Willie Williams

June 12, 2001

Willie Williams may be the greatest lighting director working in music today.

It seems silly for me to point out good stage lighting directors, but his set design for R.E.M.’s Up tour was probably one of my favorite stage setups ever. A big stage full of ropelight, tucked and twisted into goofy little icons of bombs and martini glasses, going on and off like some possessed Lite-Brite. Low tech, quaint and full of personality and creativity, it matched up with R.E.M.’s strange southern charm perfectly.

Willie Williams served as the lighting director for the Up tour, the Monster tour, ZooTV AND PopMart. He’s got quite the little resume going.

Posted in From Blown Speakers