HW : Liquid Len

[David Jones]

This months Q (the one dated September) has a little bit on Liquid Len in
it ( - page 88 - ) including a picture here is the text;

 In the days when a row of 15 150 watt domestic light bulbs served as a
light show for Traffic.  Jonathon Smeeton was the man with his finger on
the jury-rigged , gaffa-taped button.  Smeeton festooned the 1970 Bath
Festival with three mniles of Christmas tree lights, and it was Smeeton who
made the cup of tea that soothed Frank Zappa's pain  when he was pulled off
the stage of the Rainbow  by an irate fan.

"People got to know about me partly because I operated under a very
memorable name, Liquid Len and the Lensmen, " he demurs, "but it's also
true that whatever the state of the art of stage lighting is at any given
time, I'm in the thick of it"

Peter Gabriel's set on the So tour with it' slong-reach cranes and replica
Giant's Causeway was realised by Smeeton, as was the memorable hydraulic
carousel set used by Phil Collins on the Serious tour.  Long esconsed in
Laurel Canyon and working mostly in America, Smeeton is the soul of
discretion when it comes to the misdemeanours of his employers, from the
Stone Roses through Def Leppard, George Michael and Bryan Ferry, but he is
prepared to admit that it all hasn't been a bed of roses.  Who was
difficult ?

"Nobody really." he says, but he can hardly have been chuffed to bits with
Van Morrison during the Hard Nose Highway tour when, after setting up a
particularly complex lighting rig to Morrison's exacting specifications in
Birmingham City Hall, the Belfast Nightingale elected to warble the entire
concert from the stalls.  And something about Jon "I want it blue and I
want it now" Anderson clearly got to him when he worked with Yes.

Even now, he seems to reserve his special affections for the group he
became most closely identified with in the 70's, Hawkwind.

"I built their first lighting rig in the projection room of the Electric
Cinema in Portobello Road, where I worked at the time.  Once in Liverpool
they played in a wrestling ring and the dry ice machines went wonky.  We
lost them.  I can still remember the drummer, Simon King, waving goodbye as
they disappeared into the fog for 10 minutes."

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