When The news broke out that the original line-up of Nektar would be performing
at the Patriots Theatre in Trenton, New Jersey for Nearfest 2002, tickets for the
event sold out in just 45 minutes. This concert is a recording of the first time
the whole original band played together in 26 years where they blew the roof off
the place with standing ovations throught the show.
Adding to this unique event and made Especially for this show, visual effects designer
Mick Brockett recreated the 1970's original liquid light show which made Nektar
famous. Concert footage, rare archive material, backstage film, interviews and documentary
film are combined to produce a magnificent portrait of an emotional return by one
of the true legends of rock.
What can we say about this performance? Go buy the
DVD and the Greatest Hits Live! Give them a listen and a look/see and see
what all the hype was about.
Mick recreated the original Nektar light show (1 center screen for the whole stage)
for this special event. The projectors were taken down from the attic after 24 years,
two of them re-wired, lenses and reflectors were cleaned and lightbulbs were found.
Undried purple, green and red inks were found, drive wheels for the kaleidoscopic
and slide wheel projectors were fixed and an entire slide collection was sorted.
A chance was taken, one surviving 16mmm movie projector was fired up and fingers
were crossed. The acetate film the film was threaded and was run backwards–the
edited movie footage was very brittle and had not been rewound since the last show
Mick used them–only once while Mick recorded it onto videotape before that
16mm projector also died. Only a small portion of the original footage was eventually
used. At the 11th hour Mick decided to create a NEW backdrop, using pertinent scenes
from 62 different copywritten blockbuster videos and specials from his library of
movies. Ideas were floated for the set and a 2 Cd set named (Aggro)was burned and
passed around for all the band to practice to. A show was born!
In the end four carousel projectors, one video projector with a mixing unit for
three inputs (TWO VCR's + my own camera close-ups on Roye or soloists), four liquid
projectors, four effect projectors, strobes, laser, and one wide screen was used.
Jim MacDonald (R.I.P.) assisted Mick on that brief reunion tour and supplied the
video projector and assisted with many complex visuals... Pete Lango worked the
stage lighting.
Due to the fact that the band was being recorded on film. The Trenton audience saw
a distilled show because the bright lights washed away much of the lightshow's depth
and color. Since the dvd doesn't show some those clips what we can do is show you
some pictures that you will not see like the ones below.
Even after 35 years, THERE IS STILL NO CAMERA THAT ADAPTS TO LIGHT AS PERFECTLY
AS THE HUMAN EYE!!! (An unfortunate scientific fact that Mick had always battled
with when it came to recording Nektar shows, thus, no video exists that ever duplicated
that which was experienced by an actual Nektar audience).
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Roye is thinking, "After all these years this going to work right?"
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Mick's thinking, "If we scratch and rub the lamps hard enough, the Genie will
appear".
But what Mick really is thinking is, "Do You Believe In Magic? Then watch me pull
a rabbit out of my ___" lol |