Atomic Kitten Debut with Martin Professional

For Immediate Release

LD Barry Halpin comments on MAC range and TrackPod automated followspot system.

Top UK girl band, Atomic Kitten, performed their first concert to a sell out crowd recently at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire, and supporting them at their debut show was an array of Martin Professional fixtures. Lighting Designer Barry Halpin used Bandit Lites UK to supply the Martin fixtures, along with generic fixtures and control equipment for the show.

Halpin chose some of his old favorites from the Martin range, including MAC 600 wash lights, MAC 250s and his most popular, the MAC 2000. Barry commented “I know the MAC 2000 and its capabilities well after using them with Westlife earlier this year. I knew that in a venue such as Shepherds Bush Empire they would really cut through and be very dominating – and sure enough they were. One of the girls in the band has an allergy which prevents me from using smoke or haze during the show, so the beams don’t look as pronounced as normal, but they still show up, better than any other fixture I’ve seen.”

Halpin also used three TrackPod automated tracking systems on the show, one to track each of the girls. These were hooked up primarily to the MAC 250s for backlight and house fixtures for frontlight. Again, Halpin knew the TrackPod from the Westlife show in which he used five systems.

Barry comments, “The TrackPod is a superb system – it provides solutions for difficult situations. In this case I needed a tracking front on key light, and because of the awkward positioning of the followspots the TrackPod allowed me to achieve this using moving lights, which obviously can be placed where followspots cannot. Because I had no production rehearsals for this show, I couldn’t push the system as far as I did on Westlife. But just to easily, cheaply and quickly have frontlight and backlight tracking each of the girls seamlessly adds an extra dimension and is vital when TV is involved– and the costs are so little.”

The band, who have just notched up another UK Number 1 single with their version of the classic Bangles song “Eternal Flame”, then went on to play a number of UK festivals.


Best regards,
Larry Beck

PR Coordinator
Martin Professional A/S