The Mass Spectrometer Lightshow, based in Surrey, ran from 1969 to 1970 (semi-pro) and Cerebrum Lights from 1970 to around 1974, when they started putting the projectors into mothballs in favour of stage lighting.
Cerebrum Lights became Cerebrum Lighting Sales in 1974 and Cerebrum Lights Ltd. in 1976, by which time they had moved into wholesale of effects lighting.
John Lethbridge who ran these lightshows sold his interest in the company to Lighting Technology Group only two months ago (2000), 30 years after the first show as Cerebrum Lights.
From John:
As Mass Spectrometer, we were resident lightshow at Eel Pie Island in Twickenham and The Star in Croydon and during '69-'70 we worked with Atomic Rooster, Black Sabbath, Chicago Climax Blues Band, Edgar Broughton Band, Caravan, East of Eden, Egg (whose keyboard player freaked if you used a strobe), Free, Genesis, Grope, Hawkwind, Keef Hartley's Apaches, Junior's Eyes, Idle Race, Juicy Lucy, Love Sculpture, Mott The Hoople, Quintessence, Rare Bird, Small Faces, The Strawbs, Stray, Tuesday's Children, Uriah Heep, and Van Der Graaf Generator.
Our first experimental projector was my Father's 12v 50w Boots cheapo cheapo - he freaked when he went to show his holiday slides and found coloured ink all over the projector.
Our first projectors in the light show were Hanimax Halinamats, which we took the heat filters out of to boil the slides, but before long, we realised we needed Aldis Tutor's to do it properly - starting with the original tungsten 500 watt model, and eventually progressing onto Rank Aldis Tutor 2's, which all the respectible light shows used.
Rank, in their wisdom, decided the Tutor 2 got too hot, so they brought out the Tutor 2e with additional ventilation and a second heat filter. This was a pig, because we had to take out the heat filter to boil the liquids, and it was hard to achieve in the Tutor 2e.
As the lightshow progressed we got to work with acts like David Bowie, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, The Faces, Elton John, The Nice, Pink Floyd, Queen (who were managed by my friends Paul Conroy & Lindsay Brown and were third on the bill!!!) and Yes.
When The Nice split up, we had become a professional stage lighting company as Cerebrum Lights and lit every gig for Refugee (Lee Jackson and Brian Davison from The Nice plus Patrick Moraz on keybords) and the first European tour for Bad Company.
Bowie was one of the first acts to insist on stage lighting and Genesis, Deep Purple and The Who all invested in their own PAR can rigs in the early 70's, which killed off the projected lightshows in the U.K., but it was great fun while it lasted........
Gigs lit by Mass Spectrometer Light Show
1969
3 April - Van Der Graaf Generator play Thomas Bennet School, Crawley
26 April - Keef Hartley's Apaches, King Crimson & Light Fantastic play Ewell Technical College, Epsom, Surrey.
29 May - Caravan and Louise play Ewell Technical College.
28 June - Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band, King Crimson & Louise play Ewell Technical College.
11 July - Principal Edwards Magic Theare & Krivoli Rog play Matrix in Crawley.
3 October - Mighty Baby play Eel Pie Island, Twickenham
10 October - Grope & Stray play Eel Pie Island
11 October - Small Faces and Tuesday's Children play Ewell Technical College
17 October - Steve Miller's Delivery & Medicine Hat play Eel Pie Island
24 October - Stray & Hawkwind Zoo* play Eel Pie Island
31 October - Egg, If and Snake play Eel Pie Island
5 November - Clouds & Rapture play Eel Pie Island
7 November - Pete Brown's Piblokto & Tara's Harp play Eel Pie Island
10 November - Keef Hartley Band & Black Snail play The Star, Croydon
12 November - Alexis Korner & Fat Daughter play Eel Pie Island
14 November - Warm Dust & Tobias Wragg play Eel Pie Island
15 November - John Dummer Band & Audience play Ewell Technical College
19 November - Rhada Krishna Temple, Virgin Hearse & Strawberry Blues play Eel Pie Island.
21 November - Battered Ornaments & Train play Eel Pie Island
26 November - Greatest Show on Earth & Tara's Harp play Eel Pie Island
28 November - Mandrake & Hawkwind Zoo* play Eel Pie Island
29 November - Amazing Gas Medicine Show and Junk Band & Nemesis play Eel Pie Island.
3 December - Edgar Broughton Band & Old Nick's Train Set play Eel Pie Island
5 December - Answella's Dream & Cochise play Eel Pie Island
6 December - Caravan & Juicy Lucy play Ewell Technical College
8 December - Junior's Eyes play The Star, Croydon
12 December - Train play Southwark College of F.E.
15 December - Wild Angels & Pony play The Star, Croydon
22 December - East of Eden & Junk Shop play The Star, Croydon
1970
5 January - Caravan & Pony play The Star, Croydon
12 January - Steamhammer & Smiley play The Star, Croydon
22 January - Something Else play The Star, Croydon
24 January - Atomic Rooster & Genesis play Ewell Technical College
26 January - Idle Race play The Star, Croydon
31 January - Coloured Raisins & Elliot play Newman College, Birmingham
2 February - Rare Bird & Creepy John Thomas play The Star, Croydon
12 February - Mott The Hoople play The Eden Park Hotel, Elmers End, Beckenham
14 February - Chicago Climax Blues Band & Ring of Truth play Ewell Technical College
19 February - Juicy Lucy play Eden Park Hotel, Beckenham
26 February - Quintessence play Eden Park Hotel, Beckenham
28 February - Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band & Hard Meat play Leicester University
5 March - Free play The Eden Park Hotel, Beckenham
13 April - Atomic Rooster & Easy Leaf play the Kingston Hotel, Surrey
19 April - Stray, Clarke-Hutchinson, Boris, Dr. Strangely Strange, Train & Rufus Stone play Thomas Bennet School, Crawley
20 April - The Strawbs and Comus play The Kingston Hotel
27 April - Mott The Hoople & Easy Leaf play The Kingston Hotel
Mass Spectrometer Light Show changes name to Cerebrum Lights
Gigs lit by Cerebrum Lights
4 July - Uriah Heep, East of Eden, Simon Dupree's Big Sound play outdoor concert at Portsmouth Stadium.
9 July - Genesis, Chicago Climax, Wild Wally & Mirrors play Kingston Polytechnic
23 August - Keef Hartley's Big Band & Hardin and York play Fillmore South, Croydon
26 September - Blitzkrieg play Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham
3 October - Yes and Band of Roadies play Watford Technical College
27 November - Syn play The Pied Bull, Islington
4 December - Syn play The Pied Bull, Islington (again!)
11 December - The Strawbs play Hobbits Garden, Wimbledon
1971
1 January - Caravan play Hobbits Garden, Wimbledon
16 January - Uriah Heep & Quintessence play Kingston Polytechnic
17 January - Caravan play The Lyceum, Strand, London
30 January - Osibisa & Mogul Thrash play Kingston Polytechnic
4 February - Caravan play The Bull, Sheen (Nr. Richmond), Surrey
8 February - Leon Russel & Nasties play Epsom Baths, Surrey
5 March - Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band, Hawkwind, Idle Race & Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts play Trent Polytechnic
13 March - Elton John, Paladin & Rhada Krishna Temple play Epsom Baths, Surrey.
19 March - Caravan play The Coronation Hall, Kingston-upon-Thames
20 March - Slinky play Nottingham University
26 March - Fairport Convention & Comus play Epsom Baths, Surrey
18 April - Caravan, Barclay James Harvest & Gringo play The Lyceum, London
24 April - Mott The Hoople & Flying Fortress play Kingston Polytechnic
29 April - Caravan & Egg play Kent University, Canterbury
8 May - Barclay James Harvest & Patto play Kingston Polytechnic
21 May - Pink Floyd play Trent Polytechnic
22 May - Grease Band (ex Joe Cocker), Kingdom Come and Lancaster play Kingston Polytechnic.
15 June - Mungo Jerry, Paul Brett Sage & Jericho Jones play Queen's College, Cambridge.
25 June - Lindisfarne play Kingston Polytechnic
2 July - Gentle Giant play Winter Gardens, Eastbourne
3 July - The Faces and Gringo play Kingston Polytechnic
6 July - Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band play London College of Fashion
9 July - If play Alleyn's School, Dulwich
24 July - Supertramp & Mungo Jerry play Wimbledon Town Hall
5 August - Tir Na Nog, National Head Band & Nicky Thomas play the Commonwealth Institute, Kensington
3 September - Mungo Jerry play at Pye Records International Convention, Hotel Europa, Grosvenor Square
15 September - Van Der Graaf Generator & Colin Scott play Hammersmith Town Hall
30 September - Kevin Ayers and Gong & Formerly Fat Harry play Poole College, Dorset
28 October - Stoneground & Lol Coxhill play Poole College, Dorset
30 October - Principal Edwards Magic Theatre, Comus and Siren play Ewell Technical College
6 November - Van Der Graf Generator & Barclay James Harvest play Kingston Polytechnic
22 November - Uriah Heep, Hackenstack & Pluto play Poole Technical College
27 November - Hawkwind, Paul Brett's Sage and Wells Fargo play Ewell Technical College
4 December - Quintessence & Good Habit play Coronation Hall, Kingston-upon-Thames
More to follow later... |
