Work by 'mechanical genius'

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MOSSEL BAY NEWS - A "gig rig", which has criss-crossed South Africa to be used for concerts and major events for the past 20-odd years, this month returned to its "home town" of Mossel Bay to be used for Amfihart, a concert which took place at the ATKV Hartenbos amphitheatre.

The "gig rig", made by Mossel Bay locals, Danny Hall and Louis Harris, about two decades ago, has been lauded, with Hall described as a "mechanical genius" by the magazine, Engineering News.

PHOTO GALLERY: "Gig rig" made by Mossel Bay locals

Mossel Bay Advertiser contacted Danny's widow Christine, who reminisced about the building of the rig. It happened to be the couple's wedding anniversary - 12 December - when the Advertiser called Christine.

Danny passed away in 2016.

Christine said that as far as she knew, although the rig had been used all over South Africa, this was the first time, on 9 and 10 December, that it was used in Mossel Bay - for Amfihart, which featured top South African entertainers.

Danny and Louis owned the company, John Daniel Containers, specialising in transport and containers, in Mossel Bay. Louis is also deceased.

Danny won a number of awards - both national and international - for his innovative engineering designs. For the gig rig, he adapted a normal truck, which looked like a beer transportation truck. The rig was commissioned by South African Breweries (SAB).

An artwork was created of the gig rig by Mossel Bay artist Bert du Plooy, who passed away in January 2021.

Engineering News describes the rig as a "16-metre enclosed container trailer, attached to a Mercedes-Benz horse".

It notes that an electronic control panel, the size of a shoebox, is used to set up the rig.

By pushing buttons on the panel, outriggers go out, the front of the truck comes down, the back goes back, four towers with lighting trusses rise up, and the tower tops, fitted with sophisticated stage lights, spread out, all of which reveal a fully-equipped sound stage.

The magazine explains there is a small control room off-stage, where one pushes two start buttons and two generator sets in the trailer start up and run silently. Power is supplied to the lights and the

12 000 Watt sound system and the stage are ready to take a seven-piece, fully-equipped band. There is a remote sound desk and a remote mixing desk. Engineering News notes that the process of converting from trailer container to stage takes about 60 minutes. A normal stage set-up would take at least a few hours, if not a day.

Emile Nel, chef and owner of the restaurants and beverage areas at the Diaz Hotel, recalls the gig rig fondly. He used to work at John Daniel Containers and was part of the team which worked on the gig rig when it came back to Mossel Bay for maintenance.

Emile said: "The gig rig was already built before I joined the company, but I knew the team involved in making it. The rig came to Mossel Bay to be serviced. The gig rig can entertain 50 000 people with its sound. It was used at Loftus Versveld."

He said: "I worked at John Daniel Containers as an apprentice draughtsman at the time."

The state-of-the-art gig rig. The rig used to have red beer logo branding, but now it is black, without alcohol branding.