The answers to life’s biggest questions are often hidden in humour, or so a wise old wag once said. We’re not sure about that, but what we can say, with absolute certainty, is that excellent advice about lighting design definitely comes across loud and clear when it’s wrapped up in funny and clever stories…

Talking to Durham Marenghi convinced us of that!

During the course of his widely acclaimed career, the multi-award winning designer has lent his touch to some of the most high profile projects in the world, including the opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer and Winter Olympics, The Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace, the 100th anniversary of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, the British Day Concert with Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber at the Seville Expo, The London New Year’s Eve light and fireworks show for 16 years from 2004, the Qatar FIFA World Cup, and The Wall concert with Roger Waters in Berlin… Oh, and did we mention his work in West End theatrical productions?

Marenghi’s combination of technical excellence, attention to detail, and bold vision has made his work a model for many of his peers. (His ability to stick to budgets has also endeared him to clients!)

We were honoured when Marenghi agreed to share lighting lessons with us, but rather than provide a straight recitation of dos and don’ts, he made his points with humour– and like any good humourist, he didn’t shy away from gently poking fun at himself. We enjoyed some good laughs reading his answers, and in the process, we learned a lot of about lighting too.

1 It’s Not Only The Sound Boys & Girls Who Make Noise…

One operatic venture saw me at the Arena in Birmingham’s NEC in 1991 lighting a concert for Jose Carreras, the budget was quite tight and I had lit the stage and orchestra with eight-lamp 650W pars and 5kw Fresnels all with LSD scrollers to reduce the amount of kit that we needed.

I was unable to attend the fit up, and as I arrived, I noticed that the crew were swapping the follow spots front of house for carbon arc lights. “What’s going on?” I enquired. “Jose’s management has complained about the fan noise from the spots” was the response. Oh Dear! What then was I going to do about the fan noise from all the scrollers directly above his head?

As the concert unfolded that evening, I turned off the power to the scrollers during the songs and turned them back on during the applause to preset the colour changers for the next piece. I was using a manual desk and as each scroller began to jam without the cooling from the fans I wound that particular light out on the rotary pot above each fader.
Fortunately, as the concert continued Jose was singing solo with no choir or other singers so we did not need much light from above, until the finale which was a full-on upbeat song with all his artists accompanying him. I thought what the hell and I wound up all the faders and as the song started revealed a quite beautiful rainbow of colours from all the jammed scrollers!

I was approached after the event by the Jose Carreras Society and asked to write a piece on how we had achieved the lighting for the concert especially the beautiful finale, which I did in all its truth. I never heard back from Jose’s management though!

2 Not All Special Effects Add to the Performance…

I recall one particular fashion show in the early eighties for K-Shoes, at the Café Royal in London. The room was set up with a stage along one wall and a horseshoe shaped cat walk which allowed the audience to sit within and to the side of the runway. There was an arched entrance at either side of the stage, which led to the catwalk, above which were mounted a pair of massive Londoner dry ice machines.

In the centre of the stage were three circular stage traps with five-foot diameter Perspex columns, each column had a central Perspex divide and the concept was for a model to stand in the rear half of the ‘pillar’ with the front half being filled with smoke. The column then dropped into the floor and the model stepped though the lingering pillar of smoke…lovely.

Although we were not completely ready, the day before the show the client wanted to see a dress rehearsal before he had to leave for the day. The two drawbridge sections of the catwalk that allowed the audience to access the central seating area were dropped into place and the crew took up their positions. The surnames of those involved in what happened next have been omitted to protect the guilty.
In a blackout the three central models took up their positions and their Perspex pillars were lifted into place around them; the two remaining models stood behind the portals ready to step through the dry ice curtains; the music started and the first lighting cue was run.

Above the model on the stage right doorway our dry ice op Jack had dispensed with the cage that lowered the dry ice slowly into the hot water and just emptied his bag of ice straight into the machine. The resulting explosion produced a massive cloud through which ran a soaked and screaming model who fortunately had not been injured by the hot water which had cooled instantly under this frozen assault, she of course did not know that.
In the centre columns it transpired that the smoke tech had misunderstood which section of the pillar he was supposed to plumb in his smoke and had filled the rear space in which stood the models. Fearing suffocation, they had desperately fought to get out thus preventing the Perspex pillars from dropping more than half way; still at least they could now breathe.

Our final model, so far unaffected by the unfolding disaster, looked across at the carnage and stepped onto the stage left catwalk drawbridge. Our carpenter was apparently yet to install the bracing that supported the ledge on which the drawbridge sat; this promptly collapsed dumping model number five unceremoniously on her butt.
“Right” said our Producer “I think we had better re-set and try that again!” It was left to our choreographer to try and coax the models back out of their dressing room….

3 Always Find a Safe and Discreet Way to Get to The Control Room…

With my Olympic Ceremonies when I first arrive on site it is my custom to orientate myself in the stadium and try to find the quickest way to the control room which is invariably situated just above the VIP seating area, in the case of the Sochi Paralympics, Mr Putin’s private box and balcony.
Having found a lift in the part of the stadium I felt was right I pressed the top button; the lift arrived and I stepped into what was obviously a kitchen, the lift door closed behind me…All the access doors into and hence out of the kitchen were locked and the lift refused to respond to my pressing the call button.

I had yet to pick up my radio and my mobile still had my UK sim card in it which would not connect in Sochi, so on day one of this adventure I found myself stuck in what was obviously a well-equipped private dining facility which turned out to be President Putin’s private kitchen.

It also turned out to be a high security area as the only people who eventually unlocked the door to my hammering upon it where three uniformed state security guards and I was promptly arrested. No-one spoke any English so my defence of just being the lighting guy fell on deaf ears and I was marched downstairs to the security office to await further interrogation presumably by an English-speaking officer.

On my jobs around the world amongst my accreditation I carry a pass made for me by my friend Eneas during the Turin Winter Olympics which shows the various stages from cow and potato to make steak frites, this has stood me in good stead in restaurants around the globe and I was wearing it at the time of my latest arrest.

As I sat there it crossed my mind that some might not find my ‘joke’ accreditation quite as funny as I did so I surreptitiously removed it from around my neck and slipped it into my back pocket. One of the hawk-eyed guards spotted this and motioned for me to hand it over, luckily his face cracked into a smile and a plate of blinis and a small glass of Vodka appeared “Na Zdorovie!” I was later released into general circulation once more.

4 Choice of Colour Can Make or Break Your Show …

For the British Airways share price launch the lighting design included four WW II Searchlights that we rented from Major Sir Michael Parker, Producer of the Royal Tournament, with whom we worked at that time along with the late great lighting designer Robert Ornbo. Robert was also made an Honorary military officer so that he could tell the soldiers amongst his crew what to do.

Major Michael and Officer Ornbo were responsible for some of the largest military events over several decades and I thoroughly recommend Sir Major Michael’s book ‘It’s All Going Terribly Wrong.’ The title of his book comes from the words he used to respond to Her Majesty the Queen when asked by Her Majesty what was happening on one of his tattoos, “Oh how exciting!” being her immediate response.

These arc searchlights were amazing beasts with a lens of around two metres, caterpillar tracks and even a few bullet holes in the casing. They were very bright and I had placed them directly opposite the BBC’s cameras so that they would be clearly visible if we focused them directly towards and just above the camera lenses. I also decided that they were so bright that they could perhaps be used with some red and blue gels, much to the amusement of the military officer in charge. “Never work Old Boy, we’ve tried that in the past and I will wager twenty pounds that you are wasting your time.” “I do think I know what I am doing here Sir and although I cannot order the men to do this, as unlike officer Ornbo, I carry no rank, please bring the gels along to humour me” I requested and so one night we sat down together to try them out.

“Batman ask the men to put the blue gels in place” instructed our grinning Major. The Batman duly wounds up his field telephone and issued the order to “Put on the blue gel!” The majestic white searchlight beams completely disappeared as though switched off. The officer raised his eyebrows in that look of contempt that the British Army officer inherits and retains for the imbeciles below him. “Batman ask the men to put the red gels in place.” The Batman duly wounds up his field telephone and issued the order to “Put on the red gel!” The majestic white searchlight beams burst back into life and then once again were completely extinguished.

The Major said “Durham, I told you so” and pushed an upturned palm towards me presumably to receive his twenty-pound note. “There is something not quite right here” I said and requested that we go look at the gels; the Batman was ordered to rustle up a jeep so that we could go and inspect our searchlight ’troops.’ “Bring the lighting chap the colours men” commanded the Major upon our arrival at the first searchlight which they promptly did for our inspection. Each gel frame was just over two metres square and as they had been stored horizontally in some form of barn for many years, both coloured gels were completely opaque with a solid layer of pigeon ‘guano.’ “Batman give the lighting chap twenty pounds!” said the Major and off he strode…….

5: Correct Use of Smoke and Haze Can Enhance Your Lighting…

Amongst our massive car launches for a major UK we were tasked with revealing a new diesel engine, how were we to make this object look larger than life for an impressive reveal in a large Arena environment.

The set designer and I came up with a concept whereby the engine would sit on a sort of inverted wedding cake which would rise up from the floor. Beneath each of the cake’s tiers we would rig pin spots ranging from Birdies (mini pars named by Andy Bridge as a ‘Birdie,’ one under Par!), then larger and larger Pars and on the outer rim Par 64 ACLs. The beams would be made visible and dramatised by smoke, our ‘cake’ would rise out of dry ice and haze would complete the atmospherics for our reveal.

The show was rigged, the mechanics were built and we sat down with our client to show him our dramatic reveal of his new engine. The house lights went down; the music began and our special effects started up to provide our ‘atmosphere.’ Moments later the first ring of lights came on followed by its concentric brothers as the engine rose majestically into view. The ‘cake’ reached its full height and the engine stood proud in all its glory; the music climaxed and we turned to our client.

Who had a face like Thunder. “What the hell have you done! We have spent ten years designing and engineering a diesel engine with the lowest possible emissions level and you have made it look like the f###ing World is on fire!”

Whoops, we had not seen that one coming! We put all the special effects back in the truck and the set designer came up with the idea of applying gauze skirts to each tier which actually worked really well…with not a wisp of emission in sight during the reveal.

Editor’s Note: Full versions of these stories and a few more recollections can be found at https://durhamld.com/category/durhams-digest/