impression X5 Wash and impression X5 IP Bar help LD Günter Jäckle shape the stage

At the age of 74, and after 54 years of writing music history, rock musician Peter Maffay finally said goodbye to the stage as part of his sold-out ‘We Love Rock'n'Roll – Farewell’ tour and leaving with an exclamation mark—for 12 stadium shows were scheduled as the tour plan.

Günter Jäckle, Peter Maffay’s long-time lighting designer, developed the design for the tour, together with production manager Bernie Haefner and stage designer Fritze Krauch. He reports: “Fritze and I had the idea early on of integrating an ‘M’ into the stage design. We implemented this idea in two ways: on the one hand, the musicians’ risers form a stylized ‘M’, and on the other hand, we integrated into the stage a video-equipped set construction element in the form of the letter.”

The ‘M’, as a stage projection, was the only stylistic element that defined the look in an otherwise very video-dominated show. In terms of lighting technology, Günter deployed a total of 80 GLP impression X5 Wash and 20 of the new weatherproof impression X5 IP Bar.

The X5 Wash was set on four trusses in the stage roof as well as on the two front truss frames on the right and left. The impression X5 IP Bars recreated the M shape when placed on the floor—especially for spectators on the flat ground in the stadiums.

Once again, the experienced lighting designer remained true to his basic rule of limiting himself to as few fixture types as possible. “Ultimately the show is dominated by the large video surfaces and the video content,” he admits. “It’s an open-air tour and so we’re playing for an hour in daylight. You can’t do that much of a show with light anyway.”

Günter explains that he opted for the X5 Series because of its superior brightness: “The impression X5 is simply much brighter than the impression X4, and that was certainly the main criterion. But an LED washlight also has its own characteristics as a physical object that I wanted to use—the devices are a stylistic element in the stage roof. In fact, I used them less to illuminate the stage and more like blinders facing the audience, with which I could effortlessly bathe at least the first 50 metres of the audience area in colour. The impression X5, with its high performance and rich colours, was ideal for this.”

It was a similar story with the impression X5 IP Bars, which the designer was using for the first time on this tour: “Here, too, the greater brightness of the devices was crucial for me. For health reasons, we generally work without fog on a Peter Maffay tour. However, I could still get a clearly visible beam from the X5 IP Bars even without fog. Nevertheless, these served less as effect lighting, but rather to create atmosphere.”

GLP supported the designer—and his lighting director Oliver Horn—thoroughly during the prep stage, as Günter emphasizes: “Among other things, we both received a device at the show laboratory in order that we could intensively examine the fixtures and make a few change requests. The GLP Team was committed to supporting us—that’s the advantage when a company really cares about the products and their users.”

In the summer of 2024, in particular, open-air shows have been subject to constant scrutiny. “I had high expectations of the GLP devices and, despite some unusual weather conditions, I was not disappointed so far. We didn’t have to complain about a single failure,” concludes the designer.

The lighting system for the tour was supplied by PRG Germany. satis&fy provided the sound system, while epicto GmbH was responsible for video production.

Peter Maffay’s ‘Farewell’ tour ended on July 20, in Leipzig, which was recorded for a documentary and a live DVD. For this purpose, the lighting rig was expanded by a further 100 GLP impression X5 Wash.