Motörhead Magic for Robe

	Motörhead on tour. Photo: Louise Stickland

Motörhead, one of the most truly iconic bands in the history of heavy, hard, and speed metal, with an illustrious and thunderous career that blasted off in the 1970s and rocked gloriously loudly for the next 40 years until their last live gig in Berlin on December 11, 2015.

The band officially ended on December 28, 2015, two and a half weeks after that memorable show in Berlin, and part way through the Bad Magic tour with the passing of founder, lead singer and rock 'n' roll warrior Lemmy (Ian Fraser Kilmister) aged 70.

The Bad Magic tour was supporting of their 22nd studio album -- for which lighting designer Caio Bertti sculpted a classic rock 'n' roll look with the contemporary twist of moving lights from Robe.

The famous Motörhead bomber set piece also flew again for this European tour -- its last as it would turn out -- and its first time on a tour for many years. It was completely refurbished and brought bang up-to-date with new lighting including Robe Pointes and LEDWash 600s plus a full automation system making it more agile and maneuverable than ever before.

Their shows have always been uncompromisingly rock 'n' roll, and this one very much mimicked that agenda, however Bertti broke new ground in 2013 when asked onboard by previous lighting designer Stefan Sjoland ... and became the first to introduce moving lights to the stage with 24 Robe Pointes on the Aftershock tour.

Previously, Motörhead had been staunchly traditional in lighting requirements, but the reaction to the Pointes, and their massive versatility enabled Bertti to make a monster size show out of an expedient amount of fixtures made a good impact ... so ... moving lights were "in."

When it was decided that the bomber should fly again on Bad Magic, the time was also right to upgrade this prominent structural piece, so the original superstructure was fitted with four Pointes and four LEDWash 600s -- chosen for their light weight -- together with a selection of generics including PARs, strobes, and LED battens.

Lightweight fixtures were fundamental to the design as the bomber superstructure fully laden with lights and cables added up to around a ton and was flown on six vari-speed chain hoists. On top of that, the lights needed to be properly "multi-purpose" to create all the big WOW factors associated with the bomber.

As well as the moving lights on the bomber, another 16 Pointes were dotted around the other trusses, with four more LEDWash 600s on the front truss and four Robe 600E Spots for key lighting. It wasn't so many fixtures for a show of the size, profile, and attitude ... but Bertti made all these interlinked elements work extremely hard.

The set was fast, furious, and full-on from the first chords of "Motörhead" to the last strains of "Overkill," with only a couple of short pauses for breath in 90 minutes.

Bertti loves Pointes and specifically the speed at which they react, again perfect for heavy metal shows and the intense operating style needed to match the energy, loudness, and excitement of the music. With the Pointe being a beam and a spot fixture, he's also effectively doubling the capacity of the rig.

One of the many things initially persuading the band to give moving lights a chance explained Bertti, was their concerns that it might resemble a disco, but when he assured them the classic PAR like looks could be replicated very well with Pointes in Spot mode, they let him make the transition.

Bertti -- also a director of leading Brazilian rental company LPL, based in Sao Paulo -- has been using Robe products in his work since 2010 and shortly after this, LPL started to make major investments in the brand. They now have a large stock of Robe moving lights and service many major tours and events.

For European Motörhead Bad Magic dates, lighting was supplied by GLS, part of the HSL family, which also has the biggest stock of Robe moving lights in the UK. GLS has serviced the Motörhead account for several years, and Bertti really enjoyed working with all of them.

He was joined on this tour by GLS crew chief Karen Brown, technician Chris Randall and Jamie Catt who looked after the automation and piloted the bomber using a Kinesys Vector system.

Bertti ran all the lighting from an Avolites Sapphire Touch and although he had cues for all of the songs, the show was operated completely live -- with impressive perfect timing.

Landing the Motörhead lighting designer job was a dream come true for Bertti, who had been a fan for some years.

He's also LD'd Brazilian heavy metal legends Sepultura for seven years which made him a great candidate. "I love the music, lighting is my medium, and it was a great honor to be able to help present the band on stage. For me, every show was a huge adrenaline hit!" he concluded with pride.