|
|
|
Mass
Spectrometer Lightshow
&
Cerebrum Lights
|
|
|
The Mass
Spectrometer Lightshow, based in Surrey, ran from 1969 to 1970
(semi-pro) and Cerebrum Lights from 1970 to around 1974, when
they started putting the projectors into mothballs in favour
of stage lighting. Cerebrum Lights became Cerebrum Lighting
Sales in 1974 and Cerebrum Lights Ltd. in 1976, by which time
they had moved into wholesale of effects lighting. John
Lethbridge who ran these lightshows sold his interest in the
company to Lighting Technology Group only two months ago (2000),
30 years after the first show as Cerebrum Lights.
From John:
As Mass Spectrometer, we were resident lightshow at Eel Pie
Island in Twickenham and The Star in Croydon and during '69-'70
we worked with Atomic Rooster,
Black Sabbath,
Chicago Climax Blues Band,
Edgar Broughton
Band, Caravan,
East of Eden, Egg
(whose keyboard player freaked if you used a strobe), Free, Genesis,
Grope, Hawkwind,
Keef Hartley's Apaches,
Junior's Eyes, Idle
Race, Juicy Lucy,
Love Sculpture,
Mott The Hoople,
Quintessence, Rare Bird,
Small Faces, The
Strawbs, Stray,
Tuesday's Children,
Uriah Heep, and
Van Der Graaf Generator.
Our first experimental projector was my Father's 12v 50w Boots
cheapo cheapo - he freaked when he went to show his holiday
slides and found coloured ink all over the projector. Our first
projectors in the light show were Hanimax Halinamats, which
we took the heat filters out of to boil the slides, but before
long, we realised we needed Aldis Tutor's to do it properly
- starting with the original tungsten 500 watt model, and eventually
progressing onto Rank Aldis Tutor 2's, which all the respectible
light shows used. Rank, in their wisdom, decided the Tutor
2 got too hot, so they brought out the Tutor 2e with additional
ventilation and a second heat filter. This was a pig, because
we had to take out the heat filter to boil the liquids, and
it was hard to achieve in the Tutor 2e.
As the lightshow progressed we got to work with acts like David
Bowie, The Crazy
World of Arthur Brown,
The Faces,
Elton John, The
Nice, Pink Floyd,
Queen (who
were managed by my friends Paul Conroy & Lindsay Brown and
were third on the bill!!!) and Yes.
When The Nice split
up, we had become a professional stage lighting company as Cerebrum
Lights and lit every gig for Refugee
(Lee Jackson and Brian Davison from The Nice
plus Patrick Moraz on keybords) and the first European tour
for Bad Company. Bowie
was one of the first acts to insist on stage lighting and Genesis,
Deep Purple
and The Who all
invested in their own PAR can rigs in the early 70's, which
killed off the projected lightshows in the U.K., but it was
great fun while it lasted........
Gigs lit by Mass Spectrometer
Light Show
1969
3 April - Van Der Graaf Generator play Thomas Bennet School,
Crawley
26 April - Keef Hartleys Apaches, King Crimson & Light
Fantastic play Ewell Technical College, Epsom, Surrey.
29 May - Caravan and Louise play Ewell Technical College.
28 June - Bob Kerrs Whoopee Band, King Crimson & Louise
play Ewell Technical College.
11 July - Principal Edwards Magic Theare & Krivoli Rog play
Matrix in Crawley.
3 October - Mighty Baby play Eel Pie Island, Twickenham
10 October - Grope & Stray play Eel Pie Island
11 October - Small Faces and Tuesdays Children play Ewell Technical
College
17 October - Steve Millers Delivery & Medicine Hat play
Eel Pie Island
24 October - Stray & Hawkwind Zoo* play Eel Pie Island
31 October - Egg, If and Snake play Eel Pie Island
5 November - Clouds & Rapture play Eel Pie Island
7 November - Pete Browns Piblokto & Taras Harp play Eel
Pie Island
10 November - Keef Hartley Band & Black Snail play The Star,
Croydon
12 November - Alexis Korner & Fat Daughter play Eel Pie
Island
14 November - Warm Dust & Tobias Wragg play Eel Pie Island
15 November - John Dummer Band & Audience play Ewell Technical
College
19 November - Rhada Krishna Temple, Virgin Hearse & Strawberry
Blues play Eel Pie Island.
21 November - Battered Ornaments & Train play Eel Pie Island
26 November - Greatest Show on Earth & Taras Harp play
Eel Pie Island
28 November - Mandrake & Hawkwind Zoo* play Eel Pie Island
29 November - Amazing Gas Medicine Show and Junk Band &
Nemesis play Eel Pie Island.
3 December - Edgar Broughton Band & Old Nicks Train Set
play Eel Pie Island
5 December - Answellas Dream & Cochise play Eel Pie Island
6 December - Caravan & Juicy Lucy play Ewell Technical College
8 December - Juniors Eyes play The Star, Croydon
12 December - Train play Southwark College of F.E.
15 December - Wild Angels & Pony play The Star, Croydon
22 December - East of Eden & Junk Shop play The Star, Croydon
1970
5 January - Caravan & Pony play The Star, Croydon
12 January - Steamhammer & Smiley play The Star, Croydon
22 January - Something Else play The Star, Croydon
24 January - Atomic Rooster & Genesis play Ewell Technical
College
26 January - Idle Race play The Star, Croydon
31 January - Coloured Raisins & Elliot play Newman College,
Birmingham
2 February - Rare Bird & Creepy John Thomas play The Star,
Croydon
12 February - Mott The Hoople play The Eden Park Hotel, Elmers
End, Beckenham
14 February - Chicago Climax Blues Band & Ring of Truth
play Ewell Technical College
19 February - Juicy Lucy play Eden Park Hotel, Beckenham
26 February - Quintessence play Eden Park Hotel, Beckenham
28 February - Bob Kerrs Whoopee Band & Hard Meat play Leicester
University
5 March - Free play The Eden Park Hotel, Beckenham
13 April - Atomic Rooster & Easy Leaf play the Kingston
Hotel, Surrey
19 April - Stray, Clarke-Hutchinson, Boris, Dr. Strangely Strange,
Train & Rufus Stone play Thomas Bennet School, Crawley
20 April - The Strawbs and Comus play The Kingston Hotel
27 April - Mott The Hoople & Easy Leaf play The Kingston
Hotel
Mass Spectrometer Light
Show changes name to Cerebrum Lights
Gigs lit by Cerebrum
Lights
4 July - Uriah Heep, East of Eden, Simon Duprees Big Sound
play outdoor concert at Portsmouth Stadium.
9 July - Genesis, Chicago Climax, Wild Wally & Mirrors play
Kingston Polytechnic
23 August - Keef Hartleys Big Band & Hardin and York play
Fillmore South, Croydon
26 September - Blitzkrieg play Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham
3 October - Yes and Band of Roadies play Watford Technical College
27 November - Syn play The Pied Bull, Islington
4 December - Syn play The Pied Bull, Islington (again!)
11 December - The Strawbs play Hobbits Garden, Wimbledon
1971
1 January - Caravan play Hobbits Garden, Wimbledon
16 January - Uriah Heep & Quintessence play Kingston Polytechnic
17 January - Caravan play The Lyceum, Strand, London
30 January - Osibisa & Mogul Thrash play Kingston Polytechnic
4 February - Caravan play The Bull, Sheen (Nr. Richmond), Surrey
8 February - Leon Russel & Nasties play Epsom Baths, Surrey
5 March - Bob Kerrs Whoopee Band, Hawkwind, Idle Race &
Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts play Trent Polytechnic
13 March - Elton John, Paladin & Rhada Krishna Temple play
Epsom Baths, Surrey.
19 March - Caravan play The Coronation Hall, Kingston-upon-Thames
20 March - Slinky play Nottingham University
26 March - Fairport Convention & Comus play Epsom Baths,
Surrey
18 April - Caravan, Barclay James Harvest & Gringo play
The Lyceum, London
24 April - Mott The Hoople & Flying Fortress play Kingston
Polytechnic
29 April - Caravan & Egg play Kent University, Canterbury
8 May - Barclay James Harvest & Patto play Kingston Polytechnic
21 May - Pink Floyd play Trent Polytechnic
22 May - Grease Band (ex Joe Cocker), Kingdom Come and Lancaster
play Kingston Polytechnic.
15 June - Mungo Jerry, Paul Brett Sage & Jericho Jones play
Queens College, Cambridge.
25 June - Lindisfarne play Kingston Polytechnic
2 July - Gentle Giant play Winter Gardens, Eastbourne
3 July - The Faces and Gringo play Kingston Polytechnic
6 July - Bob Kerrs Whoopee Band play London College of Fashion
9 July - If play Alleyns School, Dulwich
24 July - Supertramp & Mungo Jerry play Wimbledon Town Hall
5 August - Tir Na Nog, National Head Band & Nicky Thomas
play the Commonwealth Institute, Kensington
3 September - Mungo Jerry play at Pye Records International
Convention, Hotel Europa, Grosvenor Square
15 September - Van Der Graaf Generator & Colin Scott play
Hammersmith Town Hall
30 September - Kevin Ayers and Gong & Formerly Fat Harry
play Poole College, Dorset
28 October - Stoneground & Lol Coxhill play Poole College,
Dorset
30 October - Principal Edwards Magic Theatre, Comus and Siren
play Ewell Technical College
6 November - Van Der Graf Generator & Barclay James Harvest
play Kingston Polytechnic
22 November - Uriah Heep, Hackenstack & Pluto play Poole
Technical College
27 November - Hawkwind, Paul Bretts Sage and Wells Fargo play
Ewell Technical College
4 December - Quintessence & Good Habit play Coronation Hall,
Kingston-upon-Thames
More to follow later
|
| |
|
|
| |
In the
second picture, the guys from left to right are Steve Prince,
Pete Samuel (my original partner in Mass
Spectrometer), yours truly and Tony Parker. Steve and Tony were
two friends who helped me out on an occasional basis.
On the lower shelf of the scaffolding are four Halinamat liquid
wheel projectors (also seen in the 1969 picture) but the single
Aldis Tutor seen in the earlier picture has since been replaced
by seven Rank Aldis Tutor 2
projectors and an overhead projector (Bell & Howell I think?).
The 1972 picture was not actually a gig - just a publicity shot
for an article in a local newspaper. |
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
