The Corner Hotel in Richmond, Victoria is one of Melbourne’s most popular and respected medium-sized rock venues. Next year they celebrate 30 years in its present form however it has been a pub since the 19th century and a live music venue since the 1940s.
Paul Martin has been providing production for the venue since 1995 and although he is known for his audio work, he crossed to the dark side to upgrade the venue’s lighting.
“Well you’ve got to sleep with the devil sometimes!’ he quipped. “We’ve put in a new lighting rig in the form of six Martin MAC Ones and four Ayrton Mistral thanks to Show Technology as well as 20 LED pars.
Paul says that choosing the new lights was like picking something to wear. He simply had no idea!
“I’m a sound guy, I’ve been a sound guy all my life, so I tried to learn lights but lighting changes every 20 minutes whilst, in comparison, audio changes every two hours,” he said. “So I decided to go around to all the major hire companies and touring LD/operators, and ask them what the big touring guys were using. The consensus was the Mistrals because they are a workhorse and the MAC Ones were too plus they’re small. We found the Mistrals dropped the same height as the old PAR cans in the venue, which was amazing. The Mistrals are a great workhorse, so punchy and not a one-trick pony.”
When looking at the MAC One specs, Paul said they ticked all the boxes however when he picked them up, he thought he had been ripped off! They were so small and light, he was convinced they would not perform well.
“Then we turned them on – I was surprised and felt a lot better,” he remarked. “I plan to get some more eventually. We put them in Ludicrous mode which was very fancy but it took 129 channels which is ridiculous for us. We run them at 74 channels and they’re great, delivering a nice punchy white amongst other great features. Every operator smiles when they find it MAC Ones and Mistrals which makes for a better show!”
Paul comments that the Mistrals and MAC Ones have been sensational and got a shout-out from the artists on their first use. The event was Drag Bingo and the Drag Queens twice stopped the show to applaud the lights. Why? The old PAR cans used to be so hot they would melt their makeup! Finally, their make-up was on point thanks to Martin and Ayrton.
