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.