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Malcolm Weldon: The Gaffer

Harbouring teenage dreams to be a producer, Malcolm Weldon found himself becoming a stage manager and then production manager by default. But the recording industry’s loss has definitely been live music’s gain. Gordon Masson talks to 2023’s winner of The Gaffer award, who will also participate in IPM’s Inside P!nk’s Summer Carnival session on 29 February at this year’s ILMC…

Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, Malcolm Weldon decided very early on that he wanted to pursue a career in music, and his unfailing work ethic saw him working multiple jobs to get a foot in the door. But live music was not on his radar.

“I loved jazz music, and I would study the liner notes on records to find out what all the associated jobs were,” he tells IQ. “I played bass, but by a certain age, I figured out that I wasn’t going to be the kind of musician that I aspired to be – Jaco Pastorius or Stanley Clarke. Instead, I made up my mind that I would become a recording engineer and producer.”

Determined to fulfil his dream, Weldon enrolled on a college course and worked every hour he could to pay for his tuition. “That was back in the early 80s, and it cost close to $10,000 – that was a lot of money for a poor kid from South Central LA. But I worked multiple jobs to put myself through school, and somehow, I managed it.”

That perseverance is something that has been a mainstay of Weldon’s career for the past 40 years and counting. “I mainly got it from my grandmother. My family were from Oklahoma and migrated to Southern California in the late 1940s, and my grandmother just had an amazing work ethic. Those were very hard times for people of colour, back then, but she just told me as a kid, ‘Whatever it is you want to do, you can do it if you put your mind to it and work hard.’ So that’s what I believed.”

Earning himself the credentials to be a recording engineer was one thing, but actually finding a job to match those qualifications proved to be a frustrating exercise.

“I didn’t want to do live. I just figured I’d be at the theatre for a couple of months until I found a gig, but that never came through”

Gran Designs
But luckily, Weldon’s grandmother – the fantastically named Sweetie Magnolia Ruff – intervened, with a little help from the force…

“My grandmother was a housekeeper and nanny for this family in Beverly Hills, the father of whom, Stanley Freberg, was one of the premiere comedy writers in Hollywood. My grandmother helped raise their daughter, Donna Freberg, and they became really close so that even when my grandmother retired, they stayed in touch.

“Once I got out of school, I kept looking everywhere trying to find a job, but I couldn’t get one. Then my grandmother told me she had been speaking to Donna, who said I should call her, because her husband, Todd Fisher, the brother of actress Carrie Fisher – Princess Leia in Star Wars – might be able to help.

“I really didn’t think my grandmother had the slightest clue of what I was doing, so I didn’t really pay her attention. About a week later, she asked me if I had called Donna, and I told her ‘no.’ So she forced me to call Donna, straight away. It turned out her husband had a recording studio complex, and he used to do all these live tapings, so I found myself working with Todd. There was a church congregation that used one of the studios, and when that church started to grow, I moved with them to another studio, and then when they outgrew that, I followed them to the Beverly Theater, and that’s kind of how I got started.”

Even having landed the in-house sound engineer gig at the theatre, Malcolm had not given up on his recording engineer ambitions and continued to work the nightshift at a grocery store as he awaited his big chance.

“I was still trying to get into the recording business. I didn’t want to do live. I’ve just figured I’d be at the theatre for a couple of months until I found a gig, but that never came through,” he says.

“Having worked in the theatre, I was used to rolling up my sleeves and helping out everywhere”

Meantime, his enjoyment of the role in the Beverly Theater grew and before he knew it, he had been the building’s sound chief for seven years.

That position came to an abrupt end when the venue closed. “I was forced to go on the road,” he says. “I had already been out with a little gospel group called the Winans who used to come through the theatre and who had asked me to go out with them for a couple of days or a week and stuff like that. After that, I did another offshoot called BeBe & CeCe Winans, and that led to a jazz artist, who also came through Beverly Theater, called George Howard.”

Starting out as Howard’s front of house engineer, because of budgetary constraints Weldon soon found himself stepping up his role to also mixing monitors, as well as setting up all the backline for the saxophonist.

“Having worked in the theatre, I was used to rolling up my sleeves and helping out everywhere. When I wasn’t doing my sound stuff, I would help with building renovations, so I did all the painting, screwed seats back into the floor, and a bit of carpentry here and there, so that was something else I was able to offer when I went on the road.”

A Foot Out The Door
Keen to learn as much as possible, Weldon pleaded with tour manager Marty Hom to take him on the road. “He would come through the theatre every year with different artists, and we always got on. Eventually, he asked me to help him out at a little event in LA called the Asian Pacific Festival. I think he wanted to see how I was outside the theatre and how I handled myself, so he hired me as a stage manager. It was a good move because sometimes people perform very differently when they are in an unfamiliar environment. But I guess I did a good job because a couple of weeks later, Marty offered me a gig working with Paula Abdul.”

“I’d come from a live jazz world. But I had seen some pop acts performing to backing tracks, so I didn’t quite realise what the situation was”

At the time, Malcolm admits he knew nothing about the artist. “It wasn’t the music that I listened to,” he says. “But at that point, she was growing and quickly became the Taylor Swift or Beyoncé of that time: she was on every magazine cover, and her albums were huge.”

The first work with Abdul was as part of the Club MTV Live tour in 1989, which also starred the likes of Tone Loc, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Was (Not Was), Information Society, and Milli Vanilli.

On the back of that tour, Weldon found himself working on the live shows for controversial lip-synching German duo Milli Vanilli. “It was interesting because at that point, I did not know about that kind of thing because I’d come from a live jazz world. But I had seen some pop acts performing to backing tracks, so I didn’t quite realise what the situation was,” he comments.

But having impressed Hom on the Club MTV set up, he was asked to return for Abdul’s Under My Spell world tour, meaning he found himself applying for his first passport as the production visited the likes of Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. “I was pretty young, when I think about it: I was 27 or 28, so it was an amazing experience.”

Indeed, as Malcolm began to get in the routine of life on the road, he began to forget about his recording engineer aspirations.

“I’m not just a production manager: I do whatever needs to be done at the point when I need to do it”

If I Had A Hammer…
Earning an early reputation as a reliable stage manager and carpenter, Weldon’s career began to morph, thanks in no small way to his willingness to get involved across all production disciplines, and he found himself involved on shows in a stage manager, quasi production manager role.

Talking about his desire to learn on-the-job skills, Weldon notes, “I see every opportunity to learn as another stepping stone for myself, and I think that’s true with a lot of production managers. For instance, I remember working with Chris Kansy when he was a guitar tech, and now he’s PM for Coldplay, Roger Waters, all that stuff.”

Weldon’s own promotion to production manager came at the behest of legendary artist manager Roger Davies. “I had been stage managing for a number of years for Roger, who I first met on a Janet Jackson tour in 1994. After that I stage managed Ozzy Osbourne shows, and then I went out on a Tina Turner tour. She was also managed by Roger Davies, so I was stage manager for that and a bunch of his tours.

“Eventually, Roger asked me to be production manager for Janet in 2000/2001, and that’s primarily what I’ve been doing since. But I still put my hat on as a stage manager or a site coordinator from time to time. I’m not just a production manager: I do whatever needs to be done at the point when I need to do it.”

As someone who regards every day as an education process, Weldon namechecks a list of people that he recognises as mentors. “Bobby Thrasher, who is also known as Boomer, was the production manager for Springsteen and for Billy Joel, and I worked under him for a while,” he tells IQ. “I also worked under Jake Berry, who is just a legend, but it’s not just all the different production managers, it’s also tour managers you learn from. I tend to take a little bit from everybody – ‘I dig what that person does; I’m not going to do what that person does, I’m gonna do it this way instead…’ so you take what you see as the best practices and adopt them to create your own persona.”

“The only reason I became a production manager was so that I could hire and fire people”

Higher & Fire
While Weldon remains as humble as ever, he has deservedly earned a reputation as one of the live entertainment industry’s elite production managers. But his motives to become production chief were not because of any personal ambition.

“The only reason I became a production manager was so that I could hire and fire people,” he reveals. “That’s literally true because I’d been a stage manager for so many tours where I’d try to get everybody to listen to me and do what I needed them to do. But it’s difficult, because they may have their own agenda and every department is trying to do their own thing. And because you didn’t hire them, you’re just stuck with them.

“I knew the only way to get around that would be to become the production manager. Now, I can bring in the people that I want to work with, knowing that they’re going to do it my way. If they don’t, there’s the door!”

Detailing some of his work ethic and philosophy, Weldon says, “Working as one, our common goal is making sure, at the end of the day, whoever the artist is, they know that everybody behind them has done their best.

“One of the main tasks of the production manager is to get everybody to work together, as opposed to each department just thinking about themselves. For example, when you start in the morning, if you have a lighting guy running cable across the floor that he may not need for an hour or two, you have to ask, ‘Why did you run that cable across when I gotta get all this other stuff across? If you’re going to run it, put a cable ramp down.’ It’s those little things that can add up throughout a day, so trying to get everybody to work together in concert to have an end goal is my biggest task.”

“Anyone who works with me knows that I’m not going to ask anybody to do anything that I wouldn’t do. But unfortunately for them, I’ll pretty much do anything to get things to work”

With more than 40 years’ experience, Weldon has amassed a contacts book of the industry’s finest crew and has assembled his own core personnel on whom he knows he can rely.

“You learn pretty quickly who the best people are, but I’m a production manager who’s really a stage manager with the power to hire and fire people, so I still think of everything in stage manager terms. I’m thinking how everything gets put into the carts, how the carts go into the trucks, how the trucks get unloaded, what order the trucks should come in, and what order stuff comes onto the floor.

“Unfortunately, for some people, I’m an old-school production manager, like Jake Berry, where I’m involved and engaged with loading. I’m not a production manager who sits in an office all day; I don’t even know what I would do in an office all day. But I know a lot of my guys would prefer me to go to the office,” he says.

“At the same time, I do try not to micromanage because that can also be incredibly irritating. Bottom line, I try to lead by example. Anyone who works with me knows that I’m not going to ask anybody to do anything that I wouldn’t do. But unfortunately for them, I’ll pretty much do anything to get things to work.”

The riggers, however, are safe. “I don’t climb. I’m not going up in the air; I’m sticking down on the ground,” laughs Malcolm.

“It does not matter how good you are, or you think you are, you’re only as good as your team. It’s like casting a movie: you’re trying to find the best possible cast”

That’s The Way Live Goes
Already armed with a dream team of crew he loved working with, Weldon assembled some of the finest talent in the business for his first PM job with Janet Jackson. “I just was lucky enough to get some of those people. And some of them are still working with me,” he reports.

“I had this gentleman that I kind of came up with in LA as a stagehand, called Kurt Wagner, aka Slap. He’s one of the best guys in the business: just a good, hard-working gentleman. Slap helped me from the start and although we kind of split up for a while because he left to work with Opie on the [Rolling] Stones, I was able to sneak him back for a little bit, so he’s my site coordinator for this P!nk tour.

“As a production manager, it does not matter how good you are, or you think you are, you’re only as good as your team. It’s like casting a movie: you’re trying to find the best possible cast.”

But Weldon is always on the lookout for new people to add to his crew and has earned a global reputation for mentoring scores of up-and-coming production talent. “I’d rather have somebody who has a good attitude and a good work ethic over somebody who can be the best at what they do but they’re just an asshole,” he says of his recruitment sensibilities.

“I’ve seen tours where one person with a bad attitude can slowly permeate throughout the crew like a cancer. You could have people that never had a problem with anything, and then, next thing you know, they’re complaining about something goofy. And you’re like, well, where’d that come from? It came from that one bad seed.”

“There’s no reason to be in the venue when you don’t need to be there. Even if it was only two hours or an hour, just to have your own private time is important”

Keeping It Together
Weldon is also renowned as being one of the best organised PMs in the business, taking great pains to make sure his crew members are not left waiting around for hours on end when they could be resting.

“That kind of thing can cause problems,” explains Malcolm. “Having everybody come in all together often means each department doesn’t have the tools they need to do their job yet because each department has a certain order of the day. You do rigging first, you get the power in, the lights come in and stuff starts to float up in the air, and everybody that goes underneath it all starts to build. There’s no reason to be in the venue when you don’t need to be there. Even if it was only two hours or an hour, just to have your own private time is important.”

However, he acknowledges, “The artists and managers only have a certain amount of time within the year where they need to make their money, so the tours are much more compressed these days, meaning that there’s less time for the crew to do everything.

“Between the promoters and managers, they understand that this is how much money needs to be made per week, and therefore, we need to do this amount of shows per week to sustain the tour. Often, the thought that people need sleep and time away from the venue is not necessarily taken into account and that falls upon the production manager to figure out.”

What About P!nk
At press time, Weldon was overseeing elements of P!nk’s Trustfall production equipment undergoing maintenance and servicing before being packed into shipping containers for the journey to Australasia where the tour resumes in February for a 20-date stadium run.

“P!nk, or Alecia as we know her, is the biggest star down there – she just does phenomenal business in Australia: there is no one bigger!”

“P!nk, or Alecia as we know her, is the biggest star down there – she just does phenomenal business in Australia: there is no one bigger!” states Malcolm.

Indeed, P!nk’s spectacular shows have been wowing audiences in Europe and North America over recent months, and when it comes to her aerial routines, her acrophobic PM explains that the aerobatics originated in arenas and have since grown in scale for stadium and festival shows. “It comes from the artist’s desire to get out and be as close as possible to the fans at the far end of the arena or stadium,” says Weldon, noting that the technology involved is very similar to the spider-cam systems used by sports broadcasters to get closer to the action, with P!nk effectively taking the place of the camera equipment.

“It’s all programmed – every move that she’s doing, there’s no way you can do what we do without it being automated,” he says.

The importance of that daring performance to the Trustfall show means that Weldon’s site coordinators and advance teams are key to the tour’s success. “I consider my head rigger, Gabe Wood, to be the best in the business, and we try to go to each building before we get there, just to make sure there’s nothing like pillars or anything in the way of the aerial part of the show. So, in stadiums for instance, we make sure we can get her up high enough to fly over the top of the delay towers. But at the same time, there are other things that are up there – lighting fixtures can often get in the way – so we’re trying to make sure there’s nothing in the way of the flight path.”

Another challenge for Malcolm and his crew are the trampolines that are used during the show by P!nk and her dancers and acrobats. “That set piece is 49 feet wide by 14 feet deep, so it’s a big space that it takes up on stage that you can’t do anything with – it’s just a dead area: once it’s built, it pretty much kills that part of the stage,” he explains.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re working with your best friend, if you see them every single day for 12 or 18 hours a day, they are bound to get on your nerves”

The production chief pays tribute to carpenter Judy LeBeau who has been tasked with the trampolines set-up and maintenance. “It can be split apart into two separate trampoline areas, and when it is split, we can raise the video wall, and that’s how we bring in all the support gear and whatever else has to come on,” he adds.

But the main challenge on the Trustfall tour, according to Malcolm, is quite simply the routing and making sure personnel get adequate rest.

“It’s a tight schedule – we work every single day,” he notes. “It doesn’t matter if you’re working with your best friend, if you see them every single day for 12 or 18 hours a day, they are bound to get on your nerves. So, the challenge is to give crew members time off, away from the venue, away from their co-workers.”

As a result, Weldon has set some procedures in stone. “All load-ins on the stadium runs start at 12 noon. Even if we arrive at the venue at six o’clock or eight o’clock in the morning, I won’t load in until 12 to give people as close to eight hours of sleep as possible.”

While stadiums often require three sets of steel, in Australia, the Trustfall tour will rely on just two sets. “The steel will leapfrog from stadium to stadium, and we’ve been able to plan for just two sets because we’re doing double dates in each city,” adds Malcolm.

“I hate postponements because I don’t want to build it all and then have to tear it down and then have to come back at a later date”

Post Australia, P!nk has already confirmed a return to stadia in Europe next year, while there’s also the matter of some North American dates that need to be rescheduled following recent postponements in Tacoma and Vancouver.

“I hate postponements because I don’t want to build it all and then have to tear it down and then have to come back at a later date,” says Weldon. “It’s a pain for everybody, starting with the patrons that bought a ticket. But it also means you have to figure out a place in the calendar that will allow you to go back to that city to make up that date, which can be especially tricky for stadium shows where the window for availability in a calendar year is very short.”

But he is in no doubt that the artist will do her best to make sure her fans are not disappointed. “Alecia has an amazing work ethic,” states Weldon. “She’s expecting everybody to show up and put their A-game on because she is putting her A-game on, every show. So we’re all doing the most we can to prepare for her so that she can do her best.

“She’s also a very kind and generous person who cares about her crew, and her band, and dancers, and everybody else around her. And she tries to provide as much love and respect for all of us, so that we all feel comfortable.”

Something Beautiful
However, when it comes to the best artist he’s ever worked for, Weldon doesn’t hesitate in his answer. “Tina Turner. She was just an amazing person – one of the most humble, kind, generous human beings I’ve ever met in my life. And you would think she’d be the opposite of that, through all the hardship that she went through in her life, but she was incredible. I don’t know if it was through her Buddhism, or whatever it was, but she just embodied kindness, and when she walked in the building, she would say, ‘Mal, how are you? How’s everybody doing? How’s the crew?’”

“Prince was an enigma. Nobody that I’ve ever worked for, or ever seen, compared to his artistry on stage. I’ve never seen anything like that”

Weldon’s importance to the artist can still be found online, with Turner singing Happy Birthday to Malcolm live on stage in Stockholm in April 2009.

Recalling another artist, who wasn’t quite so humble with his crew, Malcolm tells IQ, “Prince was an enigma. Nobody that I’ve ever worked for, or ever seen, compared to his artistry on stage. I’ve never seen anything like that. We did a bunch of shows in Madison Square Garden, where he literally had the band leave, and it was just him on stage, playing a guitar and a piano at the same time, totally captivating the audience like you could not imagine – especially a New York audience who can be a bit jaded, but he blew them away.

“But then, earlier that day, he had pissed me off, because he would ask for something last minute and it would be something I’d have to try to create out of nowhere. And then he’d be back in my face asking where it was. ‘You just told me; I’m working on it.’ And Prince would come back with, ‘Then why are you sitting here talking to me, when you should be getting it?’

“He was infuriating. But then you’d see what he could do on stage, and it was impossible to be mad at him.”

Outside of his work life, Malcolm admits to enjoying the simple pleasures. “I like gardening, I really do,” he says. “I like hiking and anything that basically allows me to enjoy fresh air because I’m always in a venue or in a hotel or an airport or bus. So, when I relax, I gravitate to anything to do with the outdoors.”

“Coming up in the business, and being a person of colour, I found out how hard and difficult it was for me to be seen and to get a gig”

Otherwise, any downtime he finds is spent with family.

“I have a wife, Laverne, two kids, and four grandkids, who are very important to me. My son, Nicholas, is a camera operator/video director, while my daughter, Camille, pivoted in a whole different direction. She graduated with a degree in clinical psychology and worked with kids with disabilities, autism, and all that kind of stuff. And then she decided to go back to school to get a doctorate and a degree in business so she could open her own non-profit. But she realised that after she would have gotten out of college, she would have probably owed over a quarter of a million dollars. So, she decided to take a little break, and she fell back in love with music, and now she’s a DJ.

“As a father, all you want is your kids to be happy. It may have taken Camille an extended route, but she’s happy, so it’s all good.”

Women Up
With that female influence at home, the historic influence of his grandmother, and the fact that he has worked closely with the likes of Janet Jackson, Cher, Tina Turner, Sade, and latterly, P!nk (all clients of Roger Davies), it’s perhaps not surprising to learn that Weldon is also a big champion of having more women on the road.

“Coming up in the business, and being a person of colour, I found out how hard and difficult it was for me to be seen and to get a gig,”he says. “But because of that, I want to try to take some of the stumbling blocks away for other people trying to find a career.

“There have been many times when I’d walk into a building and people would look around everywhere before they’d come to me to ask me where the production manager was”

“At the same time, I’ve found that women can multitask a lot better than men. You can tell them, ‘This is what I want you to do.’ And they go off and do it. And you tell them how you want it done, and you know you can leave them to it. Whereas, a lot of times, guys think they know everything. You know, it’s like a guy who’s driving to the beach with his wife and kids. And the
wife is asking, ‘Why don’t you look at the map?’ And he’s like, ‘No, I don’t need to,’ even though he’s lost in the forest.”

Elaborating on some of the prejudice and ignorance he has encountered, Malcolm opines, “Just because it’s the entertainment industry, doesn’t mean it’s different to anything else in society – it’s the same people. As a person of colour, I had to work twice as hard. I’d get up early to be the first to report for duty, and I’d make sure I was one of the last ones to leave, just to show the weight of my convictions and what I was capable of.

“There have been many times when I’d walk into a building and people would look around everywhere before they’d come to me to ask me where the production manager was. But I’ve dealt with that ever since I was the sound guy at the Beverly Theater – I would be the last person that they would think of as the house sound guy. That’s just life; I try not to dwell on it.

“It still happens. Fairly recently, I came across a gentleman at a venue who was ignoring my requests to move some equipment. When it eventually dawned on him that the boxes needed to be moved so that we could get on with things, he came to me to ask where the production manager was… He knew he was in the wrong, so there was no need for me to rub his nose in it.”

That calm demeanour has served Malcolm well over the years, and he is quite rightly regarded as one of the safest pair of hands with which to entrust an artist’s touring vision, and a deserving recipient of The Gaffer Award for 2023.

 


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IQ 124 out now: Year in trends, Memo Parra, Poland

IQ 124, the end-of-year issue of the international live music industry’s favourite magazine, is available to read online now to give you some reading matter over the holiday season.

The December/January edition brings down the curtain on 2023 by wrapping up the key trends and takeaways from the global live music business over the past 12 months, as well as looking ahead to what’s in store for the industry next year.

In addition, we celebrate trailblazer Memo Parra’s 30 years in music, charting his unique journey from stock market trader to director of international talent at giant Mexican promoter Ocesa.

Elsewhere, we crown road warrior Malcolm Weldon as The Gaffer 2023, and Derek Robertson glances back across the first ten years of First Direct Arena in Leeds – speaking to the people who have helped make the last decade such a success.

And in our latest market report, Adam Woods visits Poland to learn about the growing optimism among live music industry professionals.

For this edition’s columns and comments, FanFair Alliance’s Adam Webb highlights the reasons for the UK-based campaign’s relaunch, as ticket touts get ever more sophisticated, while Christina Hazboun, Keychange Project Manager, UK, at PRS Foundation outlines some of the initiatives the gender equality scheme is employing to end the music industry’s patriarchal landscape.

As always, the majority of the magazine’s content will appear online in some form in the next few weeks.

However, if you can’t wait for your fix of essential live music industry features, opinion and analysis, click here to subscribe to IQ from just £8 a month – or check out what you’re missing out on with the limited preview below:

 

 


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Best of 2022: Phay ‘Phaymous’ Mac Mahon

IQ would like to wish our readers a happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year. Our daily IQ Index newsletter will return on Tuesday, 3 January. In the meantime, however, we will revisit some of our most popular interviews from the last 12 months, starting with the recipient of the 2022 Gaffer Award, production manager Phay Mac Mahon…

Having grown up in Shankhill near the port of Dún Laoire on the outskirts of Dublin, life could have been very different for Phay Mac Mahon, had it not been for his big brother, Mick, and a local punk band with ambitions to see the world.

“Mick was a DJ in the 70s, and he’d built up a lighting system and stuff for his mobile disco,” recalls Phay. “Although I was really young, I started helping him set up and everything, until he decided he wanted to wind things down a bit.”

Professional equipment was a scarce commodity in Ireland at the time, so it wasn’t long before Phay was approached by club promoter Smiley Bolger who was running the Much More Music gigs in Dublin.

“It was on a Tuesday night, and it turned out Boomtown Rats were regulars. One night, Bob Geldof and I were chatting, and he asked if there was any chance of them using the lights and the van to take them around the country. And that’s literally how it started.

“The lights were very basic, just Par 36s on homemade boards. And because I didn’t have a switcher, I used to literally plug the lights in and out in time with the music. In fact, when I turned 60, halfway through the party, the music went down and Geldof and all the [Boomtown] Rats marched into the party. And they presented me this golden plugboard, which they’d hastily made in their hotel because that’s how they remembered me originally.”

“One night, Bob Geldof and I were chatting, and he asked if there was any chance of them using the lights and the van”

Phayze 1
Without each other, The Boomtown Rats and Phay may never have left the Emerald Isle. When they met, Phay was an apprentice toolmaker, but as The Rats began to build momentum, they tried to persuade Phay – with the van and lights – to take a risk and move to England with them.

“He was a kid working in a no-hope job in a lightbulb factory,” says frontman Geldof. “Phay drove us round in his brother’s mobile disco van and started doing the lights for us – plugging and unplugging each lamp from a standard domestic extension cable. When he wasn’t blinding us, he was shorting the house and amps.

“I told him he should come with us on our mad bid to get out of Ireland. He said he didn’t know if he was allowed and I’d have to ask his mum. So, over a tea-time pork chop, peas and mash, Mrs Mac Mahon said she wasn’t sure: the job was steady and he could easily be a foreman by the time he was 32 –in 13 or 14 years’ time. I assured her he could still do that.

“‘Give it a year,’ I said. ‘We either do it or we’re all coming back to Dún Laoire.’ Phay had one condition; that if we did make it, besides the lights, he’d be allowed to drive ‘wunna dem big troox dey have.’ So off we went. He got to drive the truck, us, and everything else. We never went back to Dún Lao-ire.”

Thus started a lifelong relationship and Phay switched his apprenticeship from toolmaking to everything involved with taking artists on the road – with The Rats’ frugal nature and Phay’s clapped-out vehicle very much at the centre of things.

“Richard Branson and Simon Draper offered Geldof a cheque for nearly a million pounds, and he turned it down”

“Geldof did all the dealing on everything,” explains Phay. “One day, before a gig, he told me that Richard Branson and Simon Draper were coming to see the band, ‘So let’s get this set up quick so we can go out and pick them up in the van.’ I pointed out that surely when it’s a record company, you should be sending a limo or something. And Geldof looked at me like I had two heads – he was always cheap,” he laughs.

“At the time, I was stockcar racing and having fun with old cars. So we had a bench seat from an old Zephyr that I’d thrown in the back of the van, and of course it would slide around on the floor, and the band would all moan and groan: I’d hit the brakes and it would slide forward, their knees up in their mouths. So… Richard Branson and Simon Draper found themselves squashed up against the sidewall of the van when I had to do a sharp turn, and there’s Geldof just staring at me, about to kill me.

“But that night, they saw the show and offered Geldof a cheque for nearly a million pounds, and he turned it down because he thought the band could do better. We thought he was mad, but he got a deal with Ensign and we did better.”

Part of that deal involved a house in Chessington, Surrey, where bass player John Giblin already lived in the garden flat while Allan Holdsworth was in the attic. “The house had a huge rehearsal room, a tiny sitting-room and a tiny kitchen, so it was a little community, and it was hilarious, to say the least,” says Phay.

“I ended up doing two Queen tours and a Rolling Stones tour on the steel team”

Stars’ Truck
“When the Rats weren’t touring, I’d go off and do my own thing. My brother Shay taught me to drive trucks properly and I finally got my HGV license. This allowed me to legally drive trucks for Edwin Shirley, and I ended up doing two Queen tours and a Rolling Stones tour on the steel team.”

He also learned more about lighting, working with Pete Clarke’s Supermick Lights. “I did tours with Pete and all sorts of one-offs, as well as the Roundhouse every Sunday.”

As his skills repertoire grew, Phay realised that work elsewhere meant moving out of The Rats’ Chessington home. “It was 1980, and Simon Austin from LSD called to say this young band from Sheffield were looking for a lighting designer for a theatre tour. So I met Def Leppard’s manager, Peter Mensch, and he offered me the job.

“Jake Berry was the production manager, and we got along great, but it came to the situation where he had to go back to AC/DC, who Mensch also managed, meaning he couldn’t do Leppard’s first tour in the States. Mensch also needed a lighting director that he couldn’t afford.

“Jake pitched the idea that I could do both. It was kinda true – with The Rats I did everything because we didn’t have a PM. Robbie McGrath was the tour manager and sound guy, and I was the sort of production manager/LD. But the real first time that I put the hat on properly was for Leppard in the States.”

“I went out on the Joshua Tree Tour as the lighting crew chief; Jackson Browne as lighting crew chief; The Communards as LD”

It wasn’t his first trip stateside, but it was a different ballgame. “With The Rats, we played clubs and things. We did a show at Frederick’s of Hollywood, which is a lingerie shop, as a promotional stunt. Geldof always wanted to do stuff that was different.
“But Leppard was much bigger as they were supporting Ted Nugent. John Conk was the production manager on that, and I learned a lot from him.”

Indeed, picking up tips from others became the norm. “Support tours were the way people broke in the States,” Phay tells IQ. “Queen toured with Mott the Hoople and they broke; and then Thin Lizzy toured with Queen and they broke… After the 1980 tour, Leppard were back out in 81 with Ozzy and the Blizzard of Oz.

“It was a great way for everyone to learn – artists and crew – because you saw the bigger tours and figured it out,” he says, naming the likes of Jake Berry, Charlie Hernandez and Bill Leabody among his mentors.

In between outings with Leppard, Phay worked as LD for The Pretenders. “I was back and forth with lighting. But once I hit 83, production became more prominent because it started to get very serious.” After Leppard, he took on the production/LD gig for Adam Ant for a few years.

“And then it was Paul Young after that but still back and forward into lighting and stuff – I went out on the Joshua Tree Tour as the lighting crew chief in Europe; Jackson Browne as lighting crew chief; The Communards as LD.” But the arrival of children brought a rude awakening.

“Two days after [Eoin] was born, I was off on a Paul Young tour to the States, Japan, all over the place”

“Our eldest boy, Eoin, was born in 1987, but two days after he was born I was off on a Paul Young tour to the States, Japan, all over the place. Then I went straight to U2’s Joshua Tree, and from that to Hysteria with Def Leppard. So I was gone the entire year – I had to get my wife, Ann, to bring Eoin out so that I could see him. And then Hysteria kept going for so long. It was nearly a two-year tour.

“At home, we had the phone on the wall in the kitchen. So when I got home on a break from Leppard, Ann said to our son, ‘Eoin, where’s your dad?’ And he pointed at the phone. My heart sank and I realised I needed to put the brakes on.”

Out of Phay’s
Committing time to home life again brought out the entrepreneur in Phay. “Along with a friend, we came up with an idea of a mobile stage in Ireland – combining my toolmaking past with all the stuff I’d learned on the road. We developed this truck and I got Terry Lee from LSD and Chris Cronin involved in its design.”

The result was ingenious: a 45-foot trailer with a 75 kV generator built on the front end; a backroom with amplifiers, dimmer racks, etc; and an opening of 35 feet in the middle so that the sides would fold down to give a stage of 24 feet in depth.

“LSD were building their own truss at the time, so we used that for the roof and hinged two sides on the truss so that it literally folded out using hydraulics,” Phay explains. “Two crew could basically set up in an hour. It had its own sound-system, lights built into the roof. Turn on the generator and there it was: a gig in a box that we’d take to car parks and football fields and stuff like that.”

“I found the break [from touring] was good because it was refreshing”

The concept caught the eye of Guinness who bought it for use around festivals. “I was able to drive it, and through my toolmaking, I knew the hydraulics and how it all worked, so I did that for a few years. But I kept going back on the road doing bits and pieces – bits of lighting, corporate stuff, and a Formula One project in 2000 with Orange Arrows that took us around the world for about three years.”

Once More Into The Phray
With three young children now at home, when they all reached school age, Phay thought about returning to touring. “I found the break [from touring] was good because it was refreshing.” He observes, “I see people getting easily wound-up, but it takes a lot more to wind me up, and I think when you have a break, you’re not as burned, so you can deal with things better.

“I did some local work for Peter Aiken in Ireland, then I started back on the road full time as site co for George Michael, PM for Meat Loaf, 30 STM, Shakira, Seal and many more and the rest is history.”

Citing a calm attitude as crucial to becoming a top production manager, Phay also highlights the camaraderie of the PM fraternity. “We all cover for each other,” he states. “I’ve covered for Bill Leabody many times on things; I’ve covered for Springo (Mark Spring); I’ve gone out as a site coordinator for both of them. It’s all experience. We’re all friends, we talk all the time, and we all muck in when needed.

“If you come up against something, you ask around if anyone else has come across it. I’ll call Bill; he’ll tell me to speak to Jake, or that Charlie did that, or Opie (Dale Skjerseth) has done it, so we all chat, and we all help each other out.”
And that communication has never been required more than in the past two years.

“I started back on the road full time as site co for George Michael, PM for Meat Loaf, 30 STM, Shakira, Seal and many more”

Live-ing La Vida Loca
Recounting his pandemic experience, Phay tells IQ, “I got on board with Ricky Martin at the end of 2019, and we did a bit of TV stuff and then straight into a month of rehearsals in Puerto Rico, where he’s from. It was a really smooth job to start with – Ricky is one of those rare artists that you could set your watch by: he’s meticulous.

“When he says he’ll be in at two and he wants to be out at seven, he’ll come in at two o’clock sharp and he’ll be gone at seven on the dot. It means you can schedule everything perfectly and give slots in the day for everyone else – lighting, programming, dancers, everything, so it’s very professional.”

That first tour was cut short, but not before they had played three arena shows in Puerto Rico, Colombia’s massive Barranquilla Carnival, and dates in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, before travelling to Mexico where a number of shows were scheduled.

“We were hearing at the time that this corona thing was building and building, but because we were in South America, unless you watched CNN, nobody was paying attention to it. Little did we know, a week and a half after we landed in Mexico, we’d be gone. Tour over. It was four o’clock in the afternoon on 14 March 2020, and we were setting up for a sold-out show in Monterrey when I got the phone call.”

The crew managed to load out, and Phay quickly arranged passage for production back to the States. “When I got to Mexico City, I bumped into Roland Greil, the LD who was out with Guns N’ Roses at the time. And he told me I’d just missed Opie, who had flown out. We were all gathering in Mexico City Airport, flying out all over the world. We were two of the last ones standing – Ricky Martin and Guns N’ Roses.”

“I was rehired in May last year, just to start putting the next tour together – Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias”

While the industry was initially speculating about how many weeks of business they needed to reschedule, the reality, of course, was horrendous.

The downtime allowed Phay to spend some much-needed rest at home and in the industry’s most infamous pub, The Dog House, which was his garage until a few years ago and now serves, on occasion, as a fundraising hostelry for local cancer charity Purple House.

“Every production that passes through Ireland seems to want to visit The Dog House – maybe because I have Guinness on tap,” he says. And he recalls a time when AC/DC’S crew did just that, supplemented by egg and onion sandwiches supplied by his wife and daughter.

“When I saw Opie in the production office at the show the next day, he wasn’t happy. Apparently, the stage rolled an hour late because the stagehands refused to be in the same place as the crew because of the gases coming out of them.”

Rather than sitting around waiting for the phone to ring during the pandemic, Phay got behind the wheel of a truck again. “Ardmore Film Factory is nearby, so I ended up driving around for the Matt Damon movie The Last Duel, before doing the same for Irish Film Location Facilities. Some people thought I was mad, but it saved me a fortune because it meant that Ann didn’t divorce me.” And it’s just as well he kept busy, as weeks and then months rolled by.

“I was rehired in May last year, just to start putting the next tour together – Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias. We loaded in on 14 September 2021 – exactly 18 months to the day from loadout to the next load in,” says Phay.

“We were one of the first full indoor arena shows, so we had to be very, very careful”

Observing Protocol
With Covid still raging, Phay and Iglesias’s PM, Andrés Restrepo, faced the challenge of developing a strategy to keep the crew and touring party safe. “It was quite difficult because you had two artists and two managements,” notes Phay.

“But both artists agreed that everybody had to be vaccinated to be on the tour. There was only one guy, who had worked with Ricky for quite some time, who said he was not getting vaccinated. And he stood firm on it. We didn’t have any arguments about it, I just had to go off and find someone else.”

While the vast majority of tours remained postponed, a few brave pioneers were hitting the road, meaning normal communication between production chiefs intensified.

“We were talking to lots of people who had started going out in amphitheatres and stuff – Green Day were out doing stadiums – but they were all outdoor-type venues. We were one of the first full indoor arena shows, so we had to be very, very careful.”

Knowing that every state had its own Covid protocols and cities within each state would have different rules, Phay quickly learned that every venue also had its own protocols. “My suggestion was that we just create our own protocols and implement them from the barrier back,” he reveals. “We realised that if we lost one of the two artists to Covid, we’d be in big trouble. But if we lost anyone else, we could somehow get around it.”

The Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin tour locked down everything from the stage to the backdoor

As a result, the Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin tour locked down everything from the stage to the backdoor and relied on the venues to take care of front-of-house. “They’re running venues for a reason: they know what they’re doing. My thing was, we keep our own house in order, rather than worrying about anywhere else.”

He continues, “Everybody got onboard very well, and we put a Covid officer in place. Most arenas have security at the backdoor anyway, so straight out of the security station we set up the Covid station to temperature-check people. We also had scanners on the buses, so people would scan that in the morning, fill out a form about what they’d been doing, how they felt, etc. We’d register everything on computer, they’d be given a wristband for the day, and that was that.

“But once we hit certain areas, like in Florida where nobody was wearing masks or anything, we realised that a lot of the stagehands weren’t vaccinated. So we had to put serious Covid testing in place there. If they had a vax card, they’d come in, get a quick check, and be given a wristband. If they didn’t, they had to wait for their test result before getting a wristband.

“It was sensible but expensive. Getting stagehands in some situations was tough. But we were following Harry Styles, so we’d talk to Ski, his production manager, to see how they’d handled things in certain cities. And they had an even tougher world where they would not let anybody in that wasn’t vaccinated, so they were having to fly in crew, stagehands, from different areas with
vax cards rather than testing.”

Phay’s strict strategy worked well. “We had one guy who caught the virus, ironically on the very first day at the MGM in Vegas: Alfredo, the video guy. He was not feeling well, and when he tested positive, we literally put him in quarantine in the hotel for ten days. And then he came back. It was a rude awakening for us. But it made people take it seriously, as everybody toed the line and that was it. We never had another case.”

“We got Dead & Co’s protocol, and different protocols from different people, so we could look it over and figure out ours”

Who’s Zoomin’ Who?
Once again, communication with peers proved vital. “We chatted a lot with Ski on the Harry Styles tour. We got Dead & Co’s protocol, and different protocols from different people, so we could look it over and figure out what ours should be,” says Phay.

Renowned for his sense of humour, the situation also allowed Phay to pull some spectacular practical jokes. “We’d gathered for a beer – Andrés, the stage managers, Gino Cardelli and Ethan Merfy, and myself – ahead of speaking to Ski to get tips on how we would approach Atlanta, where the stagehands and riggers didn’t have to be vaccinated.

“Anyway, Andrés was telling me that Ski had sent him pictures of his home after he’d renovated it. And he shows me a photo of his laundry room, so, of course, I used it as my background for the Zoom call.

“So there’s was a bunch of Live Nation people on the call – Ski sitting on a couch on his day off. I come on and he goes, ‘Hey, man, how are you? Blah, blah, blah.’ And then he realises. ‘Are you in my fucking house?’ And I’m sort of rooting around and all they can see is the washers and dryers. And next thing, ‘click’ on comes Andrés, sitting in the living room with Ski’s wife pictured behind him. So the call took about 15 minutes to get going because we caused complete chaos.”

“Paul Young was one of the nicest guys I’ve ever worked with… Spandau Ballet were a great bunch of lads”

The Road Ahead
Speaking from home in Bray, Ireland, Phay tells IQ he’s heading back out to Los Angeles in mid-February to resume touring with Ricky Martin – this time for his own headline tour. And although restrictions are being relaxed, he confirms that he will be imposing the same Covid protocols for this outing.

“We’re going to keep everything the same,” he states. “A lot of people feel it will become like the common cold or the flu, but we’re not there yet, so we’re going to keep everything in place for the time being.”

In a career that dates back to the 70s, there are hundreds of highlights that Phay can call on. But one in particular springs to mind. “Live Aid,” he says. “Andrew Zweck ran that one, but we were all part of it. I just remember at noon when Status Quo kicked in, literally I just got goosebumps. And then there was Geldof flailing around like a flippin’ lunatic.”

And he got to share that day with some of his favourite artists, too. “Paul Young was one of the nicest guys I’ve ever worked with… Spandau Ballet were a great bunch of lads. It’s an awful shame they broke up – one of the nicest tours I’ve ever done was with them. They were a lot of fun.”

When it comes to particular cities or venues he looks forward to visiting, New York, of course, tops the list. “Everybody says ‘Madison Square Garden, oh my God, it’s a nightmare.’ And yeah, it’s a pain but as a venue it’s fantastic – they really have it down.

“It ended up me and Pete [Granger] in the truck, Barrie [Marshall] in the middle, driving over the Alps”

“Chicago’s another great one. A lot of it’s down to the local union or building management. And there are some great buildings around the place: Manchester Arena has always been a great spot, you know, The O2 in London is great. They’re managed well, they’re really good venues. And, of course, a lot of it is down to the promoter.”

Asked about his favourite promoter, the reply is instant. “Barrie Marshall. Who else could it be?” And he recalls one story that he says sums Marshall up. “The Commodores were out on tour and the drum tech got ill,” he says. “When I was with The Rats, I’d set their drumkits and every damn thing. So I got a call from Tag (David Hall) who ran Concert Sound, asking if I was free for the next two weeks.

“So I found myself in Germany with The Commodores, and as their promoter, Barrie was with us. One night, the truck broke down in Mannheim. Barrie found another truck, but they didn’t have a driver. Pete Granger and I were the back-line guys, but we both had artic licences so we volunteered, and because it was nearly two o’clock in the morning and we had a gig in Montreux the next day, there wasn’t another option. So it ended up me and Pete in the truck, Barrie in the middle, driving over the Alps. And he was an absolute gentleman. What other promoter would have got into a truck with the crew? He’s one of a kind.”

UnPhayzed
Trucking comes up a lot in Phay’s history. Frank McGuinness of McGuinness Forwarding tells IQ, “We were in Stockholm, with a triple drive to go to Brussels, but just before load-out, one of the tour drivers became seriously ill, and because of our delayed departure, we were going to fall short of the venue. We discussed the issue with Phay, who in his calm, assertive manner said, ‘Okay, just get the truck away, and I’ll figure out what happens at the other end.’

“At the venue, the next morning, as the truck reversed to the loading door, the driver was heard to say, ‘Come on lazy fuckers, let’s get this truck tipped!’ Phay had met the truck halfway and had become the tour driver overnight. Nothing ever phases him, and he’s always willing to muck in. His door is always open, and he always looks after his crew.”

“Nothing ever phases [Phay], and he’s always willing to muck in”

Production guru Jake Berry also tells a transport story. “We were on a Def Leppard tour and had finished playing St Austell in Cornwall and had to overnight to the Lyceum in London. In the middle of nowhere, the throttle cable broke, so Phay and I rigged the cable so it worked by hand. Picture this: one person driving and changing gears and the other on the throttle cable: the co-ordination was amazing! The motorway was not so bad but driving though London… Well, put it this way, it’s something I will never forget.”

And long-time friend and stage manager Robbie McGrath recalls, “The first time I saw Phay step up to the plate and save the day was on an early Boomtown Rats tour, when half the crew ended up in jail after a wild night’s entertainment in Dublin.

“One guy missing on parade the next morning was the truck driver. We had a 40-footer at the time, and I had no idea how we were going to get the bloody thing from Dublin to Belfast, until Phay perked up and with all the confidence in the world said, ‘I’ll drive it.’

When I arrived in Belfast with the band later that day, the truck was perfectly parked and all the gear unloaded and in the venue. ‘You know, Phay, I never knew you had a HGV licence,’ I said. He hit back: ‘I don’t even have a dog licence… The first time I drove an articulated truck was yesterday at the TV studios when I spun it around the car park.’

“His attitude to work hasn’t really changed because if there’s a job that needs doing, it’s definitely going to get done. He never cuts corners or takes shortcuts and always maintains a happy demeanour,” adds McGrath.

“[Phay’s] attitude to work hasn’t really changed because if there’s a job that needs doing, it’s definitely going to get done”

Indeed, leaving his own Mac Mahon-shape on the business, one of Phay’s proudest achievements is seeing his children, Eoin, Ros and Pearl, forging their own successful careers in the production business.

“I’ve worked with all three and tried to whip them into shape,” he tells IQ. “As Ros said, the worst thing you can do is work with your father because you’re a target – he’s always watching you, and you get it way worse than anybody else. And it’s true. I nearly killed all three of them.

“Anyway, they’re all going out with Ed Sheeran this year; all on the video side,” he reveals. “Eoin is the video crew chief, so he’s also in charge of Ros and Pearl. I feel like I’m missing out, so I’ll probably call Chris Marsh to see if he needs a double driver, so I can get the whole family on it…”

This article originally appeared in Issue 108 of IQ Magazine.

 


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IQ 108 out now: 10 things we learned from the pandemic

IQ 108, the latest issue of the international live music industry’s favourite monthly magazine, is available to read online now.

In the February 2022 edition, IQ talks to a number of business leaders to identify ten key lessons that the pandemic has taught us.

Elsewhere, IQ editor Gordon Masson talks to the recipient of the 2022 Gaffer Award, Phay ‘Phaymous’ Mac Mahon, about his 40-year career and how he became one of the go-to production managers in the international touring business.

This issue also sees Masson talk to experts about the evolving world of virus mitigation and profile ten products and services that are helping to get businesses up and rolling again.

For this edition’s columns and comments, tour manager Suzi Green explains how music industry support group The Back Lounge is helping the community through a new series of timely and topical free workshops and Driift’s Ric Salmon relives the success of The Smile’s live-stream triple header.

In this month’s Your Shout, execs including Marc Geiger (SaveLive), Georg Leitner (Georg Leitner Productions) and Nick Hobbs (Charmenko) reveal the best showcase they’ve ever seen.

As always, the majority of the magazine’s content will appear online in some form in the next four weeks.

However, if you can’t wait for your fix of essential live music industry features, opinion and analysis, click here to subscribe to IQ for just £5.99 a month – or check out what you’re missing out on with the limited preview below:

 


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Tour Managers Not Touring axed after backlash

Tour Managers Not Touring (TNT), a fundraising initiative intended to aid several famous DJs’ out-of-work tour managers, has been quietly pulled following a backlash on social media, where commentators criticised the artists’ apparent reluctance to put their hands in their own pockets.

TNT saw tour managers including Ian Hussey (Carl Cox), Tim ‘Dingo’ Price (Dubfire), Zak (Seth Troxler) and Gabriel Torres (the Martinez Brothers) selling a series of self-made mixes, along with collaborations with the artists with which they work, for a minimum of €5, with all funds going direct to the tour managers involved.

While apparently well intentioned, the idea apparently went down like a cup of cold sick in the dance music world, with electronic music industry figures such as BarkerKornél Kovács, DVS1 and Maceo Plex tweeting their displeasure. “Please give your money to real charities and NOT to rich DJs and their staff,” wrote Plex.

The most widely shared criticism came courtesy of trance producer John Askew, who recorded a now-deleted video rant (rescued by Dutch DJ Cassy) asking why the likes of Cox, Troxler and Nicole Moudaber “aren’t they covering their tour managers’ costs and giving these mixes away for free, or charging money and giving that money to the medical services, the NHS [UK National Health Service] and every other country’s equivalent?”

“Please give your money to real charities and NOT to rich DJs”

“These are guys with multiple millions of pounds, euros, dollars in the bank,” he said, “and they’re asking the general public to keep their tour managers afloat?”

As spotted by Selector, the TNT Bandcamp page went dark shortly after, and the mixes are no longer available to buy.

Cox in turn criticised the backlash, writing on his Facebook page that he has “never seen anything blown so far out of proportion without context” and saying that idea came from the TMs.

“A group of the hardest-working tour managers out there wanted to get creative and have some fun by getting together and seeing who could actually DJ,” he says. “They asked me to support them, as they support us touring DJs week after week throughout the year. All of us did that without too much thought or hesitation through our social media channels and gave them a mix from one of our shows.

“There was no suggestion ever made that this was to cover ‘wages’ – that is simply ridiculous and I feel saddened that this has even been suggested.”

Cox’s comment, however, is at odds with tour manager Tim ‘Dingo’ Price (Dubfire), who on launching the project stated: “Our goal is to release some new and interesting content to help with the #StayHome initiative and also try and gain some financial support for us tour managers during this unfortunate time, as most of us, if not all, are not paid a salary – we are paid per show.”

It remains unclear whether the aforementioned DJs will now be coughing up to support their crew, as John Askew has suggested.

 


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Tour Managers Not Touring release collaborative albums

A group of tour managers for some of the biggest names in dance music have launched Tour Managers Not Touring (TNT), a fundraising initiative intended to support them through the coronavirus shutdown.

With the fate of the 2020 Ibiza season in the balance, TNT – which includes TMs Ian Hussey (Carl Cox), Tim ‘Dingo’ Price (Dubfire), Zak (Seth Troxler) and Gabriel Torres (the Martinez Brothers) – are selling a series of self-made mixes, along with collaborations with the artists with which they work, for a minimum of €5, with all funds going direct to the tour managers involved.

The first release, The Sofa Sessions, is available to purchase on Bandcamp now, with more planned for the weeks ahead.

“It’s an interesting concept to explore the sound of the tour managers in comparison to the sound of the DJs we work with”

“The tour managers in our scene are like one big dysfunctional family,” says Price, whose contribution is a 57-minute mix called ‘The Hour After the After Hour’. A lot of tour managers play themselves and have great musical taste. So we thought this would be a great way to come together, and an interesting concept to explore the sound of the tour managers in comparison to the sound of the DJs we work with.

“Our goal is to release some new and interesting content to help with the #StayHome initiative and also try and gain some financial support for us tour managers during this unfortunate time, as most of us, if not all, are not paid a salary – we are paid per show. This project is being done out of love of music, our scene and the people involved in it.”

 


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The Gaffer 2019: John ‘Lug’ Zajonc

It was a hell of a year for John Zajonc in 2019. Having masterminded Metallica’s massively successful North American tour, within days he found himself in Europe overseeing a build for the band’s arena tour that he’d put together between stadia shows stateside.

But that was child’s play compared with what was about to happen. During a break in the tour schedule, Zajonc travelled to Saudi Arabia to help another long-term client, WWE, prepare for its Super ShowDown event, only to wind up in hospital after a massive electric shock.

“Let’s put it like this; I’m now officially retired as an electrician,” he reports of the incident that would certainly have killed lesser mortals. Thanks to his general levels of fitness, he lived to tell the tale, despite some horrific injuries. “I was electrocuted: 400 volts across my chest and back. The force of the shock  ripped my shoulders out of their sockets and broke them both.”

Within hours, Zajonc checked himself out of hospital and took himself to Amsterdam to resume duties for Metallica. But more on that later…

“I was electrocuted: 400 volts across my chest and back”

The memory remains
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Zajonc loved sport from an early age, playing soccer, baseball, ice hockey and “anything that could get me outdoors.” But it was an indoor pastime that would earn him a place in college. “I won a wrestling scholarship, but the plain fact of the matter was that I hated school, so I dropped out after a year,” the 51-year-old tells IQ. “My dad’s reaction was that if I wasn’t going to study, then I needed to work and start paying my way in life.”

Zajonc recalls some of the many jobs: “I drove a cab, I drove a laundry truck, I worked in construction – just anything to earn money, but I worked really hard. My dad’s mantra was that if I was going to dig ditches then I should be the best damn ditch digger in the world, so that’s what I tried to do.”

Perhaps noting that drive, a friend presented Zajonc with an opportunity to earn some extra money, helping out local firm Capron Lighting & Sound with some concerts. “I did two or three shows and I really liked it, so I stayed and ended up doing their Summertime Anytime beach parties. I just did whatever I was told to do and a guy called Steve Sergeant took me under his wing.”

Wherever I may roam
A couple of years after starting at Capron Sound, Zajonc got itchy feet and decided to give sport another shot.

“That’s the case with most people on the tour circuit – you learn on the job”

“I moved to Florida to become a golf professional,” he says. “It was a hard life and I soon realised that I didn’t have the right connections – I couldn’t find sponsorship and, unlike other people, I couldn’t rely on my family to support me financially, so I moved back to Boston and went back to Capron Lighting & Sound for a while.”

Eager to start moving up the ranks, Zajonc began bombarding people in the business with job requests. “Eventually, a friend at Show Power in California said he would give me a chance if I promised to stop calling him. So in the early 90s, I moved west and started to work on bigger tours.”

As Show Power’s new kid on the block, Zajonc threw himself in at the deep end and made sure he was always on hand to help out, no matter the task. That work ethic paid off.

“I got a job as the cable guy on a Genesis tour,” he recalls. “It was a nice gig as I had no responsibility really. I did that for four or five months, until the final show at Knebworth, but that’s when things really started to take off: from there I was straight on a plane to Hershey for rehearsals with U2, and then I was on the road for months with the Zoo TV tour; then Madonna; and then back to U2 again, and so on.”

“As a production manager, I’m also a part-time therapist, uncle and father to a pretty dysfunctional family”

By the mid-90s, he had worked his way up to electrical crew chief for tours by the likes of U2, the Eagles, Metallica and others. “I’m now certified, but I’m pretty much a self-taught electrician. That’s the case with most people on the tour circuit – you learn on the job – and, thankfully, I’ve worked across every department on the road, so I can turn my hand to most things, if needed.”

Things changed when Show Power was acquired by General Electric. “I had a desk job for a few months, but it really didn’t suit me working for such a big company. They didn’t want me to limit myself to entertainment, but I wasn’t really interested in some of the other stuff they wanted me to do, so it was time to move on.”

Turn the page
In 2001, alongside fellow road warriors Henry Wetzel and Carlos Oldigs, Zajonc established Legacy Power Services to provide concerts and tours with portable power systems and solutions. “Legacy has been great to work on – whenever I’m not out on the road, I’m back in the Legacy building in Las Vegas helping other productions with their electricity needs,” he reveals, talking to IQ from those Nevada premises.

Having amassed more than a decade of touring experience, Zajonc’s next step up the ladder came about when Scott Chase, stage manager for Paul McCartney was sidelined with an injury. “Scott asked me to fill in for him, and I spent the year with McCartney, followed by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill until Tim and his team asked if I would take on the role of production manager.”

 


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“I could see he was a star in the making”: Chris Marsh is the Gaffer 2018

When a small PA company in Wiltshire, UK, took on its latest crew member in 1997, neither party could have imagined the career trajectory that would follow.

From helping tribute acts with their sound requirements in tiny clubs and pubs dotted around the rural west country of England, Chris Marsh has scaled the production crew ladder like a bionic rigger, learning a number of specialist tech roles along the road before finding his way to the exalted level of production manager for, arguably, the biggest star on the planet. “I know that Chris took a significant pay cut to come and work with Ed,” reveals Sheeran’s agent, Jon Ollier at CAA. “But Chris has been integral to everything that Ed does live: even when he started out working with Ed in 2011, he was vastly experienced, so it’s great that we’ve all been able to grow together and achieve everything that we have so far.”

Sheeran ended his 2018 touring commitments in early November when his sold-out North American leg came to an end at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. That gig was his 94th stadium show of 2018, including 25 in North America, 47 in Europe, 12 in Australia, six New Zealand dates and four across Japan and the Philippines. Marsh is already hard at work on the next leg of the tour, which begins in February by dominating the ‘souths’: five shows in South America, four in South Africa, one date in South Korea, and then two in Southeast Asia. From there, the ÷ tour returns to Europe for a mix of 35 outdoor dates – the majority in stadia, but with a couple of festival headline slots and some outdoor greenfield sites thrown in to keep Marsh and his crew on their toes.

Not that those different venue settings keep this year’s Gaffer Award recipient awake at night. “One of our biggest achievements on this tour was when we wrapped up the European shows in Poland, loaded out onto trucks and loaded into two 747s, then played the same show in Los Angeles less than a week later,” says Marsh. “That flexibility is one of the joys of working with a solo act, I guess: we could not have cut it any finer between the Rose Bowl and the shows in Warsaw.”

“Chris has been integral to everything that Ed does live”

Growing up
Born in Southampton, England, and raised in nearby Romsey, Marsh was heavily into music at school and followed his father into the church choir. “I was a chorister at Romsey Abbey from an early age, and I also learned piano and played French horn in the school orchestra, too,” he says. That love of music saw him join a number of bands in his younger days and take on double O-levels in music at South Downs College, where any ambitions of becoming a rock star quickly evaporated. “I discovered at college that I was among a bunch of phenomenal musicians and that I wasn’t good enough. But I started to love the technology side of things and could see another avenue into working in the music business.”

Marsh found work at a small PA company in Salisbury called Midas Sound & Lighting, where he found himself loading and unloading gear for tribute bands and other local acts, while in the summer he would be involved in supplying equipment to small festivals.

Around the same time, in 1999, Marsh met Lars Brogaard and the duo started working together to build an audio subrental company that would eventually become Major Tom Ltd. “It meant that I stopped being on the road so much, but it was great to work with Lars, and we eventually also launched Colonel Tom for the video side of the business and, because of that, I started doing more than just sound. “Lars has been something of a mentor to me – he’s been there from very early on in my career and has put my name forward for some great jobs, so I’m eternally grateful to him and I’m delighted to have him in my corner.”

That feeling is definitely mutual. Brogaard says, “Chris started working with me over 20 years ago when he was just 18 or 19 and he has done fantastic – I’m very proud of him and view him like a son.

“I can remember him telling me that he’d met this young artist that he thought was really special and that we should get involved, so we helped out with equipment on that first Ed Sheeran tour and we’ve been with him ever since.

“Chris is a great production manager and sound engineer and he could get a job with anyone at any time he wants, so I’m beyond happy and grateful that he’s remained as my partner at Major Tom.”

“He’s unflappable in all manner of situations”

Everything has changed
Enjoying his career as a freelance sound engineer, one of Marsh’s early gigs saw him working on a Michael Ball tour, where he witnessed a difficult relationship between the production manager and the artist. “Phil Bowdery was managing Michael and during a conversation with him I just happened to mention that it shouldn’t be that hard to make the artist happy. That’s when Phil suggested I step up to the production manager role, and in 2003, I did my first UK tour around 2,000- to 3,000-seat theatres.”

As president of touring international for Live Nation, Bowdery has nothing but praise for Marsh. “Whenever I want him to work for us, he’s too busy with Ed Sheeran. He’s unflappable in all manner of situations and when you work with Chris, it’s service with a smile.”

Recalling how they first met, Bowdery adds, “Chris was running everything for Lars Brogaard at Major Tom, dealing with the logistics for multiple tours, and it was fairly evident he was a very together guy, as well as a bloody nice bloke.

“He joined us on a Michael Ball tour and did a brilliant job as sound engineer, so I wasn’t surporised that he was also able to take on the role of production manager. I could see he was a star in the making – and now he’s mastered stadium shows. I like Chris a lot – I’ve got all the time in the world for him – and the Gaffer award is well deserved.”

 


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‘A gentleman and true professional’: Tony Gittins is the Gaffer

Like his predecessors, Tony Gittins has something in common with all the winners of IQ’s highest accolade, The Gaffer Award: he never had any intention of becoming a production manager.

His journey, mirroring that of many other Gaffer Award winners, is a tale of being in the right place at the right time; a little bit of luck; and a lot of hard work. “I’d never even heard of a production manager and I hadn’t thought that people other than the band actually made a living out of touring,” confesses Tony. “But I’ve never had another job, so working with bands was my first job. And hopefully it will be my last.”

Born and raised in Middlesbrough, Tony grew up in a family with teachers as parents: “But nobody in my family was in any way connected with music.”

London’s calling
Leaving school during a time of deep recession, the prospects for teenage Tony were limited. “Unemployment in the north-east of England was really high. My choices were to either move somewhere else, or join the army like my older brother. So I moved to London.”

Jobless and relying on the kindness of friends who had made similar migratory journeys to find work, Tony found himself dossing on people’s floors and couches in west London. His quest to find gainful employment proved tricky, so to repay the favour for his makeshift accommodation, he offered to help his flatmates with their amps and instruments. “I had some friends in a band called Big Boy Tomato, so I’d help them set up their gear,” recalls Tony. And the rest is history…

“A good production manager or a good stage manager is a jack of all trades, master of none”

Despite not being part of any concrete plan, Tony’s voluntary act to become an unpaid stagehand caught the eye of other bands on the punk circuit – a fortuitous move for a man whose favourite band is “a toss up between the Ramones and the Clash.”

“Before I knew it, I was working with other acts like UK Subs and travelling around Europe with them. And because they were punk bands, luckily they didn’t notice I had no musical ability whatsoever, so I kind of got away with it,” laughs Tony. “My favourite band of the moment is Sleaford Mods, so I think it’s fair to say I’m still a punk rocker at heart.”

Although he quickly found himself trading the comfort of a sofa for the ‘glamour’ of life in a splitter van, Tony remained unfazed as he became used to waking up in a new place each day. He soon realised that he had found a job that was not the 9–5 career that many of his friends had chosen, but which allowed him to have fun with like-minded souls, while travelling to cities that he would never even have thought about otherwise.

Life on the road suited him well, but in an effort to find more regular pay cheques, Tony began working as a stagehand for Stage Miracles. “I started working as local crew – I think my first show was at Wembley Arena,” he says. “I stayed on local crew for about four or five years and then started working on rigging for them, probably for about another five years.”

“I hadn’t thought that people other than the band actually made a living out of touring”

Tony believes that being part of local crew was a crucial ingredient in the recipe for him becoming a well-rounded crew leader. “A good production manager or a good stage manager is a jack of all trades, master of none. But we need to have a good grounding in each department so that we can know what we can ask of people.

“Being at Stage Miracles was massive for me,” he tells IQ. “I was able to learn what local crews do, but I also got an education in working with lights, sound and video, so I was fortunate enough to get an all-round apprenticeship.”

Comparing his schooling to what is happening in today’s production sector, he states, “I’m not so sure that these college and university courses give the grounding and background that you learn by simply being part of a local crew.”

He adds, “One worrying element is that there are now people coming in to the business that do not have the experience of working on tour production. That’s a problem that, if we’re not careful, could result in things getting more dangerous.”

 


 Read the rest of this feature, along with testimonials from Depeche Mode, SJM Concerts, Brit Row Live Nation, Sensible Events and more, in issue 75 of IQ Magazine:

The Gaffer 2016: Bill Leabody

In 1977, with Britain deep in the grip of one of its worst post-war recessions, young construction trainee, Bill Leabody, decided to take a break from the building site to become a roadie for a few months. Gordon Masson learns just how Bill reached the top of the production ladder during his 40-year sabbatical…

As The Gaffer for 2016, Bill Leabody joins an elite list of winners that includes Jake Berry, Chris Kansy, Jesse Sandler, Jason Danter, Wob Roberts and Arthur Kemish. In addition to being production wizards, at the top of their game, that group also share something else in common – none of them set out to become a production manager.

For Leabody, his route into music was entirely fortuitous, as the 61 year old admits that he cannot play any musical instruments. “I can’t play a single chord on a guitar,” he laughs – despite being a tech for the likes of The Edge down the years. “Oh sure, as long as it’s plugged into a tuner, I can tune a guitar,” he says. “But back in 1977, I don’t think anyone who went to a gig by The Damned would have noticed if the guitar wasn’t properly tuned.”

However, his love affair with music has been life-long. “My sister used to take me to the Gin Mill Club in Godalming. I saw Genesis there. They were like the local band because they were at Charterhouse School, so I saw them first when I was about 14 – something I was only too happy to tell Peter Gabriel about when I worked on his tours.”

After four decades in the business, one thing Bill can profess to being is one of the world’s best production managers – a fact that current employers, Coldplay, took advantage of five years ago when they persuaded him to take on the gaffer role for their Mylo Xyloto stadium tour.

“For Coldplay, we’ve all been working with them for a long time and everyone wants to push the envelope to make each show better and better.”

“I’d known Bill for years and he’s a legend, so when the position became available in our world, he was at the top of my wish list,” says the band’s manager, Dave Holmes. “Bill has a very even temperament and is never rattled by anything. He’s extremely well liked by the crew and the band and always has solutions, which is vitally important for a production manager.”

And when it comes to touring acts, there aren’t too many who are more demanding – in a positive way – than Coldplay. “They are very ambitious: I don’t think people quite understand that,” reports Bill. “They are determined to put on spectacular shows and groundbreaking tours, so it’s a pleasure to work with such creative minds.

“Coldplay have a tendency to change their minds about things at the last minute, but that’s just one of the challenges that you have to expect when working with great artists and it happens with most bands. I think it’s because a lot of acts don’t understand drawings and when they see the reality of a creative plan in the actual production, they want to change things so that it matches the expectations of their vision. It puts a lot of pressure on everyone working in the crew when that happens, but for Coldplay, we’ve all been working with them for a long time and everyone wants to push the envelope to make each show better and better.”

 


Read the rest of this feature in issue 69 of IQ Magazine


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