The Gaffer_Phay Mac Mahon
Testimonials What can I possibly say about Phay that can be printed?! I can’t actually remember the first time I met him but do remember thinking ‘So that’s the infamous Phay Mac Mahon.’ I have never personally witnessed or been a part of any of the renowned shenanigans or skulduggery but, as everyone knows, they are legendary. To combine all that with his undoubtable skills, as not only a production manager but in lighting and design, and let’s not forget his power of recovery from the previous night, makes him a true legend and giant personality in our business. This is well deserved and long overdue. Arthur Kemish | Anak Production Company My only regret is that I only got to work with Phay for the first time a few years ago. I wish I had worked with him a lot more and a lot sooner. We started working together on a pretty complicated deal, together with a client in Colombia right before Covid, and despite the madness that surrounded it, Phay never changed and nothing seemed to rattle him – remarkable. We got through that, the tour continued and went into Chile and Argentina, but three dates into the Mexican segment, the world shut down. The tour we were working on was a very big production but Phay was able to move this around effortlessly. He told us what he needed in terms of time to move equipment, and once we gave him this in the routing, he just took care of the rest. I think he’s truly one of the greats. I adore the man. Chris Dalston | CAA I’d known Phay for over 40 years and watched his career blossom to eventually becoming the legend he is today, being one of the top handful of go-to PMs in the biz. Phay has a very even temperament and is never rattled even when threats of guns are mentioned, but that is another story best told by Phay himself. He’s extremely well liked by the band and crew alike and always ready with a solution to any problem that may arise. I am so proud of Phay receiving this well-deserved acknowledgement. Paul Newman | Clair Global
cause 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.” 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
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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. “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
Charlie Hernandez and Phay paying a visit to John ‘Lug’ Zajonc
No evil: Jake Berry, Rock-it Global’s Justin Carbone, and Phay
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 basical- of Thousands ly set up in an hour. It had its own sound-system, professionals read lights built into the roof. Turn on the generator IQ every day. Make and there it was: a gig in a box that we'd toget car the suretake you parks and football fields and stuff like that.”
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