AC/DC – Philips Vari-Lites Power Rock Or Bust Tour

For AC/DC’s Rock Or Bust tour, set designer Ray Winkler joined forces with lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe to seamlessly translate the distinct AC/DC sound into a grungy buffalo horned ‘Mad Max’ style stage, complemented by metallic, two colour classic rock and roll lighting primarily delivered by over 60 of the new Philips Vari-Lite VL4000 BeamWash luminaires, reports LSIOnline.co.uk.

“AC/DC has always demanded bold, bright, spectacular – yet uncomplicated – lighting and I think this time we gave it to them in spades,” explains Woodroffe. “We were looking for powerful, bright lights that would work particularly well with no colour. We also wanted some more delicate effects, some tight beams and some hard edge source points. We chose a variety of fixtures including the new Vari-Lite VL4000 BeamWash and the VL3500 washes, which in combination gave us most of what we needed, in various permutations.”

Woodroffe worked in close collaboration with long term AC/DC lighting director Cosmo Wilson, who is responsible for taking the show on the road. Indeed the pair took a leap of faith when they specified the then unproven VL4000 BeamWash: “I’m fast approaching my 700th AC/DC show,” reports Cosmo, “and all of them apart from this tour have used Parcans as a mainstay in the rig. However I’m a big fan of Vari-Lite and although at the time the VL4000 BeamWash was unproven, we were assured Vari-Lite would deliver.

“The VL4000 BeamWash lens system is unbelievably good,” continues Cosmo. “We use it as a wash but then we tighten it up and it’s a great profile. I’m not a big gobo person – let’s face it AC/DC isn’t exactly a gobo band – however the rare times we do use them they work really well.”

Lighting has been supplied by US company Upstaging and UK based Neg Earth.

AC/DC launch the North American leg of their world tour this Saturday, August 22nd in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The current tour runs until December 15th when the band finish their Australasian leg at Western Springs Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. There are rumours that the tour will extend into 2016.

(Photo – Ralph Larmann)