{{< MultiGalleryComponent galleries="31-bee-gees-rehearsals-may-1979-bw, 32-bee-gees-jun-1979, dance-floor, mirror-ball-project, 1979-bee-gees-show-shots, stair-steps, truss-construction" >}} Showco provided the sound, lighting and stage set for the Bee Gees Spirits Having Flown 1979 tour from June 28 to October 6, 1979. The theme of the tour was Saturday Night Fever and disco. Ian Knight designed the stage set and lighting rig and Delton Bass was the touring lighting director. The stage set included a Saturday Night Fever-inspired disco dance floor with lighted cells each containing four different colored lights that operated via a control system custom designed and built by Tom Walsh and Brooks Taylor. The stage set also included lighted stairs that changed color. All of the lighting instruments were chrome plated, and the custom designed and built trusses were configured in a unique hexagonal shape over the stage. All of the aluminum tubing for the trusses had to be polished to a mirror surface with a custom-built polishing machine before the trusses were welded together. The sound system was the new Showco Pyramid system that included the new subwoofer speakers. The Pyramid cabinet grills were painted silver to match the chrome, mirror and silver production scheme. Even the stage monitors were clad with silver panels and had silver grills. {{< StoryImage id="showco-016-bgs-truss" title="Bee Gees 1979 truss" caption="Custom truss in hexagonal shape for Bee Gees 1979 tour. The truss was hinged at the bottom of the V shape and designed to fold together to take up less space in the truck when being transported. Each piece of aluminum was polished to a mirror finish with a custom-built polishing machine before being welded together." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archives" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-006-bgs-truss" title="Polishing machine" caption="Custom-built polishing machine for Bee Gees truss tubing." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} ### The Bee Gees Truss Crisis 1979 After we had polished each piece of aluminum and welded all of the Bee Gees truss sections together, and only a few weeks before we were scheduled to load in for rehearsals at Tarrant County Convention Center in Ft. Worth, we discovered cracks in the aluminum tubing we had used to fabricate the trusses. Panic ensued. We were not sure if the cracks were cosmetic or if they were serious enough to make the trusses unsafe to use. We consulted with the vendor that sold us the aluminum tubing but they had no answers. We did not have the time to build the trusses again so we decided to have the trusses tested somehow. In May of 1979 an American Airlines DC10 crashed on takeoff at O’Hare in Chicago killing all 271 people onboard. The FAA determined the cause to be cracked bolts that secured the engines to the wings and the FAA ordered all DC10’s grounded until all bolts could be inspected. We contacted the FAA and learned that ultrasound technology was being used to test the bolts on the DC10’s. We hired a company that performed some of the DC10 inspections for the FAA and they sent a team of professional inspectors with their ultrasound equipment to test the trusses. The team had just completed a job inspecting a DC10 aircraft. The inspection team found that the cracks were cosmetic and the trusses were safe to use. It was an extremely tense and expensive experience but we survived to fight another day. {{< StoryImage id="showco-002-bgs-truss" title="Fabricating the trusses" caption="Fabricating the trusses for the Bee Gees 1979 Tour. On the left is David Evangelista, the structural engineer who designed the trusses." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-010-bgs-truss" title="Cracks in tubing" caption="Cracks along the edge of the aluminum tubing used to make the trusses for the Bee Gees 1979 tour." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-008-bgs-truss" title="FAA inspection" caption="FAA inspectors using ultrasound equipment to test the truss sections to be used on Bee Gees 1979 tour." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-004-bgs-truss" title="Chrome PAR cans" caption="Chrome plated steel PAR cans for Bee Gees 1979 tour." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} ### The Bee Gees Dance Floor and Controller 1979 {{< GalleryComponent id="dance-floor-controller" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-020-bgs-floor-construction" title="Dance floor cell" caption="One cell of Bee Gees dance floor with four 250 watt tungsten halogen light fixtures." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-017-bgs-floor-construction" title="Dance floor" caption="Bee Gees dance floor for 1979 tour." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-006-bgs-floor-construction" title="Dance floor switch racks" caption="Switch racks designed and built by Tom Walsh for the Bee Gees dance floor controller that turned the 288 250 watt quartz halogen light fixtures on and off as directed by the dance floor control console. Brooks Taylor wrote the software for the dance floor control console. Colortran 2.4kW dimmers fed power to the switch racks so the dance floor lights could be dimmed." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-001-bgs-floor-construction" title="Dance floor controller" caption="Bee Gees dance floor controller control console. Tom Walsh designed the hardware and Brooks Taylor wrote the software. The console controlled the 288 lights in the dance floor with patterns that could be preprogrammed, stored and recalled as cues. The cost of the dance floor controller greatly exceeded the budget as the project was much more difficult than we first imagined but the control technology that Tom Walsh and Brooks Taylor developed proved to be invaluable when they built the first Vari-Lite VL1 control system in 1981." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-005-show-shots" title="Dance floor" caption="Bee Gees dance floor for 1979 tour." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-012-show-shots" title="Stage set" caption="Bee Gees stage set with lighted dance floor 1979 tour." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-016-show-shots" title="Chrome lighting rig" caption="Bee Gees chrome lighting rig 1979 tour." credit="Photo Recovered Showco Archive" size="medium" >}}