‘Our job as agents now is to slow time down’

Accidentally falling into the agency world, Maria May has helped to define the parameters of dance music over the past 30 years.

In part two of our in-depth look at May’s 30 years as an agent, IQ looks at the highlights, lowlights, and future of the CAA agent. Find part one here.

Team Disco
While there were early suggestions that May’s department at CAA be named “EDM,” she insisted on the “Team Disco” moniker that she and assistant Gina Gorman had adopted at ITB. “In London, there are 11 of us, while in America, we’re up to around the same number including agents and assistants – it’s no longer a niche business; it’s huge! But there’s still lots of room for this business to grow. The scenes are constantly evolving with new talent and new genres coming through.”

Looking back to the original Team Disco at ITB, May was one of the pioneers in cementing Ibiza’s place at the centre of the electronic music business. “I was part of the first residencies in Ibiza, thanks to Danny Whittle who wanted to do a residency at Pacha with Paul [Oakenfold]. He told me that if it worked, he also wanted to do it with Death Mix – David Morales, Frankie, Satoshi Tomiie, and all of those guys, and obviously I repped all of those people. The Paul Oakenfold residency was massively successful, and the rest is history.

“Being part of that and setting the building blocks is something I’m pretty proud of, even though we were just doing stuff instinctively. We didn’t really know whether it was gonna work half the time, but it did, so well done us,” she laughs.

Again, she names Judy Weinstein as one of the architects behind the strategy that propelled dance music to a global phenomenon. “It’s a partnership, and the managers who understand that are the best people to work with,” states May. “But I also represent a lot of artists that don’t have managers, so I work with them directly.”

Drawing comparisons to the worlds of rock and pop, she notes, “A DJ schedule is 365 days a year if you want it to be. It’s not built on a model where an album comes out and you’re touring and then you have a year off. I do a lot of live acts as well – Black Eyed Peas has been a fantastic relationship for me, because their management, Polo Molina and Seth Friedman, always trusted me with access to their diaries. I never imagined that I could be their agent, but Rob Light signed them to CAA, and then phoned me to ask if I wanted to be the Black Eyed Peas agent. I just love things that end up being beautiful happy accidents.”

“Suddenly I was working with this guy that I knew from my local area who turned into a massive act”

Losing Talent
Of course, for every happy accident there’s a flip side, and May admits that losing clients can be tough. “I was sad to lose Soulwax and 2manydjs – that was probably the biggest loss of my career, and of course they went to David Levy. That was a wake-up call because I realised that while David is my friend, he’s also my rival. We got through it, but I didn’t handle it very well in the beginning. It happened as soon as I started at CAA, and I’ll always remember going to see Emma Banks, and she was really clear, telling me that CAA didn’t employ me for my acts; they employed me because they believed in me.”

Indeed, May highlights the support her bosses and colleagues provided during some of her darkest moments. “About six years ago, my dad got very ill, and the company allowed me to do whatever I needed to do, so I made the job work around being a single parent with two kids and a dying dad,” she recalls. “And then six months after Dad died, my mom was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour and needed round-the-clock nursing. It was a horrible time, but Emma and Mike and everyone at CAA were amazing.”

Career Highlights
Thankfully, the good times vastly outnumber the bad, and May has had some spectacular highlights in her career to date.

“David Guetta at Masada in Israel – I was the first person to do it with a major artist,” she says of her most memorable shows. “I also did Paul Oakenfold on the Great Wall of China before anyone had ever done it. Róisín Murphy at sunset on West Holts at Glastonbury is always fucking amazing – Róisín is one of my favourite partnerships. I’ve loved every second of being her agent, and I genuinely can’t wait for her next record.”

May also cites X-Press 2 as a standout client. “My relationship with their manager, Chris Butler (currently the manager of Jalen Ngonda also repped by CAA), is fantastic. He gave me my first band, Red Snapper, and when I’d been their agent for about a year, we sold out the Astoria, and I just remember being so proud. So, when X-Press 2 blew up, it was just brilliant, as I’d known [DJ] Rocky from growing up, and suddenly I was working with this guy that I knew from my local area who turned into a massive act.”

“Being able to make stuff like that happen that has a legacy is just the cherry on the cake”

She also talks fondly of American talent David Morales and the late Frankie Knuckles. “They taught me all about the New York club scene, and I’d go there every other month. It’s the privilege of a lifetime to know those guys – the originators of house music – and bring them to Europe. Frankie was an enduring friendship that I really am very grateful for. He was an amazing man, and I loved him, so it was really hard when he died.”

May’s association with the godfather of house music continues to this day, through her work as a board member of the Frankie Knuckles Foundation, and she recalls ways in which their relationship helped elevate one act to iconic status.

“I repped Hercules and Love Affair for a long time, and he brought this collection of music to me that included a track called Blind, and his biggest wish was for Frankie to work on remixes. So, I asked Frankie if he would do it, and he was a bit non-committal, so I kept nagging him, and in the end, he said he’d do it for me. And Frankie’s Blind remix is one of the club-defining tracks, even now. So being able to make stuff like that happen that has a legacy, is just the cherry on the cake.”

The Darling Buds of May
While May’s life ultimately revolves around her children, her devotion to her clients’ careers, and the growth of electronic music, means her workaholic approach is more of a vocation than a job. “I’m hugely proud of my two kids,” she states. “They are my greatest achievement.”

Within Team Disco, May works closely with colleague Jen Hammel in CAA’s London office. “We’re a bit of a dynamic duo,” she comments. “[Jen’s] proved to be a formidable agent. She’s just killing it, and I love working with her.”

The Future
With 30 years under her belt, May’s love for her craft shows no sign of waning, and she remains committed to helping guide the careers of a new generation of talent amidst an ever-accelerating pace of evolution in the dance sector.

“Due to TikTok and streaming, we’re starting to see genres changing really quickly,” she observes. “Being able to create longevity is definitely becoming more challenging, and it’s up to us agents to help our clients achieve prolonged careers, if that’s their goal.

“I prefer taking my time, underplaying, believing in the artist long-term, and building a fanbase that will stick by them”

“But at the moment, there seems to be a desire for people to just rinse the shit out of things. It’s almost like pop, and a lot of people are spending an awful lot of money on social media in order to maintain their careers, because there’s a lot of stuff that comes along that’s super hot, super firing, and doing massive numbers. But by the second summer, the kids have moved on.

“I also find that the leverage-on-leverage-on-leverage model, which was really strong in the dance music scene for many years, may be on the way out. For example, people who hit 25m streams would leverage that number, then they’d leverage on the leverage. I’ve never really bought into that. I prefer taking my time, underplaying, believing in the artist long-term, and building a fanbase that will stick by them. There’s definitely a style here within Team Disco (and at CAA in general), where we try our best to sign career artists, because we want to be part of that journey.”

Predicting both short-term and long-term growth for dance music, she tells IQ, “It’s interesting, China is definitely coming back strong again for electronic, and Southeast Asia seems to be really pumping again, post-Covid. Holland is doing extremely well in terms of certain sounds, certain scenes – and there are really strong ticket sales.”

“Our job (as agents) now is to slow time down and take more care”

Breaking new markets is also on May’s radar – an ambition that she believes is easier given the genre her clients occupy. “If you are a DJ, and it’s just you and a tour manager when you start out, you can go anywhere. And you have no costs, really, because the promoter pays for your flights. You can go anywhere you want, and we send people into new territories all the time. And the artists that come to you saying, ‘I just want to tour these markets and build my career,’ they’re the keepers. They’re the ones that put the graft in.”

Naming new clients such as Marlon Hoffstadt, Malugi, Jammer with Más Tiempo (a label/events brand owned by Jammer and Skepta), and Arcadia (Glastonbury structure and field), May concludes that the electronic sector is facing a bright future as dance music has established itself as a mainstay across most major festivals with more and more headliners coming from Team Disco’s roster.

“Our job (as agents) now is to slow time down and take more care, be totally confident in our artists, and help build long-term artist careers based on real ticket sales and exceptional experiences for the artist and the audiences,” she concludes.

“We need to achieve that in the most authentic and fan-led way possible – guardian angel-like – while having the experience, the knowledge, and the confidence in how to do that. I am lucky to be at CAA and to be surrounded by other people doing exactly that every single day.”

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Baroque & Roll: Austria market report

The optics of Austria in 2024, viewed from the outside, aren’t especially good.

The far right, embodied by the Freedom Party (FPÖ) made an emphatic point in the country’s September elections, taking 28.9% of the vote. The economy is technically in recession, with GDP expected to decline by 0.6% this year and exports to the all-important and somewhat ailing German market significantly down. Then again, whose optics are good these days? And where the Austrian live business is concerned, appearances can be a little deceptive, says Richard Hörmann, co-managing director of the country’s leading promoter, CTS Eventim’s Barracuda Music.

“I think, in general, the atmosphere is much worse than the real situation, especially in entertainment,” he says. “We aren’t seeing slower sales – we have [had] very strong figures for the last few years.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean that Austria isn’t in a cold spell; more that, in this prosperous, 9m-strong nation, shows and festivals remain fairly affordable luxuries. Even a price rise of around 10% to 15% on the average ticket has done little to stifle demand.

“In Austria, it’s more a situation [in which] people can’t afford to buy apartments anymore or maybe can’t afford to buy cars, but they invest in their entertainment,” says Hörmann. “They go on holidays, and they watch shows.”

After all, Austria still has the fifth-highest GDP per capita in the EU at €46,200. And to look on the bright side, the FPÖ, while resurgent, has been unable to find a coalition partner, leaving the way clear for a three-party coalition of the centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP), the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), and NEOS (liberals).

“There’s still plenty of momentum, especially around large-scale events and innovative formats”

There are still underlying concerns, of course, just as there are everywhere in a candidly unpredictable world: from Vienna’s controversial noise restriction law and frustrating venue omissions to the shifting of the world’s political and macroeconomic centre of gravity.

“Everything is a bit difficult right now in Europe,” acknowledges Silvio Huber, co-MD of Live Nation-owned Goodlive Artists. “If Germany struggles, we struggle. We don’t know where Europe will be in the future, between the US, Russia, and China, and this and that. But we don’t see the effects of any of that yet. Let’s see how that will turn out in the next one or two years, the next decade. But basically, it’s still okay, it’s really solid.”

That view holds fast across the board, in a market that hungrily hoovered up most of the German and international tours on the circuit this summer, with appearances from Coldplay Metallica, AC/DC, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Nicki Minaj, Travis Scott, Ed Sheeran, André Rieu, and the rest.

“The market in Austria does feel like it’s gradually stabilising after the post-Covid surge,” says Filip Potocki, CEO at FKP-backed promoter Arcadia Live. “However, there’s still plenty of momentum, especially around large-scale events and innovative formats.”

Unfortunately, the most headline-grabbing piece of news from Austria’s live calendar this year was one about which there is little worth saying. In August, Taylor Swift and Barracuda were forced to cancel the Vienna leg of her record-breaking Eras Tour, which was due to be seen by 170,000 fans over the course of three nights at the Ernst Happel Stadium, after an apparent terror plot was foiled.

It was initially said the shows could go ahead with additional security, but the concerts were soon cancelled as Vienna police chief Gerhard Purstl said an “abstract danger” remained. Three arrests were made and investigations continue, and in an otherwise bountiful year, the promoter has made little comment about the affair.

“Austria has a very distinct individual national character”

“There’s nothing to add,” says Hörmann. “It is what it is, and within the company, it’s still an ongoing process. Obviously, it’s not going to be replaced.”

Austria also got its share of Europe’s alarming weather events this summer. A headline show by US band Agriculture scheduled for Arena Wien was among a number of shows called off due to flooding on the River Danube in mid-September. And in July, Barracuda’s 70,000-capacity Electric Love festival in Salzburg was forced to shut down for half a day due to a severe weather warning.

Nonetheless, the business rolls on. As far as concert hotspots are concerned, Austria doesn’t just mean Vienna, but for sheer numbers, the City of Dreams is very much the centrepiece. Between 70% and 80% of all tickets sold are for shows in and around Vienna, though there are decent secondary markets, too, from the second city of Graz to Linz, Salzburg, and Innsbruck.

“The focus is, of course, on the greater Vienna metropolitan area, where 4m people live – nearly half the Austrian population,” says Live Nation GSA chief executive Marek Lieberberg. “Hence, this is where most major events take place, similar to Zurich in Switzerland or Amsterdam in the Netherlands.”

Given the presence of powerful German-based promoters – including Live Nation GSA; CTS Eventim, whose umbrella extends across both Barracuda Music and Arcadia Live; and Semmel Concerts, whose Show Factory offshoot is personally overseen by Dieter Semmelmann – it is easy to cast Austria as an unofficial extension of that larger market. However, Lieberberg declines the characterisation.

“Austria has a very distinct individual national character, and the dark times when it was regarded as a German province are definitely over,” he says. “Everybody has to recognise this fact and the unique appeal of Vienna as the political, cultural, and historical centre. The EU allows individuals and companies to operate in all countries of the union, and this opportunity is respectfully used.”

“We live in a strong market, but we obviously have strong competition”

Promoters
Formerly a proudly independent market, Austria these days broadly shakes down into a two-way battle between CTS Eventim (via Barracuda and Arcadia), and Live Nation GSA (in its own right and through its 2022 acquisition of Goodlive).

Barracuda – formed in 2016 from leading Austrian indies Skalar, Red Snapper, and NuCoast Entertainment, before Eventim took a 71% stake in 2019 – handles around 350 events a year and dependably sells between 1m and 1.2m tickets, making it the market leader, albeit in an increasingly spicy field.

“We live in a strong market,” says Hörmann. “But we obviously have strong competition. Live Nation realise that Austria is a good market, so they have enforced their operation here and will be doing more and more shows. But so far, the market seems to soak up whatever you offer.”

A rising tide of stadium shows, particularly heavy in 2024 with Coldplay, AC/DC (promoted by Marcel Avram), the abortive Swift residency, and others, does not appear to have dramatically distorted the market, suggests Hörmann, who has Robbie Williams and Iron Maiden on sale for 2025.

“Barracuda averages about a million tickets a year, and that didn’t drop [as stadium shows have increased]. So it’s not that the stadium shows take away any other markets at the moment. The very small club situation might get difficult, but other than that, figures are pretty stable,” he says.

“Undoubtedly, Coldplay were the highlight of the year, with a record attendance of 250,000”

Inevitably, the Taylor Swift drama led to heightened tensions around subsequent shows in Vienna this summer. Enhanced security was in place for Coldplay’s four-night residency at the same venue a fortnight later, with armed police stationed on the roof of the stadium, uniformed and plain-clothed officers in the crowd, and extensive video and aerial surveillance.

Live Nation Austria managing director Matthias Rotermund chalks up the resulting gigs as the peak of Live Nation’s year in Austria.

“Undoubtedly, Coldplay were the highlight of the year, with a record attendance of 250,000,” he says. “We were very pleased that despite the challenges – particularly after the cancellation of Taylor Swift’s shows – we successfully presented all four concerts without any incidents.”

Elsewhere, Live Nation inaugurated its Racino open-air venue in Ebreichsdorf near Vienna – usually an equestrian park, but this summer, the site of the three-day Rolling Loud Europe (with Nicki Minaj, Playboi Carti, and Travis Scott) and the one-day Racino Rocks, with Metallica, Five Finger Death Punch, Ice Nine Kills, and Mammoth WVH.

“Metallica showed their exceptional potential, drawing 55,000 fans,” says Rotermund, who also picks out some family entertainment highlights. “OVO, another highly attractive Cirque du Soleil show, sold 45,000 tickets, and the international tour of Mamma Mia! sold 30,000.”

Live Nation worked on the Racino shows with frequent local partner Leutgeb Entertainment Group – which also contributed to Adele’s summer shows in Munich – and this year also saw the first collaboration between the local Live Nation operation and Goodlive who together brought Big Time Rush to Vienna’s Gasometer B.

“We’ve noticed growing potential in more niche offerings”

“That sold out in five minutes,” says Huber, who anticipates more team efforts. “There’s still the question of how we can work together best, but we will work together more, for sure. They are experts in stadiums, huge shows, and we have lots of club-level, mid-level, and we can build artists. Actually, we complement each other very well.” Goodlive also chalked up satisfying larger-scale successes with The National and Cigarettes After Sex this year at the 16,000-cap Wiener Stadthalle – the latter particularly gratifying to Huber, who recalls promoting a 250-cap club show in Vienna for the same band in 2016.

“That is always the nicest thing as a promoter,” he says. “We have had a journey from that club show to selling out the Stadthalle, which I never would have expected ten years ago.” Arcadia Live, formed in 2015 from Potocki and Bernhard Kaufmann’s full-service Arcadia operation, with backing from German players FKP Group, Four Artists Booking Agency, Chimperator Live, and KKT, has established a new fes- tival of its own in Linz’s Lido Sounds, as well as a concert series in METAStadt Open Air in Vienna, whose headliners included Jungle, Cypress Hill, Air, and Korn this year.

“Headliner-driven single shows have been the strongest performers this year, with a series of standout open-air events in Vienna during the summer,” says Potocki. “Beyond that, we’ve noticed growing potential in more niche offerings, such as spoken word events, exhibitions, and podcast-based formats.”

Among Austria’s remaining indies, meanwhile, is Alex Nussbaumer of al-x, long-term promoter of Iggy Pop and The Cure, whose late-2024 shows include a three-date Austrian tour for Roachford. Meanwhile, Soundportal, promoter of Styrian Sounds festival and numerous local shows, is a stalwart of the scene in Graz.

Other companies
Austria’s advantageous location on the cusp of western and eastern Europe makes Austria a popular spot for numerous outward-facing live businesses, from trucking company Beat The Street, based in Fritzens near Innsbruck, to prominent Salzburg-based boutique metal booker Cobra Agency, whose acts include Sepultura, Sabaton, Slipknot, Danzig, Testament, and Amon Amarth.

“The rock and metal market has shown incredible resilience and growth across Europe,” says Cobra Agency co-managing director Günther Beer. “A few years ago, there were only one or two metal arena tours in the fall. This year, our agency alone had multiple rock acts touring arenas, all of which delivered outstanding results.

“It’s a sad development when too many decisions about Austrian talent are made in Germany”

“Austria has proven to be an excellent base of operations for us,” he adds. “While the market itself is relatively small, its strategic location and strong connection to Germany, Europe’s largest rock and metal market make it incredibly valuable.”

For Vienna-based independent artist agency Georg Leitner Productions, which books Earth, Wind & Fire, Dire Straits Legacy, and Gipsy Kings around the world, the local market is just one more market, though it is a healthy one.

“With Barracuda, we have the Clam Castle shows, where we always have artists perform, and Lovely Days,” says Leitner, who steps down as CEO in December in favour of partner Harald Büchel, while remaining an agent and company owner. “So yes, for us, it’s very much a market like any other. The only difference being that when we have acts booked in Austria, suddenly we get a lot of calls for guest tickets. Which is a pain in the ass,” he laughs.

Leitner does, however, have misgivings about Austria’s status in the German-language music business. “There’s a tendency, especially on the record company side, to diminish Austria to a province. Universal Records have laid off half their employees. And those employees that they laid off were those who were sourcing Austrian talent, which is a very vibrant market.

“Austria also has a unique culture, even language. There are Austrians who perform, not in German, but in Austrian languages, and they will be understood up to the borders of Bavaria but not any further,” he says, pointing to Austrian dialects such as Austro-Bavarian and Alemannic.

“So it’s a sad development when too many decisions about Austrian talent are made in Germany, in my view, because it doesn’t recognise the uniqueness of Austrian culture. But then I think new types of companies will evolve who will see the potential and take it into their own hands.”

Part two of the Austria market report will be published in the coming days.

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Maria May’s 30 years as an agent

Accidentally falling into the agency world, Maria May has helped to define the parameters of dance music over the past 30 years, allowing such talent as David Guetta, Paul Oakenfold, Black Eyed Peas, The Chainsmokers, Róisín Murphy, Paul Kalkbrenner, Robin Schulz, Meduza, Hugel, Sara Landry, and Lee Burridge to achieve global fame and long-term careers.

While her academic abilities perhaps had her parents and teachers predicting a job in the city, Maria May’s evening routine introduced her to a world in which she would ultimately become one of the global powerbrokers.

Born in Bedfordshire, Maria Hutt, as she then was, grew up in west London where her parents ran a pet shop – sparking a lifelong love of animals. “My dad, John Hutt, was also a security guy and did loads of different jobs before ending up as head of security at Wembley Arena and Wembley Stadium,” says May. “So I went to concerts from a very young age – my first gig was ABBA, when I was six or something, at Wembley Arena. It changed my life. That’s probably why I’m into disco.”

That serendipitous behind-the-scenes lifestyle became part and parcel of May’s daily ritual. “When I was 11, I got into a really good school – City of London School for Girls. At the end of each day, I’d catch the train to Wembley, watch a show, and then get a lift home with Dad. I’d often be doing my homework during sound check. And so I saw everything – Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Pink Floyd, Luther Vandross, Tina Turner, Spandau Ballet, Tears for Fears, Dr Hook, you name it. And often I saw them on multiple nights.”

While she was still unsure about what to pursue as a career, a seed had been planted. “I was at the venue often till 10 or 11 o’clock, so I got used to being a night owl at an age where most people had never even been to a gig. Ultimately, after each show, I’d go backstage, and I really got into the atmosphere of all the hustle and bustle. Otherwise, I worked for my parents at the shop and did a load of part-time jobs to earn money. And then the rave scene hit and everything changed.”

“We pretty much were the architects of where the electronic scene sits right now”

While May seemed destined for higher education, acid house presented a different route entirely. “I just announced I didnt want to go to uni,” she recalls. “Mum and Dad’s reaction was that if I wasn’t going to university, I had to get myself a job. As a result, I found myself working at a recruitment firm, and within about three months, I was running the payroll across two agencies, because I just found the work really easy. And then I saw a job advert for an assistant at a private recording studio in West Hampstead, which was owned by Robert Howes, and at the time was rented to Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.

“It was a great job – once a week, they’d give me the tapes, I’d drive down to Abbey Road to get them mastered, and I’d hang out with the studio manager there. My parents were quite impressed, because I was on a decent salary, so they sort of relaxed. And meanwhile, I was in this crazy world of latenight studio sessions, with different people like Squeeze, Aled Jones, and Gary Barlow popping in all the time. It was fun, but I didn’t really understand that I was in the music industry… I was just turning up every day to make sandwiches and coffee, do invoices, and run errands.”

Mixing with musicians and DJs soon led May to rave culture. “I started going out with this guy, Chris Binns, who was running the World Party illegal raves. We did quite a few massive events, and I got caught up in that whole scene. I basically wasn’t going to bed four days a week because I was dancing in fields. I was very tired, but I was having the time of my life while trying to hold down my day job.”

However, that was all set to change, thanks to Phil Nelson, manager of the Levellers. “He rented an office opposite the studio, and he’d come over to collect his post, and we’d always have a chat. Then, one day, he asked if I’d like to be his assistant. Being 18 years old and not even knowing who the Levellers were, I just went, ‘Yeah, that sounds great.’”

Not everyone in the Hutt family was as enthusiastic. “I remember an item on the TV news about the Levellers as the whole counterculture thing was blowing up. They were sort of portrayed as the devil, and my parents were not impressed.”

But it was May’s work with the band that sparked her passion for activism and first got her noticed on a national scale.

“I was young and opinionated, but they put me in my place a lot and taught me loads about myself”

“The government had announced the Criminal Justice Bill and the Levellers decided they were going to fight it, so they got me to run their campaign. The challenge was to get the message out about all the rights the government was trying to take away from people. We didn’t have a budget, so we did all sorts of mad things: we blagged free adverts in the music press, we did billboards on Vauxhall Bridge, we organised marches, and it was so successful that I got profiled in The Times and The Big Issue which, for a teenager, was a bit mad.”

The campaign would also introduce her to David Guetta manager Caroline Prothero, who at the time was working at Ministry of Sound, and who, after meeting May, insisted that everyone entering the club needed to sign the petition against the Criminal Justice Bill.

In a stint that at one point saw May singing backing vocals for the band, she describes her time with the Levellers as an experience that shaped the rest of her adult life. “They were brilliant to work with,” she says. “I was young and opinionated, but they put me in my place a lot and taught me loads about myself. I learned about politics, and that’s something that has remained a big thing for me – being actively involved in trying to make people aware what the ramifications of new legislation might be on their lives. The Levellers were true human beings, who did the right thing, always, no matter what the consequences, and that really inspired me.”

The subsequent beneficiaries of May’s creative campaigning and strategic skills have included a number of music-related trade bodies and organisations. She is a founding board member of the Association For Electronic Music (AFEM) and also a former board member of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA). Meanwhile, she sits on the boards of the Frankie Knuckles Foundation and Lady of the House and is also on the executive board of Beatport.

The Accidental Agent
While other friends had gone to university and even enjoyed the luxury of gap years, May had been working since she was 17 and, at 21, decided she needed some time out.

“I had a new DJ boyfriend who ran clubs like Indulge in Brixton. We’d go to Ministry of Sound to see [David] Morales and Knuckles and [Tony] Humphries, and otherwise, I decided I was just going to sit around for six months and have a nice time. But then the Levellers’ agent, Charlie Myatt, introduced me to David Levy who he worked with at ITB. David was in the dance music side of things, and when he asked me about my musical influences and I named Chaka Khan and Jazzy Jeff, he said he wanted to give me a job on the spot.”

“There were many situations where I had to deal with people who were not very nice because I was a woman”

As a result, in early 1995, May embarked on a new journey, alongside Levy. “I barely knew what an agent did, and on day one, David handed me a list of promoter contacts and got me to call them to ask if they wanted to book Paul Oakenfold. And shortly afterward, I met Paul himself. It was just before he started to really blow up. But basically, me, David, and Paul made it up as we went along, and we pretty much wrote the book, and I only now realise the importance of all the stuff we did in the 90s – Paul taking things dance music mainstream through supporting the likes of U2 and Madonna on tour, for instance.”

May also cites dance music matriarch Judy Weinstein as a big supporter. “If I’m in New York, I make sure I visit Judy. She has been a huge influence on me, and in those early days, she helped David and I build the business internationally.”

Lauding Levy as her mentor, May states, “We were an absolute dream team. He was fierce, and I learned so much from him. In fact, I introduced him to one of my best friends, Irina, and they got married. We remain close, and the lovely thing is that our kids are friends. I spend every summer with David and his family in Ibiza. I love him. He’s one of my dearest friends, and the 17 years that I worked with him were just the best, because in that time, we worked with everyone – we pretty much were the architects of where the electronic scene sits right now in terms of superstar DJs, headline billing, and residencies.”

She continues, “Before us, there were no dance agents. It was David, me, and a handful of others. And there were certainly no other women. As agents, we were treated like second-class citizens, because the larger live music business didn’t understand our world. But we were quietly making shit loads of money for our clients, so it was a fantastic time during which I learned how to be an agent.

“David never let me make a mistake; he’d always catch them before they went out, so he absolutely protected me. In saying that, there were many situations where I had to deal with people who were not very nice because I was a woman. But David defended me to the hilt. He was absolutely invested in my success.”

“I’ve grown with the client, and we’ve just been able to do the most amazing things all over the world”

That working relationship ended when Levy departed for William Morris in 2010. “I totally understood his decision,” says May. “He’d gone as far as he could go. And it allowed me, perception-wise, to come out of his shadow. He never treated me that way, but I know other people in the business saw it that way.”

Levy’s departure also helped solidify May’s own roster. “Of course, David took most of his artists with him, but a lot of acts who I had worked with day-to-day decided to stay with me – 2manydjs, Soulwax, Paul Oakenfold, David Guetta, and Róisín Murphy, for instance.”

While May remained at ITB for a couple more years, in 2012, she decided it was time for a change. “The likes of David Guetta, 2manydjs, and Soulwax were really big, and I ended up getting a few more assistants. At the same time, the industry was waking up to the power of electronic music and the money that can be made. As a result, a lot of the American agencies were trying to lure talent away, so maybe it was insecurity on my part, but I really felt I needed to be at a major agency so that I could better represent a client like David Guetta, for instance.

“I’ve been at CAA for nearly 13 years, and I made the decision to come here because Emma and Mike treated me so well. Back in 2012, CAA didn’t have an existing dance or electronic department, so one of the big attractions was coming in to set it up and do it globally.”

Recognising idiosyncrasies, she adds, “I don’t think I’m that easy to work with. I’m all over the place with my train of thought. But at CAA, there’s a genuine sense of looking after each other.”

Among the beneficiaries of May’s stewardship is Guetta, who has been at the top of the tree for decades. “It was just obvious he was gonna be a huge pop star even though he’s still a DJ,” says May. “Maintaining the DJ side of it has always been critical to his career path, and it’s something that we’ve pretty much pulled off in the sense that he makes commercial pop hits but does lots of underground stuff as well, so he’s now doing major festivals and stadiums as a headliner, like a pop artist with huge production. That’s been a brilliant relationship in the sense that I’ve grown with the client, and we’ve just been able to do the most amazing things all over the world.”

“Setting the building blocks is something I’m pretty proud of, even though we were just doing stuff instinctively”

“Suddenly I was working with this guy that I knew from my local area who turned into a massive act”

Career Highlights
Thankfully, the good times vastly outnumber the bad, and May has had some spectacular highlights in her career to date.

“Being able to make stuff like that happen that has a legacy is just the cherry on the cake”

“Our job (as agents) now is to slow time down and take more care, be totally confident in our artists”

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LA wildfires: Industry grapples with ongoing devastation

As wildfires across Los Angeles rage on, the global music industry continues to grapple with the devastating crisis.

The 67th annual Grammy Awards, set for 2 February at Ingelwood’s Crypto.com Arena (cap. 20,000), is still projected to go on.

“This year’s show, however, will carry a renewed sense of purpose: raising additional funds to support wildfire relief efforts and honouring the bravery and dedication of first responders who risk their lives to protect ours,” said Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr.

Yet, Universal Music Group (UMG) has cancelled all Grammy-related events, and will instead “redirect the resources that would have been used for those events to assist those affected by the wildfires,” the firm wrote. UMG historically coordinates an artist showcase and awards after-party around the event.

“L.A. is home to so many of us. We are committed to helping and supporting the music community, our artists, our teams and the people of Los Angeles get through this horrific episode.”

After donating $2.5 million in relief efforts yesterday, Beyoncé has postponed today’s rumoured tour announcement.

“I will continue to pray for healing and rebuilding for the families suffering from trauma and loss. We are so blessed to have brave first responders who continue to work tirelessly to protect the Los Angeles community,” she says.

“My focus remains on supporting the recovery of these communities and aiding its incredible people as they rebuild”

The Weeknd has postponed the release of his new album Hurry Up Tomorrow by one week to 31 January and cancelled a one-off show at the Rose Bowl Stadium (89,702) on 25 January.

“This city has always been a profound source of inspiration for me, and my thoughts are with everyone impacted during this difficult time … My focus remains on supporting the recovery of these communities and aiding its incredible people as they rebuild,” he says.

Donations have been pouring in to aid in the city’s recovery. Sony Corporation will donate $5m in emergency aid and rebuilding efforts, while AEG donated $1m as part of a greater $8m package from 12 professional sports teams.

Metallica, through its All Within My Hands Foundation, has donated $500,000 to various funds supporting recovery efforts.

“In the past week, the community has suffered at least 24 lives lost, nearly 100,000 people under evacuation orders, 40,000 acres burned, and more than 12,000 structures—commercial and residential—destroyed. However, numbers cannot articulate the magnitude of anguish as the disaster upends families and dismantles livelihoods,” the band wrote online.

Other organisations are staging benefit events. Independent promoter Another Planet Entertainment has partnered with IHEARTCOMIX, Brownies & Lemonade and Teragram to present LA Gives Back: Fire Relief at The Bellwether (1,600). The 7th edition of the event, which is set to feature multiple stages, will see 100% of the funds raised go to charity.

“Los Angeles is home to a vibrant independent creative community – we’re proud to open our stage in support of our neighbours who lost everything in this disaster,” says Casey Lowdermilk, The Bellwether general manager.

FireAid, organised by Live Nation, AEG Presents and the Azoff family, will precede the Grammys on 30 January at the neighbouring Intuit Dome (18,000). Performers are expected to be announced in the coming days.

“We are devastated by the impact of the fires in our community and are grieving alongside our city”

Dance music promoter Insomniac Events announced a series of benefit events with “100% of the net proceeds [going] directly to assist those in need.” Details will be announced this week.

Even still, show disruptions are rife. Young The Giant’s two The Troubadour (500) shows, set to celebrate their debut self-titled album and 10 years of their sophomore Mind Over Matter, have been pushed to 4-5 September.

“We are devastated by the impact of the fires in our community and are grieving alongside our city. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to the first responders and emergency personnel working tirelessly to protect lives and contain fires,” the band wrote.

The blazes have ripped through more than 40,000 acres since igniting last week, causing more than 150,000 people to evacuate and burning 12,000 structures, according to NPR. At least 24 people have been killed, with the cause of the widespread fires’ initial spark currently unknown.

The economic damage could top $50 billion and may rank as one of the most costly natural disasters in US history, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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‘Agency tour marketers are integral’

Most people don’t really understand what a tour marketing department at an agency does. Some assume we just approve artwork and videos – but that’s just a small fraction of our role.

Our primary focus is the announcement and on-sale of a tour, managing every aspect of the campaign leading up to the shows. This includes marketing, promotion, press, and ticketing, all handled with meticulous attention to detail. As tour marketers, we need an expansive knowledge base, and the learning never stops.

We are the point of contact for a tour launch, acting as the bridge between managers, promoters, and agents. On top of that, we sometimes explore potential sponsorship opportunities where they can bring added value. Simply put, tour marketers play a crucial role in the success of an artist’s live campaign.

WME was one of the first UK agencies to create a dedicated tour marketing department. Few agencies have them even now. Like many innovations, this started in America. But when WME’s UK office trialled it, the success was undeniable. Today, the UK office handles tour marketing for every market outside North America.

About 50% of what we do is ticketing. We determine strategies for platinum, premium, flex pricing, aisle seats, and VIP packages. We also advise on third-party vendors for VIP experiences when they’re not managed directly.

The secondary ticket market is huge right now, and we work with management and promoters to develop strategies to handle it effectively. Before launching a major tour, we ensure ticket limits and terms and conditions are in place. When tours sell out, we scrub databases for ticket touts who hoard tickets – sometimes cancelling those sales and returning tickets to fans. As the saying goes, we put tickets back into the hands of fans.

“Tour marketing is becoming more important than ever”

I’m especially proud of a recent campaign for Benson Boone.

With numerous stakeholders involved, I streamlined the process for seamless coordination of assets, messaging, and schedules. By applying my expertise in marketing/ticketing strategies, I helped create a launch plan that was a huge success and generated significant excitement for the tour, leading to a sellout. Another standout campaign was Keane’s 20th anniversary tour, which spanned arenas in the UK, North America, Europe, and South America.

With each market having its own unique dynamics, I used my expertise to advise the team on what strategies would work best in each region and how to maximise impact. This tailored approach was invaluable in ensuring the tour’s success across diverse audiences.

Working on non-traditional shows is another rewarding aspect of my job. For example, Andy Murray had never done a live tour before, and I played a key role in advising on and developing strategies to effectively communicate the concept of his show to his fanbase. The result was a huge success, with the tour selling out instantly.

The challenges we face depend on the client and the shows. Some give us free rein, while others have more restrictions. In those cases, we use our experience to find innovative strategies for success.

Tour marketing is becoming more important than ever. The number of requests for our help is huge, because people know the value we can add. Managers love it and artists love it. Campaigns can be complex, but we dedicate the time and effort to make them successful.

Meera Patel will chair a tour marketing session at ILMC Futures Forum on 28 February.

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What does Trudeau’s exit mean for Canada’s live biz?

The Canadian Live Music Association (CLMA) has set out to IQ what the industry wants to see from a new government following Justin Trudeau’s resignation after nearly a decade as Canada’s Prime Minister.

“The resignation of prime minister Justin Trudeau undoubtedly marks a turning point for our country as the world grows ever more complex, competitive, and small,” Erin Benjamin, president & CEO, CLMA tells IQ.

“Looking forward to a bright future for the live music industry, the CLMA is actively deepening awareness of the critical role live music plays in the Canadian economy. Harnessing Canada’s touring infrastructure creates a significant and scalable competitive advantage for Canadians and for all levels of government and is essential for our artists so that they can continue to create and share the music we love and need.

As with other live music markets around the world, Canada’s business has been grappling with mixed fortunes in the past year.

At the top end, major tours from the likes of Tate McRae, Green Day, The Rolling Stones, and Taylor Swift (whose Eras Tour closes in Vancouver in December) all rolled through the North American nation in 2024.

Meanwhile, behemoths like Live Nation and Oak View Group are capitalising on the parade of A-list artists with new venues – the former with a new open-air, seasonal stadium in Toronto and the latter with projects including the $300m Hamilton Arena Project.

At the same time, other players in the industry are struggling with a convergence of inflation, changes in fan behaviour, lingering effects of the pandemic and the cost of doing business.

“Harnessing Canada’s touring infrastructure creates a significant and scalable competitive advantage for Canadians”

“On January 30th, the CLMA will be releasing significant data and analysis from the first-ever economic impact study of the sector,” continues Benjamin. “The timing of the report is meant to inspire future policy that will reflect the industry’s place and true potential for growth within Canada’s cultural and economic framework, expanding and leveraging current and future impact.

“She added: “The CLMA looks forward to working in collaboration with Canada’s next government, confident in the understanding that protecting and growing Canada’s live music infrastructure directly results in more jobs, major economic impact for cities and towns, and more performance opportunities for Canadian artists. The CLMA thanks Prime Minister Trudeau for his years of devoted service to Canada.”

Read more about Canada’s live music market in the Global Promoters Report, Global Arena Guide and the International Ticketing Report.

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WME heavyweights move to Wasserman Music

Wasserman Music has announced the appointment of three senior executives from WME: Kevin Shivers, James Rubin, and Cristina Baxter.

Shivers and Rubin join Wasserman Music’s executive leadership team, marking the group’s biggest expansion since the company’s 2021 launch.

Los Angeles-based Shivers and New York-based Rubin join Wasserman as EVPs & managing executives, having been WME senior partners in the agency’s music division and co-directors of its hip-hop/R&B team.

At WME, Shivers represented stars including Tyler, The Creator, Kali Uchis, Snoop Dogg, Lil Baby, Kid Cudi, Summer Walker, Kevin Abstract, Solange, and Jimmy Butler, while Rubin represented world-renowned acts such as Travis Scott, Tyler, The Creator, Solange, Bryson Tiller and Wiz Khalifa.

Los Angeles-based Baxter joins Wasserman as senior vice president, having been a partner in WME’s music division and co-director of its pop and rock teams. Baxter represented acts including André 3000, Kygo, Carly Rae Jepsen, SOFI TUKKER and Kali Uchis.

“Kevin, James, and Cristina are highly respected leaders in the industry who exemplify the values on which our company is built”

All three executives join Wasserman Music effective today. Their rosters following the move have not been confirmed.

“Kevin, James and Cristina are highly respected leaders in the industry who exemplify the values on which our company is built,” says Casey Wasserman, chairman and CEO of Wasserman.
“We’re thrilled to have them join Team Wass during this exciting period of growth for our global music division.”

Wasserman Music president Lee Anderson adds: “I’ve long admired Kevin, James, and Cristina as both professionals and people. It’s gratifying to now refer to some of our toughest competition as our newest teammates and partners.”

Shivers comments: “Wasserman Music is creating an agency for the future – one focused equally on nurturing both the talent they represent and the talent they hire. I look forward to helping further Wasserman’s mission of championing artists like no other.”

Rubin adds: “I’m thrilled to join the very best team in our industry, bar none. With Wasserman’s unmatched resources and services, I look forward to helping my clients’ businesses grow exponentially.”

Baxter says: “Wasserman Music has built more than just an agency. It’s a new kind of artist representation company that is innovative, unwaveringly client-focused, and designed to expand opportunities for people of all backgrounds in our industry.”

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Best of 2024: Behind the scenes of The 1975’s tour

As one of the biggest arena acts on the planet, The 1975 have been making headlines wherever they go for the past 20 years. Having just brought the curtain down on their third consecutive year on the road, their fanbase continues to grow, making their efforts to rewrite the rulebooks on sustainable touring all the more impressive. Derek Robertson learns just what it takes to take such a cultural phenomenon on the road.

Can you have too much of a good thing? Clearly, The 1975 think not. For an A-list arena band, they have been remarkably prolific – aside from releasing an album every two years since 2016, they’ve also toured behind them relentlessly: 18 months and 150 shows for I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It; a 24-month world tour behind Music For Cars; and a seven-leg, 96-date stint doing their At Their Very Best show. And barely a month after that wrapped on the 13th of August 2023, they were back on the road in Atlanta starting Still… At Their Very Best – another 66-date, worldwide jaunt – in support of their fifth studio album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language.

Even taking into account the enforced breaks during the pandemic, that’s quite a workload – particularly when you consider some of the bands’ struggles with mental health and the pernicious effects of fame. Yet manager Jamie Oborne says that after the Music For Cars tour was interrupted by lockdowns (while first rescheduled, the remaining shows for that tour were ultimately cancelled), “we collectively had a desire to tour, and Matty (Healy, frontman) was very excited about doing a show that was ‘different’ to what people expected or had seen in an arena before. It felt like the right time to get back on the road.”

Work it real good
“The boys love to work,” says Maarten Cobbaut, tour manager. “The first real break they had from their intense schedule was the pandemic, but within a week of restrictions being lifted and everything, they were back in the studio working on new music. They are just so passionate about what they do and put so much of themselves into the music and these shows.”

And these shows for Still… At Their Very Best are, unsurprisingly, fairly close in terms of concept, setup, and logistics as the At Their Very Best show. “An evolution, not a revolution,” as Oborne puts it. “It was part of the same cycle, but so much had happened since the tour commenced that Matty felt a creative need to highlight this evolution. The plan was always to use this tour cycle to market Being Funny In A Foreign Language, so we didn’t really see it as two separate tours.”

“The Finsbury Park show sold out instantly, and it was clear the fanbase was still growing on this cycle”

“Both UK runs were all part of the global touring for Being Funny In A Foreign Language, and weren’t seen as separate projects,” adds Matt Bates of Primary Talent, the band’s agent. “Of course, the first run was billed as At Their Very Best, with the second run having a slightly different name, but they very much coexisted together. And there was a lot of demand – the Finsbury Park show sold out instantly, and it was clear the fanbase was still growing on this cycle.”

Treading the boards
The show itself was certainly “different” – both from what you’d expect from an arena band and from their previous bombastic show for Music For Cars. That tour was “really big and ambitious,” says creative director and show designer Tobias Rylander. “We really went for size and technology with massive LED screens and automated cubes. But for At Their Very Best and Still… At Their Very Best, we wanted to be very analogue – Matty wanted the show and design to be more personal and really show them as a band.”

Healy is, says Rylander, always very conceptual in the approach for each era and tour. While the design for the previous tour reflected social media and internet behaviour, “This time around Matty wanted the show and design to be more personal and show them as a band,” explains Rylander.

“Matty wanted it to reflect their history as friends and a group, while also focussing on them as a live act and musicians. He wanted the stage to reflect how they recorded this last album live, together in the studio. He knew he wanted a house, and some sort of living room. And he wanted it to be focusing on the I-mag camera. No video content: just live camera. That’s how I started to design and look at the house. To always have a good background and setting for the camera shots.

“We looked at anything from Ingmar Bergman to Steven Spielberg for inspiration and references,” adds Rylander; Stanley Kubrick and avant-garde theatre were other touchstones (one review described the show as being: “part performance art, part stage play, part Charlie Kaufman movie about a rock star in crisis.”)

“I always remain amazed by the creative ideas of Matty and the band”

Our house
The design eventually started to take on a life of its own as it developed – it literally became Matty’s “home,” housing his memories. “It’s monochromatic and anonymous at the same time; it can reflect and take the shape of anyone’s childhood memories or their new memories leaving the show,” says Rylander. “It’s a very inviting and inclusive set.”

The first half of the show has almost no “effect” lighting and looks more like classic theatre than a rock show. “That’s something we’ve never done before, and something that’s not very common these days – I think we are the only rock band tour out there that brings a whole ‘Broadway’ set,” says Rylander.

And for the second leg of the tour, they kept all the theatrical parts and added a large, curved video screen behind the set that allowed them to add set extensions and environmental backgrounds. “We could go from night to day in a very beautiful way, but also play some really fantastic bits of video content reflecting older tours and eras from the past,” he adds. “And using the upstage video screen as a theatrical set extension like we do – I don’t think I have seen that on stage before.”

“I always remain amazed by the creative ideas of Matty and the band,” says Matt Bates. “The show was brilliant theatre while not losing the ethos of what makes the band so special in the first place. It truly showed a band at the top of their game creatively and musically, and, in their own words, ‘at their very best.’”

Boys on film
As noted above, video – shot live and intimately – was key to the whole look and feel of the show. Head of video Ed Lawlor has been with The 1975 since 2016 and was tasked with turning concept into reality while ensuring the solution was practical enough for a world tour. “We didn’t want to compromise on providing the best IMAG show possible for the budget – the design brief was ‘cinematic’ – so it was an easy decision to focus on one thing and do it well,” he says.

“It was clear early on that the band and management wanted larger than normal IMAG screens, and we wanted the classic projection look rather than LED”

“It was clear early on that the band and management wanted larger than normal IMAG screens, and we wanted the classic projection look rather than LED. On the initial US tour, we specified two Panasonic PT-RZ31K projectors per side on a 24’ Stumpfl screen from PRG rental stock, which was the largest off-the-shelf option available,” he adds. “On returning a year later to larger venues, the management requested a bigger option – at that point, we commissioned a 32’ Stumpfl screen, which was the largest practical option in a fast-fold product. This required an increase to 3x PT-RZ31K per side, which is the brightest arena IMAG projection I’ve heard of in a while.”

As for the cameras, Lawlor decided to do 3G well rather than 4K on the cheap, so specified four Sony HDC-2500 channels and a Ross Carbonite 2 M/E PPU from PRG UK. This was augmented with four Panasonic AW-UE160 and an RP150 control panel, with additional fixed shots from Marshall CV503-WPs.

Screen time
Those IMAG screens are very much larger than normal for arena touring, and so Lawlor and his crew worked closely with both PRG and AV Stumpfl to find a solution that allowed for rear projection in a fast-fold type frame with no central member that would obscure the beam. PRG have also been working with The 1975 since 2016 and, says Stefaan Michels, sales director for PRG UK, “our partnership has grown stronger over the years – we’ve fostered a close relationship with their tour and production management team, and one that extends beyond their time on the road.”

PRG’s brief was scalability, and the integration of new equipment tailored specifically for this production. Michels had to ensure the duplication of rig setups between Europe and the US, as well as customising equipment to meet the tour’s unique requirements. “Implementing A-B-C rig configurations was essential for maximising efficiency and flexibility throughout the tour,” he says, “and we made specific equipment choices based on detailed specifications provided.”

For example, one significant consideration was the need for different sizes of projection screens to suit the dimensions of various venues. For larger arena shows in the US and UK, they incorporated a large USC Hi Res LED wall to deliver high-resolution visuals that could effectively engage the audience across expansive spaces. Additionally, custom-made, large projection screens equipped with additional 31K laser projectors were also used, particularly in venues with specific lighting conditions or sightline challenges.

“We had to come up with a system that kept Matty safe but also ensured that, if the worst happened, it was safe for a rescuer to go out and assist”

Another specific choice was the decision to utilise Ereca Stage Racer 2s, a decision driven by the need to minimise the deployment of copper cabling on a daily basis. “This choice not only reduces setup time but also enhances flexibility, allowing for swift adjustments as tour requirements evolve, as they inevitably do over the course of an extensive tour like this one,” says Michels. “Moving multiple 3G video signals even over medium distances caused problems on the first leg of the tour, as it required coaxial cable to be both modern and in good condition, which is a challenge to maintain on tour when local labour is in use,” adds Lawlor. “This was another factor in the decision to adopt the Stage Racer 2s.”

Hanging about
All in all, this setup provided a modest challenge for head rigger Simon Lawrence – “simply 120 points going to the roof and a relatively small weight of 50 tonnes.” But there was one area of concern – at one point, Healy climbs upon onto the roof of the “house” to perform a song, on top of the front apex. “Like any artist, Matty wants to be as free as possible when performing, and initially, he felt he should have no safety systems at all, but when he is nearly six metres up in the air above the stage, this is not possible,” says Lawrence. “So we had to come up with a system that kept Matty safe but also ensured that, if the worst happened, it was safe for a rescuer to go out and assist.”

Rounding out the suppliers, All Access provided the front of house mix position stage (a B stage set piece) and built a custom lift for this, while TAIT provided a TAIT Mag Deck rolling house stage. “The Mag Deck design incorporates magnetic corner blocks for alignment and a shear keyway to reduce the number of legs needed to support the decking structure,” says Bullet,
TAIT’s business development manager – UK. “This reduced the amount of product that needed to travel on the road and the time needed to load in and load out, ultimately saving on costs.”

On the road again
Moving all this around was the responsibility of Natasha Highcroft, director of Transam Trucking. “We supplied 15 low-ride height production trucks, plus one merchandise truck for the UK, and eight production trucks plus one merchandise truck for the European leg of the tour, all superbly handled by our lead driver, David Isted,” she says. “As with most tours, keeping to the EU legislation on drivers’ hours and statutory weekly rest periods can prove difficult when parking and access is restricted. Fortunately, with an understanding production and accommodating promoters, we were able to facilitate breaks whilst keeping to budget.”

Bussing was provided by Beat The Street; in total, they ran four 16-berth double-deck Setra’s for the crew and two 12-berth Van Hool Super-highdeckers for the band. “Plotting band bus moves can be a bit of a challenge when day drivers are mixed in with overnight drivers, as it becomes difficult to get the drivers their required weekly breaks,” says Garry Lewis, the company’s transport manager. “So, it was agreed to add a second driver to each band bus, which gave us the flexibility to make it work as seamlessly as possible for the band party.”

“Our focus, as a community of creatives, is always to try and limit the negative impact touring has on the environment”

Sustainability has long been an issue dear to the band’s heart, and on this tour, they were determined to do all they could to lessen its carbon footprint and impact on the environment. “The set design put a real focus on the structural elements being reusable or recyclable, and many of the items that make up the set-build will end up back in stock at the supplier end – this is quite unique,” says Oborne. “Our focus, as a community of creatives, is always to try and limit the negative impact touring has on the environment. It’s by no means a perfect solution, but we are pretty committed to chipping away at our impact on the environment.”

Indeed, the modular nature of the set is something of a first. “It’s a renewable scenic technology, and this is the first time this product has been taken out for a live touring show,” says production manager Josh Barnes. “We wanted something that would really give us the aesthetic finish that we were looking for, in terms of being robust and feeling like the walls are actually the walls of a house and not just a flimsy, flat set. But also, be something that could be transported in the most sustainable, cost-effective way possible and be renewed or recycled at the end of the campaign.”

He goes on: “We ended up partnering up with PRG scenic through their Belgium and Las Vegas offices and worked with them on creating the house out of a product called InfiniForm – basically, it’s a 50 x 50 mil aluminium box section that allows you to cut it and add corners, reels, braces, fixings, or whatever you need. Then, once the frames are made, they were clad in aluminium honeycomb, which is a lightweight, hard-wearing wall surface.

“And, at the end of the campaign, they’re just going to be stripped back into component parts and used by the next project. There’s no ongoing storage needed, and there’s no waste in terms of bits and pieces that would just normally get thrown away if it were a custom build.”

This also meant that the band was able to drop their air freight requirements from 40 pallets down to just 17 for the entire show. Coupled with the decision to carry a smaller production around mainland Europe, requiring only eight trucks instead of 16, this allowed the production team to significantly cut the tour’s carbon footprint and make some impressive cost savings.

“One of the things that we’ve really focussed on for this tour is crew welfare, and trying to look after people’s mental health”

Take a break
Looking after the planet is a noble endeavour, but the band are also at pains to look after people – specifically, their people. “One of the things that we’ve really focussed on for this tour is crew welfare, and trying to look after people’s mental health,” says Barnes. This effort started before the tour even hit the road – after rehearsals, several training days were scheduled with an American organisation called Safe Tour, covering topics such as wellness on the road, mental health first aid, pronoun training, and some bystander intervention training. “It was really beneficial to everybody involved in the project to set them up for success on what was, and still is, quite a long run,” he adds.

Crew rest was another priority, something that’s always a struggle given the nature of long days on the road. “Getting the right amount of rest between shows is really important,” says Barnes. To that end, they’ve been careful not to set loading times for arrival or very early in the morning, instead choosing “about an hour after we expect to arrive, to give the crew enough time to actually plan their mornings. We can also adjust show and door times as well, to assist if we need to leave slightly earlier one night or start later the next day.”

The quality of crew rest has been improved, too. “So not just a single day off where you arrive at a hotel, but a day where you can sleep in a bed and not set an alarm,” says Barnes. “Effectively, two days off, or one full day off, every few weeks – that was a real win being able to work that into the schedule.” Hotels are pre-booked, so people can access their rooms direct on arrival at 10am or whenever and are required to have a number of amenities to help the crew unwind; a gym, a sauna, a pool, spaces to relax, and convenient access to nature, parks, or wildlife. “Options beyond just sitting in a bar drinking.”

And this emphasis on physical health extends to the available food, with nutritionally balanced meals available on the buses and through catering, plus plenty of non-alcoholic beverages and 0% beers. Crew members can make individual food choices through an app, and while the band themselves tour with a personal trainer to keep them in shape, things like being able to walk to a venue from the hotel, and that downtime is actually downtime, are prioritised. “These things help in a number of ways – it’s financial, it’s sustainability, and it’s improving welfare,” adds Barnes. “They’re all important aspects to us.”

Much in demand
As one of the most popular acts of the new millennium, the band is in tune with its global fanbase, striving to make its touring activities as sustainable as possible and speaking out on issues on behalf of underrepresented communities. An infamous onstage kiss in Malaysia between Healy and bassist Ross McDonald last July continues to have repercussions, but that hasn’t stopped promoters internationally from booking the act.

“We sold out four O2 Arena shows this time, plus 40,000 tickets on this album campaign in the UK alone”

Unsurprisingly, given the stature and popularity of the band, Still… has been a roaring commercial success, too, with sold-out shows all across the globe. “We sold out four O2 Arena shows this time, plus 40,000 tickets on this album campaign in the UK alone,” says Bates. “Their fanbase continues to grow year on year, and while that does make the tours easier to sell, we like to launch the show with significant marketing for the first announcement,” says Luke Temple of SJM Concerts. Both Arena Birmingham and the two Manchester dates sold out in a weekend; Temple says the plan was always to do two at the latter, “but I’ve no doubt they could have sold out a few more.”

It was a similar story north of the border, in Glasgow. “The band played Glasgow Hydro in January 2023, then headlined TRNSMT Festival in July 2023,” says Dave McGeachan of DF Concerts. “We were thinking we would leave Glasgow off the 2024 tour, but we decided to add a show at the OVO Hydro. Then we had to add a second night due to demand, which also sold out – quite incredible sales within 13 months.”

In Sweden, the band sold out Stockholm’s Tele2 Arena – “their biggest show in our territory yet,” says Natalie Ryan-Williams of Luger. “Over the years, their fanbase has expanded, and with them being the phenomenon they now are, we knew people were going to travel in from all over Sweden – and even some internationally.”

The possibility of multiple shows in Spain was considered, but, says Cindy Castillo of Mad Cool, venue availabilities and logistical constraints prevented it. “The demand was certainly there, indicating the band’s strong draw in this area,” she says.

Two nights were possible at Amsterdam’s AFAS Live – even if they were nearly a month apart – and, says Friendly Fire’s Roel Coppen, “they were the band’s fastest-selling arena headline shows to date. They played Best Kept Secret in 2023, but we had no issues with these new dates – we could cater to different audiences with different shows within 12 months.”

“You can just about see anyone attending a The 1975 show nowadays – they really attract people from all backgrounds and generations”

Even in more developing territories, these shows have really connected to local fans. “The situation in continental Europe is quite different from the UK, especially in Central Europe,” says Anna Vašátková, head of marketing and PR for Rock For People in Czechia. “The band isn’t played on the radio very often and there’s not as much media coverage, so we’ve had to do all the heavy lifting ourselves. We did quite a massive marketing campaign, including outdoor, radio spots, and extensive use of online media.”

Coppen also noted something else on this run – a broadening of their fanbase. “I do see there’s been a steady, growing interest from other demographic groups and also journalists have been getting more excited about the band in recent years,” he says. Ryan-Williams has noticed something similar. “You can just about see anyone attending a The 1975 show nowadays – they really attract people from all backgrounds and generations, which is a beautiful thing to see.”

“The 1975’s appeal spans various age groups and genders, and their music has definitely attracted a diverse audience transcending age and gender boundaries,” adds Castillo. “It resonates with listeners across generations, from teenagers to older adults, probably thanks to its relatable themes and catchy melodies.”

Success is no accident
Beyond the accolades and acclaim, beyond the facts and figures, this tour has been a resound- ing success. And not just for the legions of happy fans. Everyone IQ speaks to has high praise for the way the band and their team have gone about everything and how they treat all those who encounter them. “Over the years, The 1975 has evolved into more than just a client; they have become like a second family to me,” says Michels. “The professionalism, collaboration, and welcoming spirit displayed by everyone involved transcend mere business relationships.”

“It is always our pleasure to work with The 1975, their production, and their management teams,” says Meegan Holmes of 8th Day Sound, a sentiment echoed by Roy Hunt, Christie Lites’ global account manager. “Every individual involved has demonstrated a high level of professionalism, commitment, and passion that has made this journey memorable,” he says. “The synergy between the band and the crew created an atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation, while management has been nothing short of supportive, ensuring a seamless and enjoyable tour. Overall, it has been a remarkable experience that speaks volumes about the dedication and talent of everyone involved.”

Fittingly though, band manager Oborne attributes the success to all of those who work so hard to make the shows happen – and who help the band shine. “When I think about The 1975 touring, I can’t help but think about how dedicated and committed to the show our crew are,” he says. “The professionalism and dedication are something we simply could not be without. I am very grateful to all those behind the scenes who turn up day in day out and make the entire thing work. It’s quite something to witness.”

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Best of 2024: On the road with Take That

As one of the biggest boy bands of the 90s, Take That have been selling out venues for more than 30 years, while racking up millions of record sales, numerous awards, and a reputation for putting on spectacular concerts. Current outing, This Life on Tour, is only enhancing the band’s status, while taking the group into new markets internationally. IQ reports.

As one of the UK’s most-loved acts, Take That have sold more than 14m albums in their home nation alone, consistently setting the bar high with live performances that thrill arena and stadium crowds alike. But unlike many of their peers, the trio of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, and Mark Owen are determined to further build their fanbase, with the current tour taking them to new territories, as well as markets they haven’t visited in decades.

Last year, Take That switched allegiances by entrusting James Wright and Oliver Ward at United Talent Agency to handle their representation globally.

In their native UK, however, the band has a longstanding arrangement with SJM founder Simon Moran, who is often credited with persuading them to end their nine-year hiatus to reform. That decision saw SJM enjoying phenomenal success on The Ultimate Tour in 2006, in addition to the six tours prior to the current outing.

Nonetheless, Moran admits to being once again surprised by the volume of ticket sales. “We never take anything for granted,” Moran tells IQ, in the knowledge that 700,000 ticket sales makes them the biggest-selling UK tour by a UK act this year. “The high level of the tours previously and the production values thus far have delivered tremendous results, but it’s nice to see thew sales come through to this level.”

This Life marks Take That’s 12th tour, but ever ambitious, the band are taking their production to a number of new markets. “We want to go to places they’ve not been to,” says Moran. “We haven’t played in Leeds before, so to sell-out four shows and 40,000 tickets is a great result.”

“We’re very careful on pricing to [ensure we] have a wide range. There were probably 15-20% of the tickets priced at £60, which is great value”

And the SJM founder observes that the band’s popularity seems to still be expanding. Detailing the demographics of the ticket holders, he comments, “We still see the original fans from the 90s and then there’s a whole new fanbase that came on board with the Beautiful World [2007], Circus [2009], and Progress [2011] tours, but we also see the sons and daughters of the original fans and maybe even of the ones from [the noughties] as well.”

The fact that the tours attract so many young fans also plays a part in ticket prices, according to Moran. “We’re very careful on pricing to [ensure we] have a wide range. There were probably 15-20% of the tickets priced at £60, which is great value. At the other end, we have some VIP tickets, but we want to keep prices affordable for the vast majority of people.”

New relationships
While Moran promotes the UK tour leg – along with DF Concerts in Scotland and fellow Manchester-based operation Kennedy Street Presents – globally, Take That are now represented by UTA’s Ward and Wright who went back to basics for the set-up of This Life on Tour.

“We took the decision, collectively with management, to speak to every promoter in every market, including historical promoters,” says Ward. “Essentially, it was an open door, with us being the new agents, to have fresh conversations with everyone to find the right partners for the band in every territory. The enthusiasm amongst the promoters to bring the band to these markets, where they hadn’t been for ages or [had] never been, was massive.”

Disclosing some of the research undertaken in pulling together their proposal for Take That, Ward explains, “Our IQ Department here at UTA is an amazing resource and using their analysis we could see there were some really prominent markets, at least in terms of digital audience, where the band either had never been or hadn’t been for years. We took that information in good faith to [band manager] Chris Dempsey, and he then took it to the boys to show them there might be some untapped markets that should be considered.”

“The boys themselves were very keen on this campaign to do more in these markets and meet these fans for the first time or for the first time in a long time”

Wright says, “The boys themselves were very keen on this campaign to do more in these markets and meet these fans for the first time or for the first time in a long time. So it just became a big part of our conversation in the lead up to us working with them.

“We were also able to present an understanding of where fans were looking at things like Take That’s Wikipedia pages, so we really had a deep understanding of exactly where their fanbase was.”

That data has helped Take That plan a routing across 51 cities in 21 countries, as the band plays 79 dates before the end of the year, plus their own bespoke festival in Malta.

Burning ambition
Underlining the scope of the new markets that UTA’s research identified, the tour will see Take That play their first-ever shows in Portugal, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia. Additionally, Ward and Wright have agreed deals that will see the band performing in Asia for the first time since the 90s and their return to Spain after a 17-year absence.

Wright comments, “There’s a fundamental fear when a band or an artist has been going for that length of time, they want to sort of sit back. But Take That’s energy is quite remarkable – it’s very infectious to be around. And it just drives us to step up and deliver for them.”

And flagging up the professionalism of the artists, Ward says, “We’ve got a band who’ve been willing to do the promo and to go to these markets to excite the fanbase. The best example is Australia, where this will be only the band’s second visit since the 90s. Working with the promoter, Gary [Barlow] went to Australia to launch the tour with four days of packed promo. Credit to Gary, that has helped us have the best sales the band have ever seen in Australia.”

“We have many original fans, but we also have lots of teenagers coming to the show – it’s about a 50/50 split between the generation”

Susan Heymann, chief operating officer at Frontier Touring, which is promoting the band’s six-date tour, is delighted with the band’s return down under. “Gary was adored everywhere he went on his Australian promo trip,” she says. “The band and their team are some of the nicest people we’ve worked with and incredibly hardworking.”

As one of the new promoters on the tour, Heymann tells IQ, “We had a great response to the announcement of their November tour and with the addition of their old friend, Sophie Ellis-Bextor on the bill, announced right around the time when her hit Murder On The Dance Floor had re-entered the global charts, this Take That tour is reaching a broader audience than ever before.”

Back in Europe, Carsten Svoldgaard at CSB Island Entertainment is looking forward to welcoming the band back to Denmark, having hosted their only non-UK date in 2023.

“They played Hindsgavl Castle here last year and sold out 10,000 tickets, so we were very keen to be involved in this year’s tour as well,” says Svoldgaard. “We did not know how popular they would be for the Hindsgavl show because we had not worked with them before and it had been a long time since they had performed in Denmark, but it worked really well.”

Having sold out all 5,500 tickets for the 27 June gig at the Skovdalen amphitheatre in Aalborg, Svoldgaard reports that the fans span the generations. “We have many original fans, but we also have lots of teenagers coming to the show – it’s about a 50/50 split between the generations.”

“That’s what I find so inspiring – here they are all these years later, still going really strong and still massively ambitious in a way that not all artists are”

Further south, Will Anderson at Madrid-based Mercury Wheels is promoting six of Take That’s seven shows in Spain, including dates in Marbella, Seville, Murcia, and Jerez, as well as the capital city. “We have these outdoor concert series in Spain that are quite popular, so they’re sort of a festival vibe, but they’re all outdoor headline shows, essentially,” says Anderson of the gigs.

“Take That haven’t been to Spain for 17 years, so that was part of the conversation when Olly and James at UTA got in touch, as there’s a lot of pent-up demand from Spaniards to see them. But naturally, there will also be a lot of British expats that live here, as well as people flying in for the shows – the audiences should be a real mixture.”

While this will mark the first time that Anderson himself has worked with the band, he is relishing the experience. “Expectations are pretty high,” he tells IQ. “Just speaking with the agents at UTA, you get a sense of the ambition coming from the band themselves. That’s what I find so inspiring – here they are all these years later, still going really strong and still massively ambitious in a way that not all artists are. They could very easily sit on their laurels and not do very much if they wanted to. But they want to get out and see their fans in all parts of the world.”

In terms of ticket sales, Anderson reports, “In Madrid, the show sold out in a day, while Marbella was one of the fastest-selling shows they’ve ever had in the history of the concert series, so they ended up adding a second date. But right across the board, it’s going great guns, so we’re really happy with how it’s coming together.”

The agents are similarly enthused. “Spain’s been a big one,” confirms Wright. “We’re just delighted that having not been there since 2007, we’re now doing seven concerts. The show in Madrid sold out in 24 hours, which was one of the fastest sellouts ever by an international artist at that concert series.”

“The sales are tracking very well against our other recent arena shows, and the band have both a strong ex-pat and international following”

Also on the tour routing is a 25 October date in the United Arab Emirates where MAC Global previously promoted the band’s 2017 Wonderland Live outing.

“We fully expect people to travel from Dubai and other Emirates in the UAE: we are seeing the ticket-buyers more willing to travel from Dubai to Abu Dhabi for shows and vice versa,” comments MAC Global co-founder and chief creative officer, Daniel Goldberg. “Take That have a huge global following, and we fully expect to see fans travel from the UK to attend the show and build in a short winter break around it.”

With the band’s agents looking to potentially add dates to the Middle East leg, Goldberg notes, “We’re hoping Take That will do two or three regional plays. We are based in Dubai, but our remit, being part of the Sony Masterworks network, is very much regional routing. Even dating back to 2015, we successfully routed Ed Sheeran to Dubai, Oman, Qatar, and India in one regional run, and we always try and route artists to more than one market here.”

Indeed, he reports that demand for the October show is encouraging. “The sales are tracking very well against our other recent arena shows, and the band have both a strong ex-pat and international following. Robbie Williams recently sold close to 14,000 tickets in Abu Dhabi, so we’re hoping to hit a similar number.

“Their UK sales speak for themselves and there’s a huge amount of excitement for them coming to Abu Dhabi. The band and entire team are a delight to work with, and this will surely be one of the event calendar highlights for the UAE this year.”

“Generally, when it comes to the live show, it’s about communication of what it looks like, what it feels like, and how it works with new gags or new equipment”

Large-scale production
Having formed in 1990, Take That have worked with many professionals in the industry over the decades, but one member of their team who dates back beyond their first tour is creative director Kim Gavin.

“Weirdly, the band contacted me as soon as they had a hit, back in 1992, so I’ve now been 32 years with them,” Gavin informs IQ.

Recalling his first encounter with the band – which was then a quintet – he explains, “I was working for the BBC, doing the Children’s Royal Variety Show, and the director wanted a pop act at the beginning of the show. We saw four different acts, and when the director asked who out of the four I would put on stage, I said, ‘Without doubt, Take That.’ I remember having to splice in cheers and screams when they entered the stage in the edit, because nobody knew who they were.

“When their third single, It Only Takes a Minute, went to number seven in the charts, they decided they wanted to go on the road, so I did that first tour with them. I choreographed all the songs on the album and staged their tour, and that’s been my position with them right through till this moment.”

Renowned for their state-of-the-art sets, Gavin has been at the forefront of Take That’s spectacular shows since day one but reveals that this tour is putting more emphasis on the repertoire than aesthetics.

“Generally, when it comes to the live show, it’s about communication of what it looks like, what it feels like, and how it works with new gags or new equipment. On this tour, what Take That want to try and get across is more the singing and what the songs are, inherently. So, they’ve stepped back from the spectacular, even though they still do pyro and all sorts of special effects. But it’s the first production since 1995 where they haven’t had dancers, for instance.”

“We make sure that things are fairly elastic, so that we can respond once we get into rehearsals”

Gavin says planning for the current production started last autumn. “We’ve gone with a very big stage on this because it’s got these two swivelling staircases, and it needs to be that big in order to do everything we want it to do. But the stairs portray the ups and downs of This Life, so they are integral to the show.”

Providing some insight into the creative process, Gavin says, “Even back in ‘92, Mark [Owen] would be concerned about what they were wearing, and he’d involve himself in the clothes. He still does that now, but now he also likes to be involved in the concept for the tour and what the album evokes. So, in the early stages of planning, Mark and I discuss what we could do, and that evolves until we bring the other two – Gary and Howard – in, when we’ve got something to talk about.”

When it comes to the video elements of Take That’s live performances, Luke Halls Studio has been working on the creative side since the 2007 Beautiful World Tour.

“It’s usually a collaboration between the guys, Kim Gavin, and myself,” says company principal Luke Halls. “Usually, the band will have an idea – Mark being the more visually led member of the band – then I will get a sort of amalgamation of their hopes for the show, which I can respond to with some ideas or concepts, and we take it from there.”

Using animation that can be quickly tweaked during rehearsals, Halls reports that This Life on Tour saw about 15 members of his team working on the video content.

“We make sure that things are fairly elastic, so that we can respond once we get into rehearsals. Thankfully, there’s a level of trust that’s been built over the years, so we’re left very much to generate the visual elements.”

“As soon as you go outdoors in the UK, you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen – as Middlesbrough proved”

Detailing some of the differences between the indoor and outdoor shows, Halls says, “We have to make sure that those images are bigger and clearer for the outdoor show just so that everyone gets the experience that they’ve paid for.”

He adds, “We call ourselves sculptural film-makers. Everything that we do has a sculptural outworking, so we don’t just generate for rectangular screens: we make sure everything is very bespoke to the stage and the shape and everything that we’re playing with. That’s really our skill.”

Backed for good
With production manager Chris Vaughan pulling the strings, many of the professionals working on This Life on Tour have been involved in Take That’s world for a number of years.

Audio expert Liam Tucker, of Skan PA, has been working in a senior role since 2015, although his relationship with production manager Vaughan dates back further on tours for the likes of A-Ha and Muse, while he also worked in a junior position on Take That’s 2009 Circus tour and 2011’s Progress shows. “I was the extra delay guy when they had extra speakers and things like that,” he recalls.

Highlighting one of the main challenges of outdoor shows in the UK, Tucker comments, “As soon as you go outdoors in the UK, you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen – as Middlesbrough proved.”

Recalling the deluge the crew experienced at the city’s Riverside Stadium ahead of the 24 May concert, Tucker says, “Load-in was just rain all day, from every single angle – it was coming in sideways, it was bouncing off the floor. Technology is as rated as it can be, but sometimes it doesn’t like the weather.

“From an audio point of view, the main issue was network, as some of the inclinometers decided they weren’t going to work, while the rain also refracted the lasers, so it was difficult to get a true reading. But those are hurdles rather than problems.”

“Festivals are always good fun because you’re walking into something different in every location”

While the audio team, including engineers, numbered seven on the arena shows, it gained two additional members for the stadium run. “They do the extra hangs, the delay masks, that sort of thing. And when we go into the European leg, we drop down to four audios, including the engineers.”

The difference between the indoor and outdoor shows also entails more equipment, although from an audio point of view, Tucker says, “The stage itself and the inputs stay the same, but outdoors it gets bigger and wider. It’s the way the show is put together that changes. So, rather than having one truck of speakers on arenas, we’re up to two trucks of speakers for stadiums. And when we go into festivals, we have no trucks of speakers because it’s all supplied by the festivals.”

However, it’s the festival run that Tucker is most looking forward to. “Festivals are always good fun because you’re walking into something different in every location – it’s not Groundhog Day. That’s why we get asked to come back. The challenges are what makes your day a bit different.”

Stewart Scott at Phoenix Bussing tells IQ the company had been working with Take That ever since Chris Vaughan became PM. “We supplied seven sleeper buses for the arena and stadium tour: two 14 berths, and five 16 berths, while for the European tour we go down to two buses,” says Scott.

“However, we need some double drivers for the European journeys because there are some long distances involved between some of the dates – in fact I’ll be going out myself to drive the Bologna to Barcelona route, which allows me to see the clients at the same time.”

He adds, “Chris Vaughan is one of our top clients and it’s always good to be involved on one of his projects because they are always superbly organised and run smoothly, with a lot of great people working on them.”

“Stufish did the set design, and they always come up with some clever things. It’s up to us to make it happen”

Having been involved with the band since 2017’s Wonderland Live tour, Belgium-based stage motion specialists WICREATIONS are used to delivering the complex scenic effects that wow audiences.

“Stufish did the set design, and they always come up with some clever things. It’s up to us to make it happen,” says key account manager Koen Peeters. “The main show elements are the two large tracking staircases, which are about 8 meters deep, 4 meters wide, and 3.5 meters high. They track over the stage at stage level, and can spin 360 degrees. But we’re talking about an object that weighs around six tons, each staircase, so we need to use an embedded and integrated tracking system that sits below stage level.”

Despite the complexity of those operations, the WICREATIONS crew numbers just six people on the road, managing and operating all the WIMOTION machinery. “There is a long term history between Chris Vaughan and myself,” says Peeters. “Before we did the Wonderland tour in 2017 with WICREATIONS, I worked at Stageco where I had done many projects with Chris since 2009.”

The performers’ entrance on stage hints at the production’s groundbreaking elements. Appearing from a hidden elevator behind a semi-transparent video screen, Barlow, Donald, and Owen effectively appear to walk out of that screen as the giant staircases slide apart, splitting the video wall in two.

“That performer lift is also used to evacuate the technicians who operate each of the staircases for that opening scene,” states Peeters.

A further telescopic lift is used to bring Take That from stage level to the top level of the staircases, again hidden from the audience. A third elevator is used multiple times during the show to bring different sorts of pianos up and down stage, while other tracking systems are embedded in the stage to track the band’s musicians by around ten meters up and downstage.

“Every act seems to look for things that have not been done before, and that makes it so interesting and challenging to be in this business”

Finally, WICREATIONS also supply a six-by- six-meter B-stage, featuring a rotating and elevating circular stage for the artists.

“Every act seems to look for things that have not been done before, and that makes it so interesting and challenging to be in this business,” adds Peeters, noting that those those heavy-duty WICREATIONS motion elements and the complete rolling stage fill ten trucks.

“We had 34 production universal trucks for the arena run and a couple extra for the stadium shows,” says Matt Jackson at Fly By Nite. “This is a pretty unique scenario where the band has gone from arenas straight into stadiums, but the logistics issues are more for the crew than us.

“We’ve mainly been able to operate with single drivers in the UK because we’re getting into each new city in plenty of time. The most complex move was from Dublin into London, where we had to rely on a sympathetic ferry operator who delayed the crossing so that we would make it in time to The O2 Arena. We needed double drivers to facilitate that, but otherwise, Chris Vaughan plans brilliantly well, so it’s been a very smooth project,” adds Jackson.

Another regular supplier is special effects wizards ER Productions, which have been working with Take That since the company’s launch in 2007. “In a nutshell, we’re doing all the water effects, we’ve got a load of flames on the show, confetti, and a lot of pyrotechnics for the outdoor shows,” says ER director Dan Mott, who has been part of the company since it merged with his operation, Pyrojunkies, two years ago.

“We’ve fabricated some of the equipment specifically for the tour, such as a snowstorm, where we’ve created a custom dolly that mulches 60 kilos of confetti with high-powered fans and CO2 blowers that carry a whirlwind of confetti through the guys standing on stage straight into the audience as the show opens.”

“It was really refreshing to be involved in that early design stage and have input, to be honest, because we work in a last-minute industry, usually”

ER also supplied eight low-smoke machines for use during ballads, while the band are also the first beneficiaries of the company’s bespoke Flamber equipment used during Relight My Fire. “It allows us to set fire to the two automated staircases,” says Mott. “It involves 72 custom flame units, allowing us to chase flames and pulse the flames to the beat of the music.”

Elsewhere, ER has brought in multiple flame blazers, while a water feature activated for the song Back For Good that makes it rain onstage indoors, is replaced outdoors by over a ton of pyro.

“We’ve got a lot of stuff, but there’s a lot from every department,” observes Mott. “I think the crew is 150 people, who from the minute they wake up are busy. Everyone’s putting so much equipment in on the show, so we’ve all got to interact and work closely with each other, but Chris Vaughan runs a tight ship, and everyone’s really nice to work with.”

Indeed, Mott tips his hat to Vaughan’s approach to the tour, which engaged suppliers from the planning stages. “Myself and Marc Webber from ER went down to Chris’s house back in December, to sit down with Stufish and all the other departments to talk through the show from start to the finish. It was really refreshing to be involved in that early design stage and have input, to be honest, because we work in a last-minute industry, usually.”

But the results speak for themselves. “Ultimately, it’s a really good show; the whole concept is fantastic, and everybody puts the effort in, so we’re really proud to be working on it,” says Mott.

The greatest weekend
With a reputation as one of the hardest-working bands on the circuit, it comes as no surprise that Take That are once again setting new records as part of the current tour – including an astonishing 50th hometown show in Manchester’s AO Arena.

“Amidst all their ambition to go to all these other countries, there was also an idea early on of the band having essentially their own festival takeover”

“We’re delighted that we’ve been able to celebrate Take That’s 50th show at the AO Arena, right here in the heart of the action,” states venue general manager, Jen Mitchell. “Not only do we enjoy having the band here, we love hosting their fans and making every moment memorable.”

Always looking forward, the band’s tour itinerary also includes their first-ever curated festival – The Greatest Weekend – which will see the trio visiting Malta for the first time, where Festival Republic is organising the event.

“Amidst all their ambition to go to all these other countries, there was also an idea early on of the band having essentially their own festival takeover, which is what the Malta event is,” notes UTA’s Olly Ward. “It’s exciting. Four days in Malta with two Take That sets, one a never-before-seen front-to-back of the album, Everything Changes, and the other a greatest hits set.”

The event’s undercard of talent will include Sugababes, Ella Henderson, Daniel Bedingfield, Heather Small, and Sam Ryder, amongst others, while Howard Donald will host a DJ takeover at Café Del Mar, among a host of other bespoke experiences.

“For fans used to seeing the band in stadiums or arenas around the world, this is a chance to have a four-day Take That extravaganza in a much more intimate environment,” says Ward. “And it’s again credit to the band’s ambition that they wanted to do it this year, when they’re doing so much already.”

Delighted by their first experience of working with Take That, Wright concludes, “This is a band that had a huge amount of success pre-social media, meaning that not all the fans will be connected to the band via social media. Sean Hill who is head of music marketing at UTA, here, and Emily Rhodes from his team where a huge part of looking into this for us.

Consequently, there was a need to reverse engineer this a little bit with promoters to make sure they understood the value of traditional media and marketing alongside digital marketing, but that worked and that’s why these shows – and this tour – are a success.”

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WME promotes 15 trainees to agent

WME has promoted 15 individuals to agent across multiple departments and offices.

The newly minted agents in the music department include Lauren Cunningham, who works in the country genre out of Nashville. Cunningham started at the agency as an assistant in 2019 and rejoined in 2021 as an agent trainee.

Yolande Poitras and Jake Wilk, two contemporary music-focused executives working in the Beverly Hills office, have also been promoted to agent.

Poitras has spent over five years in the California office, first as an agent trainee and then as a music agent assistant. She previously worked as an intern at C3 Presents.

WME global co-head of music Kirk Sommer recently gave IQ his verdict on the touring business in 2024

Wilk has been at the agency since 2019, working in a variety of roles including music central floater, agent assistant and agent trainee.

Ella Fox has a similar journey, starting in WME’s Los Angeles office in 2021 and working her way up through music central floater, music agent assistant, music central trainer and agent trainee. The newly minted agent will now be based out of New York City.

In London, Matt Fayers and Crosby Stewart have risen in the ranks to agent. The pair also came up through the agent trainee programme after beginning at WME as assistants – Fayer in 2018 and Stewart in 2021.

WME global co-head of music Kirk Sommer recently gave IQ his verdict on the touring business in 2024 – and predicted his top trends for next year. Read more here.

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