"Rock or Bust': grandMA2 rides with the hard rock gods AC/DC

Giant riffs and lyrics about sex, drinking and damnation are the formula that made
AC/DC one of the biggest hard-rock bands in music history. Starting out in the 70s,
the Australians have conquered the globe. With sales of more than 200 million
records worldwide, including 71.5 million albums in the United States alone, they
are the tenth-best-selling band in the United States and one of the world’s best-
selling bands of all time.

Classics like “Highway to Hell’, “For Those About to Rock’, “Thunderstruck’ or
“Hells Bells’ are not only anthems for their fans but are known to everybody that
even once in a while listens to music. Now AC/DC are back with their “Rock or Bust’
World Tour to show – one more time – that they have earned their place amongst
the “rock gods’.

Lighting designer and show director Patrick Woodroffe is again the creative
mastermind for the tour design, for which lighting director Cosmo Wilson specified 2
x grandMA2 full-size consoles for control. Woodroffe explained his design ideas: “I
wanted to create a big, large scale rock concert to fill the end of a stadium.
Therefore I selected tough, strong, ballsy lighting for this tough, strong band!’

Wilson commented on the grandMA2: “I have had such success using the grandMA
series 1 for the past ten years and I decided it was time for me to upgrade to the
grandMA2. The learning curve was easier because I had been using the series 1, but
there are so many new things on the grandMA2 that make programming and
operating my show much easier and quicker. Also having more faders allows me to
lay out my cueing in a way that works much better for me.’

“I am a very hands-on “busking’ type of LD. I generally run the show old style, like
we did on the classic Avo and Celco consoles, and the layout of the desk allows me
to have my cue stack, but also have certain bumps on faders that I can grab and
put in the programmer and actually write cues throughout the live show’, Wilson
continued. “The fact that I can do a lot of things “on-the-fly’ really helps. I am also
very happy with both the speed and the stability of the console and look forward to
each show day!’