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Commissioned by Lakes Alive, Lake District National Park, We Play Expo and the London 2012 Festival.
Funded by Legacy Trust UK, Arts Council England, Cumbria County Council’s South Lakeland Local Committee.
Thu 21 Jun 2012 10pm
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Bowness on Windermere,, Cumbria
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Free event, no tickets required
The show features loud music and many pyrotechnics, possibly including strobe lighting.
Cultural Olympiad, London 2012 Festival, Olympic Torch Relay, WE PLAY
Outdoor & Carnival, Special Events & Spectaculars
The world premiere of a spectacular new show by Les Commandos Percu will be one of the opening events of the London 2012 Festival. It will follow the arrival of the Olympic Torch at Lake Windermere earlier in the evening.
On The Night Shift is not a firework display. And it’s not a concert. It’s more than that. Les Commandos Percu combine the two to create a magnificent spectacle for your eyes and ears. Their shows perfectly blend musical rhythms and amazing effects, as fireworks dance to a thumping soundtrack. This new show, featuring specially selected artists from the UK takes the company to a new level.
The show will include thousands of fireworks, which will be played as part of the musical score, by the show’s nine drummers. The cast’s seven dancers will also use handheld fireworks as part of their highly choreographed routines.
Each of the percussionists will be using hand-made instruments created especially for the show. These include special drums called satellidrums, which have been hand-crafted using several kinds of tight skins fixed on flat sounding boards to create their own individual sound and rotoguns – drumsticks and percussion devices attached to an electric drill.
Raymond Gabriel, the director of On the Night Shift, says “This show will combine all the hallmarks of Les Commandos Percu - fire, motion and rhythm. Our shows are about the fusion between music and fireworks. The science of rhythm gives us the opportunity of using fire like a musical instrument and to include it in the musical score. We did the same with dancers. I didn’t ask them to follow the music, but to be the music. They have to be the music and also to be the fire.”
The show will follow the arrival of the Olympic Torch, concerts by British Sea Power and Katy B and other celebrations in Bowness-on-Windermere earlier in the evening.
On The Night Shift will also be shown as part of the WE PLAY Expo on 9 September in Preston - everyone is welcome!
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This is going to be amazing, I really can't wait for this event. Saw Les Commandos Percu in 2010 and they were mind blowing! Took my ear drums a little while to recover though :)
Posted Mon 5 Mar 13:39 by Waddi
I'll be there! Brilliant UK artists working with an incredible French company in a lovely location - it will blow you away I promise.
Posted Thu 8 Mar 10:11 by Jan
I too will be there! Can't wait. The French and UK drummers and dancers are having their first official rehearsals at Lanternhouse in Cumbria this weekend. Noise, noise, noise and more noise! :)
Posted Tue 13 Mar 14:09 by JCG
Very excited about this - only 8 days to go! If you haven't already, see the trailer here http://www.nwfor2012.com/news-and-blogs/on-the-night-shift-trailer
Posted Wed 13 Jun 14:37 by McHannah
Posted Wed 13 Jun 14:38 by McHannah
And a great article about this from The Guardian in the news section http://www.nwfor2012.com/news-and-blogs/theguardianarticle
Posted Thu 14 Jun 14:13 by McHannah
Great article and photos on the North West Evening Mail website http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/lakes/les-commandos-percu-stage-spectacle-of-lights-and-drums-1.967748?referrerPath=home
Posted Mon 25 Jun 13:45 by McHannah
Les Commando Percu were amazing, depite the horrible weather. And seeing the torch arrive on the old Lake Steamer was strangely magical. Eve the rain held off for half-an-hour.
Posted Mon 25 Jun 16:18 by Handstand
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