HW: BOC: Lasers

[Chaosillumination]

The council HSE bloke was not happy about the laser at one HW gig, though
I'm not sure if it was a dressing room rather than a cupboard that he was
detained in.

Looks like we might have to employ similar tactics again at HW gigs, if I
can get the large pile of expensive junk working that I've just purchased...

Though pointing a 35W (Wow!!!) output through fibre optics onto a mirror is
not really something that should be done with the public around, so I can
understand the concern of such safety officers. High power lasers are
extremely dangerous to precious human eyes, and a few milliseconds in the
wrong place can lead to permanent blindness. Must have looked fantastic
though.

Another anecdote I know of is at a Level 42 gig in London in the late '80s.
Optikinetics had just invented the Strobeflower, which gives out very nice
pencil thin beams of strobing white light, which can look *similar* to a
laser. The council man in the afternoon sound check was happy with the new
lighting effect, but unfortunately by gig time he had been replaced by
another council officer. When they were turned on during the gig, he had the
lighting operator by the throat shouting 'you never said you were using
lasers, turn them off now!!'. Obviously he couldn't spot the difference
between a focussed beam and a real laser, not very good for a so-called
professional safety officer.

Neil
Chaos Illumination

----- Original Message -----
From: "Iain Ferguson" <iainferguson at AOL.COM>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>
Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 9:22 AM
Subject: Re: remasters...


>
> If it was 1978 as has been said here by Charlie, then I don't feel too
> put out as I saw my first Hawkwind gig the next year and they had Lasers
>  bouncing off the ceiling...
> Had moved to Bristol with family by then and believe the bristol '79 gig
> was the infamous gig where the band locked the council health & safety
> man in the cupboard, due to his protestations over the dangers of the
> laser.....
> then again that could just be another urban myth, surrounding the Hawks...
>
> Iain
>
> Albert Bouchard wrote on 04/01/2006, 22:19:
>
> > Eric was always thinking about stuff to make the show better. At
> > first he had a little wind-up thing that he got in a magic shop that
> > shot sparks out of his hand. Then when we got the lasers he got a
> > fiber-optic cable hooked up to the 35 watt lasers-(not milli-Watt!)
> > and shot those babies out of his hand into a mirror ball mounted on a
> > motor in the middle of the hall. He only did it during the end of
> > Telepaths, never ETI. Good times.
> >
> > On Jan 4, 2006, at 3:18 PM, Charlie Grant wrote:
> >
> > >> I was a young lad back in '76 and used to go fairly frequently to the
> > >> FTH with my dad as he played there a lot. Not rock music im afraid
> > >> much
> > >> tamer Traditional folk music and choir events etc.
> > >
> > > BOC played the FTH 21st Nov 1975 and the the next time 28th April 1978
> > > according to the very excellent www.hotrails.co.uk/
> > >
> > >> He talked about when BOC played there and wondered if you can confirm
> > >> something for me. He talked one of the guys putting on a silver
> > >> suite or
> > >> glove?
> > >> which he was able to point up to the ceiling of the building and send
> > >>> Can you recall this happening at all, and what is the truth, or
> > >>> was he
> > >> just building an elaborate story to an excited young lad ?
> > >>
> > >
> > > I recall this too and I am pretty certain it was Eric and it was
> > > during the
> > > laser tour in 1978
> > >
> > >>
> > >> > I'll second that! It was one of the standouts the first time I
> > >> saw them
> > >> > (Manchester FTH, 76 !! OMG 30 yrs ago - eek, writer collapses in
> > >> > gibbering heap counting grey hairs)
> > >> >
> > >
> > > Perhaps it's 31 years this year!
> > >
> > > .......Charles the Grinning Trainspotter.
> >