Robe at Durban Legends Concert

01 April 2011


Johnny Clegg   Black Coffee light main stage for The Durban World Music Festival, which featured musical legends from yesteryear.  

If ever there was an ambassador for Durban, it would have to be owner of Black Coffee, Brandon Bunyan. This is a man who will make any ordinary day in KwaZulu Natal an adventure;  you’ll have a plate piled with bacon and eggs at the Umhlanga Lifeguard Club – must be Umhlanga’s best kept secret and feels as if you’ve stepped back 30 years, and then he’ll take you to an antique show. His three sons have first- hand experience in dissecting a shark, and from time to time they’ll do the cultural explore to Nottingham or camp in a tent in the Drakensburg. You may ask what any of this has to do with The Durban World Music Festival (aka Rock Da Beach), which was held over the 27 March and the 2nd and 3rd April at New Beach on the Beachfront, the old FIFA Fan park site.

Brandon along with Black Coffee’s Llewellyn Pieters, Operations Manager (who describes himself as “another Brandon”) were asked by Kingston Sound to provide the lighting for the Main Stage. They were very chuffed to be part of this production. The Black Coffee crew were given the day off and Brandon stepped in as the followspot operator (for old times’ sake), while Llewellyn did the lighting design and operation of  The Legends Concert, part of the festival held on the 27th March. “We picked the nice work and we had such a good time,” said Llewellyn.

 The Legends concert featured artists like The Flames, Johnny Clegg, Jazzanova (Germany) and a list of other performers who kept the audience entertained from noon till after 8 at night.

“The Flames were there and their lead guitarists, Blondie*, originally from Durban, has played for the Rolling Stones for the past thirty years,” explained Brandon. The event was held in a fanpark that was built for the World Cup 2010. “It was voted as the best fanpark in the world,” he added. 

This was not an easy show to put together. The structures company had, at the last minute, been let down by their supplier, however, the rental companies pulled together and New Beach got its roof structure, as Durban companies do. It had rained heavily the night before, typical Durban beach weather, but it ended up being a beautiful day for the concert goers with kids playing on the beach front. “We couldn’t do the plotting the night before because of the rain, so we started programming at 9am,” commented Llewellyn. “Due to the time frame we made pallets and ran the show using a combination of cues and sequences. When it got darker you got the full effect of the new gear.”

  Black Coffee used an Avolites Cube, 8 Robin 600 LEDs, 14 Robe 575 Spots, 48 Par 64s, 4 x Crowd Blinders, dimmers and power distribution, 1 x Strong Radiance Followspot and two Le Maitre hazers. Most of the fixtures were rigged on three Prolyte H30V truss lighting bars, flown from the mother grid (H40 V) above the stage. “This was all controlled by Martin Light Jockey,” said Llewellyn. “I didn’t want to expose our grandMA2 to the harsh windy wet beach from the night before.”   Llewellyn adds that the Robins were brilliant, very responsive and bright. “It would have been nice to run all 12 but the others were on another event,” said Llewellyn. “Can we have another 12, they really worked well.”.

The AV was supplied by The Hirezone, under the leadership of Richard Guild, which consisted of:

32 x Aoto P8 LED Panels

1 x LED Aoto Controller

1 x Aoto Switcher

1 x Kramer VP727 Scaler

1 x Sony PD170 Camera

1 x Sony Z5 HD Camera

2 x Layher Scaff Structures

1 x ArKaos Media Express

1 x Zero 88 Elara Lighting desk (Midi control)

1 x Mac Book Pro (Media)

1 x HP Notebook (Holding Slide)

1 x Pioneer DVD Player

 Rubber Box Power distribution

All the Audio and backline was supplied by Kingston Sound, our client for the day, who have “ been doing it for ‘ears” (years), said Llewellyn. Kingston Sound are known as a good and reputable sound company and it’s always a privilege to work alongside them. Kingston supplied:

12 x JBL VT4889-1 Mid Hi Vertec

12 x JBL VT4880 Vertec Subs

10 x Crown HD 12000 Amps

1 x Soundcraft MH2 48 Channel Desk on Monitors

1 x Soundcraft SI3 on FOH

12 x JBL VRX 915M Monitors

4 x Crown MA 2400 Amps (Mon)

4 x Crown MAi 5000 Amps (Mon)

BSS Controller

 

Black Coffee will be on the beach again for the second part of the show, held this coming weekend and if you live in Durban or are heading that way, don’t miss out.

The “Rock da Beach Party” presented by Mr Price is to be held on 2nd April from 10h30 and will include a line up of 30 DJs including Edward Maya (Romania), Danny Rampling (UK), Liquideep, Fresh, Euphonik, Roger Goode, Pixie Bennett and Lady Lea.

For Jazz lovers, join “Jazz on de Beach” on 3rd April which showcases Hugh Masekela and many other performers including Ronny Jordan with Quiet Storm (UK/SA), Judith Sephuma, The UKZN Jazz Ensemble conducted Dr Mageshen Naidoo, Just Friends featuring Khaya Dlamini and Heels over Head.

Bookings can be made through Computicket. For more information see https://www.rockdabeach.com

 

*Terence William “Blondie” Chaplin, is best known as guitarist and singer in the Beach Boys from 1972 to 1974 and in recent years as long term backing, vocalists, percussionist and acoustic rhythm guitarists for the Rolling Stones.