Hi, thanks for taking the time to check out my bio' and résumé. It's rather long so, for those for that want to cut to the chase, I've provided as many short cuts as possible. Some of the links will not be functional yet as I'm still building the site.
For those that choose to read the whole thing, thanks again. If you are someone I know and have worked with in the past and you think some of my chronology is out of whack it may well be. Don't be a stranger, give me a call at 760 295 3343, or to e-mail me click on Contact.
A complete list of shows, clients, artists and employers over the years can be viewed at the bottom of this page.
David C. Jackson
A SHORT (ish) BIO'
David Jackson has been tinkering around doing something or other in showbiz, stage design and entertainment technology practically his entire life.
He has designed hundreds of live events throughout the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, South Africa, Australia and Japan. At least thirty-five of his fifty something years have been spent designing sets, lighting, costumes as well as producing associated media, projection and video, for a spectrum of artists and presenters so diverse as to defy brevity.
From the multi-sensory, psychedelic productions in the early to mid 'seventies by Britain's Electric Theatre Company via the bizarre cabaret performances of the infamous Sadista Sisters to the surreal comedies of Incubus Theatre he was always close to the cutting edge.
He was the first to use lazer, neon and fluorescent light on an opera stage in a controversial new production of Oedipus Rex for The English National Opera. He worked on Peter Brooke's 'Dream' and with The Royal Shakespeare Company under director Trevor Nunn as well as on many other productions at London's Roundhouse Theatre in Chalk Farm.
The complete list for that period can be found here.
The Roundhouse grew to fame in the 'sixties primarily as a concert venue and while resident in London he was also frequently 'the lighting guy' at The Rainbow Theatre, Ronnie Scotts Jazz Club and at the world famous Marquee in Soho where many of Britain's biggest rock acts got their start. The contacts he made with musicians and promoters there led to a gradual migration from theatre work to rock show design and concert touring.
The complete list for that period can be found here.
In December, 1977, while touring with Incubus at Rotterdam's Eksit Club, he was introduced to Johnny Rotten and stood in on lights that night for his band The Sex Pistols. The following day the Pistols were famously fired by their record label, EMI. The relationship with John Lydon was not to develop until several years later in New York.
For those unfamiliar with the Pistols place in music history you can read about them here.
During the following eighteen months he lit several tours including Roy Harper, The Average White Band, Leo Sayer and Marshal Hain as well as making his first forays into broadcast television with specials for AWB, The Motors, The Darts and for popular pub singing duo Chas & Dave at Abbey Road Studios. He also went with Leo Sayer to light a two week engagement at the luxurious Sun City Resort in Bophutatswana, South Africa and stayed on for several months lighting various acts including Gloria Gaynor and The Realistics.
When he returned to London in late '78 the music scene was bouncing, punk music had achieved loud and violent supremacy but it was a quiet, gentle song called Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush that was topping the charts. David was so captivated by Kate's amazing voice that he contacted a friend at EMI to inquire if she was planning to tour. As it turned out, she was. The British music press gushed that the Kate Bush concerts were, "Simply the most magnificent spectacle ever encountered in the world of rock!"
Read more about the 1979 Lionheart Tour and see some clips from Kate Bush: Live at Hammersmith Odeon here.
The original Sex Pistols had imploded by early in '78 but in late '79 another British punk rock group was in the ascendent. Jackson was contacted, shortly after the Lionheart Tour, by Bernie Rhodes the manager of The Clash. Rhodes was particularly interested in the rear projection techniques David had used for the Kate Bush shows and wanted something of the sort for The Clash.
The elegant and romantically abstract rear projection for Kate was the result of hundreds of hours of pre-production, intense rehearsal and careful choreography all delivered with impeccable timing. Rear projection for The Clash would have to be raw, confrontational and immediate, and no set list. Jackson designed and lit every Clash tour from '79 until the bands break-up in 1984.
To read more about his experiences, opinions and some of the technical challenges he faced click here.
June 1981 and The Clash were just breaking through in the US. The group was booked to play for a week at Bonds, a converted casino from the '40s in Times Square, New York. In what proved to be a very effective marketing ploy management oversold the first few shows, some ticket holders got locked out, and riots ensued.
Jackson remembers trying to get from his hotel in Grammercy Park to the second show and having the cab driver stop several blocks short of Times Square saying, "This is it, can't get you any closer, some limey band causing a riot, the Flash or the Trash or the Smash, something like that!" The guy seemed to know every English word that rhymned with Clash except the correct one. Perhaps he was practicing to be become a rap artist, maybe it was New York cabbie humor. David admits it was exciting to be working for an act that could bring the greatest city in the world to a standstill, albeit briefly.
For the rest of the Chaos in Times Square saga go here.
That same year another riot broke out in a New York club, the Ritz, and although David missed the event it was a seminal moment for a new act, Public Image Limited, and another turning point in music history, the resurrection of Johnny Rotten.
Late in '81 Jackson moved from his spacious basement flat in Notting Hill to a tiny skyscraper apartment on East 36th Street in Manhattan, just in time for one of the worst winters on record. During a rare lull in Clash activities Bernie Rhodes dragged him along to the loft on West 18th Street where PIL rehearsed.
Hereby hangs another very long tale, for the rest of the Public Image story click here.
In New York David worked on numerous projects across a three year period, off Broadway plays, experimental videos, television promo's and a variety of lighting commissions. For a while he worked at See Factor in Queens where he performed various design tasks including re-vamping the See Factor logo. He toured America with Neil Diamond, as assistant to LD Marilyn Lowie, toured Japan in '83 as LD for George Benson, where he lit the famous George Benson at the Budokan concert, and designed a TV promo' for Paul Anka. In 1982 The Clash toured in support of the Combat Rock album on a stage surrounded by barbed wire and hung with camouflage netting.
Flash forward to 1984, Santa Monica, California. Bernie Rhodes once again invites Jackson to design and light yet another Clash tour. In honor of George Orwell David built a stage out of stacks of old television receivers to replace the slide projections of earlier tours. The TV sets were held in place by steel mesh supported by red steel girders and grey concrete blocks.
There were never any pictures taken of the finished stage but you can see a rendering here.
Sadly by this point it was all over for The Clash. Mick Jones was gone, Topper was long gone and Joe Strummer was struggling to make the new Clash sound like the old. Punk Svengali, Malcolm McClaren, Bernie Rhodes' old co-conspirator and self proclaimed creator of the Sex Pistols, had somehow gotten into the mix, (where was he when he was needed?), and was making all kinds of highly creative but completely impractical demands. The management were in chaos and the contractor quit.
For the rest of this story click here.
Jackson moved again, this time to Pasadena where John Lydon's Public Image Ltd. had set up shop behind the KROQ radio station in a cute little wooden built California bungalow surrounded by towering concrete and glass office buildings.
In the following three years he designed and lit three world tours for Public Image Limited, including trips to Japan and Australia. He paid two more visits to Japan with Aimee Mann's 'til Tuesday and also with Cameo. In 1986 he also designed the stage for Supertramp's 'Brother' tour.
While Jackson was with Public Image in Australia for Christmas, (and narrowly escaping becoming Christmas dinner for a shark), the home office was staffed by PIL secretary Margaret Wilkes who became Mrs Margaret Jackson in 1985.
During those 'Hollywood years' David also attended various film and video production courses at UCLA and survived a summer in New York at filmmakers boot camp, the NYU Summer Intensive.
One gusty night in March of '86 his daughter, Alexandra, was born at the Santa Monica Hospital and, at the age of less than 24 hours, she featured in background footage for a Tom Brokaw special on ABC Television. Alex Jackson is now seventeen.
By 1987 Jackson had more or less retired from the international concert touring scene and for a while "just putzed around" in LA. Although immersed in film and video production he still found time to design sets and lighting for a variety of off Broadway and community theatre productions, even managing to pick up a couple of award nominations along the way.
The complete LA list can be found here.
Among various off the wall gigs in LA he supervised a production run of expensive glass light sculptures by artist Ray Howlett for The Sharper Image and managed a book signing tour for John Lydon to promote his biography, No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs.
He also worked briefly for Color Systems Inc. in Marina del Rey as a computer colorist of black and white films and is particularly proud of the Derby Day scenes in Yankee Doodle Dandy. He was later to assist Woody Allen and the DGA in their plea to Congress that the colorization of classic black and white films be outlawed.
In 1990 he moved with his family from Venice to San Diego and settled in the picturesque, if overpriced, coastal community of La Jolla where they lived happily by the cove from 1991 until 1999.
At that point his objective had been to spend more time working in legitimate theatre and less in the music business. However, despite an already substantial track record in stagecraft, his application for IATSE membership was declined and he was referred to Rick Davis. Rick was then the non-union stage manager of the soon to be defunct California Theater and the newly appointed stage manager of the Spreckels Theatre on San Diego's Broadway. He is currently Director of Labor Sales & Operations for Kleege Industries in San Diego.
That meeting in 1991 resulted in Jackson's involvment in a long series of wonderful adventures in stage production, literally hundreds of live events in San Diego, Las Vegas and Los Angeles spanning the nineties to the present day.
The complete list can be found here.
In 1993, primarily to house his pet project, Blink TV, he formed Blink Multimedia International Inc. with Jon Allen and Kevin Carey. Together they designed and produced an epic series of corporate and motivational events for Bill Gouldd and Equinox International, events that grew both in scope and in scale between '93 and '98 into huge rallys with upwards of 13,000 people in attendance. These events featured headline acts including Kenny Loggins and Carlos Santana
During that time Jackson also designed the stage and lights for The Sex Pistols re-union, aptly named The Filthy Lucre Tour, and directed and produced several videos including an animation for a track from Johnny Rotten's solo album Psycho's Path.
Historical note: at this point John Lydon had just successfully sued Malcolm McClaren for his own stage name and won.
In 1997 he directed and produced Johnny Rotten's first solo music video, 'In the Sun', for Virgin Records. "It's a quirky, quintessentially English, video that uses an animated 2D technique modelled after the so-called 'saucy' postcards that can still be found in Britain's seaside resorts. It's really quite brilliant!", he laughs, "You should see it, 'cause nobody else has." In the Sun was edited by Hans Fjellestad.
David is grateful to an extended San Diego 'family' of highly skilled, independent stage and AV technicians for their friendship and brotherhood over the past fourteen years. Many of these stellar individuals have become close friends and frequent collaborators, their pictures, bio's, links and other info' can be found on the Associates page.
Since 2000 David has focused primarily on video and editing but with frequent returns to live production including designs for two Annual San Diego Ad' Club Awards Shows, Rexair, The Miss California Pageant, San Diego Men's Choir, The Mainly Mozart Festival, Barona Valley Resort & Casino and numerous other commisions including an interactive trade show booth for the San Diego Regional EDC.
The complete list can be found here.
In 2001 he was Art Director on the independent feature film, The Socratic Method, directed by George Hunlock and recently screened at the Fallbrook Film Festival. In 2002 and 2003 Jaxn Communications, in collaboration with John Street and Inpoint Productions, produced all of the interstitial video programming for Street Scene, California's premier music event held every year on the streets of San Diego's historic Gaslamp District.
He is currently designing sets for Sheri Sharman's One Big Team and for KOCT Oceanside. David now lives in rural Vista, North County San Diego, where he and neighbour, Kevin Carey, maintain a substantial media production facility with an audio recording suite and digital video edit bays.
Jackson dislikes writing in the third person and swears this is the last bio' heÕll ever write. He apologizes for any chronological errors, both above and in the lists below, and will endeavor to fix them as the site develops.
THEATRE (UK);
The Royal Shakespeare Company, "Hamlet" / Starring Ben Kingsley- Director Trevor Nunn, "Man Is Man" (Brecht) Acting Stage Manager / Lighting Technician, Northern Stage Electrics, "South Pacific" - "Oklahoma" - "Carousel", Lighting Assistant, Leeds University Dramatic Society, "The Threepenny Opera" - "The Fear And Misery Of The Third Reich" ( Brecht ), Lighting Designer, The Roundhouse Theatre, (London, England), "The Ik" and "Brooke's Dream" - Director / Peter Brooke for The Royal Shakespeare Co. "Le Grande Magic Circus" - "Salome" - Director / Lindsay Kemp, Production Staff - "Peter Straker In Concert", Technical Director, "R.D.Laing" - Lecture Series, Designer/Technical Director, Mutable Theatre Company, ( Roundhouse Studio Theatre ), "The Measures Taken" - "The Exception And The Rule" (Brecht), Lighting And Set Designer.
THEATRE TOURS (Europe);
Incubus Theatre Company ( Touring Uk & The Netherlands ) "Guardians Of The Universe" - "The Many Loves Of Madam Desiree" - Director / Paddy Fletcher, Lighting and Set Designer, The Electric Theatre Company (Touring UK / Edinburgh Festival.), multi-media productions directed by Peter Snow (Head Of Stage Design at Slade School, London.) "Reflections 1" - "Reflections 2" & "Reflections 3" (Experimental drama, mime, music, multiple projections.), Lighting Designer/Technical Director The Bubble Theatre (Mobile Tension Structure touring London Parks / Summer Stock.) Repertory Theatre / Five Productions ( Dramatic And Musicals / Childrens Theatre), Production Assistant, Still Life Mime Company (Touring UK / Edinburgh Festival.) "Still Lives" - "Wee Beasties" - "Between Four Walls" (Larger-than -life puppets, masks, black light show.) Lighting Designer / Production Manager.
CONCERT TOURS (Global touring activities, short tours and resident engagements);
Stage sets, lighting and SFX for; Average White Band - Fusion Orchestra - Linda Lewis - Leo Sayer - Kate Bush - Marshal Hain - Roy Harper - The Darts - Strider - George Hatcher Band - The Motors - The Reggae Regulars - Gloria Gaynor - The Realistics - Reign - Adam & The Ants - The Yachts - The Heavy Metal Kids - The Pirates - Chas And Dave - The Cure - The Sex Pistols - The Clash - Public Image Limited - George Benson - Aimee Mann's 'til Tuesday.
TELEVISION
-Production Designer/Lighting Director - "Kate Bush Live At Hammersmith Odeon" (BBC TV 1979, USA Cable 1985.) Director / Keith Macmillan. -Set and Lighting Designer- The Old Grey Whistle Test w/The Motors, "Emergency" & "Airport" (BBC 2 1978) -Lighting Designer- "George Benson At The Budokan" w/George Benson In Tokyo (NHK TV 1983) -Lighting Designer- Rockpalast w/Public Image Limited. (DDRT, West Germany 1983) -Lighting Designer- "Clash In Tokyo" w/The Clash In Japan (NHK TV 1982) -Production / Lighting Designer- "Clash On Broadway" w/The Clash @ Bonds Casino, Time Square, NYC. -Production / Lighting Designer- "Darts Hit Helsinki" w/The Darts (Finnish National Television 1978 ) -Lighting Designer- "Lionheart In Oslo" w/Kate Bush Scandinavian Tour (Norwegian Television 1979 ) -Production Designer / Lighting Director- "Public Image Limited Live In Tokyo 83" w/Pil In Japan (NHK TV 1983) -Stage and Lighting Designer- On Tour w/'til Tuesday, (MTV Music Video Awards 1986) VIDEO "Kate Bush Live At Hammersmith Odeon" ( 52 Mins/1979 ) Director / Keith Macmillan - Production Design / Lighting Designer - "The Average White Band" ( 10 Mins, "Pick Up The Pieces" & "Let's Go Round Again" , 1980 ) Director / Michael Appleton for BBC 2 - Lighting Designer - "Public Image Limited, Anarchy Movie '85" On Tour in Japan ( 30 Mins/1985 ) - Production Design / Lighting Designer - " Dark Moon Rising" W / George Hatcher Band In London ( 5 Mins/1978 ) - Lighting Designer - Paul Anka "Walk A Fine Line" - Sales promo for Album ( 20 Secs/1984 ) Director / Yvonne May for CBS. - Set & Lighting Designer.
CONCERT TOURS
Stage sets, lighting and SFX for;
Supertramp - Public Image Limited - Aimee Mann's 'til Tuesday - Cameo.
THEATRE (Los Angeles);
Inglewood Theatre - Los Angeles, "Poison In The Grapevine" - "The Mighty Gents" - "Murder By Night" - "South Of Where We Live", Lighting And Set Designer, ("South Of Where We Live" Was Nominated Best Lighting In An Equity Waiver Production, 1988, by the Beverly Hills Chapter of NAACP. ), Callboard Theatre - West Hollywood, "Between East And West" - "Lovely Place For A Picnic" - " Labyrinth", Lighting Designer, Burbage Theatre - Los Angeles, "The Dolly", Lighting Designer, Powerhouse Theatre - Santa Monica, "The Watering Place", Lighting Designer.
CONCERT TOURS & VIDEO
"In the Sun" by Johnny Rotten for Virgin Records, 1997. Stage set and lighting for the Sex Pistols 1997 World Tour, "Filthy Lucre!"
THEATRE
Variously engaged as Set and/or Lighting Designer, Master Electrician, Technical Director for:
"Mummenschantz" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Mama DonÕt" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Death Trap" @ Coronado Playhouse, Coronado, "Greater Tuna" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "AT & T Conference" @ Marriot Hotel, San Diego, "The Mainly Mozart Festival" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "The Fantastiks" @ Coronado Playhouse, Coronado, "The American Ballet Company" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Perpetual Money Machine, 1991" for Advanced Marketing Seminars @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, Shelley Garrett's "Living Room" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "The Cambodian Dance Ensemble" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Zoo Story" By Edward Albee @ Coronado Playhouse, Coronado, "American Dream" @ Coronado Playhouse, Coronado, "Musclemania" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "La Cage Aux Folles" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Coronado Follies" @ Coronado Playhouse, Coronado, "Whatever Happened To Black Love ?" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "A Midsummer Nights Dream" @ Poway Center For The Performing Arts, Poway, "Journey Beyond Perception" for Advanced Marketing Seminars, Lowes Hotel, Coronado, "Wizard Of Oz." @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "David Bowie's Tin Machine" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Solitary Confinement" starring Stacey Keach @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "1992 Annual Rally" for Advanced Marketing Seminars @ Denver Convention Center, Denver, Colorado, "Mr Jones" feature film starring Richard Gere ( Additional Orchestra Lighting.), @ Spreckels Theatre, "Perpetual Money Machine 92/1" for Advanced Marketing Seminars @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Peter Pan" For American Children's Theatre @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "San Diego Men's Chorus" ( AIDs Benefit Concert.) @ Spreckels, "Black Comedy Explosion" (Syndicated TV ) @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "The Mainly Mozart Festival '92" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "The Miss California Pageant 1992" ( Syndicated TV Special ) @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, " A Hard Man's Good To Find" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Pia Zadora" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Equinox International" corporate launch @ Bally's Hotel, Las Vegas, "Light Up The Sky" @ Coronado Playhouse, Coronado, " Your Gonna Love Tomorrow" ( Sondhiem ) For San Diego Light Opera, Shelley Garrett's "Beauty Shop" @ Spreckels Theatre, "Perpetual Money Machine 92/2" For AMS @ San Diego Symphony Hall, "Kawasaki Motorcycles" product launch for East End Productions @ Spreckels Theatre, "Journey Beyond Perception, 92" For AMS @ Hotel Del Coronado, Coronado, "Fantazm" For Moscow Dance Theatre @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, " Nutcracker" For American Ballet @ Oceanside, Spreckels And East County Center For Performing Arts, El Cajon. Sets and lighting for eight industrial and training video shoots for Stellar Communications, Las Vegas. "Love Letters" with Stacy Keach & Joan Collins @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Mainly Mozart Festival 2000" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Rexair National Conference" @ MGM Grand, Las Vegas. "Microsoft" meeting @ Sheraton, San Diego. "The Wiz" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "A Tuna Christmas" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Peter Pan" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "San Diego Men's Chorus" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Eleanor" with Jean Stapleton @ Spreckels, "The Mainly Mozart Festival 2001" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "St Petersburg Ballet" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "San Diego Ad Club Awards 2001" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Red, White & Tuna" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego
CORPORATE
Creative Director and CEO for Blink Multimedia Int'l Inc. offering design and production services to businesses in a cross media matrix of live event, moving image and print. The company was originally formed in 1994 to provide sets, lighting design and AV services for Advanced Marketing Seminars, meeting planners engaged in the presentation of a series of motivational seminars conducted by Bill Gouldd. Five years, twelve to fourteen shows a year. The biggest arena shows were produced in cities across the USA, in Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Memphis, St Louis and San Diego but mostly in Las Vegas, where Equinox and AMS were based, at venues including the MGM Grand Garden, Sands Expo and The Aladdin Centre for the Performing Arts.
OTHER CORPORATE PRODUCTIONS
Kawasaki - Rexair - Microsoft - Intel
FILM
Art Director for feature length 35mm independent film, "The Socratic Method".
MUSIC FESTIVAL
Director and editor of interstitial programming for annual three day San Diego Street Scene
2002 and 2003.
THEATRE
Variously engaged as Set and/or Lighting Designer, Master Electrician, Technical Director for:
"Love Letters" with Stacy Keach & Joan Collins @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Mainly Mozart Festival 2000" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Rexair National Conference" @ MGM Grand, Las Vegas. "Microsoft" meeting @ Sheraton, San Diego. "The Wiz" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "A Tuna Christmas" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Peter Pan" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "San Diego Men's Chorus" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Eleanor" with Jean Stapleton @ Spreckels, "The Mainly Mozart Festival 2001, 2 & 3" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "St Petersburg Ballet" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "San Diego Ad Club Awards 2001" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, "Red, White & Tuna" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, ""The Blonde in the Thunderbird" @ Spreckels Theatre, San Diego, w/Suzanne Somers, 2004.
TRADE SHOWS
Interactive trade show booth design, construction and operation for San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp., EDC, at BioCom 2001 and CTIA Wireless IT & Internet 2001 trade shows.
CORPORATE
R&R Productions, Barona Valley Resort & Casino, San Diego Management Group, Pre-paid Legal Services, One Big Team, Federal Chamber of Commerce, Intel, Sonic, Bank America, Southwest Airlines.
WEBMASTERS!
Old Dog Learns New Trick
This is my first attempt at authoring my own site so please bear with me. There are going to be links that don't go anywhere and links to pages I haven't built yet but I decided that instead of building the entire site before launching it would be more fun to have it evolve and develop live and on-line.
I am currently working in Dreamweaver 3 and any other Dreamweaver and Fireworks users that happen by are welcome to leave whatever advice and pointers they may have, please e-mail me, david@davidjaxn.com.
