BANDIT HISTORY: 40 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE
Part 1: The Early Years

Bandit Lites is celebrating 40 Years of Excellence in 2008. To highlight this significant anniversary, Bandit is releasing a 6-Part Series featuring key milestones from the first 40 Years. The series will provide readers with a unique behind-the-scenes perspective as to how Bandit Lites started with a 12-year-old’s idea and grew into the world’s preeminent lighting company.

The first installment, The Early Years, describes how a kid with a vision and some borrowed equipment was able to start a successful business.

The story began 40 years ago, when a touring band stopped in Bandit CEO, Michael T. Strickland’s hometown of Kingsport, TN to perform a concert. In the late 60’s most acts were just beginning to use lighting of any type. However, having been involved in Community Theater since age 5, Michael knew that theatrical lighting existed and could be applied to the live music industry.

"After a Beach Boys concert I approached the promoter and asked him if he would like to use lighting for his next concert,” Michael explained. The promoter asked Michael to name his price, and he quoted a modest $25, which seemed like a huge amount of money to a 12-year-old in 1968. They agreed to the price, and the next month when another band came, he did the same thing.

“The next month we took all the lights from the school theater, hung them in the gymnasium around the stage, and lit Paul Revere and The Raiders. I didn't have any knowledge back then," he admits, "but neither did the people I was working for, so anything and everything I did was correct. The color I used was right. The mood I set was right. There was no wrong for these people, nor was there any wrong for me."

Word of Strickland’s success spread and soon other touring bands began requesting Bandit to light their concerts.

"We'd do a show one night for the Beach Boys, and they'd ask us to go the next night to another city. The first time they asked, I had to say no. I was twelve years old," he says. "I couldn't drive. I had no way of getting there. I was ready the next time. I hired a friend with a car and a U-Haul trailer. When they asked if we could do a show the next night in Asheville, I said sure. I did not think that after Asheville, he was going to say, 'Can you go to Charlotte?’ I had to go to school the next day, and had to pass on Charlotte. After that experience I hired 2 people, with 2 cars, so one could drive me home on Sunday night while the other stayed on the road.”

Juggling the demands of adolescence and a budding company proved to be a bit challenging at times, but determined to succeed, Strickland pressed on while in Junior High and High School while also playing football and basketball.

“We worked most of the major rock concerts within 300 miles of Kingsport in the early years. We did it mainly to see free concerts and meet girls. Making money was never really part of the equation at that point. Most of the shows took place on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays so we were able to travel to them. At that time all the equipment we used was borrowed from the local schools and theaters, hence the name Bandit!”

From 1968 to 1971 Bandit had the pleasure of working with a large number of national acts, including The Monkees, The Grassroots, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Dennis Yost and the Classics Four, BJ Thomas, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, The Beach Boys, Kris Kristofferson plus many others. This was the beginning of a firm foundation for what would eventually become one of the world’s leading lighting companies.

Please stay tuned for the second installment of Bandit History: 40 Years of Excellence – The 70’s.