BLUE SKY TOURING: On The Road with Jeff Lynne's ELO

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BLUE SKY TOURING ON THE ROAD WITH JEFF LYNNE’S ELO

by Mark Cunningham

34 GUITAR MAN Meet Morten Thobro: Mr. Lynne’s personal guitar technician.

06 STEPPIN’ OUT Introducing Chris Vaughan & Richard ‘Wez’ Wearing – the dynamic production duo.

41 TOOLS OF THE TRADE A round-up of the remainder of the band’s essential stage kit.

14 BLUE SKY SOUND Live audio mix masters Gary Bradshaw & Steve Lutley reveal the secrets behind their wizardry.

48 SHINE A LITTLE LIGHT How a feast for the eyes is designed and operated.

24 IN PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE Jeff Lynne’s studio engineer Steve Jay talks about how recording at Bungalow Palace informs his live work.

62 A TALE OF TWO SPACESHIPS Forty years apart, the iconic ELO crafts of the cosmos are analysed.

32 THE SET LIST ...and where to find the songs.

68 DINNER IS SERVED In the kitchen with Rockpool Tour Catering.

‘BLUE SKY TOURING On The Road With JEFF LYNNE’S ELO’ is a Liveculture publication

Interviews, Text & Design: Mark Cunningham / Liveculture © 2019 Liveculture Music Ltd

Photography © Mark Cunningham, Liveculture Archives, Doug Kovach, Melissa Ness, Per Otto Oppi Christiansen, DiGiCo, TRLD & jefflynneselo.com

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BLUE SKY TOURING is published by Liveculture Music Limited. Copyright © 2019 Liveculture Music Limited. All contents of this publication are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, in any form whatsoever, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publishers. Every effort is taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this publication but neither Liveculture Music Limited, nor the Editor, can be held responsible for its contents or any consequential loss or damage resulting from information published. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Publishers or Editor. All efforts have been made to contact the owners of all images used within this publication and request permission to reproduce them. Please make contact via the Liveculture website if your image has been used, mistakenly or otherwise, without license. The Publishers accept no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, illustrations, advertising materials or artwork.

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The front of house view at show time; O2 Arena, London; October 18th 2018.

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STEPPIN’ OUT

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It’s 1.00pm when I wander into the empty arena, its eerie silence belying the rapturous excitement that will saturate the space just a few hours later when Jeff Lynne’s ELO graces a sold-out crowd of 20,000.

Heading backstage into the production office, there to greet me are two familiar gentlemen – tour production director Chris Vaughan and production manager Richard ‘Wez’ Wearing – who have been working together on concert tours since 1993. Their combined roll call of credits, from Take That, Muse, New Order and the Manic Street Preachers, to Kanye West, Beyoncé, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, reads like an encyclopaedia of rock and pop.

Since Jeff Lynne first stepped back into the live limelight in 2013, Chris has remained the first point of contact for all things production-related. He explains how one of his long-time clients was instrumental in getting the ELO brand back in front of audience after a prolonged absence.

“We became involved with Jeff in 2013 when he came to play at the Children In Need Rocks show at Hammersmith Apollo that we were producing for Gary Barlow and the BBC,” says Chris, who heads CV Productions. “In order to present a seamless evening of entertainment without lots of changeovers, we mainly structured it around a house band and an orchestra who would accompany most of the performers.

“We asked Mike Stevens to be musical director and the core of the band was essentially the same that tours with Take That. Jeff has been a guest performer at a number of high-profile, one-off shows but he hadn’t toured since the mid-’80s. When Jeff arrived to rehearse with this band, he enjoyed the experience so much that he began to think that performing live might actually be fun again.

“After receiving a tumultuous reaction to his closing two-song set, Jeff was interviewed by Chris Evans on his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show and was asked if he was going to play any more live shows. Typical of his humility, Jeff replied that he didn’t think anybody would attend. But the feedback from listeners was so profound that Jeff agreed to give it a try and the result

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Chris Vaughan (left) and Richard ‘Wez’ Wearing.

was the triumphant, sold out Hyde Park show in September 2014, for which 50,000 tickets were sold in less than 15 minutes. It was an incredible concert that was simply but tastefully produced.

Tim Routledge did some beautiful lighting; we used a semi-circular screen and had the bonus of the BBC Concert Orchestra as well as the Take That band who have been there for him ever since.

“This was the springboard for an entirely new chapter in Jeff’s career from which came Alone In 8

The Universe, his first new ELO album in 14 years, his very successful 2016 arena tour and one of the most popular Glastonbury sets in the festival’s history. ELO’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was followed by the Wembley Stadium event in June 2017, which was the icing on the cake.”

What began as a comeback has now become firmly established in the present tense. Although there may have been an expectation from some quarters that the Wembley Stadium show might

have signified the end of the artist’s spectacular resurgence, Chris is confident that there is still plenty to come.

“I think that as long as it remains enjoyable for Jeff, he will continue, and there are already firm plans for 2019,” he comments. “People want to hear him play these wonderful songs and the demand for tickets shows absolutely no sign of slowing down. We feel very lucky to be a part of this because Jeff’s contribution to music and his influence is wider than one could even hope to measure.”

PLANNING While Chris is heavily involved during the planning stage and occasionally visits the tour, while Wez is a daily organisational presence throughout the entire schedule, with assistance from Zoe Buttling and Laura Shotton.

Chris was amongst the first generation of production managers to deal with the changing tides of music industry commerce after the dawn of the millennium. He comments: “Whereas we once relied on record labels to fund tours and promote their artists’ new releases, touring itself is now music’s biggest income generator, and that’s obviously great for people in my position,” he replies. “Productions have become bigger because artists are having to play larger venues to keep up with demand. There is also

GETTING STARTED Linked with Take That from the beginning of their rise to global fame, Chris Vaughan has notched up well over 250 tours with some of the world’s biggest artists, but it was Scots rockers Nazareth who were responsible for Chris’s initial road stripes.

“It was pure happenstance,” he says. “Nazareth’s manager had a son at my school and when I asked if I might be able to borrow some of their equipment for my band, he agreed, on the condition that I could rally some of my friends to help unload the trucks when they returned from the next European tour. One thing led to another and I was soon touring with them as an assistant to the tour manager.

“Once I became acclimatised to the unglamorous lifestyle, I secured my next work through word of mouth and so it went on.

I was asked to do Take That’s first theatre tour because their tour manager had seen my work on a Gary Glitter show and, of course, Take That led to Jeff Lynne.

“Wez and I have worked together for 25 years so we should be giving each other gold watches by now. After Beyoncé, I came off the road and now rely on Wez who is very happy to climb out of his bunk somewhere nasty at 6.00am. I’m rather envious that he got to tour with the reunited Sex Pistols in 2008. Mind you, I was in Cuba with the Manic Street Preachers when they met Fidel Castro, which was extraordinary, so I can hardly complain.”

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Left: Show & lighting designer Tim Routledge.

ments and account back to the artist at the end of the day. It’s a very complete production service that covers creative input, technical delivery and financial management.

“From the artist’s point of view, it’s a very clean one-stop shop that carries a lot of advantages in terms of presentation and how you deal with dull subjects like withholding taxes, because it’s all managed as a separate entity to the acts themselves. This has become a smooth process for us and it’s how we’ll be running Take That’s next tour.”

greater pressure on crew and supplying companies to work harder, quicker and more efficiently so that overheads are kept to a sensible minimum, and this, in turn, has encouraged technology manufacturers to also play their part by developing kit that improves performance.”

At the start of a new project, CV Productions agrees with the artist’s manager – in Jeff Lynne’s case, Craig Fruin of CSM Management – which proportion of the overall estimated income needs to be set aside for design and production, and then produce a budget for approval.

Says Chris: “After that sum is wired to CV, we set the tour up, contract our suppliers, make the pay-

SOURCING THE SERVICES Some of the most prolific companies in the business are involved in this latest tour. They include live sound production vendor Skan Hire, Neg Earth (lighting), ER Productions (lasers), Brilliant Stages (staging), Video Design (video), Transam (trucking), Phoenix (tour buses), EFM (freight handling) and Rockpool (catering).

In total, there are 14 trucks on the road and, unlike many tours, the main production suppliers remained onboard for both the North American leg in the summer and the European shows.

Wez explains: “Whilst it is expensive to ship from one side of the Atlantic to the other, we were under considerable pressure due to the band’s commitments in the UK that led right into the start of Jeff’s American tour. There was hardly any time in between and the only way to get any proper production rehearsals was to set up everything in Neg Earth’s LH2 production facility in Park Royal, west London, then ship it straight to the States.

“We feel very lucky to be a part of this because Jeff’s contribution to music and his influence is wider than one could even hope to measure.”

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“The week we finished at LH2, the band flew to L.A. for a month of rehearsals with Jeff whilst everything was being shipped over, then we flew out to join the tour in Oakland. We were hitting the ground running as soon as we landed, with just one set-up day before the first show, which was why it was so important to have done all the groundwork at LH2.

“If we had chosen different sets of suppliers in America and Europe, we would certainly have required more rehearsal time and we didn’t have that luxury. It meant that we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel when we came back to Europe, by which time the show was very fine-tuned. There are more important considerations than just equipment, of course; it’s the people who make it all work and every single crew member on this tour knows their job inside out.”

At each new venue on the itinerary, the day begins with a 7.00am load-in call which is completed in two hours. The riggers install 63 rigging points in the roof to cope with around 39 tonnes of production equipment, and Brilliant Stages’ ingenious, rolling stage system – introduced for the 2016 arena tour – is brought in and moved into position.

“This stage was custom built to accommodate Video Design’s LED tiles in the deck and both companies worked together very closely to develop the end product,” informs Wez. “We then added our own stairs and ramps, and it’s a very effective system that the crew can load in and out pretty quickly.

“The content that appears on the screens is replicated on the stage floor and that works brilliantly for people in the higher seats. A lot of the venues are sold 240° so, rather than distract members of the audience with desks and working lights, we create bunkers for the backline and monitor worlds. It just gives everything a cleaner look and as soon as the rolling stage is hooked up to the bunkers, everything is ready for a line check.”

Most of the tour’s creative design is based on Tim Routledge and Misty Buckley’s work for the Wembley Stadium show but with significant differences, such as the circular truss and the absence of a rather large stage prop. The spaceship that was built for 2017’s stadium production is sadly too large and heavy to fit into this arena set. It therefore remains in storage awaiting another outdoor extravaganza.

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ON THE RECORD

AND OUT OF THIS WORLD 13

PA technician Joachim Dewulf (left) and front of house sound engineer Gary Bradshaw at the DiGiCo SD7 mixing console.

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BLUE SKY

SOUND

GARY BRADSHAW & STEVE LUTLEY discuss the routes to achieving great live audio in the arena and on stage.

A professional audio engineer since 1979, Gary Bradshaw is respected throughout the music industry as one of the leading technicians behind the evolution of modern live sound. Being one of Chris Vaughan’s regular go-to front of house engineers, Gary was invited to mix ELO’s big Hyde Park show and he continues to shape Jeff Lynne’s sound on tour.

“It was an honour to work on that Hyde Park gig and I was so happy that Jeff was knocked out by it, particularly the response,” says Gary. “I know this was the catalyst behind his renaissance as a touring act but the huge leaps in audio technology that we’ve experienced in recent years have also been influential.

“When ELO toured in the ’70s and early ’80s, live sound was still growing up; the frequency range of PA systems was limited and certainly on-stage monitoring wasn’t remotely sophisticated. So when Jeff came back, he was blown away by the sheer quality and depth of sound that he was hearing, It really took him by surprise and it was one of the main deciding factors behind his full-scale return.”

Although the timing wasn’t right when Jeff Lynne took tentative steps to relaunch ELO in 2001, it was

a different story 12 years later when it seemed that the whole world had reminded itself of the priceless catalogue that Jeff had created with his former band.

“The songs were wonderful back then but for some reason their popularity has soared recently,” says Gary. “From my perspective, the songs are arranged so well and played so brilliantly by this band, that they almost mix themselves. There’s nothing getting in the way – although there’s a lot going on, there is still plenty of space.

“Some artists go out of their way to change the character of a famous song when performing live, sometimes to the extent of making them virtually unrecognisable. Jeff’s brief from the outset, however, was to get as close to the record as possible and that required an extraordinary amount of band rehearsal time at Cato Music in Wimbledon.

“A lot of effort went into getting the right sounds from each individual instrument and then, of course, ensuring that the arrangements were perfect, so most of the hard work is done onstage.

I’m not doing anything fancy from the point of view of the mix but it has required a lot of attention from Mike Stevens, who has done a sterling job.

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The DiGiCo SD7 console.

Six people, including Jeff, are singing and there are some incredible goosebumps moments such as the a cappella section in ‘Wild West Hero’ that sounds unbelievably close to the record. There are complicated parts and the way they all weave and out is a joy to hear.”

For Hyde Park, the band rehearsed for almost two weeks before the frontman’s arrival, by which time everyone was completely up to speed with the music. Gary: “Jeff came in and stood in the area where I was mixing, and before he even introduced himself, he said, ‘Can we have no effects on anything,

please? Particularly no reverb on the strings. I don’t have anything against Mantovani but I just don’t want my strings sounding like his.’

“He went through every single patch on stage, listening out for anyone who might have added the slightest hint of reverb. You can’t fool Jeff’s ears but what else would you expect from one of the world’s most successful producers? Apart from a couple of special effects, Jeff’s mixes, both live and on record, have generally been as dry as a bone, but that’s the signature sound that his fans grew to love.”

“You can’t fool Jeff’s ears but what else would you expect from one of the world’s most successful producers?”

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Gary is controlling 86 input channels at his digital front of house console, an SD7 from DiGiCo, the flagship product from the brand he has been “wedded to” since its first console was released in 2002.

He says: “I’ve tried everything else and there are some very good desks out there, but I’ve grown so familiar with the SD7 surface and all its internal resources that it’s become second nature to get around. On a tour of this size, there’s nothing better. I set up the console in the same way every time, which makes life easy and means I can find things quickly. I’m running at 96kHz sample rate so the sound quality is as good as you’ll get.”

All of the vocal compression is handled through the SD7’s internal processing, however, Gary uses the Waves plug-in suite to add compression to a number of instruments.

“For example, I have Waves’ version of the classic dbx 160 inserted across my drum kit audio group, a CLA-2A on the acoustic guitars, a CLA-3A on bass guitar and a CLA-76 on electric 12-string. The authenticity of the modelling is stunning.”

Even though Jeff is fastidious about recreating classic sounds, he chose not to emulate the 2kHz-notched vocal effect that features in the original recorded version of ‘Telephone Line’. “I had a plug17

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Flying high at the O2: d&b’s SL-Series PA system.

in set up and ready to go on my desk, but he decided to just go with a straight vocal,” explains Gary.

“There were a couple of other examples where I was able to reproduce something from one of the old records, only to have Jeff say, ‘No, don’t do that’. As an engineer, it takes a little bit of getting used to but I realised after a while that what he’s pursuing more than anything is uncluttered clarity.”

MIKING UP All of the vocals, including Jeff’s, are on cabled Shure SM58 microphones. “You can’t get more ‘old school standard’ than that… even Jeff’s guitar is on a cable, but a very good cable!” laughs Gary.

The remaining mics include Shure SM57s (snare top & bottom), a Beta 91A (kick), B52 (gong drum), Neumann KM184 (hi-hat & ride cymbal), Sennheiser e904s (toms) and AKG C414s as overheads.

While Sennheiser MD 421s are placed on Jeff’s guitar combos and Lee Pomeroy’s bass cabinets, Milton McDonald’s electric and acoustic guitar outputs come directly from his Kemper rack system. All other acoustic guitars, piano, keys, vocoder and the strings’ custom pick-ups go through Radial J48 direct injection (DI) boxes.

“We experimented with putting 421s underneath the toms, because that’s how they were miked in the ’70s,” says Gary, “and we did that for a while but in order to gain more attack, we now mic them from above. Eventually, we gained a better result by switching from the 421s to the e904 clip-on mics.”

THOROUGHLY MODERN SPEAKERS The PA system, part of the comprehensive audio package supplied by Newbury, Buckinghamshire

rental company Skan Hire, is d&b audiotecknik’s new SL-Series of loudspeakers – one of the industry’s most profound leaps forward in live sound in recent years. Launched towards the end of 2017, the system originally made its début with Entec Sound & Light and Brown Note Productions on Gorillaz’ Humanz tour to rave reviews, and its powerful feature set, according to Gary, has made a positive difference to the current ELO sound.

“As well as having superb throw, there’s zero sound leakage behind the speaker hangs which 19

Monitor engineer Steve Lutley.

really cleans up the sound onstage,” he claims. “If we were using J-Series [d&b’s previous flagship product], we’d fly subs but with the low-end response coming from the [main] GSL enclosures, they’re not required. It’s remarkable.

“I first used GSL on Take That in Australia. We used J-Series for the first and last shows on that tour, and GSL for all the dates in between, and the difference was phenomenal with considerably less bleed down the vocal mics.”

The PA system is configured in three sets of loudspeaker hangs at left and right of the stage. The main left and right hangs each comprise 18 GSL enclosures; there are 16 GSLs in each side hang, and 12 V-Series cabinets in the outer side hangs to cover the seating blocks nearest the stage.

“The throw from this system is superb. When we’ve been at the O2 with Take That and J-Series, we have added ring delays but the SL gear goes for miles,” informs Gary. “We’re using J-Subs on the ground because the SL subs are a little too 20

weighty at the bottom end for ELO’s music but for other styles they would be a major asset.”

A specialist in d&b array technology, Joachim Dewulf was brought into the crew to look after the daily set-up of the PA using ArrayProcessing. His responsibilities include managing the d&b R1 software controlling the D80 amplifiers that conduct the time alignment and EQ of the system before he hands it over to Gary ahead of the soundcheck.

STAGE MONITORING Gary Bradshaw’s colleagues also include audio crew chief and RF tech Liam Tucker, FOH minder Onno Ooms and technician Finlay Watt. Over at the stage end of the arena, monitor engineer Steve Lutley conducts the band’s mixes on another DiGiCo SD7 console, preferring it for all same reasons as Gary.

Assisted by Davey Williamson, Steve takes in just over 100 inputs, which includes all of the band and crew talk-to-stage and ‘shout’ microphones, as well as a feed to Jeff’s guitar tech. Steve creates

individually prepared stereo mixes for each band member, a mono mix for Donavan Hepburn’s drum seat ‘thumper’ and five mixes for the crew’s communication system. “It’s important to make communication as simple and intelligible as possible, especially during the show,” he says.

There are no monitor speakers on this tour. All of the band members employ in-ear monitoring (IEM), using a combination of Jerry Harvey Audio and Ultimate Ears equipment. Sennheiser wireless IEM hardware – SR2050 dual transmitters and EK2000 receivers – with spare Sennheiser AC3200-II combiners are contained within Steve’s rack.

To Steve’s credit, he was instrumental in persuading Jeff Lynne to embrace IEM after sending his whole career glued to loud stage wedges, and this

made the SD7 even more essential. “More than ever,” he notes, “I needed a versatile console to be able to achieve all the ‘production’ type qualities and subtle changes for each song that a world class producer is listening for. Of course, it had to sound great! The SD7 gave me all of these values plus the assurance that I’m so familiar with it because it’s just so user-friendly.

All of the processing is done within the console, rather than through plug-ins, and the choice of the SD7 has obviously worked as Jeff has been nothing but complimentary about what he is hearing.

“It’s the same with the rest of the band although having had the benefit of mixing their monitors on Take That for so long, I’m very accustomed to knowing their preferences.”

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Steve Jay.

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IN PURSUIT

OF EXCELLENCE Partnering Gary Bradshaw at front of house, STEVE JAY talks about how his experience as Jeff Lynne’s studio engineer informs his work in the live domain.

Ten years ago, a chance encounter with Jeff Lynne was the catalyst for an exciting new chapter in the career of studio engineer Steve Jay. Soon, he was behind the console at Jeff’s recording facility at Bungalow Palace overlooking Los Angeles, working on sessions for Mr. Blue Sky: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra, the collection of ELO classics for which almost all the parts were faithfully reproduced by the artist on his own.

Along the way, Steve also engineered albums

by Bryan Adams, Joe Walsh and Regina Spektor, but it was witnessing and being a major part of Jeff’s resurgence as the frontman and creator of ELO that has given him the greatest satisfaction to date. As well as engineering the sessions for Alone In The Universe and its follow-up, From Out Of Nowhere, Steve was involved in the recording and mixing of the 2017 live album and DVD Wembley Or Bust, and remains a constant fixture on the road, sharing front of house mixing duties with Gary Bradshaw.

Steve, who conveniently lives just 20 minutes from Bungalow Palace, says: “Teaming up with Jeff was wild because I grew up listening to so many of his songs on the radio, and suddenly I was in L.A. re-

making all this stuff with the original artist and recreating all the original sounds. Jeff has such vision and it was pretty amazing just watching him do all that. I’m a long-time fan of his production style, so working for him these past 10 years has been both a joy and an education.”

Just how did the fateful meeting between the artist and the engineer come about in the first place?

Steve recalls: “It all happened out of the blue, no pun intended! Before coming to L.A., I had my own studio in Philadelphia for about 10 years and in 2005 I found that I needed a change creatively, so I decided to give L.A. a shot and moved out there.

“I knew next to no one and for about three years it was very difficult, but during that time I decided to get into sound design for films since the whole music studio industry had changed due to the rising popularity of Pro Tools, and finding work as a music recording engineer was a challenge in a new town.

“As anyone would, I put the word out to everyone about my skills and what I do. Much to my surprise, my cousin called me telling me that a friend of a friend was looking for a recording engineer. My cousin said he was a well-known producer called Jeff, but he couldn’t remember his last name, so I 25

went through my mental Rolodex, thinking of every producer with the name Jeff, and came up with Jeff Lynne. ‘Yes, that’s him,’ my cousin said, adding that we were going to meet him for a casual dinner the following evening. Needless to say, I was speechless and knew this was an opportunity of a lifetime, even if it was just to have a bite to eat with Jeff.

“We ended up talking about music, recording and life in general. It was clear that we got on well and the next day he invited me over to Bungalow Palace to help out with something he was doing in the studio.

I guess he just wanted to get a feel for what it was like to have me around.

Instinctively, Jeff gave me the job and it’s an honour for which I’ll always be grateful. Not only was the timing perfect for me, here I was working with a consummate artist whose craft I’d long admired. I was very happy to leave film sound behind.”

Designed around a 1980s Raindirk console and a Pro Tools recording workstation, Bungalow Palace contains an impressive variety of both vintage and current equipment, from Neumann U87 microphones, UREI and UA limiters, and Adam Audio monitors, to a collection of plug-ins that includes Universal Audio’s Studer A800 tape emulator and Fairchild limiters.

“Jeff’s home is very comfortable and it’s fully functional as a studio throughout,” says Steve. “Every room is connected to the control room through tie-lines, so wherever he wants to record something will create a certain sound.

We just plug into the wall and go.”

“The audience is already familiar with how it should sound, so we have a big responsibility to them.”

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How does Steve describe the working relationship?

“We mostly work on something every day and tend to work no more than a five hours per session. I leave Jeff in the evenings

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Left: No reverb! – Jeff Lynne at work in the Beverly Hills studio space shared with Steve Jay.

when he works out parts for the next day. We both love the whole process of recording music and we’re very passionate about doing whatever it takes to achieve the end result, and we also have a lot of fun getting there.

“Jeff is, of course, a phenomenally talented multi-instrumentalist and he has played all of the parts on the records we’ve made together. When the song calls for it, I chime in on either tambourine or shaker.

“The recordings are made through laying tracks individually and to be able to do that, Jeff adopts somewhat of a methodical approach because he firstly needs to create a solid foundation on which to layer those parts. It’s always fascinating to observe and assist him with his sonic visions.”

GOING LIVE Although not a unique situation, it is fairly uncommon for a studio engineer to join the artist on tour, so why do we find Steve at front of house? “Having worked on all those ELO remakes, I know all the songs back to front and, most importantly, what Jeff prefers sonically, so I was brought into the tours to guide that process of reproducing his studio sound 28

in the live environment. There’s so much going on in many of his songs, with the different instruments and effects flying in, that it becomes a very complex mix.

“Gary Bradshaw has been great to work with. He’s a great front of house engineer. We get along very well and have a lot of respect for each other’s roles – at Hyde Park in 2014, my role was primarily about making sure the live broadcast mix and Jeff’s vocal was how he likes it and then as mix engineer for the DVD/BluRay video release.”

Steve continues: “A lot of studio engineers are used to automating a mix through Pro Tools or via onboard automation, but since we’re live that’s not how Gary and I have been working.

“When we are mixing the shows, we approach each song like a performance using the old school technique of fingers on the faders. I feel this adds a certain excitement to any mix. And, of course, it’s fun! There’s also no margin for error – every instrument has to be placed such that it preserves Jeff’s signature sound. The audience is already familiar with how it should sound, of course, so we have a big responsibility to them.”

One of Mr. Lynne’s most strict house rules is to abstain from applying any reverb to the live sound.

Steve explains: “Unless it’s for a particular effect, everything remains very dry, leaving the venue to add natural ambience. Jeff is very strict about the ‘no reverb’ rule – he will spot it in an instant if someone adds some by mistake – but there are some spot effects that I look after, such as the echo delay on the line ‘I’m taking a dive’ during ‘Livin’ Thing’ and also ‘I look into the sky’ on ‘Telephone Line’. The effects are programmed as macro presets; I have the effect on and just lift the fader at the correct moment.”

Another of Steve’s responsibilities is to ensure that a full 80+ channel multitrack recording is made of each show. He reports: “We take channels out of front of house and record with a Reaper workstation. Gary takes care of all the routing for that.

For the most part, it’s an archiving process but the quality of the recordings is such that the material can be used for release if required.”

EARLY DAYS Despite his studio pedigree, Steve started out as a live sound engineer during his teenage high school years of the mid-1980s. He comments:

“I was mixing gigs for cover bands in bars and they had to sneak me in because I was under-age, but this definitely gave me a valuable foundation of technical knowledge.

“Nevertheless, I was always curious about the recording process. I would listen to records and wonder how this sound coming out of my speakers was even possible. That curiosity drove me to take a three-month summer workshop for recording engineers, before I even graduated from high school, and suddenly it all became very clear that the studio environment was where I wanted to work. From there, I channelled all of my energy into making that my career.

“My journey has been full of interesting creative endeavours but I can honestly say that the time I have spent working with Jeff, both on the road and in the studio, has given me the most rewarding experiences I could ever wish for. Every day, it’s a privilege and an honour to be working with such an amazing artist.”

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THE SET LIST ...and where to find the songs

‘STANDING IN THE RAIN’, ‘WILD WEST HERO’ (45), ‘SWEET TALKIN’ WOMAN’ (45), ‘TURN TO STONE’ (45) & ‘MR. BLUE SKY’ (45) from the 1977 ELO album Out Of The Blue ‘EVIL WOMAN’ (45) from the 1975 ELO album Face The Music ‘ALL OVER THE WORLD’ (45) from the 1980 ELO & Olivia Newton-John soundtrack album Xanadu ‘SHOWDOWN’ (45) from the 1973 ELO album On The Third Day (US version) ‘DO YA’ (45), ‘LIVIN’ THING’ (45), ‘ROCKARIA’ (45) & ‘TELEPHONE LINE’ (45) from the 1976 ELO album A New World Record ‘WHEN I WAS A BOY’ (45) from the 2015 Jeff Lynne’s ELO album Alone In The Universe ‘HANDLE WITH CARE’ (45) from the 1988 Traveling Wilburys album Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 ‘LAST TRAIN TO LONDON’ (45), ‘SHINE A LITTLE LOVE’ (45) & ‘DON’T BRING ME DOWN’ (45) from the 1979 ELO album Discovery ‘10538 OVERTURE’ (45) from the 1971 ELO album The Electric Light Orchestra ‘ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN’ (45) from the 1972 ELO album ELO 2 *(45) issued as a single

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GUITAR MAN Backline crew chief MORTEN THOBRO is the man charged with taking care of Jeff Lynne’s guitars. No pressure then...

Since 1987, Morten Thobro has been touring the world as a guitar and backline technician for artists including Take That, George Michael, Biffy Clyro, Simply Red, The Cardigans and fellow Norwegians a-ha and Motorpsycho amongst others. For the last two years, however, his on-the-road life has been dedicated to the daily maintenance of Jeff Lynne’s guitars.

Previously Milton McDonald’s personal guitar technician, a sideways move emerged when he filled the vacancy for Mr. Lynne’s own ‘Man Friday’. Now a constant presence in ELO world, the only show he has missed since 2014 was at London’s Hyde Park, due to his prior commitment as keyboard and guitar ‘minder’ on Kate Bush’s 22-date Before The Dawn residency at Hammersmith Apollo.

Known to his colleagues as ‘Turbo’, Morten – who shares backline duties with fellow guitar technicians Magnus Dahle Knudsen and Dave White, keyboard tech Andy Henderson and drum tech Ian ‘Robbo’ Robertson – took time out to talk about his working day...

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My day usually starts at about 10.00am and I arrive at the venue when the rolling stage is ready, and we empty all the cases and build my little hideaway/ bunker at stage right. As soon as this bunker is in place and I’ve got power, by midday, I take the lid of Jeff’s guitar vault and after lunch I start restringing and tuning each of them.

I’m carrying six guitars for Jeff on the tour: four Gibson Les Pauls and two Gibson Country Western acoustics. His main Les Paul Custom Shop (pictured opposite, in Morten’s hand) was made in 2014 and I’ve been told it’s an accurate copy of his 1958 Gibson Gold Top, with the exception that we swapped the jumbo frets that came with it for standard ones right before this tour. Jeff likes them better. The back-up for this one is for a Gibson Les Paul Standard.

For his acoustic guitars, Jeff’s string preference is Ernie Ball Earthwood Medium Light Phosphor Bronze Alloy 2146 (012054).

Jeff uses Ernie Ball Super Slinky 2223 (009-042) strings on his main Les Paul Custom Shop guitar and on ‘10538 Overture’ he prefers Ernie Ball Custom Medium Light Gauge 2206 (012-054).

On ‘10538 Overture’, Jeff plays another Gibson Les Paul Standard which is tuned down by a whole tone to D for the song. The back-up guitar for this one is a ‘57 Gibson Les Paul Special that Jeff purchased from his manager, Craig Fruin, who had bought it 30 years earlier.

We would like to use this one as the main guitar for ‘10538 Overture’, but the P-90 pickups are a little bit too noisy at times.

ACOUSTIC CHOICE Where songs require Jeff to play acoustic guitar, his choice is a 1964 Gibson Country Western model. The second acoustic is a Sheryl Crow Signature Artist Series edition of the Gibson Country Western - is actually mine but Jeff likes it, so we use it as a backup as it’s basically a recent interpretation of the same guitar.

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Jeff’s Fender Vibroverb amps are pictured here, at far left.

“Jeff is a really nice guy to look after... he’s very particular about everything, as befits an artist of his calibre.”

During the show, there are between 10 and 12 guitar changes, so I’m focused on ensuring that Jeff has the correct guitar for each song. As well as maintaining perfect tuning throughout the performance, I’m looking out for any string breaks so that I can come to Jeff’s aid with a back-up guitar if necessary. So far, there have been no dramas to report.

ON STAGE Jeff is a really nice guy to look after and although he might appear to have a no-nonsense approach to his on-stage gear, he’s actually very particular about everything, as benefits an artist of his calibre.

He plays his electric guitars through a pair of early ‘90s reissued Fender ’63 Vibroverb 2 x 10” combo amps [similar to those resident in his studio] and, effects-wise, and in front of them we only run a Keeley Compressor and a vintage DOD Overdrive PreAmp 250 pedal.

He regulates his clean and overdriven sounds simply by adjusting the guitar’s volume knob – the old school way!

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TOOLS OF THE TRADE Who plays what?

MIKE STEVENS • Guitar Martin acoustic guitar Levinson acoustic guitar Duesenberg 12-string electric guitar Gibson ES330 electric guitar Gibson Les Paul Gold Top electric guitar Mike’s acoustic guitars are plugged into a SansAmp; his electric guitars plug into various effects pedals on his PedalTrain board and then into a pair of Peavey C30 II 1 x 12’’ combo amps.

MILTON McDONALD • Guitar Gibson 1968 SG electric guitar Fender Squier ‘Milton McDonald’ Stratocaster electric guitar Fender Squier Stratocaster electric guitar

Tanglewood TSM-3 acoustic guitar Levinson Blade Thinline Telecaster Custom electric guitar (set up for slide) Peavey HP Signature Select Series electric guitar (tuned in D for ‘10538 Overture’) All of Milton’s guitars feed into two Kemper Power Racks with remotes, volume and wah.

LEE POMEROY • Bass Fender Precision Bass (Burst) Fender 1966 Jazz Bass (Blue) Fender 1973 Jazz Bass (White) Lee’s bass guitars plug into various pedals on his PedalTrain and then into two EBS TD660 amps which power two EBS 410CL 4 x 10’’ cabinets.

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DONAVAN HEPBURN • Drums Yamaha Recording Custom drum kit (mid ’90s), comprising: 24” Yamaha Kick Drum, 22” Yamaha Kick Drum, 20” Yamaha Kick/Gong Drum, 18” Yamaha Floor Tom, 16” Yamaha Floor Tom, 13” Yamaha Rack Tom, 12” Yamaha Rack Tom, 2x 14” Snares, Yamaha hardware, Avedis, K and Kerope cymbals by Zildjian, Remo heads and Promark sticks.

To the side of his kit, Donavan’s rack includes a Porter & Davies ‘butt kicker’ amp for his drum stool, two Cymatic Audio uTrack 24 universal hardware recorder/player/ interfaces, three Orchid Electronics audio switchers and a Mackie 1642VL74 mixing desk for personal monitoring.

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MARCUS BYRNE • Piano & Keyboards Yamaha CP-1 Piano (in a Dutchgrand piano shell) Roland Juno DS Synthesizer JOE WEBB • Keyboards & Guitar Yamaha XF-7 & Korg Kronos 73 keyboards (through a Mackie 1604VLZ mixer) Joe also plays a Paul Reed Smith acoustic guitar on some songs.

STEVE TURNER • Keyboards Roland JP-80 & a Yamaha XF-7 (through a Mackie 1604VLZ).

Steve runs Logic MainStage – the source of most of his sounds.

IAN HORNAL • Guitar Takamine 12-string & Levinson LJ-43 acoustic guitars He also plays Mike’s Duesenberg 12-string guitar (left) on the Wilburys’ ‘Handle With Care’.

Thanks to Morten Thobro

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David Wolstenholme (left) & Oliver Jenni.

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SHINE A

LITTLE LIGHT Lighting director DAVID WOLSTENHOLME, laser technician OLIVER JENNI & video director SACHA MOORE explain how they turn Jeff Lynne’s ELO concerts into a feast for the eyes.

When show and lighting designer Tim Routledge left the tour to begin work on the next series of TV’s ‘The X Factor’, it was in the safe knowledge that David Wolstenholme would be the perfect lighting operator to take control of his work.

few changes to prepare for, such as swapping the motors in order to meet local safety requirements on each side of the Atlantic but, generally speaking, fans in Europe are seeing the same show as those in America.

A fount of technical knowledge with many years spent with Cirque du Soleil and a range of touring theatre musicals, David came to the role having contributed to a number of Tim’s projects alongside programmer Tom Young.

The tour’s lighting supplier, Neg Earth has an established relationship with Tim Routledge, having recently provided systems to furnish his designs for world tours by Sam Smith (The Thrill Of It All) and Beyoncé (Formation). The creative force behind Jeff Lynne’s shows since Hyde Park, Tim’s aim on this tour was to design the lighting such that it has huge dynamic impact without distracting the audience from the music. His design also augments the great hits and anthems in a modern fashion rather than leaning on nostalgia.

“I did the first arena tour with Jeff Lynne’s ELO as systems technician and then the shows in 2017 that followed on from Take That,” explains David.

“Tom had programmed the lighting in advance of this year’s North American leg but then had to leave to start on ‘The X Factor’. Knowing the production very well, it made sense for me to step up and fill the role for the European leg. I have to say Tom’s done an exceptional job with the programming and it’s a great show to be looking after.

“I was responsible for getting the lighting package together and working with everyone else to get it tour-ready, from when we started rehearsing at LH2 Studios to arriving in America. There were a

Is Jeff as particular about lighting as he is with sound? David replies: “He has a strong opinion about key lights. When he steps back from the microphone he wants to step out of the light and we compensate accordingly. There’s always the battle of pushing it as far as everyone can see it, and within the boundaries of what works for the video cameras, but hold back from going any further. It’s for this reason that we don’t tour follow spots for this show. The band members are fairly static on 49

Above left: One of the custom ladders in build mode.

stage which means our lighting focus is very tight and we just bring up certain looks as required.”

Jeff Lynne’s stage is notable for both its 10 metre diameter circular lighting truss above the band’s heads and Neg Earth’s five custom-built vertical ladders that separate the video screens and have the ability to have its rungs spaced appropriately to host a variety of lighting fixtures.

Each section of the ladder is approximately 2.5 metres in height and pins together at the top and bottom. During the morning’s load-in, a header piece is connected to two motors and flown; the first section is pinned in and lifts off its cart, followed by the next section, and so on. “It makes putting them up and, crucially, taking them down a very quick task as it just takes one lighting technician and a couple of local crew to do it efficiently,” comments David, who is joined in lighting world by Neg Earth’s crew chief Jonathan Sellers, dimmer technician Peter Horne and fellow techs Alan Fotheringham, Lewis Wilding, Bianca Mastroianni and Aamir Riaz.

“There isn’t much on this show that hasn’t been pre-rigged, which contributes to the fast load-in.

As soon as the audience seating is cleared, we 50

roll out the stage, the trusses start coming out and everything is packed into the trucks within two hours.”

The lighting rig is mostly based around fixtures manufactured by Czech brand Robe (pronounced Roh-bay), with emphasis on the company’s BMFL (Bright Multi-Functional Luminaire) range of products. The BMFL Spot is the workhorse of the package fixture on this show while BMFL Blades are used for ‘shutter cuts’ on key light positions for Jeff and band members.

fire aerial shafts that are particularly evident to the audience seated up at the back. “It’s a very good light for that application and it has a very pleasing look for cameras,” notes David. In another line at the rear, Clay Paky Scenius Unico hybrid fixtures throw powerful swathes of light through and behind the band.

Additional BMFLs on the aforementioned ladders carry out most of the array work and gobo looks while, new for this tour, 24 compact Robe MegaPointe “super bright” lights deliver large, sharp beams, and rotating gobos that direct attention to the circular truss above, promoting a sci-fi flavour.

At both left and right of the band are four Martin MAC Viper AirFX units, providing hard-edge lighting, midair effects and washes. A line of 10 Philips Vari*Lite VL6000 beam lights between the band and the ladders 51

“This is a brilliant pop music show, designed by a genuine pioneer in his field.”

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As well as SGM Q7 audience blinders and 4-lite Moles on the vertical ladders, the main elements of the package are rounded off with an 85,000 watt Hungaroflash T-Light – a product so powerful that it is often used to simulate lightning strikes on movie sets. David says: “We place it at the back of the stage and it’s cued to accentuate featured drum fills and thunder and rain references in some songs.

The results are pretty authentic!”

CONTROL Specified by Tom Young, an MA Lighting grandMA2 full-size console and a back-up reside at

front of house on a riser behind audio control. An MA2 light (smaller version) was also hired as a ‘tech’ desk. “The MA2 is a truly rock solid piece of kit.

There isn’t really another other console that can handle large amounts of complex fixtures and timecode as well as this,” comments David.

“During the afternoon, I can wander around the arena with my iPad, wirelessly focusing the lights and ensuring that everything is where it should be.

The web interface with the MA is exceptionally useful. It’s like using the console, except I can be

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on stage finessing looks easily rather than it being a chore.

All songs in the show are fully timecoded, with one or two manual bumps or buttons at the very end of the song as the timecode stops to allow the band to hold the last note for however long they wish.

There are a lot of cues in the show, with over 900 separate cue lists being triggered multiple times.

Of the many beautiful moments in the show, David’s personal favourite is ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’. “I love it because of the big array, the crossed grid of pencil-thin beams and dimmer chases,” he says. “I spend a fair 54

amount of time focusing for that and getting it just right before doors open. It’s a big thumping song and it’s one of those sequences that make it such a pleasure to be doing this job.

“Whichever way you look at it, this is a brilliant pop music show, designed by someone who is a genuine pioneer in his field. There are a lot of cues in the show, with over 900 separate cue lists being triggered multiple times, and one of Tim’s signatures is the inclusion of those accentuating details, the pops and pings. A lot of them are time coded so that we have repeatability and accuracy on a nightly basis.”

SCI-FI LASER LIGHT One of the younger members of the entourage, Oliver Jenni, a full-time laser technician at ER Productions, made his début as part of the Jeff Lynne’s ELO crew in the summer, programming new laser sequences in production rehearsals ahead of the 2018 North American tour.

Twentysomething Ollie may not have been around when ELO was enjoying its original run of hits, however, he was already partial to some of the band’s more well-known classics before this year. “Once I joined the crew, I was surprised by the sheer quality of other numbers in the set,” he says. “It’s been a very interesting experience.”

A graduate of the University of South Wales, where he earned a degree in lighting design and technology, Ollie worked as a freelance lighting technician prior to joining ER and it was on one particular job that he first encountered lasers. “One of the companies I was working for had just introduced a couple of lasers for an event I was doing in Lon-

don. They asked me if I fancied having a bit of fun operating them and that really sparked my interest, so when an opportunity to train with ER came up I was delighted.”

Following on from 2017’s tour, a number of set design changes were made by Tim Routledge, forcing ER’s lasers to be repositioned. Familiarising himself with the wider ELO music catalogue gave Ollie the inspiration to programme laser moves for some specific moments in the show. Two songs feature lasers heavily – ‘Shine A Little Love’ and ‘Telephone Line’ – while on ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ and ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ they accompany the lighting to a lesser extent.

Ollie explains: “With ‘Shine A Little Love’ being quite a high tempo number, there are a lot of big laser stabs that are in time with the audience clapping. It’s the first point in the show where the lasers are seen and it’s a very big look. ‘Telephone Line’ starts with cones and flat scans out over the crowd, at a point where there is very little lighting so they 55

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are very prominent. At every show we’ve done, this is one of the moments where you can see countless members of the stunned audience mouthing ‘wow’.

“There were a couple of sequences programmed in from the last tour that we took onboard and ran with for the last two songs. The lasers are effectively chasing the beat with stabs and some wavy zoom effects, and generally contributing an additional layer of energy to the lights.”

The equipment in use includes 10 high-powered green scanning lasers – four along the bottom of the middle four set of ladders, four in the circular truss and one on each side of the stage producing the scanning effects. Meanwhile, 24 of ER’s pro-

prietary Burstbox diffraction fixtures are also on duty, distributed equally along each of the lighting ladders.

Adjacent to Dave Wolstenholme at front of house, Ollie runs a High End Road Hog 4 console to control the Burstboxes and a Look Solutions smoke package. Also, a computer was used to run the Pangolin Beyond software that controls the scanning lasers.

Says Ollie: “The Burstboxes have a beam called a zero order which is a static beam that can’t go into the audience or any unsafe area, so a special device was designed to enable us to focus out the lasers as the hard ladders went out while all unsafe beams were automatically blocked.”

MORE PLUCK FOR YOUR BUCK

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Video director Sacha Moore.

MISTER VIDEO The director of several TV commercials and short films, Sacha Moore has also previously toured with the likes of Pulp, Jean Michel Jarre, Biffy Clyro and The Courteneers. And now, with Jeff Lynne’s ELO gracing his growing portfolio of clients, Sacha has achieved a long-held ambition. “I wouldn’t have dared imagine I would be directing any of Jeff’s shows, let alone a tour,” he says, “so this is just fantastic.”

Away from the audience’s gaze, Sacha is stationed in a draped off area directly behind the stage, perched at a Grass Valley Karrera S-Series switcher – the console at which he juggles a palette of live camera images and video content, and selects the prime cuts to display on the screens. Sacha is aided and abetted by video crew chief Jack Middlebrook, LED engineers Gary King, Kevin King and 58

James Crossley, projectionist Richard Doran, media server programmer Luke Collins, system engineer Matthew Vassalo and camera operator Rod Williams.

At upstage centre are the highlights of the production equipment supplied by Video Design – five vertical, 9mm pixel pitch WinVision LED screens, each measuring up to 9.6 metres high by 4.2 metres wide. The package also includes a brace of D3 media servers and five Sony cameras with Fuji lenses including a roving handheld model used to capture stage close-ups.

“We don’t have a track and dolly for the live camera work,” informs Sacha. “We were briefed at the start that Jeff isn’t a big fan of any movement happening in front of him, but that doesn’t get in the way of creativity.

“There’s a lot to keep your eyes entertained.”

“It’s an unusual cut for this show because unlike normal IMAG [image magnification] which would bring the band closer to the audience, we also include wide shots of the stage on the side screens, so we position one camera high up in the arena which captures all the video content embedded in the stage that the audience at floor level, don’t get to see.”

Although weight issues prevented the spaceship from reprising its physical appearance on this tour, it is a regular floating presence on the central screens, forming part of the ’50s and ’60s sci-fi inspired media content stored on D3 servers.

The content was developed at HyperVague Studios by Ben Ib, the director and CGI artist who has also created concert visuals for Sir Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, Kylie and Robbie Williams.

Rather than making a physical appearance, the iconic spaceship is an almost constant feature on the upstage screens. “We have some very attractive imagery on the screens but this show is all about Jeff and his band, and there’s a lot to keep your eyes entertained,” Sacha says.

“The show seems to just fly by for us because it’s so busy and full of energy. On other jobs, I’m sometimes asked to keep the cameras fixed on the main talent, but there are so many great characters in the band that have their own fan following.

“When Rosie Langley comes forward to play her wonderful violin solo in ‘Livin’ Thing’, she’s getting a huge crowd response. In fact, Jeff made a joke the other day that this band is so damn good, if he wasn’t in it, he probably couldn’t get into the lineup!”

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A TALE OF TWO

SPACESHIPS A major milestone in the lifespan of the original Electric Light Orchestra, the Out Of The Blue world tour of 1978 – the highest-grossing live concert tour of the ’70s – was characterised by a gigantic, hamburger-shaped space craft that has become synonymous with Jeff Lynne and the ELO brand.

Inspired by the craft designed

by John Kosh and Japanese illustrator Shusei Nagaoka for the Out Of The Blue album sleeve, the glowing spaceship was conceived by ELO manager Don Arden and realised by a team that included architect Stephen Bickford, production manager Deryck Dickinson and consultant Joe Browne.

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After considering a number of design ideas, the Spielberg movie ‘Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’ helped Stephen to settled on “a huge round-ish truss filled with various lights aiming down, that had a crustacean-like shell fitted on top of it so that, when it started to rise up from the deck at the beginning of the concert, it resembled a flying saucer taking off with light pouring out of the underside as its power source.”

Requiem, Opus 20’, revealing the band being raised to the stage by hydraulic motors.

Swamped with lasers and smoke effects, this metal, jukebox-style contraption – part of a groundbreaking, $500,000 set designed by Michael Crisp for Tele-Stage – opened at the start of each show to the sound of Benjamin Britten’s ‘Sinfonia da

The band first worked on routining the show in January 1978 at Studio Instrument Rentals but it was later, at The Who’s base in Shepperton, that ELO integrated the newly-built spaceship into their production rehearsals.

The design made its début on

The entire sequence was choreographed with military precision to maximum effect. At the end of each show, the opening sequence was reversed. Jeff Lynne was so enthralled that he would often leave the stage as soon as he could to stand with the audience and watch the spaceship close.

June 2nd at the first of eight concerts at Wembley Empire Pool A charity performance for the Invalid Children’s Aid Association, it was introduced by acting legend Tony Curtis and filmed for television by director Mike Mansfield. Immediately after the Wembley run, the staging was shipped to America for the three-month leg renamed The Big Night.

According to members of the crew, the spaceship was expensive to operate and transport, requiring 13 trucks to move it from venue to venue, and several technicians to build it. Four times brighter than the average rock show, the lighting’s intense heat the stage an uncomfortable environment for the

band. The domed shape of the spaceship presented an acoustic challenge, with sound bouncing off the inner surface and, sometimes, the hydraulic lifts would fail, resulting in the band not being visible when the pre-recorded intro began.

For all these shortfalls, however, when it all worked, as it usually did, the design’s overall effect left such a impression on audiences that it has gone down as one of the most pioneering achievements in rock history.

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WEMBLEY STADIUM, 2017 Almost 40 years later, a larger and considerably more advanced version of the spaceship landed at Wembley Stadium, hovering above the stage as Jeff Lynne’s ELO thrilled 70,000 ecstatic fans on June 24th 2017.

When plans were being drawn up for the event, the opportunity to feature the iconic craft was too tempting to ignore, as Chris Vaughan explains: “This was going to be such an important moment in Jeff’s career that we wanted to take it beyond having the regular outdoor stage that Live Nation had booked, and deliver a bigger, cleaner statement – something that would hopefully be remembered for another 40 years! And so Tim Routledge and I teamed up with creative designer Misty Buckley, who came up with the spaceship idea.”

Built by Total Solutions Group, the 15 metre diameter, 16.5 tonne spaceship was installed by Stageco’s team halfway up a 27.5m high tower that was anchored to a concrete base and formed from a number of different tower formats, decreasing in width from the 5.6m section of XXL tower at the bottom, and linked by special brackets.

“This was a massive undertaking that worked brilliantly and was the perfect size for a stadium,” says Chris. “Total Solutions had done a great job of placing the ‘Big Man’ on top of Stageco’s towers for Take That’s Progress stadium tour and the spaceship was something they could create organically. Stageco sent us the central hub of the black steel for a test build and Total Solutions began to assemble an aluminium structure to support lights, video, LED, smoke machines and lasers, completing it with multi-coloured fibre glass cladding. The

spaceship doesn’t move or fly although, with all the effects, it gives the impression that it’ll take off at any moment!”

Tim Routledge found Misty’s suggestion ideal for the broad canvas he’d visualised for ELO in the stadium environment. He says: “Misty’s idea drew on the original Out Of The Blue album cover, which came with a pop-out cardboard model. It was but a short step to mount a huge physical saucer on a central pylon, but an inspired one. At a stroke, it became a striking piece of classic sci-fi drama. Its presence above the widescreen landscape that envelops the stage was the perfect counterpoint and a potent gesture to the band’s history.”

For Mervyn Thomas at Total Solutions bringing the concept to reality was an immediate challenge. “The engineering was simple enough,” he comments. “The spaceship was flown off a single Stageco tower. They built a special hub with eight spokes radially symmetric around it.

We then had custom fabricated extensions to those spokes that ran out to flanges we had built into the fibreglass shell of the saucer.

“The difficulty was daylight. As the show was close to Midsummer’s Day, Tim quite rightly wanted the spaceship to look as striking in daylight as at dusk when finally, all the LED lighting fitted within it began to shine.”

The finished product arrived at Wembley 72 hours before show day. “It looked awesome,” smiles Chris. “Misty’s idea to re-create the album’s pop-up spaceship was genius; it filled the space above the video screens perfectly. Besides, this was made in Birmingham, just like Jeff Lynne and ELO, so the spaceship has come full circle in more ways than one.”

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DINNER IS

SERVED As Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “An army relies on good and plentiful food.”

The same can be said of Jeff Lynne’s crew.

Meet the company that feeds them.

In common with all concert tours is the important role played by catering, and we’re not talking about food. While the backstage catering area is where the crew eat, it is also regarded as the beating heart of the tour operation – the place to meet visitors, conduct business and interviews, or even just to hang with a coffee for 10 minutes before the next phase of an equipment set-up. It’s everything to everyone.

Stuart Jackson knows this more than most. For nearly four years, he has been an executive chef at Rockpool Tour Catering, the company engaged to fulfil all of the nutritional requirements of the 2018 Jeff Lynne’s ELO tour in both North America and Europe, as well as other recent clients including Muse, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Britney Spears, Bruno Mars and Steps.

“The staff we have on the road with Jeff have all worked tirelessly to produce a level of food and hospitality

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of which we are all very proud,” says Stu. “Providing top quality, freshly prepared food on a daily basis for this many people can be extremely challenging, but the nature of crew work is that good nutrition is essential because what they do is physically exhausting.

“In any walk of life you’ll find people with a wide range of dietary preferences and also food intolerances, and it’s no different on a concert tour. Our chefs come fully prepared to cope with all variations of choices, offering meals for high protein diets, vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options, and everything in between.

“None of this would be possible without the correct mobile kitchen equipment and ours is designed to be hard wearing and easy to manoeuvre, enabling us to carry out our job to an exceptionally high standard.”

Open throughout the day for drinks and snacks, the backstage catering

Rockpool’s catering team, L-R: Stuart Jackson at far right with colleagues Kit, Danielle, Mark, Jazz, Alison & Matt.

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room serves three meals daily. On the day I dropped in on the tour, Rockpool’s dinner menu options were Jack Daniel’s & Coke-glazed brisket with potatoes; jerk chicken, rice & corn; cod fillet with leek, asparagus and lemon butter; vegan jerk vegetables, rice & peas with corn; and a further vegan dish – sundried tomato, wild mushroom, herb & spinach penne, as well as a number of dessert choices.

Rockpool’s offices are located at the Production Park live event industry campus in South Kirkby, Wakefield, where the company has run a popular on-site cafe for more than 18 months, often providing rehearsal catering for incoming productions on-site at LS Live Studios.

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“Well that was marvellous.”

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JEFF LYNNE’S ELO TOUR PERSONNEL 2018/19 THE BAND Jeff Lynne • Mike Stevens • Milton McDonald • Lee Pomeroy • Donavan Hepburn • Mark Byrne • Jo Webb • Stephen Turner • Melanie Lewis-McDonald • Iain Hornal • Rosie Langley • Amy Langley • Jess Cox MANAGEMENT & BAND ENTOURAGE Craig Fruin • Camelia Kath • Phil Hatton • Richard Fernandez • Steve Jay • Kevin Fallows • Michelle Dean-Barlas • Keith Dean • Linda Betesh PRODUCTION CV Productions • Chris Vaughan • Richard ‘Wez’ Wearing • Mark Berryman • Lanky • Zoe Buttling • Laura Shotton SOUND Skan Hire • Gary Bradshaw • Steve Lutley • Simon Hodge • Liam Tucker • Finlay Watt • Onno Ooms • Joachim Dewulf • Davey Williamson LIGHTING Neg Earth Lights • Jonathan Sellers • Dave Wolstenholme • Peter Horne • Lewis Willding • Bianca Mastroianni • Alan Fotheringham • Aamir Riaz LASERS ER Productions • Oliver Jenni VIDEO Video Design • Sacha Moore • Jack Middlebrook • Gary King • Kevin King • James Crossley • Richard Doran • Luke Collins • Matthew Vassalo • Rod Williams BACKLINE Morten Thobro • Magnus Knudsen • Dave White • Andy Henderson • Ian ‘Robbo’ Robertson STAGING Brilliant Stages CARPENTERS Jason Slaney-Welch • Steve Jeffrey • Jack Redman RIGGING Johannes Soelter • Matt Lazenby WARDROBE & DRESSING ROOMS Clare Pegg • Dave Loudon • Stefan Warner CATERING Rockpool Tour Catering • Stuart Jackson • Mary Goodall • Matt Holland • Kit Streppel • Danielle Scoggins • Jazz Fairley • Alison Higgins • Rohan Wills • Jodi Weston-Brake TRUCKING Transam • Scott Cooper • Craig Jones • Mark Kirk • Dave Cuss • Peter Schaal • John Henn • Paul Brierley • Ray Bridgman • Tom Macpherson • Calvin Wade • Phil Maughan • Simon Howarth • Mike Fisher • Ben Howarth BUSES Phoenix Bussing • Clarkie • Mumbles • Mic Mullins • Robbie Grant Tour promoted by Live Nation

The crew of Jeff Lynne’s ELO are proud to support BEAUTY BANKS – a non-profiting initiative designed to provide free toiletries to people affected by poverty,

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With special thanks to: Chris Vaughan, Richard ‘Wez’ Wearing and the crew for their warm welcome and valuable assistance.

BOOKS BY MARK CUNNINGHAM

GOOD VIBRATIONS: A History of Record Production (Sanctuary Music Library, 1996/1999) ISBN-13: 978-1860742422 forewords by Alan Parsons & Brian Eno “The ultimate sleeve note to those anonymous but magically inventive engineers behind pop’s finest moments.” Daily Telegraph LIVE & KICKING: The Rock Concert Industry in the Nineties (Sanctuary Music Library, 1999) ISBN-13: 978-1860742170 “A fascinating trip through the technical machinations behind the decade’s greatest concert tours.” Q magazine HORSLIPS: Tall Tales – The Official Biography (The O’Brien Press, 2013) ISBN-13: 978-1847175861 Hot Press Irish Book of the Year 2013 “Superb recollections… a stream of information, anecdotes and surprises. A repository of previously unpublished memorabilia and of high-quality design.” The Irish Times All available to purchase via Amazon.

Visit ‘The Library’ at liveculture.co.uk to view a digital archive of published work, including host of eBook titles.

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Based on a series of exclusive interviews conducted by music industry journalist Mark Cunningham on site at Wembley Stadium in June 2017 and London’s O2 Arena in October 2018, BLUE SKY TOURING is the ‘backstage’ story of life on the road with JEFF LYNNE’s highly successful, new generation ELO. Meet the key creatives, designers, technicians and other crew who team up with the multi-platinum artist to deliver some of the most astonishing shows on tour today.

A Liveculture publication © 2019