State Prison Lightshow

The Basics

Mike Mc Glone and friends founded the State Prison Lightshow on Halloween 2001 in Dover New Hampshire. Performing in the New England area, the State Prison Lightshow presents a hallucinogenic experience using classic liquid lightshow technique and equipment.

Being huge psychedelic era fans, we are bringing the art of original psychedelic lightshows to a new generation.

Inspired by classic light show artists Bill Ham (Light and Sound Dimension), Glenn McKay (Headlights), Joshua White (Joshua Lightshow), Tim Pace (Lightworks Planet Earth) and Chris Samardizch (Brotherhood of Light).

Our first glimpse of psychedelic light shows came in 1995 with Glenn McKay's Headlights, filmed in the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival documentary.

Our venues range from festivals, clubs and underground freakouts.

The State Prison Lightshow is a liquid oil and film based lightshow, utilizing overhead,16mm and slide projection.

Help along the way

Tim Pace founder of Lightworks Planet Earth (formally York Town Power & Lights 69-72) has taken the State Prison Lightshow under his wing, giving us a mountain of support and inspiration. Tim has given us tips and techniques,countless hours on the phone, old equipment (including two Beseler Master Vu Graphs, that he used at the Fillmore East) and the opportunity to work with him at his light shows.

Brotherhood of Lights Chris Samardizch has helped us out as well. Chris is a very busy guy who works with The Grateful Dead and The Allman Brothers Band, but stills finds time to help us out. Chris has answered questions, given us light show contacts and invited us backstage to study his July 13 2003 Allman Brothers Band lightshow.

Glenn McKay who founded Headlights, shared his trade secrets with us in May of 2003. Glenn is a very friendly lightshow artists who was very happy to pass along his years of light show knowledge.

Equipment

Our overhead collection consists of four 1000 watt Beseler Master Vu Graphs (two of these from Tim Pace) and Two 1000 watt Buhl Custom 200 Series (made custom for NASA, again another gift from Tim Pace). Overhead projectors are used for liquid oil, moire patterns and computer generated transparencies.

16mm projection is performed using an army of Bell and Howells, Dukanes, Elmos and Kodak projectors. We use the 16mm's to project uncut film reels, heavily spliced custom film reels, film loops, painted film and film etching. We use the 16's as lumia tools and shoot the projectors into an assortment of mirrors and bounce the images to the screen.

Slide projectors are also used in the same fashion as the film projectors. Showing altered and painted slides as well as 35mm film negatives.

The old days

Which is about 2 years ago...Our first lightshows included the use of 8mm, filmstrip and opaque projectors. These have since been retired to our light show hall of fame.

They are no longer bright enough to project the distances of our growing venues, but we keep them anyway to remind us of our first light shows.

We are always seeking to trade light show tips from the new and old. Please visit our web site and email us, even if its just to say hello.

Thanks
Mike/State Prison Lightshow - July 2003