Years & Years: Palo Santo

32PRODUCTION PROFILE

YEARS & YEARS: PALO SANTO

When British electro-pop trio Years & Years - Olly Alexander, Mikey Goldsworthy and Emre Türkmen – returned to the UK charts with their second album, Palo Santo, the band had a strong concept to deliver. The dystopian, fictional world populated by a majority android nation sees gender blending and sexual ambiguity in full force. TPi’s Kel Murray visited the live ‘dark cabaret’ show only to discover non-conformity and inclusion can rule as one.

Following 2015’s smash hit, debut album Communion, Years & Years had but 18 months to deliver the second coming. The result, Palo Santo, is not so much biblical, but an empowering display of otherworldly confidence named after a South American woodland which wards off bad sprits. As mysterious as it sounds, the message is simple: be in touch with who you are, how you identify and what you believe in because one label simply cannot fit one species and your emotions within that are totally valid.

A heavily choreographed series of music videos (led by the band’s choreographer Aaron Sillis) would carve a path for the spectacular live embodiment of the new record, which also resulted in a huge step forward in the band’s production values.

Long-term Production Manager, Steve Down, has worked with the band for four years, ever since their rapid growth required an experienced tech guru. In conjunction with the band’s Tour Manager, Tom Nicol, he formed Helix, a new era of production management service. Down began: “I actually met Tom at the TPi Awards three or four years ago when we were introduced by Jo Beirne [formerly of XL Video & PRG, now with Colour Sound Experiment],” began Down. Now, if you don’t know Beirne, let’s just say she has the kind of magical little black book that’d make a Wizard jealous.

“She knew we’d get on, and we do; we’ve worked together ever since!” he confirmed. “We think there’s a gap in the market for a production / tour management team that understands what certain artists require. Fundamentally, we help band managers with putting who we think are the right people in place, with advancing and budgeting, even if we’re not on the actual tour itself.” The pair currently work with Amy Macdonald, Friendly Fires, James Arthur, Fat White Family and Jungle.

For the Palo Santo experience, the campaign began in the early summer on 2018. As the album dropped in May, the festival bookings were coming thick and fast, and

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the culmination had to end in a headline O2 Arena show. “The routing was tough on this one from a production POV, but it worked, and had to happen the way it did to ensure the shows sold out. Planning the summer through to the indoor winter shows meant we had to figure out how to go from a field to an arena, with the biggest show in London including a wider and taller video wall, far more lights and the addition of a cat walk.

“Our production designers, Chris ‘Squib’ Swain and Dan Hill from Cassius Creative have worked with the band for years. Squib was with them before I was, and so has a very close relationship with Olly and a genuine understanding of his creative vision. Matt Bull of All Access Staging & Productions in turn has a great working relationship with Squib and Dan and was able to make the stage design become a tourable structure that would become a rolling stage practical for 20-minute festival changeovers,” he said, citing their biggest festival slot as Radio One’s Big Weekend which became a really good starting point for the show.

“They all worked in Vectorworks so they could show me the 3D renders in an online portal which I could look at, delve into and really envisage,” said Squib. “It’s a really very helpful tool to be able to access as a production manager.”

Once the festival season drew to a close, the tour headed Stateside before entering production rehearsals at LS-Live. “It was the first time I’ve ever used the facility,” admitted Down. “It worked out so well; having the accommodation on site meant that we could program well into the night and tweak then and there. There was quite an undertaking as we were taking it from an hour-long summer show up to 80-minutes, as well as expanding it to an O2 Arena sized show. There was quite a lot to do, from choreography to musical direction, which was led by Max Cooke,” he reminisced.

The tour’s visual suppliers comprised Neg Earth Lights, “always one of my first choices”, and new kids of the video block, Universal Pixels (UP). “I’ve always dealt with Jay Mobbs-Beal, our account manager, even when he was with PRG. I like dealing with him, so we went with that relationship when

he joined UP. The company also benefits from a great working relationship with Colour Sound Experiment, so they have access to a lot of products too.

“Our video content was created by an artist called Adam Young of FRAY Studio, who I’d worked with before on Bombay Bicycle Club with Squib,” he added.”

Audio provider SSE provided the summer’s festival control package, and with nothing to complain about, the logical step was to bring in Wigwam Acoustics to supply a d&b audiotechnik rig, the preferred PA choice. “Dan Bennett from SSE is afirst rate acount handler; he always looks after me!” noted Down.

Elsewhere, Popcorn Catering fueled those grueling dance moves, Fly By Nite moved the Santo Palo components and Phoenix Bussing housed the troops between shows while special effects supplier BPM SFX provided a magical keepsake in the form of Palo Santo tarot cards. More on that later…

It must be noted, that backstage in London, there is a lot going on. Although the crew is calm, and the atmosphere is friendly, there are people littering the hallways, mainly showing anyone walking by what an education in denim and spandex looks like. Upon entering catering to find a kettle, I’m greeted by a giant smile and even bigger hug from frontman Olly Alexander. “Hiiiii!” Goodness, I wasn’t expecting that… “That’s just how I say hello to people,” he said, whilst picking a flavour of tea. [Yorkshire, surely?]

“Oh yeah, that’s just Olly,” said Down. “He’s genuinely the loveliest person you’d ever want to meet, and that filters right down. The band is lovely all the time and it makes everything so easy. Olly’s very communicative and open about what’s going on; he’s all about the performance of the show and how we can make it better. If an idea needs to be budgeted for, you’ll get a decision on whether we run with it very quickly. It’s his art. He’s simply a very straight forward for an artist and that in itself is refreshing.”

The army of people [or androids!] backstage turn out to be a new addition to the London show. Nothing like a last-minute mini festival style support act at the biggest show of the tour, right? “Years & Years are putting

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Production Manager, Steve Down; Tour Manager, Tom Nicol.

on a curated LGBTQ+ festival - named Rendezvous - this summer in London, which will have some big names attached to it. It’s inclusive of all genders, ages, backgrounds, sexual identification, it’s for you, all of you basically. The O2 served as a taster for this, but there’s going to be a lot more to come.”

SHOW DESIGN AND OTHER WORLDY CONCEPTS Co-Production Designer, Dan Hill, took up the story: “Olly came up with the idea of this Palo Santo world, that depicts an androgynous feel and planned all the characteristics of this world into the show. We go through these deceptions of entering the world, its landscape and interiors with the androids - trying to establish how Years & Years even fit into it via the Santo Palo Entertainment Network.

“The show is otherworldly, and in this fake broadcasting realm, it becomes sort of like a dystopian, MTV-esque sequence. As part of the audience, you get brought into it, so it’s conceptually immersive,” he explained.

The video content is a gargantuan element of this notion. “We worked very closely with Adam Young of FRAY Studios on the content. He’s amazing. There are such great cinematic moments in the visuals, it’s really impressive.”

Akin to the mesmerising LED screen backdrop of conceptual visuals, there’s lots of raw metal style elements to the stage. Hill continued: “We worked with Matt Bull at All Access to ensure the concept could be delivered for festivals and that the symbolism within the content could be shown within the stage. There are parts of the video that show the [fictional] language of Palo Santo.

“There’s a lift in the middle of the stage which we had built into the set and this is interesting because it becomes part of the evolving set involving a costume gag. The lift rises 3.5m up into the screen, and Olly essentially then appears to be in the middle of the moon. This moment marks the half way point where an unexpected moment and reveals a transition from the real world / landscape driven content to the moon rising and creating the PSEN world next. Suddenly there you are, watching the entertainment.”

A further creative partner was found in Neon Circus, creators of the show’s neon signage. “We could have, going off the brief, done something a lot more obvious for the show and designed something along the lines of a

dystopian Blade Runner style neon laser-filled route, but we chose to get rid of lasers and most of the beam looks and went for quite a lot of colour with soft lighting instead. This helped us to create big sheets of light using the same colour which works really well with the video. Lighting really takes a back seat on this show and we simply keep the performers lit. There’s a few rock ‘n’ roll pieces, but its far more theatrical looking given the big, block elements.”

For moving lighting fixtures, the London show was the ‘big’ one, showcasing 96 Martin by Harman MAC Quantum Washes, 14 Robe BMFL Spots, 12 Robe 150 LED Beams, 18 Robe BMFL Wash Beams (for framing), 3 Robe BMFL Blades, 3 Robe BMFL FollowSpots and 18 GLP JDC Strobes. For effects, Cassius opted for 13 TMB Solaris Flares (backline and side light), 32 Philips Color Kinetics TRX, 117 Martin VDO Sceptron (1M) and 15 Martin 0.320 VD) Sceptron. Atmospherics of note was a Look Solutions Viper unit. The console was Cassius’ own MA Lighting grandMA2 running software 3.4.0.2 (Neg Earth supplied a backup.)

Other show stoppers included the BPM SFX tarot cards, multi-coloured confetti and blasters. “It becomes a sort of dark cabaret part of the set, where you don’t know what your fortune in this dystopian future might be. Yet saying that, there’s not loads of gags, it’s all about the band bringing you this sort of ‘anti-pop’ pop show that’s fun and different but quite dark and moody.”

The lighting was operated by Lighting Director, James Washer. Now, we don’t want to say the TPi Awards is the only place to network, but it’s probably not a coincidence that team Cassius met their Op there. Between this union and the formation of Helix, no wonder the essence of Palo Santo feels strangely unstrange...

CUSTOM STAGING All Access Staging & Productions’ Matt Bull took up the story: “I had worked with Steve Down and Cassius Creative on smaller versions of Years & Years tours, and at the beginning of this year, we met to discuss how they wanted to tackle a festival season followed by a short tour later in the year. We had previously used a similar style system for Jessie J, whereby; it allows the video elements to be attached to a custom-made cart which became the base for the stage risers. The carts - when not in use - also carry the stage

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Sean Pagel, Tour Rigger; FOH Engineer, Sam Parker with Chris ‘Squib’ Swain, Production Designer; Stage Manager, Simon Lutkin.

decks. This concept enables fast deployment at festivals and uses very little real estate.

“Once this method was decided upon, production designers, Squib and Dan then came up with a design from which the carts, fabricated stairs and frames for the front of the risers would complement.”

Once the creative aspects had been signed off, fabrication of the structure took about two weeks. The carts are made from steel with a discreet section to hold and secure the video products within them. The stairs and facia were also manufactured in steel which was lacquered in order to give a raw metal aesthetic finish as part of the android-esque finish. Set Carpenter, Ross Burkin, visited All Access for two days to learn

how to set up and get to grips with the construction of the set and its hydraulic lift gag.

Bull concluded: “It’s been great working with Cassius on this project; we have a good relationship and can work through the possibility of their wonderful ideas at ease. Steve is a consummate professional too, he’s one of the new generations of production managers who I know will be making progress in the industry for a long time to come.”

VISUAL ENTERTAINMENT TPi spoke to Young, who first became involved with Years & Years back in 2014 when Squib asked the artist to design the video for the first album

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campaign. “Since then, I’ve worked with Dan and Squib on lots of other projects and formed a video design company - FRAY Studio. When this campaign came around and we knew what the rough concept was, it seemed like a natural fit to work together again.

“Olly sent a very detailed PDF with the concept about the world of Palo Santo; rules, the inhabitants, mythology and its language. Beyond that, the brief was very open - there was a desire to set the first half of the show in the city of Palo Santo and to set the second half of the show in a TV network called PSEN. We went away for a couple of weeks and pulled together some very broad concepts, looks and styles that weren’t attached to any particular songs. Generally, it was a very open and accepting team who took on-board our own interpretation of the world of Palo Santo.

“Unlike the last tour, where I was a freelancer - we were a studio full of people with different talents and ideas. Norvydas Genys, our 3D specialist was the first one to start work by exploring how to build a city from scratch in Cinema4D that looked retro-futuristic and had a clear identity of Palo Santo. He had to work on all levels of scale - from back alleys with paper lanterns and wooden crates against the wall - to full aerial shots with road layouts specifically shaped into the Palo Santo symbols. Alongside Norv’s development was mine and Ash Woodward’s - we were looking at what actually makes something look authentically like a Japanese kid’s show from the 90s, how to recreate a theatre in Thailand that was used in the music video - amongst a long list of other things. This initial research and development phase probably lasted for a month or so, and once we knew we had most of the building blocks in place, we shifted into an intense fourweek production period to produce the show.

“The opening of the show is one of my favourite moments for sure. As an introduction, it feels big, cinematic and unexpected. I think it sets up the world in which we are about in inhabit nicely within a short moment and we get to introduce every visual language we use throughout; 90s CRT, filmed footage, text and 3D animated locations.

“I want the audience to feel like they have really been presented a complete world on stage. At FRAY, we think narrative is crucial to a successful show - not in the sense that we are telling a story - but we always hope to present something that visually flows and feels like it’s all come from one mind rather than every song being a stand-alone piece. I don’t think it’s something an audience would consciously think about - but I

would hope on some level the creation of such a consistent and cohesive world elevates their experience.

“Palo Santo is a real highlight - the moon and Olly on the lift just create such a hero moment and image that I think a lot of people walk away remembering. I always think it’s simple ideas that are well executed by all departments that really create those moments.

“It’s always such a pleasure to work with people who have a very strong concept behind what they want - it allows you to really invest in what you are creating specifically for that moment or song in the show rather than making content just because there needs to be something on the screen,” he said.

Young concluded by explaining something which, stood at FOH at the O2, was very apparent for a lot of people; the sense of community amongst the children, the teens, the parents, the lovers, the friends and the curious was rife: “I have always been a fan of Years & Years personally, and as a queer man myself, I think they offer the world of pop something diverse, celebratory, unashamed, honest and open - which is often missing. I love being part of the team who is helping to spread those messages to everyone who comes to see the show.”

VIDEO DIRECTION As a relatively new company - headed up by Phil Mercer - video vendor, Universal Pixels (UP) only began working with the band in 2018, but the company’s Project Manager, Jay Mobb-Beals knew team Helix from way back. Since its inception, UP has worked with some seriously high-profile and challenging designs, and the 2018 Years & Years tour was something Mobb-Beals was keen to delve into. He began: “I’ve worked with Steve and Tom on quite a few projects over several years now, starting on a Years & Years tour on their first album campaign and they wanted to keep that continuity within video. We first began talking about this particular tour in April when we knew it was going to be so video-heavy throughout. Over the summer, UP provided a variance of shows from a complete video package to a flyable server system in a couple of Pelican cases, and everything in between.

“As the band had festival shows during the summer run, followed by indoor headline arena shows towards the end of the year, we had to come up with a package that was low-maintenance enough for Robin Senoner

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(Video Crew Chief) to tour the servers and look after the risers over the summer on his own. The screen also needed to match the high-res content with a system that was scalable enough to pull off various different versions of the show around the world. Attention to detail is always key with Cassius and there is never an element left to chance or not meticulously thought through.”

Video Director, Charles Woods commented: “With the live cuts, I try not to make it too much about Olly, and include Emre and Mikey as much as possible to get a full picture of the talent on stage. It’s a really nice gig to shoot as there’s such a lot happening, and Olly is of course a very natural frontman. The dancing within the show is very wellchoreographed which always helps when cutting to live music.”

Woods specified for two manned cameras (a long lens at FOH and one in the pit with a 22:1 lens)and two robo cameras each side of the stage to shoot across, offering alternate angles. “This helped to cover the movement of the performance as it went up and downstage,” he noted. Another robo cam was placed on the drums that also did crowd shots and two fixed mini cams for Emre and Mikey respectively.

In total, UP provided an upstage LED wall comprising ROE CB5 tiles in touring frames which went up to 195sqm for the London O2 show. Barco UDX 30k Projectors were chosen for IMAG, a For-A HVS 100 video switcher, two Hitachi 1200E cameras, three Agile ARC 360 PTZ cameras and three UP Block Mini Cams were utilised. The media servers were disguise Solos, and the bespoke stage LED panels were made of Leyard CLM 6mm - both recent investments by UP.

Woods expanded: “The HVS 100 is a small but powerful switcher, perfect for a production of this

“I have always been a fan of Years & Years personally, and as a queer man myself, I think they offer the world of pop something diverse, celebratory, unashamed, honest and open - which is often missing. I love being part of the team who is helping to spread those messages to everyone who comes to see the show”

Adam Young, Visual Artist

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size, and the comms system was also really good. They key thing on camera was capturing movement on stage, and the interplay between the dancers and Olly.”

Woods continued: “This was my first time working with UP on a tour; they had great, new kit and delivered a very practical system to the tour as their PPUs are compact and fit into any venue easily. I’ll look forward to working with them again in the future.

Mobb-Beals, who knew Woods prior to joining UP added: “I knew Charles’ personality would fit well with this touring team who have worked together for many years, so having him on board was a no-brainer.

“As for the band, it’s been great to support them in various ways over the years; I first saw them at In The Woods Festival in 2014 when they were midway up the bill, so seeing them grow over time being able to support their video needs now, fortheir biggest show to date, has been an absolute pleasure.” The video team was completed by Video Engineer: Connor Dexter, Projection/Camera, Anish Patel and LED Tech / Camera Op, Gareth Manicom.

SPECIAL EFFECTS BPM provided a plethora of special effects for the colourful show. Firing from an MA Lighting grandMA onPC software using Timecode, the TPi Award winning company delivered stadium shots, confetti blasters and pyro hits to the party.

The tour’s SFX Technicians were BPM’s Josh Corkerton & Blake Harward. Corkerton told TPi: “In my role as SFX Tech, I programmed, operated and installed all of the special effects. We timecoded the show using an MA Lighting grandMA onPC to ensure consistency across all of the shows.”

Senior Project Coordinator, Katie Strickland added: “This method is becoming more and more

YEARS & YEARS

popular within special effects. Squib always has these great designs in mind, so we help to facilitate and execute these concepts.

“It’s an amazing team to work with, and this tour has an exceptional design from the Cassius,” noted Corkerton. The full BPM rig comprised streamer hits from stadium shots on Shine, a pyro lift of gold glitter mines for Meteorite, a pyro chase of red mines for Desire, a pyro lift of gold strobe mines for Ties, pyro lift of gerbs for If You’re Over Me, pyro lift of gold glitter mines on All for You a huge confetti hit from stadium blasters during the chart-topping single, King.

Corkerton continued: “Each pyro cue fitted nicely with the visuals and concept of each track and there just has to be a big hit in King, what a way to finish a show with firing loads [at 84Kg] of confetti across the audience. We love using confetti - especially custom confetti as it really gets the crowd involved.” No doubt the crowd loves it too, with treasures and trinkets of tarot cards designed to take home, enabling an analogue aspect of a very digital concert.

“It is always a pleasure to work with the Cassius team and Steve; we have had a great year working with them and look forward to more exciting projects in the new year,” Strickland concluded.

PALO SANTO SOUND FOH Engineer, Sam Parker was brought on-board by Steve Down in 2017. “It was for their 2017 summer festivals, and we’ve worked together ever since,” he stated. This tour has saw Parker request a DiGiCo SD10. His reasoning? “It has enough I/O and processing paths, and when - or if - I run out of I/O on the surface, the addition of an SD mini rack in the optical loop gains the extra AES sockets I need to mix at FOH.”

The engineer, who mixes on the fly, also praised the SD10s macros for being “very flexible.” Parker is running over 50 channels from the stage and a dozen FX returns. For processing, he opted for a TC Electronic M6000 and the SD10’s on-board dynamics for control.

For vocal effects, Parker opted to use his own TC M5000. “My go-to vocal verbs are the Gold Plate and 5000 Hall,” he noted.

The chosen vocal microphone is a DPA d:facto capsule on a Sennheiser 5000 transmitter for frontman Alexander. Backing vocals are via Sennheiser e935s and the drums take in a mixture of Shure, Audix, BeyerDynamic & Neumann models.

The sound system design was left with SSE / Wigwam System Technician, Mark Pantlin. Parker continued: “Mark & I have worked together previously, and he opted for a d&b audiotechnik J Series due to its suitability for the theatre venues and the arena shows alike.

“This was my first time using the with d&b B22 subs; usually, I would have had J SUBs on the floor, but the decision was made to fly the J SUBS for the London show, and go with B22s on the stage deck,” he added.

MONITOR WORLD Steve Murray, Monitor Engineer, came on board in May 2017. He said: “I knew Steve and Simon Lutkin, our Stage Manager, [whom Down described as a ‘hero’] before this tour, as we are all Foals veterans, albeit at different times.”

Murray had been using a range of Midas consoles for about 10 years but cited the availability and support from DiGiCo as a key turning point. He explained: “I had used SD7 or SD10s a few times over the past five years, in fact with Years & Years in China last year I had to jump onto DiGiCo for a couple of shows when the promoter couldn’t find a Midas. A few weeks ago, before this UK tour, The Warehouse in Edinburgh kindly set up their SD10 for me so I could refine the file I’d built on the offline software, and that was a real help in moving the show over. The more I use DiGiCo, the more I like it… I think I’ll stick with it from now on.”

The band use Sennheiser 2050 IEMs, with 12 channels across two ranges, plus two channels of 3732II with DPA d:facto heads for Alexander’s main and spare vocals. There are two channels with the Sennheiser 2000 Series with e935s for BVs, and two Shure UR4D for bass and guitar. It’s a mixed bag on moulds; Jerry Harvey Audio JH16s, Ultimate Ears UE11s, UE5s and some Cosmic Ears models. Murray himself uses UE11s “so at least two members of the band should be happy with their mixes!” he joked.

Including tech and guest mixes, there’s 9 IEM mixes plus spares and cue, stereo sidefills and two subs. For the stage wedges, Murray specified two SB18s with two ARC Focus per side (as sidefill) for the dancers.

He noted that the main challenge is the difference in the sound and levels from Midi and playback, from song to song. “I have all the electronic elements automated with drums and vocals scoped out and the DiGiCo desk is great for that. The Relative Group function is a game changer. That’s always a head scratcher for me on a new board; the mixing part is fine on most of them, but automation is where I trip myself up until I find my feet!” He declared.

“My monitor tech, Paul Keeble, was actually a great help in rehearsals as he also uses an SD10 with Jamiroquai. We had a couple of days’ rehearsals in London, with just myself and Max Cooke, the Musical Director, the techs and the band, so going forward into production rehearsals meant I was in a pretty good place. Once the mix is settled, I don’t get asked for much. It’s pretty refreshing!”

Murray was also tasked with frequency scanning via an RF Explorer spectrum analyser which is then exported into Shure’s Wireless Workbench programme.

So, to sum up the last 18 months with this camp? “They are some of the nicest folks I’ve toured with. I’m looking forward to six weeks off over the holidyas, but it won’t be a chore to go into Europe with this bunch in January,” he smiled.

RIGGING RIGORS The tour’s rigging division is headed up by PSI’s Sean Pagel. As a director in a full-service rental company in Belfast, Pagel’s own area of expertise is rigging. He began: “I’d worked on Liam Gallagher’s summer shows during the festival season, and that’s how I met Steve. I don’t tend to tour often these days, but I like to keep my toe in touring as I think it keeps you current, as a company director!”

This may only be a short tour away from the day job, but every venue, he explained, had its own rigging challenges. “This show is designed for an arena-sized production, so taking it from our rehearsals at LS-Live into

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an arena in Birmingham, then into the Manchester Apollo, to the Brighton Centre - with little roof height and some roof restrictions - then back to Manchester and into London, has been interesting.

“Ben Love - the in-house rigger in Brighton was brilliant. We had a roof capacity of 16 tonnes and our cut down show [as in everywhere bar London] weighed in at 15.7 tonnes. So, we were fine. Just!” he laughed.

“In Manchester, we had to shrink the screen to 12m for the hanging weight of the building, but it didn’t affect the look of the show at all; it still looked brilliant. It’s such a good-looking design no matter where you saw it,” he enthused.

Throughout most shows, the lighting team utilised Robe followspots, but in London, extra truss and cable bridges were required to streamline the look on a bigger scale. On the audio front, there were few extra points due to the flying subs.

“Other than these small alterations, everything has simply moved out and become a bit wider to fill the O2 stage nicely,” he added.

Under Pagel’s watch, the HUD 10m lighting trusses [from Neg Earth] hang EXE Rise chain hoists, the PA is on CMs from Wigwam and the video is rigged via two-tonne CMs.

Pagel concluded: “The tour worked out really well; the team are lovely and relaxed. I come in and do my rigging points with the local crews and in the afternoon while they sound check, I can put my PSI hat on and catch up with emails,” he noted. After all, how many directors like to climb high and dabble in tour life!

TRANSPORTATION MISSION Phoenix’s Stuart Scott has also worked with Steve Down for many years. “Working with these guys is fantastic for me; they’re happy to talk about everything they need, which makes it very easy to handle on my side. I visited the team at the O2 Arena show and must say, they make you feel so welcome. This is a camp who make time for you, which feels great.”

Phoenix provided Palo Santo with three buses; a band bus, which was one of the travel expert’s newer, 16 berth Star buses, and a further two 16 berth buses for the crew.

Fly By Nite’s Matt Jackson was tasked with the kit commute: “We have worked with Years & Years ever since they first needed a trucking company

around 4-5 years ago, even before Helix were involved. When Steve and Tom took over, I was fortunate enough to have had a good relationship with both of them, having worked with them on previous projects. Therefore, when they came in, it was a simple, smooth transition for the band’s trucking needs.

“This was a very straight forward tour; big venues within the UK that we were able to put a team of familiar drivers on. We had five trucks on the tour with a sixth added for the O2 Arena show, plus we transported additional gear for the Brighton and London shows on behalf of the special effects supplier, BPM SFX.

“It was great to be involved with the tour as it’s always a pleasure working with Steve and the team. It’s been good to see the band’s progression from the early days of needing small bits moved to where they are today, culminating in their biggest ever headline show. It was a great note to end the tour on. We are due back out with the band in January, this time heading out to Europe, so we look forward to picking up where we left off and see what else lies ahead.”

As the performance drew to a close, frontman Olly Alexander declared the London show as “the best night of my life.” If the energy in the beautiful, dystopian Santo Palo was anything to go by, we certainly believe it. Here’s to the next, ahem, Rendezvous… TPi Photos: Tony Wooliscroft, Roy Brown and Joe Okpako. www.yearsandyears.com www.onlyhelix.com www.cassiuscreative.co.uk www.fraystudio.co.uk www.sillismovement.com www.neoncircus.com www.unipix.tv www.negearth.com www.sseaudiogroup.com www.flybynite.co.uk www.phoenix-bussing.co.uk www.allaccessinc.com www.popcorncatering.com

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