the show's Supertheatre with Blacksheep Productions. After a week of gardening, food and style shows in the miserable, rainy, cold UK, I've just flown to take over from Greg in Daegu - not before enjoying a rare day off at Alton Towers - a massive theme park in the UK! We have a week to go in Daegu before the production moves to Seoul. It's going to be a fun month of shows, sightseeing and not knowing exactly what we're eating... Greg is madly working to finalise lighting designs and production drawings for the massive Hillsong Conference which he heads home to light this weekend. We're all incredibly busy, but loving every minute of it. On top of all this, Dan is working on several projects - a couple of which have to stay in the 'secret' category for the moment, but that we know we are going to have a ball with later in the year. That's all for now - we'll get some Korean photos up soon! Cheers Richard

Mandylights turns 1!

What better way to celebrate the company's first birthday than to enjoy a spectacular meal amongst friends in a great restaurant? With greg heading off to light the Cats Asian tour tomorrow afternoon, we're enjoying a rare night with everyone in Sydney.

And at the town hall...

Mandy also returned to light the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra for I B Creative in a special performance enhanced by a spectacular lighting rig that enhanced the music and architecture of the room. Stay tuned for more pictures in the coming days.

At the Opera House

Tonight we have designed am exclusive party on the front steps of the Sydney Opera House for Blacksheep Productions. With their trademark sense of fun added to the gig, its quickly become a hugely successful night for both the lucky attendees as well as a good laugh for the crew!

Bourbonfest Brisbane

Dan, Richard, Ryan and Shane are in southern Brisbane lighting the second Bourbonfest event for Blacksheep. Theres a full house, the bourbon is flowing and the bbq, stage show and fun crowd are making for a great evening. Check out our upcoming events page to see where we are headed next

Good times

After a hectic weekend of festivals and parties, we're starting to work on some really exciting projects for the upcoming weeks. We'll fill you in soon, but here's a great photo of me and the Blacksheep crew enjoying a day off at Movie World a few weeks ago! We look forward to much more fun with Blacksheep as we work with them around the country and the globe this year!

The alcoholic weekend!

Mandylights is gearing up for a weekend of festivals and partying, with Richard designing both the first national Jim Beam Bourbonfest event in addition to a highly-anticipated secret dance party for a major drink label this Saturday. The Bourbonfest kicks off at Rouse Hills' Mean Fiddler Pub this Saturday with bands, bourbon, a tour bus that has to be seen to be believed and an enormous BBQ. After Sydney, Dan takes the show on the road to Brisbane next week, and then we're looking forward to further dates in Wollongong, Newcastle, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Sydney later in the year. In other news, Dan has been busy lighting part of the filming for Baz Luhrman's new movie epic "Australia" out at Sydney's Fox Studios. Dan's GrandMA expertise have been appreciated on set as the film's board operator. Greg has just finished his Easter tour of duty around Hillsong and Christian City Church and is already drawing up CAD plans for the enormous Hillsong conference in July. It's a busy time but we're all working on projects that we enjoy, and that's the main thing! Till next time Richard

Easter Time

The Easter weekend is upon us and all three of the Mandylights directors have been flat out on Church productions across Sydney. Greg has lead the charge, designing mammoth Easter productions for Christian City Church congregations at Oxford Falls and Central City, and is currently at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre lighting an Easter production for Hillsong Church. Dan and Richard are busy programming, planning and rigging too. Mandylights is looking forward to a whole host of upcoming gigs - everything from corporate parties through to overseas conferences, a few huge dance parties and of course, Australian Fashion Week - which will make Richard's fourth year of involvement in the region's largest and most prestigious fashion event. Also coming up is the national Bourbonfest Event, where the Mandy team will once again look forward to working for Blacksheep Productions to help make the Bourbonfest look as bright and as bold as possible. Meanwhile, we're still enjoying welcoming colleagues and friends to our new office, with our visualisation studio being put to it its first use in a few short weeks for a major dance party event. Hope to see you at the office soon! Richard

MandyLights Launched

MandyLights Pty Ltd has now been launched to the Australian and global lighting industries and after weeks of preparation and two big nights of functions the Mandy team are feeling very excited about how things turned out. We now have an amazing office complete with visualisation studio, some seriously cool computers and amazing MandyLights branding. But for those who are wondering what we are doing this week... On monday night I lit an really amazing album launch at a little art gallery in the rocks. The new artist(who was really cool but i can't name) performed a short 6 songs to an audience of Australia's A-List. Audio was provided by Norwest and Production Technologies and we all had a good time. The rest of the week is all about easter with shows at 3 of Sydney's biggest churches. Thanks to everyone who made our launch happen. We have had nothing but positive feedback and well wishes and it is great to have all that support. Cheers

Almost time

The MandyLights launch is just around the corner and we're putting the finishing touches on the office to make it look amazing. Heres a sneak preview. More to come soon...

The new office

Construction has started on the new office and beneath the sea of cables, lights and gyprock we are close to having an amazing space we are going to be really proud of. Stay tuned as we reveal all late next week...

On the Gold Coast

I spent the weekend on the Gold Coast lighting a huge conference, which included a pool party and party evening. Mikey Rice and Dan joined me for the events which were a challenge to light but proved to be lots of fun, especially with the Blacksheep team. It wasn't all work and no play though, with a side trip to Movie World and Dreamworld after the shows helping everyone to relax. Above, Mikey and I pose with a few of the characters from Movie World.

Weekend Update

The MandyLights team had a busy weekend, with three shows in two different states it was both a wild and a wet few days. Greg designed and operated the Hillsong Womens "Colour" Conference in the Acer Arena. An amazing rig of Martin fixtures, including the new TW1 tungsten wash, delivered some amazing looks and complimented the themes of the conference perfectly. Keep an eye out for some pictures in our news section. On thursday night I operated a battle of the bands competition in Sydney's north west which had a great atmosphere and was a lot of fun. MAC 700 and GrandMA were provided by Hills Concert Productions. Friday morning i flew to the Gold Coast to join Richard at a corporate conference in the Conrad Juipiters Hotel and Casino. An Australian Idol night and a themed Pool Party were the highlights and were both very successful designs. As a humerous side note anyone who is working in the pool area at Conrads should keep in mind that there is an automated sprinkler system that archs up right on midnight. Very wet but not so wild. This week its construction time at Mandy Manor so stay tuned for a sneak preview tour of our new studio...

This Week @ Mandylights

Mardi Gras may be over but the work isn't showing any signs of letting up. I've been continuing programming at the stunning new Favela nightclub in King's Cross - a wall of around 8,000 light globes in the roof of the venue has been great to program. I've spent a lot of time creating a collection of image files that we pump through the lighting console to create the illusions of text, graphics and patterns morphing and moving across the roof. This week, Greg is off to the Acer Arena to light the annual Hillsong Women's Conference. He started hanging the 62 tonnes of equipment in the roof this morning at 6am and will be there for the next week. Dan, Mikey and I are looking forward to a little more sun as we head up to the Gold Coast in Queensland to light a huge conference over a few days later this week. Hopefully we even get some time to take in a few theme parks over the next weekend. Till next time Richard

Mardi Gras Complete

Mardi Gras is now complete and there's definately a good feeling around MandyLights HQ as we recieve plenty of positive feedback from clients and staff. It was a big week for the MandyLights team with Dan heading up the floats design and Richard designing both the RHI and the Horden party rooms. Both projects were a great success and really highlight the extent of knowledge and diversity that this company represents. Richard especially should be commended for some seriously amazingy dance party design and operation. Top work mate. Keep an eye out in the New section of the website for some great float and party photos. -Dan

2 Days till Mardi Gras!

With the final Mardi Gras countdown well underway, Dan, Richard and the rest of the team are still working hard on the finishing touches for the parade and party. Pictured is Dan inside one of the floats, filled with festooning and 90 degree profiles which produce a spectacular effect when viewed from the outside. Over in the Entertainment Quarter, Richard's designs for the Hordern and RHI are now hanging thanks to the guys at Bytecraft, and programming is well underway with nightly rehearsals and plotting sessions running till about 4am each night.

Mardi Gras Week

This week we're all involved in Mardi Gras in some way or another. Dan and Greg head off from Tuesday to install lighting on the parade's largest floats. This year, we've added a ton of new LED equipment that will be more waterproof and use less power than in previous years. The week of work culminates with the massive parade snaking its way through Darlinghurst to Moore Park on Saturday night. You'll be able to check out the event live on TV too. Meanwhile, I'm out at the Royal Hall of Industries and the Hordern Pavilion designing the lighting for the two main rooms of the world famous MG Party. Can't say or show too much at the moment, but we're installing huge rigs in both rooms, and there's some pretty cool stuff going up around the site as well. It's probably our busiest week yet, but we're having fun, and it's been great working with Aztech and the whole MG team as usual.

Welcome to Mandylights LIVE

Welcome to Mandylights LIVE - where Dan, Greg and Richard are able to blog directly from events anywhere in the world. This part of the site is a little less formal - it's a place where we can keep everyone up to date with what we're currently working on - all sent live from our mobile phones to this blog. Make sure you bookmark this page and check back regularly to see where we are, what we're doing, and how our shows are looking. We look forward to sharing with you... - Richard