Fact #146447
When:
Short story:
The Rolling Stones begin their European Tour 1973 with a show at The Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria, Europe.Full article:
Brian Croft (director, ESP, touring company for Stones' tours) : The whole concept of The Stones' tour was determined by Chip (production manager, Chip Monk), his idea being that if they walk on to the same stage every night, with every mike-stand, amplifier, lead and light in the same place as it was the night before, the band are in a comfortable position to get off and get the audience off without having to worry about adjusting to a different stage.
Mick Jagger is a total professional and it's what he wants. This idea has been going for years in theatre, so why not rock'n'roll? It's about the only industry which can afford presentation, so it should be done right. People don't like bands tuning up for hours on end, and roadies darting across the stage - we've had that for years.
There were probably 100 people on the road, including Billy Preston's guys, the record company people, the recording mobile crew, and everybody else who had a job to do. The nearest comparison to The Stones' organisation is probably the army - everyone has a job to do and they do it.
It was a very international team this time, but they all worked together beautifully. It's only when there's no work to do that they start bitching.
We took about thirty tons of gear, transported in three articulated trucks. The band usually played every second day, leaving the middle day for travelling. Playing what we call back-to-backs - successive nights - are killers and you might be working solidly for 48 hours before you'd get a two-hour sleep.
The crew usually travelled in a bus or, for long-distance gigs, took a plane.
We'd arrive at the hall at about 8am on the day of the concert, then work all through the day getting everything ready for sound-checks about 6pm. The concert would start at 8pm.
It's really a team of specialists, with an ace electrician to handle the wiring, a guy who's not afraid of heights to climb the rigs, a doctor to see everybody's OK - there'd be no time to send anyone to a hospital - two security guys to look after the boys and also make sure the local security don't get heavy with the kids. There's even a make-up man, Pierre Laroche, who goes out front to make sure The Stones look good.
All the onstage gear - the American Ampeg equipment - is looked after by Ian Stewart, their road manager, and Rick Mandella from Ampeg. There were two guys from (PA company) Tycobrahe, and they looked to me for labour to set the PA system up.
When they go on tour, they take a guy called Newman Jones III, who builds guitars in Maryland, Arkansas. His job is to look after the guitars and tune them before the show, and he's absolutely vital. During the show he sits behind the amps, tuning Keith's guitars with a strobe, all in different keys for different numbers.
The rest of the crew were general purpose and, after setting up the drapes, floor, tongue logos, special effects and lights, they'd operate them.
Before they go on, the band and the horn players have a sort of jam and warm-up session, in a room off-stage, and about five minutes before they're due on, the instruments are rushed onstage and left by the amps. Then it's 'Ladies and Gentlemen - The Rolling Stones' and they're straight on and into the first number, with none of that coughing and tune-up bit.
The only thing that gets on Mick's nerves is other people's cock-ups - he hates amateurism. I was with legitimate theatre for fifteen years and the touring problems are the same.
The thing that hadn't been seen before in Europe was the mirror, devised by Chip Monk and built in the UK. It was made of plastic, 40ft wide and hung at 45 degrees over the stage, the idea being that it's a tremendous drag lifting heavy super-trooper lights up millions of stairs and mounting them high up when they can be situated on the floor behind the gear and shone through the mirror onto the band.
It's also a tremendously exciting effect, because the kids can see eight powerful beams coming from behind the stage and the band lit up in front.
There are another eighty lights, all 1000-watt jobs, sealed beam, like car headlights, mounted in a box beam truss, which is on a hydraulic ram. When everything is ready, you just push a button and up it goes. Then a guy just climbs up a ladder and focuses them.
Afterwards, everything would be loaded up again, usually in the early hours, to be driven on to the next hall. It's all very well organised, so that nobody is redundant at any time.
(Source : interview in Beat Instrumental, December 1973)
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Mick Jagger is a total professional and it's what he wants. This idea has been going for years in theatre, so why not rock'n'roll? It's about the only industry which can afford presentation, so it should be done right. People don't like bands tuning up for hours on end, and roadies darting across the stage - we've had that for years.
There were probably 100 people on the road, including Billy Preston's guys, the record company people, the recording mobile crew, and everybody else who had a job to do. The nearest comparison to The Stones' organisation is probably the army - everyone has a job to do and they do it.
It was a very international team this time, but they all worked together beautifully. It's only when there's no work to do that they start bitching.
We took about thirty tons of gear, transported in three articulated trucks. The band usually played every second day, leaving the middle day for travelling. Playing what we call back-to-backs - successive nights - are killers and you might be working solidly for 48 hours before you'd get a two-hour sleep.
The crew usually travelled in a bus or, for long-distance gigs, took a plane.
We'd arrive at the hall at about 8am on the day of the concert, then work all through the day getting everything ready for sound-checks about 6pm. The concert would start at 8pm.
It's really a team of specialists, with an ace electrician to handle the wiring, a guy who's not afraid of heights to climb the rigs, a doctor to see everybody's OK - there'd be no time to send anyone to a hospital - two security guys to look after the boys and also make sure the local security don't get heavy with the kids. There's even a make-up man, Pierre Laroche, who goes out front to make sure The Stones look good.
All the onstage gear - the American Ampeg equipment - is looked after by Ian Stewart, their road manager, and Rick Mandella from Ampeg. There were two guys from (PA company) Tycobrahe, and they looked to me for labour to set the PA system up.
When they go on tour, they take a guy called Newman Jones III, who builds guitars in Maryland, Arkansas. His job is to look after the guitars and tune them before the show, and he's absolutely vital. During the show he sits behind the amps, tuning Keith's guitars with a strobe, all in different keys for different numbers.
The rest of the crew were general purpose and, after setting up the drapes, floor, tongue logos, special effects and lights, they'd operate them.
Before they go on, the band and the horn players have a sort of jam and warm-up session, in a room off-stage, and about five minutes before they're due on, the instruments are rushed onstage and left by the amps. Then it's 'Ladies and Gentlemen - The Rolling Stones' and they're straight on and into the first number, with none of that coughing and tune-up bit.
The only thing that gets on Mick's nerves is other people's cock-ups - he hates amateurism. I was with legitimate theatre for fifteen years and the touring problems are the same.
The thing that hadn't been seen before in Europe was the mirror, devised by Chip Monk and built in the UK. It was made of plastic, 40ft wide and hung at 45 degrees over the stage, the idea being that it's a tremendous drag lifting heavy super-trooper lights up millions of stairs and mounting them high up when they can be situated on the floor behind the gear and shone through the mirror onto the band.
It's also a tremendously exciting effect, because the kids can see eight powerful beams coming from behind the stage and the band lit up in front.
There are another eighty lights, all 1000-watt jobs, sealed beam, like car headlights, mounted in a box beam truss, which is on a hydraulic ram. When everything is ready, you just push a button and up it goes. Then a guy just climbs up a ladder and focuses them.
Afterwards, everything would be loaded up again, usually in the early hours, to be driven on to the next hall. It's all very well organised, so that nobody is redundant at any time.
(Source : interview in Beat Instrumental, December 1973)