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Brighton's West Pier lit up by green lasers

10:13pm Wednesday 10th February 2010 in


Crowds descended on Brighton seafront tonight to see the remains of Brighton’s iconic West Pier lit up by lasers.

The Grand Old Lady, which last week had the remains of its concert hall removed from the beach, was illuminated by green lasers to promote Tiger Beer – 2010 being the year of the Tiger in the Chinese calendar.

French lighting studio Creatmosphere used the computer-controlled lasers to recreate the pier in a ghostly form.

Brighton-based artist Niki Best, who helped create the stunning work, said: “It’s very much a French thing, lighting up buildings. They are very good at it. We don’t really do it as much here, which is a shame.

“When you light buildings it gives them a whole new personality – bares their soul, almost. It’s also an affectionate thing to do, like giving the building a big hug.”

Comments(22)

ade1200 says...
10:51pm Wed 10 Feb 10

Well done Tiger - nice beer too.

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bug eye says...
11:48pm Wed 10 Feb 10

despite a freezing cold night plenty of residents came out to see the lasers. could the west pier trust now realise that this would be a great feature for the heritage wreck, a new 'heritage lighthouse'. lasers or LEDs could be a permanent feature it has shown to be cheap and possible. how about red lights for valentine and pink for pride green for halloween etc. come on west pier trust and BHCC create a 'very' brighton attraction. this would boost tourism help advertise the i360 for more investors and it is very relaxing to watch. a west pier photographers dream.

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Stu says...
11:57pm Wed 10 Feb 10

It's SO annoying when the videos on this website play without me clicking on them.

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kkj says...
1:26am Thu 11 Feb 10

How long before someone writes in to say they saw a UFO hovering above the water just of the coast?

Wish I'd remembered it was happening, I wanted to go and watch!

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ICantThinkOfAName says...
8:28am Thu 11 Feb 10

The video was disappointing as the commentator seemed to be "in shot" more than the pier itself.

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tribaleye says...
9:25am Thu 11 Feb 10

Some kind of more permanent, perhaps seasonal or regular illumination would be great. LEDs would need affixing to the structure – a dangerous exercise, whereas lasers offer a simpler solution without providing power on/to the pier. No idea how expensive lasers like this are to operate, but this sort of thing would prove a great attraction for locals and visitors alike.

J

PS. Also regarding the picturesque, Brunswick Square has been put on a shortlist of Most Picturesque Streets in Britain. Please vote here asap – we face stiff competition from around the country:

http://www.google.co
m/landing/beststreet
suk/voting.html

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Fight Back says...
9:31am Thu 11 Feb 10

Stu wrote:
It's SO annoying when the videos on this website play without me clicking on them.
I agree - nothing like burning everyones internet bandwidth for no reason ! At least with other news sites you can read the story and click on the video if you want to watch it.

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kennydoit says...
10:04am Thu 11 Feb 10

It was pretty spectacular, and it would be great to see something like this on a permanent basis. However it was nothing like the Argus had built it up to be in its previous article "Brighton’s iconic West Pier is set to be restored to its former glory – but for one night only." They illuminated the structure, bits at a time, but did not "restore it to its former glory". There were a few people there, but hardly crowds. Typical Argus over-egging.

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rolandwebster says...
10:18am Thu 11 Feb 10

The laser illumination was a good idea though could have been executed better e.g just left fully illuminated rather than on some 'random' cycle. However, it would be great to see this as a permanent, seasonal, or even just weekend feature - it actually does something intersting and creative with the ghostly hulk of the West Pier

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Bennn says...
1:06pm Thu 11 Feb 10

Although it was freezing cold out there last night it was really good and I agree with all the posts above: the Council should set up a permanent illumination of the West Pier. Like evrything else it will probably never happen though as it was Tiger Beer's idea and the French had to come over to do it.

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Rostrum says...
2:42pm Thu 11 Feb 10

Strange.. I read this newspaper every day.. Didn’t see it being editorialised or advertised in advance..

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Living in the real world says...
3:58pm Thu 11 Feb 10

Since when has the pile of rusting junk been called "The Grand Old Lady"
at best it was always second best on the pier front.

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Gaz the great says...
4:07pm Thu 11 Feb 10

I thought it looked quite eerie!

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Rita Snatch says...
4:28pm Thu 11 Feb 10

I was another that didn't know about this... despite reading the Argus on-line... were we missed out?

What was the audience size? Was it a low turn-out because many other thousands were not informed!?

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yorkie44 says...
6:03pm Thu 11 Feb 10

How did this promote Tiger beer and does this encourage children to drink?

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strange fish says...
6:23pm Thu 11 Feb 10

Very well advertised and promoted- not!

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Christophe Hawtree says...
7:30pm Thu 11 Feb 10

Will the Tories be complaining that this encourages everybody to vote Green?

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David BN3 says...
10:01pm Thu 11 Feb 10

I thought it was good and agree with previous comments about making it a regular event

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Arnie says...
10:12pm Thu 11 Feb 10

Fight Back wrote:
Stu wrote:
It's SO annoying when the videos on this website play without me clicking on them.
I agree - nothing like burning everyones internet bandwidth for no reason ! At least with other news sites you can read the story and click on the video if you want to watch it.
I agree - the footage of lasers has also given my laptop a little bit of screenburn I think. I am SO not happy.

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lorj says...
10:45pm Thu 11 Feb 10

yorkie44 wrote:
How did this promote Tiger beer and does this encourage children to drink?
It was part of several events to celebrate Chinese new year - 'Year of the tiger'.

And I'm not sure if you were serious about your second question, but I'll say no, goon, just in case.

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pun master says...
11:57pm Thu 11 Feb 10

Rostrum wrote:
Strange.. I read this newspaper every day.. Didn’t see it being editorialised or advertised in advance..
Got to be honest, they have been banging on about it for a week now. They even posted an annoying 'start without a click and scare the living daylights out of the computer user' video showing the test runs from last week. I didn't bother going though, was too worried about being caught up in the doomsday chaos of the weather and ending up being 'snowed out...' So i recreated it in my bath with an upturned hanging basket and a headtorch...

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ghost-of says...
3:17pm Fri 12 Feb 10

What a fantastic idea. It would not be incredibly expensive to do permanently - a laser of suitable power rating would cost less than £5k and they are incredibly low power consumption so would be reasonably easy to do, in theory. Brighton could really make something of its 'Landmark' buildings in this way. It was not a well publicised event away from the pages of The Argus and I sadly missed out as I work late shifts. It would have been nice if the video had focused more on the pier and less on the artist. The last time we had a laser show of this magnitude on Brighton seafront was back in (I think) 1983 during the festival that year: Conbined fireworks by Shellshock and laser display by Holdup, I think it was. They used both red and green and the effect was stunning - a much ignored and very effective medium :o)

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