image of Madonna courtesy of the Hospitality Broker
The music industry at the top has become a branch of Hollywood, mega spectacles that are visually and sonically breathtaking. An artist or band who makes it to the super elite of A-listers become demigods in a parallel universe, performing in coliseums in extravagant sets costing millions of dollars.
No more piling your equipment into a transit van and hauling your arse up the highways from town to town, barely covering the fuel and cheap good, for a cut of the takings, if any.
Shows costs millions to put on. A top’s artist’s tour is put together with the intellectual and physical toil of hundreds of people, from artists and managers to roadies and logistics staff. The elaborate stages, lights and other equipment, are the foundations of the mega- performance. They too travel the world with the artists on tour which has to be long enough to recover the initial set up and design costs. Add to the entourage, publicists, personal assistants, voice coaches, guitar techs, choreographers and dressers.
It’s more than a travelling show. It’s self contained universe. Logistical feasibility is one of the major deciding factors of creating a tour schedule.
Taking the show on the road
Rock bands typically transport their shows, equipment, and personnel using tour buses and trucks. Tour buses are large, customized vehicles that are designed to provide comfortable sleeping and living accommodations for the band and crew, as well as space for storing equipment and instruments. These buses can be equipped with features such as sleeping berths, lounge areas, kitchens, and bathrooms.
The logistics of entertainment differentiates from ordinary freight in that there is no margin of error for delays, damage or scheduling overlap. The planning starts many months even years before with site inspections of the tour locations.
The best mode of transportation is then meticulously plotted out for every stop on the tour, taking into account the size of the stage and to equipment needed. The bigger acts can fill several trucks with their instrumentation, even before the speakers, rigging and stage structures are factored in. Add to that lighting, video, maintenance, and catering equipment. The intricate stage sets also need to be assembled, dismantled, packed & transported from venue to venue, starting as soon as the artists have left the stage and the audience sent back out into the night, and the load out starts. There might be as many as a hundred trucks driving in following a strict order, timed with logistic perfection.
It is not uncommon for several companies to share the loads as mega sets can require upto 120 trucks to move the stage, the screen, the lights, the speakers from venue to venue. Beyonce’s tour needed needed 7 Boeing 747 cargo planes, to transport all the stage equipment across countries.
On top of the physical movement through borders, clearance agents must handle the customs and carnets with zero margins of error. Every item has to be inventorised and accounted for. Concert equipment is packed in custom made cases – often hundreds of them, hand carried from trucks into the arena by locally hired roadies.
Custom made trucks with padded walls and nooks protect the equipment. For air freight, wide bodied aircraft have to be chartered to accommodate the stage rigging. For international tours, the success of a show hinges on the smooth and timely clearance of the band’s equipment. Bad weather, disgruntled customs officers, paperwork errors can kaibosh a show and set back the tour hundreds of thousands of dollars. To save money, some events have identical stages shipped by sea in 40 foot containers.
When the equipment arrives at a venue, it is set up in a well rehearsed sequence- rigging, stage set, lighting, video, and audio in order. The band gear is then brought in and the sound check can begin.
Some artists usually have two or even exact sets of gear moving simultaneously . So when an event is being set up for a show in city A, the other crew is en route to the city B, already setting up for the next show.
The elaborate stage are works of art – the one for U2’s 360 ° Tour took 7 days to set up
It is not unusual for concert tours to have crews of over 100 people. The core staff includes riggers, carpenters, caterers, security, technicians, electricians and drivers. All the support staff and their equipment has to be moved, while making accommodations and food arrangements. Paul McCartney had a support staff of 130 people while on tour, including his own team of vegetarian caterers.
Logistics companies are often given a lead time of 3–6 months to route the artist’s cargo. However, bands and artists often add venues and festivals during tour which have to be fulfilled with a little as a week’s lead time.
A logistics company has to have in depth knowledge of the band’s equipment to ensure ensuring smooth paperwork for customs. Wrong documentation can cause delays which in turn can lead to cancellations.
The artists themselves have to be treated with kid gloves. On stage there is little space for improvisation, no Grateful Dead free flowing solos. Every note is prepared, every moment choreographed, every light effect calculated to the second. The performers look for familiarity in unknown environments by adopting routines and if these are broken, tantrums and meltdowns follow. Personal staff have to liaise closely with logistics team to minimise the gulf between the artist’s musical creativity and the unforgiving logic of staging a mega-performance.
The costs of a tour are enormous, running into several millions. When an artist is engaged for a private event – in Dubai, say – the astronomical fees charged have to cover the logistics costs for one night in a country and the distances covered to get the whole show set up.
Tantrums
It’s a pressure cooker. Rock stars may offset the stress by indulging in extreme behaviour and throwing tantrums, particularly those who are at the top their game and have achieved stellar success in the music industry. They throw tantrums, exploding in outbursts of anger, throwing objects, yelling at band members or crew, and even committing acts of physical violence.
There are many factors that can contribute to rock star tantrums, including the pressures of touring, the demands of the music industry, and the intense scrutiny that comes with being a celebrity. Some musicians struggle with addiction, mental health issues, or other personal problems that can trigger their behaviour. Female stars have pre-menstrual tension to deal with in an environment that demands scheduled timed to perfection and physically demanding performances.
The days of free flow improv have gone- no more extended guitar solos where the lead guitarists gets to show off their chops, no more dum solos. And the bad boy behaviour of bands such as Led Zeppelin, which by today’s standards was abuse, is no longer tolerated by the record companies who are highly brand conscious. The industry is less misogynist than it was in days of classic rock.
And lastly, the groupies. This phenomenon was very much of an age when a touring band spent months on the road, and events were often spontaneous. The roadies were a medium for channeling female (and male) ‘temporary friendship’ into the artist’s changing rooms through a back stage pass. The artists also had the front row selection of adoring fans. Some legendary rock acts operating in a male macho environment indulged in under age sexual activity which today would see them locked up. Groupies saw themselves as muses. In all likelihood they were abused.
Given the huge budgets and meticulous logistic and marketing planning required, artists now live in a bubble, with little unplanned contact with the local environment, with a routine of plane, limo, dressing room, and hotel, plus the Instagram shots. They have a huge entourage now, family and friends, with a protective circle around them secured by record company managers who like to keep it clean and scandal-free. Whereas bad behaviour was tolerated and even encouraged in the early days of the super rock and roll tours, now that music is corporate, a new morality applies, the Instagram morality of influencers with the aid of record company and tour promoters. When a new band or artist breaks through into the Big League, their local entourage of friends and groupies, both male and female, are left behind for a new set of collaborators. Backstage passes are given out by record company managers to other celebrities. Nothing is left to chance. The random comfort of strangers is an exception now, not a rule.
Neil Young once sang; Hey, hey, Rock and Roll will never die. Rock and Roll hasn’t died but it has gotten very expensive.
