Obituary
INDUSTRY MOURNS PRODUCTION GREATS The international live music industry lost two of its best-loved production personalities during April.
R
ichard Young, the British production manager known for his work with Radiohead and Adele, passed away aged 47 on 23 April, after being diagnosed with cancer. Young began his production career in the 90s, having formed Catapult Productions in 1993, and cut his teeth working with Radiohead, succeeding Brian Ormond as the band’s production manager in 2003. After getting his break with Radiohead, he went on to serve in similar roles for a who’s who of rock and pop, including Pink, Nine Inch Nails, Dido, Duran Duran, Will Young, Lorde, and Adele, serving as PM for the record-breaking Adele Live 2016 tour. When lockdown came in March 2020, he was on tour with The 1975, who had just wrapped up their European tour in Dublin.
8
iq-mag.net
Creative Technology’s head of music and touring, Graham Miller, says Young was “the master of asking the difficult technical questions, so you really had to be on your game – which I loved! He really wanted to understand every element of his incredibly technical productions. I even remember Richard getting involved in our LED load-in in rehearsals, just to understand how it all worked better.” “He was an inspiring guy – the best at what he did but still had the capacity to constantly think of other business opportunities or take a slanted view of how things were being done and ask if they could be done in a different better way,” adds Miller. “Richard, I will miss you.” Torsten Block, who worked with Young in 2007 on a Pink show in Germany, remembers the late PM as a welcome antidote to the “difficult people” he usually worked with at the time.
“[He was] different: friendly, goal-oriented, and every time calm and relaxed,” he writes. Ella Yelich-O’Connor, better known as the singer Lorde, spoke of feeling “such warmth, kindness and mischief coming from the tall Englishman” who helped her build “such beautiful things. He brought so many of my dreams to life, with such care and commitment. I’ll always remember that about him,” she says. Tour director Ken Watts passed away suddenly during the weekend of 10-11 April. Colleagues, friends, and artists paid tribute to Watts, who worked on the very first Wham! tour in 1983, as well as with artists such as Michael Flatley, Spandau Ballet, Susan Boyle, George Michael, Natalie Imbruglia, Bond, Blues Brothers, Jamiroquai and Duran Duran. Dennis Gardner, production manager for Cat Stevens, says Watts was “an industry legend and a personal hero of mine. I have learnt and continue to learn from Ken and the way he approached everything he did with heart, a heavy dose of common sense and, as ever, a wonderful sense of humour. “He always had time for his crew, not just the close ones but everyone, and made sure they were always respected, cared for, and felt like they belonged,” he continues. “[H]e has been so much more than a tour manager to his touring family.” Watts, veteran PM Wob Roberts adds, was “one of the industry’s mega-personalities, who will be greatly missed.”
