Here we are episode #263 just finished recording with
legendary Jake Berry. Not too many people in this
industry that I give legend status to, but he's certainly
one of them with his work on the Stones and all of the incredible
stuff he did on U2, including the Sphere and Coldplay and ACDC
and Mötley Crüe. And I mean, the guy's a legend
and he's just a super nice guy. He's a great storyteller.
He tells some amazing stories on this podcast, including again,
telling some stories about AC/DC that you may or may not have
heard before if you heard my podcast, but a lot of other
stuff too, and it's a very funny start.
I apologize for the beginning. Of course, we come in talking
about racing, of which he's a huge fan, so please enjoy it.
Welcome to Geysers of Gear episode #263 Today's podcast is
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So we're welcoming Sarah back this week.
She was away for a week, She strayed from us.
She left us for a week and she went on tour, I think with Blink
182 in Ireland and England and Scotland, or maybe just Ireland
and Scotland, I don't remember. Was talking with her this
morning. She had a great time.
We might have to do a podcast and discuss how touring has
changed from the last time she went out until this time.
And so she's back and she's happy to be back and she's happy
to be back in her seat producing Geezers of Gear.
And we're working on a pretty big event for LDI as well, which
we'll tell you more about very soon.
So welcome back, Sarah. And also right now Plaza is
going on as I am recording this Plaza is happening in England,
in London, and many of our friends are there.
And I didn't go. I've been to Plaza, I don't
know, 15 times or something. It's a great show.
I actually miss going. I would have liked to have been
there. And funny Side Story or not
funny, but interesting fact is that I was at Plaza during 911.
So as the terrible events occurred, I was getting messages
and calls from Florida telling me what was going on and
eventually made my way into a Media Center at Plaza where a
bunch of Americans were standing around just staring up at the
television in total disbelief. And so yeah, it was a nutty
event and, and a really weird, weird time for us all obviously
terrible time. And actually, as I record this,
it's September 4th, so we're, we're exactly a week away from
that anniversary, which is not a happy one AI.
So I actually had a couple people reach out to me thanking
me for suggesting certain AI apps to try.
And hey, anytime you know, it's something that I'm passionate
about and I like quite a lot. And I, I do pay attention to
some new stuff when I have time. I haven't had a lot of time in
this past week, but I do want to talk to you about a couple
things. Starting with scientists have
successfully connected AI to the nervous systems of a certain
type of worm worms, allowing the AI to direct those worms towards
specific targets. This technology showcases the
remarkable potential of AI to interact with and influence
biological organisms. This is a big deal.
So, yeah, thought that was interesting.
Am I really following it closely or anything?
No, I'm not. But it's obvious that AI is
going to play a major role in solving things like blindness
and diseases and all kinds of things.
And, and of course, Elon Musk with with the chip that he's
inserting into humans is going to hopefully solve a lot of
problems and not create too many more.
It's a scary thought, but you know, if you looked back 20
years and said, hey, we're going to insert chips into humans that
are going to help them think better and solve a lot of, you
know, neurological diseases or problems or failures or
whatever, I don't know that we would have believed it.
It's happened so quickly. All of a sudden, one of the
things I'm looking at right now or trying, testing, playing with
is something called flux. And Flux is a photo generating
app or a, an image generating app.
You know, some of the examples that they show and stuff that
I've been playing with is where you can insert a background into
a photo. And that background can be a
cityscape, it can be a concert, it can be all kinds of things.
They're incredibly real. They call it hyper real and it
really is hyper real. Like when they show you a
comparison, this photo's real. These three are made-up.
You'd be shocked. It's, it's just incredible how
good it's gotten already. They can swiftly generate
convincing images of people and places altering reality with a
few clicks. This is one of their little
promos, I guess, or, or specs or whatever.
Reaching a level where distinguishing between an
authentic photograph and an AI generated image is increasingly
challenging. And obviously this brings about
some concerns and some challenges and some problems.
So Flux's Open Access nature raises concerns about its
potential misuse and brings digital ethics clearer into play
here. So this is obviously a huge
concern and this is something that the whole world is is at
least thinking about. I would expect that there's
going to be some regulation involving the use of images.
What is owned by someone including their own image?
You know, can I just copy images of Taylor Swift drinking a
drink, a soft drink that I've created, you know, that's my
product or whatever. Can I have her using my product
in an image? And what kind of fines or
penalties are involved if I do that on social media or
whatever? So, yeah, obviously this is the,
the potential black hole side of, of AI, which is, you know,
all of these intellectual property concerns and, and just
rights, digital rights, who owns what it's, it's going to get
increasingly complex and there's going to be a lot of lawsuits
filed over this. So what do I say every week?
I'm really excited about today's guest because I'm so fortunate.
I'm grateful for the fact that that so many people are
interested in willing to come on this podcast and these people,
some of them are legends. Some of them are people that
I've looked up to for most of my career or all of my career and
just gone, whoa, that guy's a superstar and this guy's one of
them. So a career spanning almost 40
years now. Jake Berry is a multiple
award-winning production director, production designer,
production manager, production, all sorts of things known
throughout the industry as a go to guy for any successful tour.
Jake is the founder and CEO of Jake Berry Productions, a
leading tour production management company hailing from
Devon, England. Jake comes from modest
beginnings. Jake's career began as a drum
and percussion technician. Actually, I wonder if that's
really true because I remember the story that he told me where
he was a keyboard tech for Yes, and from there suddenly got
hired to be the production manager of ACDC.
And we might get him to tell that story again today on
today's podcast. Progressing through various
international tours with groups including The Rolling Stones,
U2, Metallica, Coldplay, and so many others.
We had the pleasure of Jake being on the podcast back in
August of 21. That is episode #129 if you want
to check it out on Apple or Spotify, it won't be on YouTube
because we didn't start YouTube until just last year.
So please join me and welcome Jake back to the podcast.
Thanks. You, you, you need to travel
with him. I travelled with him and he was
the fucking worst. Yeah, the worst Who?
Scott. Terrible 12 year old kid
travelling. Scott Speed, yeah, so.
We we went to Bahrain and we did.
He finished third in that GP two season, yeah.
And the guy that won it was Hecky Kovaleinen.
Yeah. And Nico Rosberg finished second
in that in that championship worked.
Out for both of them, didn't it? Yeah.
And then Scott got promoted to Toro Rosso, Yeah.
And he did not hit it off with the principal, Franz Tost.
And there was lots of going back and forth.
And then Scott, I think delivered like he had a direct
link to to Dietrich, right? Massachusetts had a Red Bull
race and had a Red Bull. And he kind of went round,
tossed his back and went there. And then then after a crash in
Nuremberg where Scott crashed and so did 8 of the other
drivers in wet conditions, I must admit.
And they got into a bit of a fight.
So then he saw they they sacked him, but then they put him in
the Red Bull NASCAR program. And that's NASCAR program was
run by Gunther Steiner, OK. And such a.
Great guy. Yeah, so.
We got to know. I've got to know Gunter very
well. And still known to these days,
actually, yeah, Although I've now lost my connection to get
Formula One tickets. So.
So has he. He'll always be around.
Yeah, he'll. Be fine.
Yeah, yeah. Until we went to NASCAR, and
then you know that he managed to.
Actually, I went to Daytona 500 and we LED 12 laps.
Yeah, fantastic feeling. And then he went down to ARCA
and he rode trucks. I mean, in ARCA series we were
going to win it and it was between US and Ricky Stenhouse
Junior, and all we had to do was to keep ahead of Ricky Stenhouse
and Ricky Stenhouse went after Scott and pushed him into the
wall. As you do, yeah, So.
Then Scott Speed then came out of the pits as Stenhouse were
coming back and made sure he wouldn't win the championship by
T boning him. Jesus.
So there's the the the newer NASCAR people saying this is
wrong and the older NASCAR people going he just got what he
deserved and then and now Scott is he he's a works driver for
Subaru in the GP Nitro series. Yeah, I still.
He's not doing GRC anymore. Global Rallycross.
Yes, but yeah, TRC, yeah, yeah. And I saw him, I saw a clip from
him. He went to the Good Word
Festival of Speed. Yeah.
And he did the hill climbing the Subaru and he was sick.
As well. Yeah, I saw that as well.
Yeah. You know he broke his back a few
years ago, right? Yeah.
Going over a bump, yeah. And I would go to Scott and I
would, you know, everywhere I go, I like I, I took my friend
Mitch Margolin to Daytona and he goes, yeah, we'll go and see
Scott. And he thought that, you know, I
would poke my nose in and say hi to Scott.
And I went up to the pit, you know, the trailer.
And, you know, I go, hey, Scott, how are you?
And go like, he drops everything and comes over.
And I introduced the Mitch. And Mitch is, I think, a little
bit starstruck. And he said to Mitch, he goes
and he Scott will tell you this if you ask him, how do you get
this far? It's quite possible to say that
if it wasn't for Jake and spending money me, I wouldn't
have made it this far. So that's.
Amazing. You know, The thing is Jake,
like today, so you know, my son's 20, he did last year in
England. He raced a couple of different
series in England last year. My son, opposite of Scott would
live in Europe in a second like for the next 10 years.
He'd love to, but the money now is so much different than what
you're talking about. Like 75,000 for 12%, you know,
75,000 wouldn't get you anywhere anymore.
Like it, you know? So right now the going rate for
Indy is about 12 to 15,000,000 for two seasons.
And that's as a driver coming in, like that's what you're
going to pay to get in. You're going to pay to get in
unless you've just won everything in the world and they
want you on one of the teams. But even like Andretti and
Penske and stuff are taking paid seats now.
And so it's, it's like, you know, I hate to say it, but
we've got friends in an IndyCar that my kid has beaten all the
way through karting and, and even in cars.
We've got some friends going through the Formula One route
who are in F2 or they're even reserve drivers in some cases
who we've beaten in carts and cars.
But you know, I can't fund it. Like I just don't you know, and
even within our industry, like I've got a lot of connections in
our industry who have been very gracious and have helped to
support him. But the money, you know, even if
I collect 100,000 or 150,000 from people that.
Erases. Yeah, I.
Mean Formula two now I think is around 6,000,000 for a season,
something like that. Like it's an insane number, you
know? Formula 3 is around €2 million
for a season of Formula 3. Formula 4 is almost €1,000,000.
You know, it's just insane money right now.
It's insane. Imagine that you're a top driver
and you have to spend 10 million to get a seat, right?
Imagine if you're a college football player and you want to
go to Yeah. You got to spend 10 million to
go play for the the. The New York Jets want want you
in their team and you can come and play for us if you if you
give us 10 million people would say that's not right, but of
course they would. I mean there's a couple of prime
examples in there. You know, I mean, look, you look
at Lance Tro and Aston morning right to you know, is he there
because of his dad in the New York second Is he he's I think
he's an OK driver, but he's an OK driver amidst a lot of very
good ones he'd. Never be in Formula One if he if
he wasn't Laurence Stroll's son. There, he wouldn't, No.
I was very surprised because I always thought that Lance was
fast and he was not very good on on tricky circuits or or
technical circuits. But he always said well in Monza
and this year at Monza it was a complete disaster.
Yeah, yeah. Now he's, he's there obviously,
because his dad's the boss and now his dad.
I've just read a rumor this morning that they're giving
Adrian Newey 25,000,000 to come to to come to them to come to
Aston next. Yeah, well, I mean it is or it
isn't, but it's going to put you in the in the conversation,
that's for sure. And for him, 25,000,000 is
peanuts. You.
Know yes, so like they once said to, I don't know, there was an
interview and I can't remember. I think it was Lewis Hamilton
and they said what team would you like to race for most?
He goes the one with Adrian Newey.
Yeah, yeah. If the guy's that good, you know
he really is and he doesn't. Need the computer?
It's all. It's all rulers and and can
drawn, isn't it? Yeah.
Well, and there's very few people like that, you know, and,
and like you mentioned earlier, Mike Speed is one of the guys in
karting who's like that. Like he could look at a Tony
cart and tell you exactly what, how it needed to be adjusted
that his biggest thing was carburetion.
Like Mike Speed in Go Karts was a carburetion genius.
You know, he'd go off into a little hidden place and he'd do
some adjustments to the carb and he'd come back and you'd be like
3/10 faster and you'd go, what did you just do?
I don't know. I mean, MM speed with Scott.
Mike believed in Scott. Yeah, I mean, they had, I
wouldn't you know, they had an up and down relationship.
They argued a lot. I think they still like, but
like Mike, Mike went into so much debt to get Scott where he
wanted, like a double mortgage on a house.
And you have to have the utmost respect for people like that,
Yeah. Yeah, I mean.
Trouble for being a genius. Let's face it, when your last
name is Speed, you've got a little pressure on you.
You know you're not going to, you're not going to make it in,
you know, whatever. You're not going to make it in a
lot of industries, but you're going.
To once, once I had an idea that I was going to take, you know,
to try to get sponsors in it and I was going to go to American
Express and I was going to Scott Speed the American Express.
That's a good one. Yeah, that's a good one.
Do you know Alex as well? His brother?
I do, yeah. So Alex was like Jeremy's
engineer for a number of years. My son's engineer in karts, they
were the best. I mean, speed, you know, I
helped him come up with his name, Speed Concept Racing,
because I always argued with him.
You've got to use your name. It's your name.
And he goes, yeah, but it sounds so cheesy, Speed, you know, race
fast. And I'm like, but it's your
freaking name, so you got to use it.
So. Mike's wife passed away, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
And then and then. His They put their heart and
soul and house and name and money on the line for their son.
Yeah, they did. And.
Alex wasn't a mean go Kart racer either.
Yeah, yeah. No.
And honestly, you know, I'd like to say he's the only one because
I did. And so many fathers did, you
know, because you just look at your son and like, my son from
the age of seven, never wanted to do anything else in the world
except be in a go Kart. And then at 15 in a race car,
you know, that was it. That was the only thing he
wanted in the world. To this day, it's all he wants.
But you know, now, unfortunately, like most of
them, he's on the other side. He's coaching and so he's
coaching a bunch of US Formula Four drivers.
He's SIM coaching a lot of drivers.
So yeah, it's a whole thing. It's, it's sad actually, when
you know, there's a lot of talent out there that's better
than some of the talent is there because, you know, with the
Formula One car, I don't know if if you're as much a driver as a
computer genius. Yeah, it's true.
Or. Or, or a mixture of both.
Yeah. And then it's always the best
driver and the best car will win.
I mean, it amazes me that they go like the Aston Martins really
slow because it's 9/10 of a second slower on a lap than
anyone. 9/10 of a second, yeah. It's insane, isn't it?
It's it's like a blink of an eye.
Yeah, yeah, 9/10 of a second on a, on a minute and a half lap,
right or whatever. So no, it's incredible.
It's all incredible. And the drivers, there's so many
great drivers right now. I think, I think a lot of them
will never make it to Formula One.
A lot of them will never make it to Formula Three because the
money's just not there. You know, it's, it's a terrible
story right now. Those with loads of money are,
are making it on and the grids are going to end up watered
down. You know, the grids are going to
get lame. Like I think right now IndyCar
is pretty exciting. You know, there's, there's some
pretty good things happening in IndyCar right now.
But even there, like if you look at the last five, 6-7 drivers
usually on the on the sheets, at the end of the day, those guys
are paying millions of dollars to be in those seats.
And yeah, it's just not right. I don't.
You know, I had a burning ambition once.
Just once. Oh, and racing.
I wanted to go to Indianapolis from like the start or get into
like Wednesday or Monday before the race, then walk up and down
pit row and find it. Who wanted $25,000?
Yeah. And you'll go, you have $25,000.
I just want my name on a car. And going back to what you said
about our industry friends, I did that with with Colin Fleming
in Formula Atlantic, I think. Yeah.
And so I got my friends from stage, Co-op stage in screen
works, cat entertainment. And I go, you, you want to give
me some sponsorship money. So we raised 100 grand and that
was good. Yeah, that's very good season
and like 20 grand for each company.
And we put it over the car and we had a great car and won it.
And then also there back in the GP two days, Colin was trying to
race for a Swiss outfit. I can't remember the name.
And they wanted some money for a wind tunnel test and at wind
tunnel testing time. Yeah, I used to own a bunch of
sound consoles that I rented, so I sold one and paid for wind
tunnel time. All that got me is that my
company was called Fader Hire then and I have a picture of
Colin driving around Monaco with Fader Hire on the mirrors.
Nice. Yeah, I.
Got nothing out of it except that's fucking cool.
Well. So, you know, remarkably,
there's a company in our industry called Ayrton Lighting,
which, you know, is a major automated lighting manufacturer
now, one of the top guys out there.
And the founder, Yvonne, is a French guy who was a massive
Formula One fan and was obviously a massive Ayrton Senna
fan. And when Ayrton died, he closed
the company for a couple of weeks in mourning and then a
little bit later on changed the name of his company to Airton
and just totally basically so, so for the past couple of years,
one of our main sponsors was Airton Lighting.
And so we had big Airton logo on, on the car and people would
always be like, are you just huge fans or what's the deal?
And we're like, no, no, look, it says Airton Digital Lighting.
And so, you know, you got in a lot of really great
conversations at the track. That was for sure.
Like, you know, we were at I think Brands Hatch and a guy
comes up to me and says, we just delivered a bunch of those
lights yesterday, you know, And I was like, oh, really?
And so, yeah, it's great. Like I said, our industry's been
very, very good to us. Yeah, but not good enough to get
us into IndyCar or into any of the next steps, you know,
Formula, Formula 3, which we have two or three friends in in
F31 and F2 now. And you know, it's it's a long
expensive Rd. Yeah, there you go.
Very. Interesting.
We thoroughly bored people now, Jake, so let's talk about what
they want to hear about, which is our business.
So you know, I actually had you on the podcast in 2021.
I don't know if you remember, but one of my favorite stories
was, was the the ACDC story where you're sitting in the pub
and, and you know, I think at the time, weren't you a keyboard
tech for yes or something? For Rick Wakeman, yeah.
Yeah, and, and what happened? How'd you get the ACDC gig?
Well, sorry to make you tell it again, but I love it.
We used to drink in this bar called the Warrington Hotel,
which was in medieval, which is a division of London.
Yeah, everybody drank there. You know, it was you could pick
up a rogue crew in a good night at the thing at them.
And my very good friend Ian Jeffrey was the tour he'd worked
for. When I started with Rick in 75,
he was the monitor guy. And then he moved on to tour
manage ACDC. So ACDC, we're looking for a
production manager and he goes, I've put your name forward and I
go, but he and I've never. Done production management, he
said. But you know, I told him you
were a stage manager on yes. So I go, you know, which was
stretching the truth, I would say.
And so we got there and I met Peter Mensch.
And then, you know, then, you know, later in the story, you go
like, who's the people that influence you the most?
And you know, you start off with Peter Mensch.
I can never have a enough thank
you and a huge amount of respect for what he's achieved in
business. So we kind of got to Peter and
Peter agreed and he sent me out to to go and learn to be a
production manager in Oakland, CA with ACDC.
First gig was the Oakland Auditorium, Bill Graham
Auditorium and there he'd come from a Peter had come from a
management company, Libra Crepes.
So, but ACDC we're OK to be managed by Liebman kept along.
It was Peter Mensch was the manager.
So and then Peter, you know, left and went on his own.
They stayed with him and he goes, I'm going to send out this
guy Joe Baptista, who was the production manager for Aerosmith
and very well respected. And so this guy was going,
you're going to learn from him or you're not going to learn
from him and you're going home. So Joe came in on that great
guy, Joe, great, great guy. And you know, don't forget you
had no, no fax machines. You had no, you didn't even have
a pager, let alone a cell phone. This was in the 80s, right?
This one in 79. 70. Nine wow, so you know, you did
everything with a payphone. So and then, you know, by that
time, you know, I think Bill Graham organization was the
first to put, you know, a long distance phone in the production
office where it was MCI or I can't remember the name of the
companies where you hit nine, you dialed the number, then you
put hard number. So we advance.
He said, listen to me, I'm advancing the show.
So I listened to him advance the show, took down some notes and
he had this four page questionnaire that you know, you
would ask the questions, you know, do you have loading docks?
I mean, back in 79 most of the answers.
What are those, you know? And so he let me do it.
And I looked at he goes and he said to the next, the next time
he called, he go, well, why don't you give it a try and I'll
be here to back you up. So I went through it and I mean,
I could write down, but first of all, I hate writing because my
writing's terrible. My spelling's awful.
So I did it and I went through it like that and did a couple
more and he goes, don't worry, you got it.
And he told Peter, don't worry, Jake's got it.
He'll be, he'll be OK. And, and that was it.
And many, many, many years later, we were playing
Metallica, ACDC and Metallica in, in, in, in Russia.
And I was looking for a psych coordinator.
So the first person I call was Joe Baptista.
I said, this is what I owe you. And unfortunately after that,
that was the last gig he ever died.
When he came home, he had a heart attack and passed away.
So. But that's how I started.
So he gave you your first gig and you gave him his last gig?
I think you said that on our first one.
So it's not like I'm being smart.
No, no, no, I mean it's true. And you know, you've been
through, Peter mentioned. Now you're at Joe Baptista for
the people that help you. Carve your career.
Yeah, that's just amazing, though.
Like I it's one of the things I love about the foundation of
this industry is bands as big as AC/DC, as big as some of these
bands and willing to hire a guy who has nothing on his resume
that says production manager. You know what I mean?
Like I. Used to hang out with in the
pub. I used to hang out with all of
them and they all used to come to the same pub.
So when somebody goes to, you know, ACDC and they go, yeah,
well, I've known them since 76. So I mean, it wasn't strange and
they were quite happy, you know, But I mean, it's, it's, it's not
what you who the rock behind. I'm trying to explain this.
Been in the right place at the right time.
Not your skill level because my skill level certainly wasn't up
there with anybody now. And in some respects,
technically wise, there's a whole whole bunch of people are
in this business, are far technically and in our business,
I always maintain that 50% of being a production manager was
personality at least 50%. How to get your point across
without pissing people off? Yeah, is it?
Is it somewhere between, you know, being a nice guy and
creating massive fear? I don't know if I ever wanted to
create massive fear, but it's yes.
I think being a nice guy and listening to both sides of the
story, then making and sometimes an educated guess.
And that's where I learned the four, the four most important
words I ever learned of being a production manager.
When somebody asks you a question, you go, I'll get back
to you cuz you never wanted to appear dumb.
So you can find the answer and come back.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, so many people in our
industry always say, you know, like if if you ask them for the
best advice, they'll say say yes and then go figure it out, you
know, and like Cosmo was one of the ones who said that.
And so many people did that. Like they just, they didn't
because you couldn't know everything, especially in those
early days. Just say yes and then go find
out how to do it. The.
Early days were pioneering. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I mean, there's a lot of people, you know, who were pioneers.
Chipmunk, you know, Stansfield, you know, Joe Back, they were
all pioneers. And you know, you go to you know
the riggers like Branham and Air Banks who were the and Travis
with the Disney riggers, you know, and they they were the
first people to fly a sound system.
You know, you had a platform, you stacked the sound, you
ratched it and took it up on 4 motors.
Very, very basic. Yeah, but I mean, incredible,
you know, it's incredible always to like, I love, I love this
podcast because I get to hear some of these stories of how
they created some of the earliest sound systems and made
it work or how they, you know, just it was always a learning
thing and a figure it out thing, you know, and making park cans
from pineapple cans and stuff like that.
So, but let me ask you, because you you worked with ACDC from
early on and, and, and also Mötley Crüe in the 80s.
And it's funny because while you can't see it right now, let me
see if I can turn. So that's right.
There is me and and Nikki, but it's me next to him with the
long hair. And that was a tour that you
worked. That was Theodore Pain.
Well, so that was in Calgary. That was in Calgary, by the way,
that that particular one. So you know, every, every
picture tells a story, doesn't it?
You know, so I got to know the motley crew and, and 1st, you
know, probably Doc, you know, I was out working for Aussie at
Bark of the Moon tour and the crew were the support act and
they, they came up and they had, I don't know who their
production manager, I can't remember.
It might have been somebody called Roy Franks, I believe.
And the crew wanted to hang their motley crew backdrop and,
and Roy said no. And so they were kind of pissed
off and I said we can do it, you know.
So we went and got a pipe and we put some nails in the pipe and,
you know, we had the grommets on their drop and we would hang it
and at the set change when it was over, we would just let it
down. Very simple, very basic.
And So what what does that cost us?
And back in those days, it was either $100 or equivalent.
Yeah, yeah, I got so. That's why I need to do the
crew. So after Bark of the Moon, I
went on and did Ronnie James Dio.
I was at with Deal and and then to be perfect on this.
Deal was to this day the only tour that I've ever been asked
to leave or fired really. Yeah.
What happened there? Well, we were trying to save
money and we Wendy Deal was, I don't know the complete story,
but her and Ronnie were separated and a rumour had she
was involved with a singer from a band called Rough Cut.
Rough Cut with a support act. And then we did our first
loadout at Alpine Valley and we were so tight in the trucks we
had to drive the truck down a slow slam on a brake so we could
close the door, you know. And then we were setting up in
Quebec City and they said they want to see you in the office.
I mean, I can't go down the office.
I'm trying to explain to a bunch of French Canadian stage chants
how the show opens because it's all about laser timing, opening
a curtain and putting in smoke. It was had to be coordinated.
Yeah. And at the end of the night,
they said, can you come to the dressing room?
So I did. And Wendy said to me, you know,
it's not working out, Jake. He said, I go, why are you
getting rid of me? She go, Yeah, I think so.
And that was it. It took.
It took 30 years. Later I met Wendy 30 years and
she goes, are you still angry at me?
I go, of course I am, but I forgive you, you know.
So it was good, but and then I went home and I remember so
there. Was literally no reason.
Well, I think I think because you.
Didn't rush to the office. Maybe I yeah, maybe I didn't bow
down as much. I I don't know.
But interesting you. So, you know, I went home and I
had zero money and I said to my then wife Maria goes, I don't
know what we're going to do. And within 4 less than 24 hours,
Rich Fisher was the tour manager from the crew said, Jake, can
you come out and be the stage manager for Theatre of Pain?
And I go here I go. So off I went.
And then that's hilarious. I felt that, you know, everybody
used to come for me to decision. So you know, I've been a
production manager, stage manager.
I had to go because I needed the money, but that's why I got to
be the production manager for the crew, you know, from $100
worth of that's. Insane, That's so insane.
That's great. Well, and you know, like you
said before, like, you know, take good care of people and,
and you know, treat them right and be cool with people and
stuff and, and it can turn into a life lifetime of gigs, you
know, and that's worked out for you and so many people in this
industry. Yes, it has, yeah.
That theater a pain tour. So that picture, you know, I
didn't really ever think about it until I I read their book The
Dirt, and I had no idea how fucked up they really were.
You know, like how much shit they were doing and ingesting
into their bodies. And I look back at that picture
and you can see the look in Nikki's eyes.
He was wasted. Now I'm going to tell you a
story and you right, you might remember this because this
happened in Calgary. And so Vince was on lockdown at
this point because of the car accident and Tommy was married.
But Tommy was in love with my secretary, whose name was
Beverly. And so Bev and I were talking
with Tommy, hanging out, whatever.
And we were like, yeah, we got to get going.
We're meeting some friends at a club and he goes, I'm coming and
we go, OK, well, I have a Corvette.
It's only got 2 seats in it. I'm not sure how we're gonna
work that out, Tommy. And he goes, no, no, no, we'll
all come or no, he goes I'll somebody will drive me or
something. So he grabs a radio from someone
and he calls whoever. And it was like everyone had
numbers. Tommy was 0.
And I can't remember what the number was of the person he
called, but it was a manager or something.
And he said, I'm going to go to a club with some friends of
mine. And he's like, no, Tommy, you're
not going anywhere. We're leaving and going to
Edmonton. And he goes, no, no, I'm going
to go for a couple hours and hang out with my friends and,
and you know, and, and you know, I like these people.
I'm going to go hang out. No, Tommy, you're coming with
this. We're going to Edmonton.
So Tommy starts throwing a fit and he starts like flipping Rd.
cases, pulling him off the truck, you know, flipped over a
couple tables with drinks on him and stuff.
He was just having a little tantrum, right?
And we were like, oh shit, like let's sneak out of here or
something, right? And so finally he convinces the
management to pack everyone in the bus and the whole bus
followed my car to this local club.
And so we're on our way to the club and I called the club and
I'm like, hey, it's Marcel. Yeah, I'm coming down me and Bev
and Mötley Crüe and, and the girl goes whatever, you know.
And I said no, no, it's me, Bev and Mötley Crüe.
And so Vince had to stay in the bus, but the rest of them came
in and well, I don't think Mick came in.
It was probably just Tommy and and Nikki came in and a couple
couple crew guys and it was a crazy night.
It was just a nutty night. We had a lot of crazy times on
the crew. I can't even imagine, you know,
did you ever see the movie The Dirt, the Netflix movie?
It's so funny when the fake Jake Berry is standing at the railing
at a motel, and he looks at the camera and goes, you know, I've
been with Skid Row and Bon Jovi and he lists a few bands.
He goes. But nothing ever prepared me for
this, you know? And it's just debauchery.
Probably been Rich Fisher. I think no, it was.
I thought it was supposed to be Doc McGee.
It was Doc McGee. It was the manager in the movie,
Yeah. Well, I mean, I saw the dirt and
because I was on the production side, yeah, I didn't see a lot
of the stuff that was going on. Right.
Yeah, yeah. But, you know, I remember being
around the night that Nikki, yeah, died.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and don't forget, that was a
big LA scene. It was huge, huge LA scene.
Massive. Yeah, you.
Know you had the crew you had poison you had.
Roses you had. GNR Yeah.
I mean, it's, you know, bands like Warrant and it was pretty
insane. Yeah.
When everybody tells you about, you know, what went on in the
80s and the 90s, and you listen to stories and people go, what
do you think? I go?
I think you've only just scratched the surface.
Yeah. No kidding.
I. Mean It was insane, what we used
to do insane. Let me let me ask you this
though, like you were with ACDC in the 80s and and Mötley Crüe
in the 80s, did you have any idea that both those bands would
be doing stadium tours in in 2024?
Like, you know, did I honestly think I'd still be around in
2010? That's true too.
Yeah, that's true too. I was there.
I was very fortunate to be, you know, an A/C DCI was there when
Highway to Hell came out. And that was like.
Big the start you. Know, but we were still
travelling around 2 trucks, you know, and I think the first
American tour we had, the support band was Molly Hatchet
and then the band from Atlanta, what they call the Atlanta
Rhythm Section, I can't remember.
So I mean, we won't. And that was like a a great
bill. I mean, Motley Hatchet were a
great southern rock band. Yeah.
They were great southern rock band.
Yeah. And so we went out and we toured
and we did Highway to Hell and, you know, we finished America
and, you know, it was obvious the band were going places.
Yeah. And then we went back into
England and I was working for them full time a lot of the
time. Oh, wow.
So I was on salary and then we went off to Paris, you know,
then you know where I was living in London with my then
girlfriend. And then, you know, in the
middle of the night, we, or early one morning, we get a
phone call from, I think it might have been Ian, say fucking
Bond had died overnight. That's incredible.
Crazy you. Know and you, you put the phone
down and you go. What did I just hear?
Yeah. And because he never showed up
for rehearsals for Back in Black and they were worried about him,
and then, you know, are they going to carry on?
What are they going to do? So.
That album was written with Bon Scott.
I didn't realize. No, no.
No, they hadn't started it. They do it in two ways.
They do the music first, OK, And then Bon was going to come in
with some lyrics. I see.
OK, well, let me get a look. Bon would come and listen to it
and we'll have some ideas for song because.
It's funny to think like some of those iconic songs on Back in
Black, to think of them being sung by Bon Scott, who's an
incredible singer. It would have been so different,
you know, just so different. Yeah.
So. You know, and then the band
decided to carry on and then, you know, then I consider to be
one of the hardest jobs I've ever had in Rock'n'roll.
I I think it was myself and Ian, we backed up Bon Scott in
Victoria, Bon's apartment in Victoria and mailed or shipped
all his personal belongings home to his mother and father.
In Perth, so terrible. Yeah, and.
Then we had to go about finding a singer.
Yeah. And we did rehearsals and
auditions in the studio in Victoria Excuse.
Me one SEC, Jake. So it was never discussed like,
hey, this is the end of the band or anything.
It was just immediately going to be we're going to get a new
singer. No, it was discussed.
Oh. OK, yeah, it was So that had to
be that had to be on your mind. Like I've got this great gig,
I'm getting paid salary, you know, I.
I, I think that I didn't know what was happening on the inner,
inner talks amongst the bands. And yeah, it went back and forth
and, you know, the young family being in Australia, Georgia and,
and, and the family were very involved in ACDC with Gary
Vander. And they go, you guys have got
this great album. It would be unfair not to let
the people hear it. Yeah.
So then we auditioned for singers and we had a few.
So how long? Did it take to make that
decision that it was going to go on like was it a couple weeks, a
month? Yeah, yeah.
It wasn't a month. Yeah.
Oh, OK, I. Think we all shut down for a
month? It was.
Pretty quick. Everybody had to go home, you
know, and and then we had these auditions and along along showed
off this guy with a floppy cap and he came in and 1st audition
and he did really well. We've had some some people in
before. I mean, there was talk of Knotty
Holder from slave, but everybody felt that he'd always have the
slave identity. But he had the right voice for
ACDC. Oh Jesus.
Perfect. Yeah, perfect.
And then we had like, Gary Halton from the Heavy Metal Kids
and bands like that, and then just a couple of other people,
and then Brian came along. Yeah.
And Brian is, you know, if you know Newcastle, you know, the
people are pretty down to earth. Yeah.
So he came in, started playing pool with one of the crew
because he thought he was a band member.
That's how much he knew about that's.
Funny. And they and I.
Go. Where's this other guys?
15 minutes late. Oh, that's me.
So you're not an audition. Ain't he?
Good. And then all of a sudden, you
know, they tell you, let's just bring him back for a second
chat. Second time.
So Brian came back for a second time.
And after the rehearsals, we all were headed down to the the pub
next to the studio. And we're sitting, you know,
because we all hung out then. We were all a big family.
Wasn't this the Rockstars in a five star hotel and then the
crew on a bus. We go hanging out.
And I can't remember whether it's Malcolm to Angus or Angus
to Malcolm. Do you want to tell him or shall
I? Shall I?
And somebody goes. I will.
And they turn around to Brian like this.
Hey, Brian, you want to be the singer in ACDC?
Yeah. Yeah.
And that was it. Grab another beer.
Then he they will be in touch. And he headed back to Newcastle
and, and then we started to go in rehearsals and we wanted to
do the first show which was way out of the way.
So we went, went to a convention centre in a place called Namur,
which is in Belgium. And we got there and it was the
fucking worst sound in all you'd ever had.
The band came in at 3:00 for a sound check, and Malcolm was
distraught with his arm. And he go so distraught that he
said we can't play in here. And then the promoter must have
been Michelle Pearl. Then I think you know.
And he goes, well, there's another hall I think sounds
better. This is 3:00 in the afternoon.
So they all went over. This sounds better.
OK, we're going to move the show there.
So we took the whole production. Oh.
My God, Oh my God talking. APA yeah, PA and you're talking
2 genie lifts or something like that.
Very small, but yeah. I mean, it's not like today, but
still they. Built a stage and we went over
it like 530. Wow.
But they show up and played at 9:00 that night and that was
Brian's opening gig. Wow, that's so incredible.
Yeah, the the, there were a couple of other parts that you
told in that story last time and you missed this time. 1 was that
Brian just sort of went there on a bit of a whim, like he was, he
was going to be, I think he was recording a a radio commercial
or something across the street. No, he was doing voice overs for
Hoover. Hoover.
Vacuums, right? Yeah.
And he goes, I don't know if I'd bother.
And I think somebody said why you should go down, what have
you got to lose? He was, he was struggling a
little bit. So then he had to leave the
first day because he had he had to do a commercial.
I mean incredible though. Like how those little tiny
things set your destiny, you know?
And if you think about Brian's life, what it became with ACDC,
like, holy shit, thank God for that Hoover commercial, you
know? And ACDC went up.
They went, they went down. I mean, there was a time when
ACDC was a hard sell that a couple of, you know, not so good
albums and all of a sudden, you know, they toured Europe this
summer and I went to see him in Germany, actually.
Yeah, Did you? And I went and I hung out with
Brian and I hung out of Angus because they were the only two.
Yeah, everybody. Else is gone and.
You know, and people go, what do you think of ACDC?
And they go, well, back in the day, everybody used to say that
they're they're heroes and who they learnt most of was was Led
Zeppelin. And now all the bands go, you
know, where do you get your energy from?
And ACDC, so ACDC religionist status and, and you know, Brian
is not, not a young man. He's he's 7576, I think.
But that's to sing that stuff in your 20s is hard, let alone when
you're 70. Sometimes some of the songs he
struggles in, sometimes he's just great.
Yeah, and but basically, I don't know if the people give a shit
that much. They just really don't.
BC. And they want to hear Highway to
Hell, They want to say it shook me all night long.
And they want to hear, yeah, they were back in back going.
Nuts like I've only seen video, but the fans are going nuts, you
know so they're loving it I. Mind their legendary status.
Yeah, they certainly are. But I mean, again, like in the
80s, you saw the debauchery, you saw the the crazy stuff that
crew were doing and, and whether or not they'd even survive as
humans was questionable, let alone as a band.
And but here they are in 2024 touring, not ACDC, not ACDC, no
ACDC. We're always a little more
businesslike, right? Well, no, they were.
They were. They were not into all the
debauchery like Angus is always been teetotaled.
Well Malcolm is well documented, had a little bit of an alcohol
problem and a bit of pot but nothing serious.
I mean Cliff was Cliff. Cliff just came along and played
solid bass but he wasn't wild or anything I'm sure.
No, we all had our vices and Phil sometimes could be a loose
cannon, but they weren't. They wouldn't, they wouldn't
have the reputation like the crew got the reputation, right.
Not the I'm talking about Mötley Crüe, you know?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, Mötley Crüe I again, I mean, it shocks me that you know,
they've, they've retired a couple times too and and they
just there's longevity there that I never in a million years
would have pictured well. The the pity about Mötley Crüe
now is the inner fighting with the band.
Yeah, yeah. You hate seeing bands suing each
other and stuff, yeah. I mean.
Especially original members and stuff like that.
Like have you seen all the journey stuff with with Neil
Shawn and and Jonathan Cain? What an embarrassment.
But they're. Playing together, they go out on
stage every night. Facebook and they're slagging
each other off. I mean, fantastic.
You all got inner politics in bands.
You don't air your dirty alert. No, it's so nobody.
Gives a shit if Jonathan Cain wants to put a lawsuit to Neil
Shong. Neil Shong, you know, he said.
Jonathan Cain says we have it in our deal that we get $1500 a
night room allowance for Neil's. Neil's overspending.
Yeah. So Neil should pay.
It's very simple. Yeah.
Work. It out though, yeah, like why
would you go this route? It's just, and how do you get on
stage every night and and play with these guys when you're
going to court during the day? It's incredible.
Like it's incredible. I mean, obviously at that point
it's just a business. It's not about the music, it's
not about the art. It's not about anything else.
It's it's just a business. Unfortunately, I think that our
our industry is just a business in a lot of ways, you know,
Yeah. It's definitely changed.
It's certainly changed a lot. You know, it's even Sarah who,
who you met at the front end of this.
She, you know, she, she just went and did a little one week
tour with Blink 182, you know, just to make a little bit of
money and have a little bit of fun.
And she spent a number of years touring and and she said it's
just so different. You know, everyone's so much
more intense and it's, you know, it's all the money, I guess
that's either being spent or made or whatever you want to
call it. But it's, yeah, it's just
different. It's very different, I mean.
You look at now. I mean, I don't know if you've
been reading or catching up on the Oasis saga with ticketing.
Yeah, yeah, we were talking about that this morning.
Look, the dynamic in ticket is seller demand, isn't it?
Yeah. I mean, if there's a huge amount
of people requesting the same tickets, the tickets go up.
Well, I don't see if there's nobody requesting them the
tickets going down. No, never happens.
Never happens. If you want to do it that way,
you should pay both sides of the fence.
Yeah, but also I think in the spirit of longevity, you don't
want to go up too far, you know, like this dynamic pricing thing
where, you know, the notorious ones like Springsteen, $5000
tickets and stuff. It's nonsense.
It's, it's just crazy. It's lunacy.
I, I hear that the Ticketmaster was saying that they put it down
to the managers and the agents and the promoters.
You know, I, I, I don't believe in a lot of it.
The promoters, I mean, look, I'm sure they look, everybody wants
to make money. But if you look at SGM, in my
opinion, Simon ran, I think it's a really decent guy.
You know, I, I think he probably who was involved, but I don't
think they, they thought it would go this far.
And, and there's the one of the ticketing company trickets or
something like that. When you have 138 LB service
fee, something's fucking wrong. Exactly.
Well, everyone I think is just saying no, it's their fault,
it's their fault, it's their fault.
But everyone's still willing to take their heavy piece out of
it, right? Like even the artists?
The artists. They put the tickets on sale and
if they were 150 lbs for standing and there were £350 for
VIP and everybody went in line and bought it, nobody would have
complained. Yeah, It's when you when you get
online, when you get online and it's 110 and by the time you get
the tickets it's 328. It's insane.
Yeah. Well, and then the secondary
market, the secondary market, all the Stubhubs and all these
companies out there that, you know, are basically legal
scalpers, right? And yeah, it's, it's
problematic, you know, And then I think the artists are starting
to, well, they started to look at it and go, OK, all these
people are making all this money, we just need to raise our
prices. So we're keeping it all, you
know, But I don't know that that's the answer either.
I don't know. Who knows.
What do I know? What do I know?
So the sphere, I want to talk to you about the sphere.
Obviously you and you too go back a long way and you've done
some, you've done some incredible things together.
You did the big claw thing with that, right?
The stadium thing it was. Legendary about the claw.
I mean, I remember that the the start of the claw we'd finished
probably Joshua Tree and we were in Hawaii was the last show and
we're standing on stage and you know, the last time.
Check everybody. Hey, hugs and things like that
And and Bono comes up and he's Jake.
He goes, I want to talk to you. He said can we play a show in
the round and I go boss, we can do anything we like knowing that
there were shows in the round and I'm going this is fantastic.
The next door. We're going to have a 60 by 40
stage with no production small trucks.
It's going to be an easy tour, right?
That was my that's. Hilarious.
That's so. Funny.
And then, you know, then of course, a, a, a few months
passed by and and then Mark Fisher, Mark Mark called me and
you know, my life story in the industry would not be complete
without the, my take and my respect for the greatest set
designer of all time being Mark Fisher.
Absolutely. So he's, he's his theory was he
said to me, Jake, how wide is the football field?
And I said, it's 68 meters roughly.
That's the playing surface football field and the, the
playing surface. OK, well, we're going to play in
the round, but we're not going to be in the middle.
We're going to be two thirds, 1/3 because all these guys of of
the older bands who have stage present always rely on a
downstage centre, a downstage left and a downstage right.
It's hard for them to get their head around a 360 environment
and that was the same with with Mick.
We tried in the round once and Mick wanted a downstage edge and
he failed to get it and he tried in the round, no security, hated
it. Yeah, yeah, I just, I just did
Metallica a couple weeks ago in or I went to it in Edmonton.
I'm I'm at my house up in Canada right now, right.
And it was weird. Like it was like, where do you
stand? Because where's the band going
to be? Well, yeah, there's a drum set
on all four sides basically, right?
I mean, but if you look at Metallica very briefly, that's
going back to the Black Album tour when Laura said two kids.
Yeah, yeah. It's an entrance.
True. Yeah.
And, and and then Mark's idea going back to a 360, if I make
the stage big enough, I'll make the stadium look smaller and
more intimate. Sounds mad, doesn't it?
It does, yeah. 100% correct. Yeah, Yeah.
And then I remember we get the stage, go for the first Test
build and you know, you, you get these towers that hold a roof
up, which are like maximum 1m wide.
And these towers are right on the track and you can fucking
stand up inside of them. Really.
And we did a test build and then we were in the middle of a small
village called Worktor in Belgium doing a test build.
And the the law of building in these small towns is nothing can
be higher than the church steeple.
What Really. Yeah.
If you have a Church of the steeple, you can't build
anything higher. The church steeple has to be
going back hundred and hundreds of years and then, you know, but
our thing and you know, you could see the church steeple in
the background if you went 5 kilometres away and it was
dwarfed by this thing. So pictures then started
evolving on the very, very early days of, you know, social media
and then the management, you too come.
I said, Jake, we're seeing pictures of our stage on media.
You got to block it out if you can't do it.
I said, well, we're in a yard and there's a road that goes by
and then suddenly said to me, well, you need to put up a
drape. And I'm going, you're talking
about a dress or you're talking about something 120 feet tall
and 80 feet long. First of all, it lasts 2 minutes
when you win game 360. And it's amazing.
I was talking to Hedwig, the mayor of Stageco the other day,
Dirk to Decker and a Stageco and somebody else.
And we were kind of, we, we do this, we relive our past.
And I sent some pictures of this the of this stage that made the
city look small and everybody wrote back.
Still my favorite project to work on it's.
Incredible. It's such a beautiful project.
You know what that was a trend set.
Are we set to go for, you know, big trucks, 4750 trucks on
production, you know, 38 on steel for each system.
Yeah, and and then. Jesus, no.
Everybody goes, oh, I got, I got 50 trucks of production.
I got 40 trucks of production. Is it great?
But I did it first. Yeah, yeah.
And then so then then, you know, with you 2 going, that was
great. And then the next thing you
know, we did the Joshua Tree. We did innocence and experience
all groundbreaking shows in in their own respect.
And so then came the big offer of the sphere.
So the sphere, I mean, we were there.
We were the first, you know, when we first started doing our
advance to the sphere, There was no screen.
Well, let me ask you though, going back a little bit.
So the sphere did Did the sphere come looking for you 2 or did
you 2 say we want to be the first to play in this incredible
thing I. Think it was kind of mutual, to
tell you the truth. Yeah.
I mean, you know, Bono is very creative.
The sound system appealed to Edge where he could play in
stereo and get through stereo and things like that and just
the whole vibe of doing it. And of course also being the 1st
is a big advantage when. It had to be somebody huge too.
It couldn't be, you know, it couldn't be some, you know,
medium act. It had to be the Stones or U2 or
somebody that big, you know well.
I mean, I think I think there both parties put their balls on
the line. You know, like Jim Dolan, you
can say whatever you like about Jim Dolan.
He had big balls to put 2.22 point 3 billion money on this
amazing unique way of seeing a concert.
And then you 2 had to go in and make sure that all the hype of
the venue didn't override what they were producing.
So a lot of discussions, a lot of things.
And also there was a lot of technology that had to be
invented how to get the the content, because the content,
they all wanted it in 16 K and, and you know, 16 K, the
rendering time for one song was nearly three days.
Jesus, wow. And all of that.
And we, we started, we, we went to look at it.
I remember. Well, even just like pre vis and
stuff like how you know because you can't replicate being
inside. This well, what what what we
what Willie did and and and Rick and and the team we use virtual
virtual reality ah. Yeah, that's smart.
Yeah, that's. Smart.
Yeah, You know, that makes sense.
You know our whole feeling was you 2 got such a heavy schedule
of other commitments outside the ban, especially B.
So the thought was we can't get them all to Vegas at the same
time, but we can all send them glasses and and a virtual
reality and we can show the footage that way.
Interesting. Yeah.
So, you know, you have to remember about the sphere when
we went into when we installed the lighting, we were working
first of all, they had an in house lighting and they had fuse
through the lighting. And the reason we went with fuse
because we thought if they put the install lighting, they can
then run our cables for our lights when we want to go in,
which was the case which saved us a couple of days.
You know, the lighting behind the screen.
We did a test of the screen in New York on Bono's book tour,
you know, at the Hammerstein in another ballroom, and found that
the the spotlights weren't as good behind the screen as a wash
light because, you know, we're talking about putting spots
behind. But with the screen and the
framework, they would be so frag fragmented.
It didn't work. Yeah.
It's better when it's not focused so.
Then, you know, we go there and we're there while they're
putting the screen in. And so when it all came, we
installed the lighting behind in the stage box behind which they
call a stage box. And the rigging behind the stage
box wasn't really very conducive to hang in lights because
they're the big hollow plot proceed sound system over the
pre 8 proceeding. If you imagine going back to the
Grateful Dead, the wall of sound, that's what you had
behind you, but up high, which was another problem a little
later. And so in putting the lights in,
but we're putting the lights in. And then they had this movie
that they were producing called Postcard, Postcard from Earth,
and they were finishing building a building.
So we used to have meetings every day, you know, on what was
going to happen the next two days and you get the next day
change. So OK, so you, Jake, what time
do you want tomorrow? You can have 8 hours and I go,
we'll take from 4:50, whatever it is.
OK. And then from 5:00 to 5:00 till
midnight they would be showing the movie on the screen to to
test the movie, colourize it, edit it and things like that.
And then from midnight till 9 would be construction.
Jesus, wow, I. Mean and we all worked around
each other and it was a fantastic experience.
We all everybody accepted it and you know somebody once said to
me you're giving the building too much time and I go OK so and
if I don't give them the sign time then the seating would not
have been inspected and been ready for the opening night.
So therefore we would be cancelling an opening night and
and I said to somebody you don't want Adele too.
You remember in Adele capital to show Vegas we all work together.
You know, the ban were so enthusiastic about making this
whole thing work and believing in the construction and believe
in what they're doing. It all had to be, right?
Yeah, you couldn't. You couldn't make you 2 happy
but not make the building happy. The building had to be happy
too. It was also new.
And the film people and. And Jim Dolan, he'd invested
money in the movie, so he wants the movie, right.
He had it produced by Darren Aronofsky.
And Darren Aronofsky wanted his way.
Yeah. So, you know, that makes sense.
We always did. Monday to Friday.
How? Early did you start though?
Like how far in advance of the first show?
Probably in the concept design a year.
Wow. And then and then we did some
band rehearsals in Nice. And what they what they've done
is because you know, the hollow plot sound comes at you from
360. So nobody ever had that.
So with the help of the sphere and the sphere engineers, sound
engineers, we went to a found I found a great film studio at
nice, fantastic, fantastic. So we had the band rehearsing in
one room and I built a mock up stage which which is the same
size as the one we're going to use in a sphere, except it
didn't have the video floor, but it got everybody used to the
rate which everybody goes back then.
You know, that's a lot of money. I don't know if you can afford
it. I go you will you all wish you
had the best U2 rehearsals we ever did is when we could do it
on a mock stage just bangers. So we did that and in another
studio across the street, we set up this trussing system and then
hung speakers, put a console in the middle and then like a couch
where the band he'd come and listen to the the the asthma
asthmaceric sound. And so we set that up and the
speakers were all this measurement scaled down so you
could get the feel and do the mix because then you have to
turn the mix like like, you know, Edgewood goes, I like my
guitars to come out high section right in streets, then then then
augment it with high left and down low.
So you used to play with very much like a surround sound, but
way more complicated. We rehearsed that in Nice for
three weeks while we did lighting rehearsals and lighting
install in in Vegas. And the show was going to open
September the 29th. And we're not building
contractors. You know, if somebody comes to
do your bathroom and they're going to be finished in three
weeks, they come up to you and go, there's going to be another
fire. It's going to be another three
weeks and it's $2000 more. That doesn't happen in our
world, Yeah. No it doesn't. 8:00 No matter,
it had to happen. And so we were doing lighting
and we were building the stage in the sphere and working around
construction and working around some of their installs, like a
little bit of lighting and some a lot to do with seats.
And then for the movie, I don't know if you've ever seen it, but
you should. It's well worth it.
They have these big effects machines that are they've got 20
of them and they're 8 by 8 by 8 and they all have to be
connected underground and they stand up.
So there to put them through test.
And so then we had the seating, then we had the test, then we
had the movie and we had you too.
So we took 8 hours. We would took eight hours.
And if they were doing in store work and they weren't doing a
movie, we used to get screen time to edit the video.
Wow, you know. It was just, for me, it was just
a fantastic journey. Yeah, for me, everybody to get
where we got by September the the 29th was a minor miracle.
And I'm saying that from the YouTube band.
They sacrificed rehearsal time to make the deadline.
We couldn't sacrifice getting the seats Commission because
we'd have no show. And, and Brian was the head of
construction. And and because I worked on Bob
the Builder, I used to call him Bob the Builder, you know.
So. We how many goes where do you
want me to start tomorrow? Because we used to store our
stage downstage so for so they could watch if we had to.
And then the seedings were in three sections.
She goes, Jake, can you push your stage down left and we'll
work on the centre or or we'll work on the right, then we'll
come to the centre and when we finish, you'll just move your
stage on the other side. And that's the sort of things
that we did. I mean, which sounds simple
enough. Become the mover the first time
and it was on is on a rolling stage, 2 level rolling stage.
All the back line, all the all the hollow plot sound, bass
floor fill, all the video processing.
Everything was underneath the stage.
We become the pusher. We all went.
We are well, we'll get 20 people around this 123 ports fucking
nowhere. Keep it moving in a.
Little heavier than we thought, perhaps, when.
We tried a forklift and then it wouldn't work with a forklift.
Oh. No.
Then we had to get 2 forklift people, but we found a way and
it was it was a little painful. Yeah, so.
I mean, I'm guessing house lights go was pretty exciting on
September 29th, you know, did anything go wrong massively?
You know, we were all expecting and, and we all explained to the
band with this many video tiles, this many pixels, you're going
to have a show where there's a tile out and there's nothing you
can do about it until the next day because all of it has
there's only a few tiles that you can get to.
One of them is a boom lift that has to come in the floor.
And one is you have to have rope access guys hanging down from
the ceiling because the Dome went like this, but the sphere
inside went like this. So it'd be 30 feet from the
ceiling to the to get the the look.
So, so, I mean, but the first night, you know, we had a DJ, we
set him up and we played in and then when the band were ready,
we had the intro tape and, you know, and, and then our creative
people go. Jacob, we want to start the DJ
stage right and we want to push him across the floor, across the
crowd to finish stage left and the sphere of people going it
can't be done, can't be done. And I looked and I'm like, go.
Evidently you've never been to EDC Electric Daisy Carnival.
Yeah, no. Shit, Disney World where they do
the Disney parade, we can do this.
So I think we talked them into it and it worked pretty well.
I think we only hit a couple of people's knees and that one or
two toes that nothing that nothing that a great poster or
program wouldn't solve right until we opened.
And you, you know, the first reaction to the screen opening
was really fucking nerve wracking.
But you know, I, I had to say we had a fantastic first show,
which is scary. And normally it's the second
show is pretty average, but we had the first one or two shows
and and then the bandwagon started.
The reviews were the best reviews I think you 2 ever had
and the bandwagon was moving so. Yeah, it was.
That thing picked up a lot of energy along the way, that's for
sure. If.
That if that opening night had not been great, then it could
have been trouble, I think, for the U2, for the career, but it
would have been the demise of the sphere, I think.
Exactly. And you know, there there have
been a ton of naysayers. You know, I'm still on the fence
with the whole concept of. The sphere, I mean, I, I saw the
U2 thing and the people I took said it was the best thing they
ever saw. I mean, you, you have to go
about it a different way than touring.
You have to go with the aspects that you're sharing.
You have to go with the aspect of your gym and sphere team will
not let anybody hang lights in front of his screen.
So no lighting trusses in the air.
It was front lighting and backlighting.
Yeah. Yeah.
So it was very, very minimal. Yeah.
And. But my my argument, basically
not argument, but I guess where where it hits for me and I
didn't see it in person. So I've seen video and pictures
like galore, but doesn't it make the band look small?
Like Because I remember when I first saw the very first video
of might have been the opening night and I had to look a while
to find Bono. Well, I mean this is what makes
the sphere so special. It's a different way of
experience in a show it. Is.
Yeah, it's. An immersive experience.
So the band become part of the of the building, part of the
screen, part of the whole thing, part of the whole way.
I never looked at it. Like that.
I never looked at it like that. I just looked at it as a concert
stage. You know you.
Could look at all the videos you wanted for the next 200 years.
Yeah, none of those videos that ever did the show justice.
The only way you could say, the only way you can honestly say to
yourself this is not a great show is by seeing it live.
So, you know, we went in and we did 40 shows there.
Yeah, it's incredible. Which is great.
And then, you know, then they got Dead and Co.
And, you know, we help the dead and Co people.
We we would let people come and see how we're doing it and, you
know, show them the layout and come to see the show, say,
because we had to move the stage up and down stage while the
movie was playing. Yeah, which in the end was the
show would finish at 10:45 and we'd be in the hotel at like
12:15. Yeah.
And like, and then it was great for me because having toured
pretty hard ass for 44 years, 43 years, whatever, I think this
fear helped me. We wean off the desire of going
on the road and then throw in my life to consultancy and things
like that. Yeah.
Good for you, good for you SO. And then I wanted to see, I went
to U2 and I watched it as a production manager.
Yeah, I went and saw Dead and Co and watched it as a a thing.
And I said, I said to Derek Featherstone, I go, you know, I
think I must be a secret dead head because I thought it was
fantastic. Yeah, I liked it.
Well, I again, I only saw video and pictures, but the just the
images were incredible. You know, the images of that
were just like Holy Christ, you know, now you can see why
everybody's high on acid and mushrooms and stuff.
You know, it looks pretty tremendous.
My only thing really against the sphere, and I don't know what
I'm going to say anyway because everybody must have a say.
I think it needs to be more diversified.
Yeah, yeah, it does seem to like everything becomes sort of
similar to the same. Well, it's the same age group.
The same age group of bands. Yeah, they they need to do.
You need a Taylor Swift in there or something, you know.
So if you want a bit of hip hop, you want a bit of rap, Yeah, You
want to get some, some that you want some Latin?
You want a female as well? Yeah, yeah.
You know, well, there's a UFC fight going.
In there in a month or so I think, right?
Yeah. So they're starting to load in
now, I think. Yeah.
But you, you know, you look at it and, you know, also has been
fortunate to be around a long time.
And I don't think I'll ever happen.
But this is the ideal place for Pink Floyd.
Oh hell yeah, hell yeah. They're the perfect band.
There's a band For 50 years, they've been searching for the
perfect sound. Perfect.
It's there. Yeah.
Visuals. I mean, I was thinking you're
right. About that.
The wall and you see the visuals with all the hammers walking
along like that. Incredible.
Imagine what that would be like. That incredible.
You know, I don't think that'll ever happen, but Brickman.
'S in, I think in Rome with Gilmore right now.
I think they're either at the Colosseum or next to the
Colosseum or something. Like it's some incredible
backdrop for a Gilmore show. What's that?
Circus Maximus or something like that.
Yeah, yeah. But that'd be pretty incredible
too. So this other thing that you're
working on that you were telling me about earlier, this thing in
India, tell me, tell me about that because that's really
interesting. I have, I have a couple of
employees in India and it's it's always a challenge.
So I can't even imagine putting a show on there.
So my first venture into India was probably Shakira way back
when. And it was very basic local
production. And we, you know, we, we, we
struggled a little bit because there wasn't very many people.
The infrastructure, it might have been The Rolling Stones
actually. We played Bangalore and we
played Mumbai. And those were challenges, not
because of the Indians, believe it or not, for Bangalore is
because we had our freight arrive in, oh, I can't remember
the name of the city. It'll come to me.
And then it was 200 kilometers away from Bangalore.
OK. And our our steel, steel, steel
containers are so overloaded, it took them nearly four days to
get there. Jesus, 200 miles.
So on Friday, a Friday show, we got our containers on Thursday
morning and then everybody on that Rolling Stones crew except
some of the people, you'd never think we'd do anything.
We all jumped in and we got to with the Indian labour, which
was not that great, but willing. But they didn't understand.
So, you know, Cartner, Marlborough's, you get a guy
carrying four decks at a time, you know.
But we did show and it worked and we played Mumbai and it
worked and it was a great experience.
I get, I get to meet one guy who was his first ever guy gig, a
guy called Vincent Samuels, who now comes and does some of our
shows in EDC in Vegas and he's done fantastic.
And then so with Shakira and then we took EDC to India and,
and then on my way to India on a plane, I didn't feel that that
great. So I go to the stewardess and I
go, I'm not feeling great. So I this dull ache and it
doesn't matter if I sat down, stood up, stood on my head, laid
down, lay on my stomach, lay on my back, had this dark ache
here. So they put me up on the galley
seat and then they give you the customer aspirin and then some
oxygen and some nitrous pill to clear up if you're, if you're
blocked. In the end it didn't work.
So I was on my way to Delhi and then they said this, they got a
lady doctor said it seems to me like you either have bad
heartburn or angina. And they set up for a hospital
to ambulance to pick me up at at Delhi airport.
And the stewardess came to me 30 minutes later.
She goes how you feel? I go this is not getting any
better. And then the plane, the plane
veers to the left or right, left I think as I was on the left
hand side and the captain comes on the radio.
You probably see that we're veering and don't worry about
that, that liquid, you say outside we're dumping fuel
because we have to. We have a medical emergency and
we have to make an emergency landing.
Oh wow, just like that, huh? Yeah, so I got the flight guide
directed to Baku in Azerbaijan. Wow.
So there in, in you could go on forever, but in the end of the
day, I got the stories of like, they wouldn't let me in the
country because I didn't have a visa.
So I had to get $25.00 to pay for a visa.
Then they'd let me in and then I finished up in a hospital, which
was amazing. And four hours later I had three
stents put in. Wow.
So did you ever actually have the heart attack or was it just
like, oh. Yeah, they they say we you had
one. Yeah.
Wow. So that was my first.
I never got to India. So the next time we we, well,
you never even. Got there.
Oh my goodness. Wow, crazy.
So. Then we came to do in 2019.
It picked up a bit and Bono had expressed a desire to play
India. So we went through it.
I met this guy who owned a company called Book My Show
which is basically an Indian ticketing agent.
And ever guess how many tickets they do a month in the peak
season? No idea. 30 million.
Thirty million bigger than tickets.
Christ. I mean, look.
The ₹1.00 cinema ticket, it's not the gross may be the same,
but they actually do that many tickets.
So we went there in 2019 and then it was very similar to what
you said about taking everything there.
We took the whole Joshua Tree tour and we took a lot of the
infrastructure, yeah. Yeah, that seems to be what's
missing in India, for the most part, is infrastructure.
This this guy, this guy at BookMyShow Ashish is very
forward thinking. He has a very forward thinking
staff. And then he he does Lollapalooza
there. So he, he does big shows and
then the infrastructure is growing.
Like this year there's been, we've had 24 people pass a
scaffolding high, high scaffolding test.
We've had people passes rigging tests.
There's company with a bunch of chain motors.
There's something. You're involved in training
people over there now we. Talk about it and they do it,
but it's the same company. Interesting.
And yes, yeah, I do want it and I talk to the people and I'm not
in on a day-to-day basis, but we talk about it all the time.
And, and then they bought more, more lights.
They've got more sand. There's a, there's a great bunch
of L acoustic D&B sand in India along as K1 and everything like
that lightning. Everybody's, you know, gone down
to like everybody has a bunch of Sharpies, you know, and you just
swap them out their video in everything across the world.
I would have to say that videos come the furthest because it's
now more affordable and, you know, they buy the new stuff.
So it's all 5 mil, 4 mil, 3 mil, you know, you know, you hang it
on a scaffolding and you get prepared to do that.
But yeah, so Ash asked me if I would help him consult.
So I did that last year. And basically he was starting,
he was promoting Ed Sheeran in Mumbai.
OK. So we, you know, we went there
and also, you know, it, it gave people, I hope, a little bit of
confidence that I was involved, you know.
And so he did Ed Sheeran and then I was out, you know, as I
know, I started the Coldplay tour and he wanted Coldplay, so
I introduced him to all the right people to get Coldplaying.
And so they did Ed Sheeran last year.
They did Sting at Lollapalooza last year.
And then Ed came and played and they they built an arena from
the ground up from the in a dirt field in the middle of the horse
race track. And Ed did like 50,000 people
and it was a big mixture of local and touring production
that they brought in the stage. All the sound was local.
The video over the stage was tore.
The video support on the towers was local and the lighting was
5050 and and all the stage hands came in.
So they've improved the stagehands now to an acceptable
level. And then you just bring in, you
have to have more people that translate because, you know, so.
But it's come a long way. I mean, for the Coldplay
adventure, it's exactly the same production that they'll bring in
what they take to Asia now, like, you know, to Thailand and
what we did in, in, in, in, in South America.
Yeah, so we, and then you know, the, the Indian promoter, we
bought a stage, we bought a star live a 25 meters, you know,
stage so that you can do Lalapalusa, you can hang a bit
more weight. And on Coldplay, we use the
infrastructure to help with the stage and you know, with a new
found scaffolding company and there's 20 guys we can build
scaffolding structure, you know, so I, I would have to say that
if you went there 15 years ago and you went back there now, you
would be really pleasantly. Yeah, Yeah.
Well, one of the things I noticed in our industry in in
India is like, I would expect that they'd have all Chinese
knockoffs of video screens and Chinese knockoffs of lighting
fixtures and stuff. And there is some of that of
course, just like there is here, but they have all the top brand
stuff over there now like they really are buying the top brand
equipment. Investment, you know, it's a
mixture of the Acme Chinese lives, knock off and stuff.
You know, there's, you know, Chinese motors in some place and
you know, I was talking to a trussing company there and and
all their trusses is designed and engineered to the the German
European spec. Yeah, and they make them.
In India, and they have the biggest plan of trust, man, they
could be the biggest trust manufacturer in the world.
Wow, Interesting. Yeah.
That's interesting. So what's your grand vision for
India then? Just to help them create enough
infrastructure to be able to do massive shows all year instead
of just one or two a year or whatever.
I think that the infrastructure would be to take the big show,
the medium show and the small show and keep working.
Yeah, you know, because if you have like a show like Sting, and
while it's Sting, it's it's experience, you know, and, and
things like that. And Ed Sheeran was, you know,
the, you know, the things they learnt, like they built all the
temporary dressing rooms and offices.
And so they were doing a loadout and we'd come back next morning.
The dressing rooms are dressing rooms are intact, but they taken
down all the production offices. You know, just.
Ass about face, but I I enjoy it.
Like you say, like I said earlier, if we can, if I can
just give back a little bit of what I got out of this, then I'm
gonna Yeah, well. India, I would expect that one
of the biggest challenges is venues, right?
Like they probably don't. You can't piece a tour together
in India very easily. You know, you play cricket
grounds. Yeah.
And. And that is as to the Indians,
that's more sacred than the New York Yankees baseball stadium.
Yeah, you've got to think it on par of that.
And then going back to the infrastructure, and you
mentioned generators. When I was there, they had the
Cricket World Cup there. I, I don't know if you're,
you're not very familiar with cricket.
No, I know what it is but I'm not a fan or anything so.
So they had to do like 16 venues for a world wide broadcast.
That's a big deal. Yeah, so they've all bought new
generators, silent generators, In Sync generators to run TV
and, you know, so I don't worry about power like I used to, you
know, and then, you know, because every show then had
Pyro, so you would have a Pyro display.
So they're not. So you can't import Pyro, but
you can use the local products and it's quite good because they
had to have lighting all the way around there for this thing.
So the Cricket World Cup 2 years ago was a phenomenon boost to
the industry. Yeah, yeah, That's really cool.
That's good to hear. And what about Insomniac?
That's still a big deal for you, huh?
Big deal for me. Love it.
I love going to hear that thump. I love to get my trousers flat.
And, you know, and I think that, you know, the different genre
music, I always thought it was one genre.
There's like 98 different variations of yeah.
I'm with you though I don't know them so.
You know, I always like look at the wasteland stage because I
feel that's a 20, that's 2024 heavy metal version of ACDC
doesn't want you to go there, you know?
Yeah, yeah. It's incredible, though.
Like again, does that surprise you how big EDM has become?
Oh yeah, it's, it's shocking. To me, like it's shocking.
Vegas. I mean we did 180,000 a night
last year. Wow.
That is incredible and. We're trying to get it to 200 a
thousand a night, but that means moving around a bit of it
because it's played in the inner bowl of Las Vegas Motor
Speedway. And yeah, so if we move a little
bit more stuff out that we don't need there, we'll, you know,
we'll we'll get that. But.
Insomniac does a lot more than just Vegas, right?
Oh they do. Probably 300 shows a year.
Yeah. And so you're consulting sort of
at the top level on how to make all of.
Those shows great. I work for mostly with two guys,
Justin Spag and Forest Hunt, who's the executive producers,
and I'll do whatever they want me to do.
Yeah, yeah. What a what an operation though.
I mean, it's incredible what they've built.
You know, it's not that long ago that this all started like, you
know, the Miami, the Miami one and and then EDC in in Vegas.
It's not that long ago. And look at how big it is.
It's insane. Like Insomniac have like 3 big
brands, they have EDC, they have hard summer, nocturnal, beyond
and escape, right? It's Escape from Wonderland,
Beyond Wonderland and Countdown Countdown's New Year's Eve and
they're the three major brands. So in in EDC Vegas there's like
7 different brands of music. There's Kinetic Field which is
the product which is all scenery and and looking pretty.
You have stage 2 which is a little bit of scenery but just a
lot of video. Stage 3, it's video and
lighting. It's a production stage, so
you're allowed to bring in your own video content as long as we
like it, which you're not allowed to do on stage 1.
And then you have stage 4, which is like Neon Garden, which is
another genre. The people with the DJs like
people on stage. So you can have 50 people on
stage around the DJ Crazy, you know?
And then stage 5 is it's one, it's five, it's base pod, so
it's a pretty base pod. And then you have Wastelands,
which is fucking drum and bass. I love that fucking.
They get down and you know. It's, I find it rather humorous
that you're kind of like the king of, you know, king of EDM
and you're, you're 70 years old, you know, it's, it's, it's
awesome. Music has no age barriers.
No, of course not. It's it's amazing.
Do you still spend time in Greece?
Yeah, well, my my girlfriend is a promoter in Greece.
Well, I didn't want to say, do you still have the girlfriend in
Greece? Because I always stick my foot
in my mouth saying those things. So yeah.
Well, we do. We we're, I, I was there most of
the summer because, you know, she has a very, she's very
experienced, but they have a small operation.
Yeah, she had, you know, a lot of shows.
She had Rammstein at the Olympic Stadium.
Fun. What a what a show.
Yeah, what a show. That is, that's another
phenomenon. You know, it's just like just
keeps getting bigger. East German death, death medal.
And of course she had two Nike Coldplay, which I helped her
because I knew how it worked. Yeah, and then that was the
stadium show. And then she had her small
boutique festival with Lenny Kravitz for about 7000 fun and a
couple of nights with Sting. So you're still sort of working
when you're there. No, I'm not.
I'm I'm Ms. Moral Pretend. Working moral support, Moral
support. So Sarah, who you met earlier,
our producer, she, she lives on Crete so.
We live right in the middle of Athens.
Nice nice, awesome. So for the rest of 2425, any big
plans besides the India stuff and Insomniac?
India, EDC, Orlando, I might go to escape and then probably
figure out where I'm going to be for the rest of the year and,
and hopefully when a lot of stuff dies down, that Nana, my
girlfriend, will be able to come and spend some time here because
she loves it here. Fun.
You're in Arizona, right? Yeah, Yeah.
Nice. I.
Used to have a desk set up here where she used to work and then
she goes I can't work, you're working all the time well.
Yeah, and you probably have a more boomy voice than hers too,
so you can't you can't compete with her over The Who gets to
hear your phone call better or whatever.
No. Should we set an office
upstairs? And she, she loves it up there,
you know? Nice.
I sent a picture of her office say your office is missing you.
So I hope, I hope that inspires. Long distance relationships are
tough. I mean, sometimes they're OK,
but sometimes they're tough. I.
Haven't known any different. Yeah.
Of course, yeah. I mean touring.
Yeah. Well, Jake, it's been amazing
catching up with you. I appreciate it so much and
appreciate you. And you know, you're you're a
legend. There's few peoples in our
industry, few people I'd call a legend, and you're one of them.
Thank you very much for the compliment.
I appreciate it. Yeah.
You know, legend or not legend, if I can leave a legacy and
return that legacy to make this industry grow because it's a
fantastic industry. Yeah.
You know, it's, it's it's amazing what it does.
It's amazing what it produces. Got amazing.
A bunch of people from the top through the bands to the crews
all the way down, and it needs to maintain so.
When you've pushed the envelope so much like with the size, the
enormity, the, the challenges of some of these projects you've
done the U2 claw, the U2 sphere, all the big stones tours, you
know, you've just done some, you've really made things much
more big and, and much more like you made people, I think, expand
their visions with some of the projects that you've been
involved on. I hope that's be the case, and
not necessarily in large shows, but in the medium shows and the
small shows, yeah. It's all about the personality
and the attitude. I Yeah.
I agree. I agree.
Well, thanks, Jake. We'll see you very.
Well, see you. Again soon, I hope.