4 minute read
PSA
SAFETY MATTERS TO U2… AND YOU, TOO
Historically, the PSA column has examined the theory, regulation and enforcement of safety. However, this month, we’re lucky enough to get a view from the practical end. During interviews with the U2 touring team, Mark Cunningham probed the safety issues. Naturally, we were all too happy to hand over this month’s excerpt to the musings of those that enable the safe adoption of the biggest and best in show design. Of course, the thrills are not without their spills...
Based in Bristol, The Event Safety Shop (TESS) has developed a solid relationship with Jake Berry and U2 over many tours, and it’s one that both parties take very seriously. “Health and safety regulations are rampant in Europe, and the paperwork involved in putting on a show is frightening,” said Berry in Paris during the European leg of the 2018 eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE tour, “so you need someone you can trust to dedicate themselves to such a time-consuming responsibility.
“If you have all the correct paperwork, it’s not a problem. It’s when you aren’t armed with the right paperwork that you can find yourself tied up in knots. You can’t expect to turn up like we used to in the ’80s and expect to do a gig – it’s just not going to happen. To our credit, we work with an A-team of vendors who really know their stuff and having [TESS co-founder] Tim Roberts on our side means we have every corner covered. Experience breeds confidence.”
Jake Berry
Tim Roberts
Tim Roberts cites PRG’s GroundControl remote followspot system as one of the most important steps forward in event safety. He commented: “This development has factored out a huge amount of what was potentially high risk work at height by local crew, truck drivers with a dual role, or others, who would otherwise climb up a tower or rise on a 250kg motor to sit in a spot chair for an entire show. If there was a fire alarm or some other incident connected with the venue, they would have to be brought down and it’s another aspect to think about. It’s a wonderful illustration of how technology can actually design out risks in the workplace.”
Despite integrating in every possible safety measure, an artist may still find a way to fall off the stage, as The Edge did on the opening night of the 2015 tour in Vancouver, followed by Bono’s similar calamity this May in Chicago, viewed by Berry from the sidelines.
Rocko Reedy
“Bono was walking backwards and I had a strange feeling that he wasn’t going to stop,” Berry recalled. “Sure enough, he forgot to turn and fell off the catwalk steps, landing flat on his back. Fair play to him – he kept hold of the mic like a true pro and picked up the song right on cue. You’re immediately concerned about their welfare but it’s moments like that when you’re thinking, ‘Oh fuck, we’re going home!’”
Likewise, crew are not immune from gravity, as Stage Manager Rocko Reedy discovered earlier this year. “My job is to look at the stage and ask myself what could go wrong here. Sometimes I’ll spot a potential safety problem, such as when I didn’t like the way a 150lb aluminium dance floor ramp was positioned between a stair and a riser. I decided to make a modification and in doing so I tripped and fell. I was off the tour for three months getting a new titanium hip.
“The thing is, you can only take common sense so far and most accidents don’t happen out of neglect or because someone wasn’t wearing a harness or a hi-viz vest.”
As show designs become increasingly sophisticated, we are seeing more examples of potential risk, notably with the deployment of stage automation effects where the technology itself is the gag. Roberts’ job is to promote awareness: “Our presence on this tour demonstrates that health and safety is not an impediment to creativity and that there are enormous benefits to be had by doing things the correct way,” he said.
“We are seeing more and more artists rising up through a stage or being hoisted into the air. There is certainly a lot of automation designed into this U2 show but it’s more of an enabling force than a gratuitous statement. “U2 approach the use of potentially hazardous technologies with due caution but I see other organisations who maybe aren’t so aware as people like Jake of the catastrophic possibilities that could be incurred by, for example, sending an artist up in a scissor lift. That simply would not be allowed in general industry. We all love to see show designers break new ground but not at the cost of a crew member losing an arm or being squashed under a hydraulic ram or worse. The quickest way to blow a budget is by mincing people.
“On the positive side we have design elements that minimise risk while new stage technologies may be importing risk into areas where we’ve not previously had it, and we need to focus more on how we can protect people who work in concealed and dangerous areas that, in an unguarded moment, could turn into the equivalent of an industrial guillotine.” TPi www.psa.org.uk
