FEATURE PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS 2008 Parnelli Visionary Award Michael Tait and the Art of Innovation By Kevin M.Mitchell Michael Tait’s vision has taken him around the world. This photo was taken during a recent trip to India. “ Michael Tait is the reincarnation of Leonardo da Vinci — an artist, an engineer, a sculptor, a true genius,” says production designer Steve Cohen. “He single-handedly raised the bar on production design in my lifetime and stewarded the growth of our little business into the gift that keeps on giving.” That’s just one description of Michael Tait, the visionary whose indelible imprint in the live event industry is seen on almost every concert stage today — from rotating stages to light towers, down to the guitarist’s foot pedal box. His remarkable career has helped forge an industry before there was one, and his work ethic and creativity has touched many, from contemporaries to the superstars of the concert arena. Begging Him to Stay <strong>PLSN</strong> “I will always remember this moment in time,” Yes front man Jon Anderson told <strong>PLSN</strong> in an exclusive interview. “Mickey Tait had been Yes’ driver, roadie, and general dogsbody for a year. He’d had enough, and was ready to return to Australia. We’d just returned from a Yes show in a pub in the north of England, where Mickey had spent the evening side stage switching lights on and off, after putting gels on them, and making the show infinitely better. “So I said to Mickey, ‘Please don’t go to Australia!’ and I begged him to stay and be<strong>com</strong>e our lighting engineer. He then started to tell me of these wonderful ideas he had for lighting the band, which would be<strong>com</strong>e known as ‘Genie towers.’ He was so excited that the following day we arranged some cash for him to get the towers built. Such was the inventiveness of Michael. He became an intricate member of the Yes experience that lasted for so many years. I cannot tell him enough how grateful I am to have had him in my life — as in ‘You bet your sweet bippy.’” 34 <strong>PLSN</strong> SEPTEMBER 2008 “Smartest and Coolest Solutions” <strong>PLSN</strong> “You always knew Michael would give you the smartest and coolest solution.” — Bruce Rodgers, set designer “From the first time I met Michael 20 years ago I knew he was special,” says Bruce Rodgers, a Parnelli Award-winning set designer who worked with Tait on several Bruce Springsteen tours. “His legendary mental abilities, his positive attitude and fearlessness in solving design challenges, his awareness of the needs of the production design and the people who move our shows, and his engineering instincts always <strong>com</strong>e into play regardless of the size of the project. You always knew Michael would give you the smartest and coolest solution.” “Tait Towers has built a ton of stuff for me over the years — for tours, MTV video awards, all sorts of things,” says Parnelli Award-winning lighting designer Roy Bennett, who is currently working on Madonna’s tour. “I’m a detail man, and also totally into innovation, and the thing about Michael and his <strong>com</strong>pany is they do pay attention to the details. He thinks about everything, and everything is important on every level. And I always feel safe walking into his shop with any kind of idea knowing that they will figure out how to make it work.” Letting There Be Light <strong>PLSN</strong> Tait was born in Melbourne, Australia, where he attended the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. There he studied electrical and mechanical engineering but he “got bored pretty quickly.” His first foray into the entertainment business was opening a nightclub in Queenland’s famous seaside town of Surfers Paradise, which was very successful right up to the minute the authorities noticed Tait hadn’t bothered to get a liquor license and shut him down. The restless young man then set off for a sixweek vacation to England, which became a permanent move. That was the year 1967. Upon his arrival he immediately found out which was the hottest nightclub in town, the Speakeasy, and got a job there. Soon he was in the presence of the likes of the Beatles, The Who and Jim Hendrix, among others. “My very first night working, my first table included two of the Beatles, who I didn’t recognize at the time,” he smiles. Not unlike other Parnelli honorees, his new career in live events would begin with those five magic words: “Can you drive the van?” The band in need was Yes, then a stillobscure group. The band was immediately drawn to Tait’s imagination, work ethic and easygoing nature. Tait, in turn, was drawn to the band’s vision and ambition, finding a unique home for his skills in electrical and mechanical engineering. “Because I have a very technical background, I started working on the gear and improving it,” Tait explains. “Yes’ music was totally revolutionary. Jaws dropped when the band played.” Primitive Days <strong>PLSN</strong> In the late 1960s, the technical side of the concert industry was still in its infancy. “Those were primitive days,” Tait says. In fact, at the time, instruments weren’t miked, only vocals, and many of the pieces of gear that are <strong>com</strong>monplace today weren’t even invented. “As Yes got bigger, I started building equipment and redesigning things.” “The first system I built had auto fog lamps in coffee cans and homemade wire wound potentiometers for dimmers,” he says. “When PAR 64s came out, we made our own square cans out of sheet metal. Later on I made round ones out of air conditioning duct.” On Yes’ first American tour, Tait had only six Strand Pattern 23 lights and everything else was “homemade,” including the controller. “One of the early ones I built,” he said, “had bump buttons with micro switches that could be played like a piano. This allowed me to ‘play’ in time with the music.” As Yes grew in popularity, their lighting and stage show grew in <strong>com</strong>plexity. To enhance the concert experience, Tait began working with towers and multi-celled PAR cans. “I created self-contained units that you could roll in, put one on in each corner of the stage, push a button to raise the lamps, a quick focus and you are ready for a show,” Tait explains. The cans on the towers had four lamps each with a different color gel, which allowed focusing in one-fourth the time, which was startlingly innovative at the time. Eventually, the towers became known as Tait Towers. A Revolutionary Concept <strong>PLSN</strong> In the mid 1970s, Tait devised the inthe-round rotating stage. The idea came from an unlikely source: A film canister. Tait was in the studio with the band one day while they were filming a documentary. Tait picked up a 35mm film can that was nearby and realized how easy it would be to recreate the band’s studio setup on a round stage. “We were talking about what we would do for a stage set and all of a sudden, this idea came to me,” Tait says. “If we played in the center, everyone would be closer and everyone could see better.” The financial advantage was not lost on anyone — the “front row” was now 85 seats instead of the usual 42. “So, I came over to America and built the round stage in Lancaster County, Penn. with the help of a local engineering <strong>com</strong>pany.” While building a stage in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country might sound unusual, it was already home to Clair Brothers Audio. “Roy Clair was on tour with Yes most of the time and we became very good friends. That’s why I decided to move to Lititz.” The decision would make the modest town, population less than 10,000, an unusual but formidable live event production haven to this day. But the rotating stage brought new challenges, like lighting. “Since the band kept moving, I had to rethink how light the band,” he says. “And there were no real production rehearsals, as I was always building stuff right up to load out! Consequentially the lighting had a more dynamic feel and it was different every night.”
Ad info:http:// www.plsn.<strong>com</strong>/instant-info