Hans on tour
In 2016, film-score composer Hans Zimmer emerged from his studio to become a new global touring sensation – a reputation he bolstered in April this year as perhaps the most exciting new live performer in the business, thanks to a groundbreaking, peak-time performance on the Outdoor stage at Coachella.
Traditionally the territory of chart-toppers and Pitchfork darlings, Coachella is not the usual haunt of 59-year-old film score composers, and eyebrows were raised when his name appeared on its bill alongside the likes of Radiohead, Lady Gaga, Lorde and Kendrick Lamar.
“Paul wanted to put Hans on in a tent, so we had a battle to persuade him and explain how big the show was”
Tour co-producer and promoter Harvey Goldsmith says it wasn’t easy persuading Coachella’s founder, Paul Tollett, to present Zimmer in such a prominent slot. “Paul was unsure, he wanted to put Hans on in a tent, so we had a battle to persuade him and explain how big the show was and that we really needed the right platform and time to do it justice,” says Goldsmith.
Zimmer’s agent, William Morris Endeavor’s head of music, Marc Geiger, says: “It was a risk for Paul and we talked him in to it, but a main-stage performance at Coachella was always the plan because we all knew it would be a different thing for the festival and one way or another, positive or negative, it would stick out and make some kind of impression.”
Read the rest of this feature in IQ 72:
https://issuu.com/gregiq/docs/iq72/40
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