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Tom Petty Heads Out on 40th Anniversary Tour with Claypaky Lighting Fixtures
Year
2017
Lighting Designer
Stanley A. Green
Production
VER
Photo Credits
Steve Jennings
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USA – Music legend Tom Petty marks four decades as an audience favorite with the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 40th Anniversary Tour, which commenced in Oklahoma City in April and will conclude at the Hollywood Bowl in September.  Lighting Designer Stanley A. Green selected Claypaky A.leda B-EYE K20 and Mythos fixtures to accompany Petty on the road.

Tom Petty has sold more than 80 million records worldwide making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.  The 40th Anniversary Tour will play mostly arenas although stadiums and four festivals are included in the dates.

Stanley A. Green has been Petty’s Lighting Designer since 2013 and served as his Lighting Programmer for a dozen years prior to that.  Petty’s last two tours did not feature any video apart from IMAG.  But this time Petty opted for a backdrop composed of three big LED screens separated by vertical strips of lights – what Petty calls a “dressing room mirror” configuration – plus two IMAG screens above the band and two more at the sides.  He also okayed Glow Motion Technologies’ fun illuminated orbs, which Drake had used previously on tour.

Forty Claypaky A.leda B-EYE K20s are distributed among the four rectangles and the downstage truss.  “Some serve are the main front lights for the band: two for each guy standing, four for Tom and four for Mike, the lead guitarist,” Green explains.  “They wash the guys nicely with rich CTO color.”  Additionally, “the side lights on Tom are B-EYEs as is the main backlight wash in the shapes-only mode.”

This tour is the first to feature K20s, and Green has been impressed.  “They’re bright enough, I like the zoom and the zoom effects are really nice,” he says.  “I’m really discovering these lights on the tour.”

He also chose 40 Claypaky Mythos as backlights and for gobo aerial beams.  “A lot of people use Mythos like a Sharpy, but they have a lot of capabilities and I tend to use their features more,” says Green.  “On the tour Mythos deliver graphical looks in the air or widen for slow, hard-edge pans in the air.  For several moments they point straight down to make a light path for Tom soloing.  They create a nice warm light for him to walk across the stage in.”

One Mythos on each side of the rig about 30 feet from the band also creates “a nice tight, sharp, textury look for Tom,” he adds.  “They work just awesome.”

VER supplied the lighting and video equipment.

Kevin Cassidy is the Tech Director for the tour and Matt Howe the Video Engineer.

A.C.T Lighting Inc. is the exclusive distributor of Claypaky fixtures in North America.

Francesco Romagnoli, Claypaky Area Manager for North and Latin America, added, “Mr. Green has been  a great supporter of ours for years and we’re happy to see him use so many of our fixtures for this important tour.”