"Welcome to the 5th Annual Parnelli Awards," said PLSN and FOH publisher and Parnelli Award dinner host Terry Lowe. And thus began LDI/ETS convention's most anticipated event. Held this year at the beautiful Rosen Centre, the industry's legends, stars, up-and-comers and likely a few ne'er-do-wells came to honor this year's top performers in 18 categories. Additionally, highlights included bestowing achievement awards on Patrick Stansfield and Bruce Jackson. "Tonight, the production community comes together to honor its own," Lowe said in his introduction. He pointed out that the industry's influence could be found in the way we worship, how we present our political leaders, at tradeshows and "all the way to retail. Many of those pioneers who developed the technology and methodology of our industry are here with us tonight."
Indeed. The night featured a star-studded crowd that was mostly on its best behavior (save for a hilariously obscene phone call from Keith Kevan) and mostly looking classier than usual (save for the always Hawaiian shirt-attired Dave Shadoan).
Brian Croft and Mike Brown, both also Lifetime Achievement Award winners, took the podium next. They handed the Set/Scenic Designer of the Year award to Mark Fisher for his work with the Rolling Stones; Set Construction Company of the Year was a surprise tie, going to both All Access Staging and Production and Tait Towers; Staging Company of the Year to Mountain Productions; and the Rigging Company of the Year honor going to Atlanta Rigging Systems.
Appropriately, Roy Clair of Clair Bros was on hand to present Bruce Jackson with the 2005 Parnelli Innovator Award. Clair was an influential player in Jackson's extraordinary and prolific life. As the documentary Lowe produced to highlight just a few of his remarkable achievements said: "Any part of the career of Bruce Jackson is enviable, any part worthy of honor. Anyone who has worked the knobs of a mixing board would love to have the names of Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Fleetwood Mac, Johnny Cash and Elvis on their resume. But from his development of parametric EQ for live mixing boards to his groundbreaking work in digital sound, he has and continues to drastically improve the live event experience." Jackson had flown all the way from his native Australia to receive the award.
FOH editor Bill Evans, with sound engineer Buford Jones, came next, presenting the Sound Company of the Year award to Clair Brothers.
An evening highlight came next when well-respected Dave "Rat" Levine of Rat Sound received the FOH Mixer of the Year honor for his work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. A noticeably humbled Rat got one of the biggest laughs of the night when he said in accepting the award, "I spent my career making sure I'm not in front of the mic when the audience is in the house, and here you go and do this to me."
Monitor Mixer of the Year went to Dave Skaff for his work with U2, and Evans and Jones presented the Parnelli to Mid-America Sound for Regional Sound Company of the Year.
The audience gasped, laughed and then applauded wildly when a special video tribute to Patrick Stansfield from the current Neil Diamond crew, including Neil himself, was presented prior to Michael Chugg taking the stage. Chugg, yet another Aussie who made the trek to be part of the evening, is a long time friend and associate of Stansfield. In presenting the lifetime achievement award to Stansfield, Chugg shared many funny personal stories before saying of the respected production and tour manager that he "exemplifies all that is great about our industry –he has always had time for the little people and people not as lucky as us with an open heart, a big grin and plenty of advice."
An eloquent and humbled Stansfield received a standing ovation, and graciously thanked the many who worked with him over his long, successful career, which included a quarter century with Diamond in addition to working with Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan and many more.
"The fashion plate of the audio industry," Shadoan presented the Coach Company of the Year award to Ziggy's Custom Coaches and the Trucking Company of the Year to Upstaging.
PLSN editor Richard Cadena was joined by Neil Diamond LD Marilyn Lowey, and the two presented the Video Rental Company of the Year to XL Video. Then, Rock-It Cargo received the Freight Forwarding Company of the Year honor and Pryotek Special Effects the Pyro Company of the Year honor.
Publisher Lowe was then joined by LD great Peter Morse, and presented a pair of the most highly anticipated awards of the show. Jake Berry received the Production Manager of the Year honor for his work with U2, while David Milam of Toby Keith received Tour Manager of the Year.
Lowe thanked all the Parnelli sponsors, without whom the evening and the contributions to the Parnelli Education Fund for Rick "Parnelli" O'Brien's three children would not be possible: All Access, Apollo, ASI, Brown United, Littlite, Paradise, Martin, PRG, Robe, Rock-It Cargo and Techni-Lux.
The multimedia award dinner was produced by Kent Black.
