senorpapacabasa

I know this is pretty basic, but i need some help here. This is probably extremely unsafe, and I'm not sure if its even possible. I have a little background in electronics, but not much with power ratings and stuff like this. This is the basic idea: Im in a band, and we have these 500watt "worklamps" that we use for concerts. We just flash on/off briefly, they are not on constantly. Right now, we just have two that are plugged into a single power strip, and our drummer kicks them on and off with his feet (well he tries to). What I want is a better way to control these lamps, preferably by a footswitch. This sounds non-practical, but my first idea was taking a footswitch, opening it up and either replacing the existing switch, or lengthening it out to a box with a big pushbutton on it. My questions start here; is this possible/reasonable. I didnt know what kind of power considerations i need to take into consideration. These lamps pull alot of power at 500W each. Ideally, we eventually want to have several of them (6-8). I need a way to control them with one switch. Could I build a simple device with a few components and a switch to go in front of the power strips? Our biggest concern is $$$ because they make retail products for this application, but they are pricey. Please help!