Nick Fisher and Jim la Roche obviously had the foresight to invest and find new clients. Whilst Nick continued to bring in more bands, Jim la Roche had been building a firm relationship with trade shows and conference work producers Caribiner.

Alan no longer had a band to work with and soon found himself working on the trade shows, setting up lights and running special effects.

“It was an interesting period. Gaslight had moved into new premises which needed new electrics and work benches etc and we all pitched in. We were doing lots of corporate work which kind of lived off the back of the Gary Numan exposure so some of the productions were huge and adventurous and we had more equipment, so we needed larger premises.”

Alan had heard that ULTRAVOX were going out on tour and there was a whisper that there was possibly a chance of getting a design presented to the band.

“Ultravox were always a favourite band of mine, from Hiroshima Mon Amour, Slow Motion and the Ha Ha Ha album, I couldn’t have wished for a better band to work for. I made it my mission to work for Ultravox.
I had an idea to work with but it’s tricky designing for a band, without actually speaking to them, discussing ideas.”

Gaslight and Alan did have an ally in the Ultravox camp. A chap called Dave Hulme, keyboard technician and former Gary Numan crew member.
Dave looked after Billy Currie and his gear on the Numan Pleasure Principle UK tour. Dave was able to give Alan vital information for his lighting design, such as playing positions, equipment details etc.

“It was apparent there would be some sort of set pieces or scenery but to be honest I’d already started working on ideas and was committed to seeing them through. My idea was to have a tubular steel octagon above each band member. They would be angled at about 45 degrees and hold 24 Par 64s around the outside edge. Each band member would have their own octagon with their own lights attached. Ideal as there would be lots of solo work or instrumental bits. The ‘separate zones’ would also give some sort of collective individuality. To top it all, a black Roscoe projection screen material would fill in the hollow of each octagon. These could then be coloured from above or have shapes or images projected onto them”

A meeting was quickly arranged between Alan and Midge Ure, with Chris Cross the bass player also present.

“At very short notice, I had a meeting with the band to present my ideas. I was extremely nervous, not about meeting the guys but trying to convince them to go with my idea. I remember Midge and Chris pouring over my drawings, asking all kinds of questions of which I did my best to answer. They looked very interested, keen and enthusiastic about everything. However, I came away from the meeting without a decision as the other band members would also need to see the plans.”

Within a few days Alan received conformation that he’d got the design for the Rage in Eden world tour.

Considerable time was spent working on the details of construction of the octagons and their inter-connecting pieces. Alan and Mike Crisp, a structural engineer from Telestage finalised the design for Telestage to construct.

“I was given cassette tapes of the Vienna and new Rage in Eden albums. I’d bought a Sony Walkman whilst touring with Gary Numan and so I played Ultravox all the time, everywhere, trying to learn every beat, solo, lyric, chord….anything that would break each song down into fragments and familiarise myself with who was playing particular instruments. The music was brilliant and I looked forward to getting things started with the band and my lights.”

Dave Hulme had mentioned once or twice to Alan, that Midge could be quite an ‘awkward’ or difficult person to work with.

 “I never really paid any attention to this information at the time. But it wasn’t long before I found out just how ‘awkward’ he was going to be.”

Rehearsals were at The Kilburn State cinema in London.
The first equipment to go in were the chain hoists to support the lighting grid trusses from which the Octagonal design would suspend. On the first day it was apparent that the lighting rig was too low due to the cinema screen restricting the height of the lighting trusses.
Overnight, radical changes were made to the lighting rig to enable everything to fit properly.

With the lighting rig up and working, next onstage was the painted floor cloth then the scenery, followed by the band gear, then the band.

“I gelled up my lights then focussed everything. Whilst the band rehearsed….I started building ‘looks or scenes’ into the lighting desk. Every now and again I would try out effects I’d just programmed with the band playing. I could see Midge looking up at the lights from time to time, watching what I was doing.
First he said…..”Could you not flash the lights at that bit” so I wouldn’t flash the lights, then it was…”Could you change the colours of those lights” so I’d change the colour of the lights, then he’d say “Can you move those lights” so I’d move the lights.”

Two or three days into rehearsals…..the big guns went off. East v West. Alan from Edinburgh, Midge from Glasgow…..KABOOM!

“Midge wasn’t happy. I wasn’t happy…..I’d be operating the lights; he’d look up and make a tutt…stop the band, then make a comment about the lights to me. I finally took the bait and reacted. I’d had enough. I pulled down the grand master fader and brought up the work lights. The band stopped playing and I walked from my lighting desk in the stalls up to the front of the stage to confront Midge. I could hear crew members whispering to each other in the wings “quick, come and see this.”

The place fell silent…..to be continued