1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:05,720 Here we are episode #263 just finished recording with 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:11,600 legendary Jake Berry. Not too many people in this 3 00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:15,000 industry that I give legend status to, but he's certainly 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:19,640 one of them with his work on the Stones and all of the incredible 5 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:26,520 stuff he did on U2, including the Sphere and Coldplay and ACDC 6 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:29,720 and Mötley Crüe. And I mean, the guy's a legend 7 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:34,120 and he's just a super nice guy. He's a great storyteller. 8 00:00:34,120 --> 00:00:39,560 He tells some amazing stories on this podcast, including again, 9 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:42,520 telling some stories about AC/DC that you may or may not have 10 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:46,800 heard before if you heard my podcast, but a lot of other 11 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:48,720 stuff too, and it's a very funny start. 12 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:51,920 I apologize for the beginning. Of course, we come in talking 13 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:56,200 about racing, of which he's a huge fan, so please enjoy it. 14 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:03,720 Welcome to Geysers of Gear episode #263 Today's podcast is 15 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:05,160 brought to you by ACT Entertainment. 16 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:08,960 ACT is North America's leading supplier of the entertainment 17 00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:13,120 industry's principal products to professionals across six 18 00:01:13,320 --> 00:01:16,920 different end markets, including professional lighting fixtures 19 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:21,840 and lighting control equipment, audio, video, fiber, Power 20 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:25,920 Distribution, cables, connectivity, metal work, custom 21 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:29,360 manufacturing and design. With ACT Entertainment, you get 22 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:33,200 the industry's top performance products as well as service, 23 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:37,120 education and engineering support to bring every 24 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:40,600 entertainment professional concept to reality. 25 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:45,800 Visit their website actentertainment.com and today's 26 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:48,200 podcast is also brought to you by Gear Source. 27 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:52,720 Founded in 2002 with an ambitious mission to support 28 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:56,840 live events businesses to buy and sell gear globally. 29 00:01:57,240 --> 00:02:00,760 Since that time, the company transacted in more than 100 30 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:04,160 countries, selling 1/4 billion dollars in sound, lighting, 31 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:07,800 staging and video gear. Gear Source continues to evolve 32 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:12,080 the platform for massive global growth, enabling localized 33 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:15,320 currencies, payment held in escrow to protect buyers and 34 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:19,040 sellers, AI powered logistics behind a new global logistics 35 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:22,120 brand, and more. In fact, the company has just 36 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:25,360 released massive new features including Gear Sync with the 37 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:29,480 ability to manage up to 400 listings at once and Need Zone, 38 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,840 an automated shopping assistant for hard to find items. 39 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:38,200 Take full control over your gear with a visit to gearsource.com. 40 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:16,720 So we're welcoming Sarah back this week. 41 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:19,440 She was away for a week, She strayed from us. 42 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:22,960 She left us for a week and she went on tour, I think with Blink 43 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:28,640 182 in Ireland and England and Scotland, or maybe just Ireland 44 00:03:28,640 --> 00:03:32,080 and Scotland, I don't remember. Was talking with her this 45 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:33,400 morning. She had a great time. 46 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:36,480 We might have to do a podcast and discuss how touring has 47 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:39,120 changed from the last time she went out until this time. 48 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:44,080 And so she's back and she's happy to be back and she's happy 49 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:47,200 to be back in her seat producing Geezers of Gear. 50 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:51,120 And we're working on a pretty big event for LDI as well, which 51 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:53,200 we'll tell you more about very soon. 52 00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:58,720 So welcome back, Sarah. And also right now Plaza is 53 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:04,120 going on as I am recording this Plaza is happening in England, 54 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:07,280 in London, and many of our friends are there. 55 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:10,160 And I didn't go. I've been to Plaza, I don't 56 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:13,760 know, 15 times or something. It's a great show. 57 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:16,000 I actually miss going. I would have liked to have been 58 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:19,800 there. And funny Side Story or not 59 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:25,440 funny, but interesting fact is that I was at Plaza during 911. 60 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:31,200 So as the terrible events occurred, I was getting messages 61 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:35,760 and calls from Florida telling me what was going on and 62 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:39,960 eventually made my way into a Media Center at Plaza where a 63 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:42,920 bunch of Americans were standing around just staring up at the 64 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:47,480 television in total disbelief. And so yeah, it was a nutty 65 00:04:47,480 --> 00:04:51,440 event and, and a really weird, weird time for us all obviously 66 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:53,880 terrible time. And actually, as I record this, 67 00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:58,280 it's September 4th, so we're, we're exactly a week away from 68 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:03,360 that anniversary, which is not a happy one AI. 69 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:06,800 So I actually had a couple people reach out to me thanking 70 00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:10,160 me for suggesting certain AI apps to try. 71 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:15,720 And hey, anytime you know, it's something that I'm passionate 72 00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:19,400 about and I like quite a lot. And I, I do pay attention to 73 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:22,480 some new stuff when I have time. I haven't had a lot of time in 74 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:24,560 this past week, but I do want to talk to you about a couple 75 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:27,320 things. Starting with scientists have 76 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:32,760 successfully connected AI to the nervous systems of a certain 77 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:39,080 type of worm worms, allowing the AI to direct those worms towards 78 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:43,720 specific targets. This technology showcases the 79 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:50,480 remarkable potential of AI to interact with and influence 80 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:53,640 biological organisms. This is a big deal. 81 00:05:56,040 --> 00:05:58,000 So, yeah, thought that was interesting. 82 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:00,440 Am I really following it closely or anything? 83 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:03,240 No, I'm not. But it's obvious that AI is 84 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:07,000 going to play a major role in solving things like blindness 85 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:09,440 and diseases and all kinds of things. 86 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:13,840 And, and of course, Elon Musk with with the chip that he's 87 00:06:13,840 --> 00:06:17,800 inserting into humans is going to hopefully solve a lot of 88 00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:19,520 problems and not create too many more. 89 00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:23,080 It's a scary thought, but you know, if you looked back 20 90 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:26,000 years and said, hey, we're going to insert chips into humans that 91 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:29,600 are going to help them think better and solve a lot of, you 92 00:06:29,600 --> 00:06:34,000 know, neurological diseases or problems or failures or 93 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,440 whatever, I don't know that we would have believed it. 94 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:39,920 It's happened so quickly. All of a sudden, one of the 95 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:43,560 things I'm looking at right now or trying, testing, playing with 96 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:49,240 is something called flux. And Flux is a photo generating 97 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:52,080 app or a, an image generating app. 98 00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:56,760 You know, some of the examples that they show and stuff that 99 00:06:56,760 --> 00:06:59,920 I've been playing with is where you can insert a background into 100 00:06:59,920 --> 00:07:02,200 a photo. And that background can be a 101 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:05,680 cityscape, it can be a concert, it can be all kinds of things. 102 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:10,480 They're incredibly real. They call it hyper real and it 103 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:12,400 really is hyper real. Like when they show you a 104 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:15,320 comparison, this photo's real. These three are made-up. 105 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:18,480 You'd be shocked. It's, it's just incredible how 106 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:22,720 good it's gotten already. They can swiftly generate 107 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:26,800 convincing images of people and places altering reality with a 108 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:29,480 few clicks. This is one of their little 109 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:32,880 promos, I guess, or, or specs or whatever. 110 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:35,320 Reaching a level where distinguishing between an 111 00:07:35,320 --> 00:07:39,080 authentic photograph and an AI generated image is increasingly 112 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:42,280 challenging. And obviously this brings about 113 00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:45,440 some concerns and some challenges and some problems. 114 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:50,800 So Flux's Open Access nature raises concerns about its 115 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:56,960 potential misuse and brings digital ethics clearer into play 116 00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:00,360 here. So this is obviously a huge 117 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:03,880 concern and this is something that the whole world is is at 118 00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:06,880 least thinking about. I would expect that there's 119 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:10,480 going to be some regulation involving the use of images. 120 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:15,120 What is owned by someone including their own image? 121 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:18,440 You know, can I just copy images of Taylor Swift drinking a 122 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:22,120 drink, a soft drink that I've created, you know, that's my 123 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:24,960 product or whatever. Can I have her using my product 124 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:28,520 in an image? And what kind of fines or 125 00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:31,720 penalties are involved if I do that on social media or 126 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:35,600 whatever? So, yeah, obviously this is the, 127 00:08:36,039 --> 00:08:40,760 the potential black hole side of, of AI, which is, you know, 128 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:47,080 all of these intellectual property concerns and, and just 129 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:52,640 rights, digital rights, who owns what it's, it's going to get 130 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:55,680 increasingly complex and there's going to be a lot of lawsuits 131 00:08:55,680 --> 00:08:59,080 filed over this. So what do I say every week? 132 00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:03,040 I'm really excited about today's guest because I'm so fortunate. 133 00:09:03,040 --> 00:09:05,760 I'm grateful for the fact that that so many people are 134 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:09,640 interested in willing to come on this podcast and these people, 135 00:09:09,640 --> 00:09:13,520 some of them are legends. Some of them are people that 136 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:16,760 I've looked up to for most of my career or all of my career and 137 00:09:16,760 --> 00:09:20,800 just gone, whoa, that guy's a superstar and this guy's one of 138 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:24,560 them. So a career spanning almost 40 139 00:09:24,560 --> 00:09:26,800 years now. Jake Berry is a multiple 140 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:29,800 award-winning production director, production designer, 141 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:33,480 production manager, production, all sorts of things known 142 00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:37,480 throughout the industry as a go to guy for any successful tour. 143 00:09:37,800 --> 00:09:40,760 Jake is the founder and CEO of Jake Berry Productions, a 144 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:43,840 leading tour production management company hailing from 145 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:46,400 Devon, England. Jake comes from modest 146 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:48,440 beginnings. Jake's career began as a drum 147 00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:51,560 and percussion technician. Actually, I wonder if that's 148 00:09:51,560 --> 00:09:54,880 really true because I remember the story that he told me where 149 00:09:54,880 --> 00:10:00,720 he was a keyboard tech for Yes, and from there suddenly got 150 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:03,920 hired to be the production manager of ACDC. 151 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:06,480 And we might get him to tell that story again today on 152 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:09,640 today's podcast. Progressing through various 153 00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:12,520 international tours with groups including The Rolling Stones, 154 00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:15,680 U2, Metallica, Coldplay, and so many others. 155 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:19,600 We had the pleasure of Jake being on the podcast back in 156 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:23,920 August of 21. That is episode #129 if you want 157 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:26,680 to check it out on Apple or Spotify, it won't be on YouTube 158 00:10:26,680 --> 00:10:29,480 because we didn't start YouTube until just last year. 159 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:35,280 So please join me and welcome Jake back to the podcast. 160 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:39,000 Thanks. You, you, you need to travel 161 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:41,520 with him. I travelled with him and he was 162 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:45,920 the fucking worst. Yeah, the worst Who? 163 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:48,800 Scott. Terrible 12 year old kid 164 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:52,000 travelling. Scott Speed, yeah, so. 165 00:10:52,680 --> 00:10:55,040 We we went to Bahrain and we did. 166 00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:59,200 He finished third in that GP two season, yeah. 167 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:02,680 And the guy that won it was Hecky Kovaleinen. 168 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:05,400 Yeah. And Nico Rosberg finished second 169 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:07,680 in that in that championship worked. 170 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:09,560 Out for both of them, didn't it? Yeah. 171 00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:15,280 And then Scott got promoted to Toro Rosso, Yeah. 172 00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:22,680 And he did not hit it off with the principal, Franz Tost. 173 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:25,680 And there was lots of going back and forth. 174 00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:31,800 And then Scott, I think delivered like he had a direct 175 00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:36,160 link to to Dietrich, right? Massachusetts had a Red Bull 176 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:40,080 race and had a Red Bull. And he kind of went round, 177 00:11:40,080 --> 00:11:43,520 tossed his back and went there. And then then after a crash in 178 00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:46,960 Nuremberg where Scott crashed and so did 8 of the other 179 00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:48,920 drivers in wet conditions, I must admit. 180 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:51,320 And they got into a bit of a fight. 181 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:56,360 So then he saw they they sacked him, but then they put him in 182 00:11:56,360 --> 00:12:03,080 the Red Bull NASCAR program. And that's NASCAR program was 183 00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:08,240 run by Gunther Steiner, OK. And such a. 184 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:09,960 Great guy. Yeah, so. 185 00:12:10,560 --> 00:12:12,400 We got to know. I've got to know Gunter very 186 00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:13,880 well. And still known to these days, 187 00:12:13,880 --> 00:12:17,120 actually, yeah, Although I've now lost my connection to get 188 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:19,920 Formula One tickets. So. 189 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:23,360 So has he. He'll always be around. 190 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:24,240 Yeah, he'll. Be fine. 191 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:28,320 Yeah, yeah. Until we went to NASCAR, and 192 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:32,320 then you know that he managed to. 193 00:12:32,320 --> 00:12:36,920 Actually, I went to Daytona 500 and we LED 12 laps. 194 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:41,880 Yeah, fantastic feeling. And then he went down to ARCA 195 00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:46,280 and he rode trucks. I mean, in ARCA series we were 196 00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:49,120 going to win it and it was between US and Ricky Stenhouse 197 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:54,200 Junior, and all we had to do was to keep ahead of Ricky Stenhouse 198 00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:58,160 and Ricky Stenhouse went after Scott and pushed him into the 199 00:12:58,160 --> 00:13:01,560 wall. As you do, yeah, So. 200 00:13:01,560 --> 00:13:05,400 Then Scott Speed then came out of the pits as Stenhouse were 201 00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:08,960 coming back and made sure he wouldn't win the championship by 202 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:11,240 T boning him. Jesus. 203 00:13:11,680 --> 00:13:16,000 So there's the the the newer NASCAR people saying this is 204 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:19,800 wrong and the older NASCAR people going he just got what he 205 00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:24,720 deserved and then and now Scott is he he's a works driver for 206 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:30,480 Subaru in the GP Nitro series. Yeah, I still. 207 00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:33,760 He's not doing GRC anymore. Global Rallycross. 208 00:13:34,080 --> 00:13:38,280 Yes, but yeah, TRC, yeah, yeah. And I saw him, I saw a clip from 209 00:13:38,280 --> 00:13:39,760 him. He went to the Good Word 210 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:41,640 Festival of Speed. Yeah. 211 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:45,920 And he did the hill climbing the Subaru and he was sick. 212 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:48,000 As well. Yeah, I saw that as well. 213 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:50,360 Yeah. You know he broke his back a few 214 00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:51,720 years ago, right? Yeah. 215 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:54,680 Going over a bump, yeah. And I would go to Scott and I 216 00:13:54,680 --> 00:13:58,440 would, you know, everywhere I go, I like I, I took my friend 217 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:02,200 Mitch Margolin to Daytona and he goes, yeah, we'll go and see 218 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:04,080 Scott. And he thought that, you know, I 219 00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:07,040 would poke my nose in and say hi to Scott. 220 00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:11,000 And I went up to the pit, you know, the trailer. 221 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:13,080 And, you know, I go, hey, Scott, how are you? 222 00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:16,000 And go like, he drops everything and comes over. 223 00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:19,480 And I introduced the Mitch. And Mitch is, I think, a little 224 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:22,760 bit starstruck. And he said to Mitch, he goes 225 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:27,000 and he Scott will tell you this if you ask him, how do you get 226 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:29,720 this far? It's quite possible to say that 227 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:32,720 if it wasn't for Jake and spending money me, I wouldn't 228 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:35,160 have made it this far. So that's. 229 00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:38,000 Amazing. You know, The thing is Jake, 230 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:43,760 like today, so you know, my son's 20, he did last year in 231 00:14:43,760 --> 00:14:45,560 England. He raced a couple of different 232 00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:49,360 series in England last year. My son, opposite of Scott would 233 00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:52,240 live in Europe in a second like for the next 10 years. 234 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:57,200 He'd love to, but the money now is so much different than what 235 00:14:57,200 --> 00:15:01,840 you're talking about. Like 75,000 for 12%, you know, 236 00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:05,200 75,000 wouldn't get you anywhere anymore. 237 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:08,360 Like it, you know? So right now the going rate for 238 00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:12,560 Indy is about 12 to 15,000,000 for two seasons. 239 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:17,280 And that's as a driver coming in, like that's what you're 240 00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:20,280 going to pay to get in. You're going to pay to get in 241 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:23,560 unless you've just won everything in the world and they 242 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:26,480 want you on one of the teams. But even like Andretti and 243 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:29,280 Penske and stuff are taking paid seats now. 244 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:34,520 And so it's, it's like, you know, I hate to say it, but 245 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:40,480 we've got friends in an IndyCar that my kid has beaten all the 246 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:42,800 way through karting and, and even in cars. 247 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:47,440 We've got some friends going through the Formula One route 248 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:52,360 who are in F2 or they're even reserve drivers in some cases 249 00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:54,760 who we've beaten in carts and cars. 250 00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:58,840 But you know, I can't fund it. Like I just don't you know, and 251 00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:01,720 even within our industry, like I've got a lot of connections in 252 00:16:01,720 --> 00:16:05,480 our industry who have been very gracious and have helped to 253 00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:08,640 support him. But the money, you know, even if 254 00:16:08,640 --> 00:16:12,240 I collect 100,000 or 150,000 from people that. 255 00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:13,600 Erases. Yeah, I. 256 00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:19,840 Mean Formula two now I think is around 6,000,000 for a season, 257 00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:23,360 something like that. Like it's an insane number, you 258 00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:27,320 know? Formula 3 is around €2 million 259 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:32,000 for a season of Formula 3. Formula 4 is almost €1,000,000. 260 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:35,160 You know, it's just insane money right now. 261 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:39,200 It's insane. Imagine that you're a top driver 262 00:16:39,880 --> 00:16:44,000 and you have to spend 10 million to get a seat, right? 263 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:47,960 Imagine if you're a college football player and you want to 264 00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:50,280 go to Yeah. You got to spend 10 million to 265 00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:54,320 go play for the the. The New York Jets want want you 266 00:16:54,320 --> 00:16:57,360 in their team and you can come and play for us if you if you 267 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:01,440 give us 10 million people would say that's not right, but of 268 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:04,079 course they would. I mean there's a couple of prime 269 00:17:04,079 --> 00:17:06,800 examples in there. You know, I mean, look, you look 270 00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:10,280 at Lance Tro and Aston morning right to you know, is he there 271 00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:13,599 because of his dad in the New York second Is he he's I think 272 00:17:13,599 --> 00:17:18,359 he's an OK driver, but he's an OK driver amidst a lot of very 273 00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:20,960 good ones he'd. Never be in Formula One if he if 274 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:23,839 he wasn't Laurence Stroll's son. There, he wouldn't, No. 275 00:17:23,839 --> 00:17:27,119 I was very surprised because I always thought that Lance was 276 00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:32,440 fast and he was not very good on on tricky circuits or or 277 00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:35,280 technical circuits. But he always said well in Monza 278 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:37,440 and this year at Monza it was a complete disaster. 279 00:17:37,440 --> 00:17:41,240 Yeah, yeah. Now he's, he's there obviously, 280 00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:44,040 because his dad's the boss and now his dad. 281 00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:47,640 I've just read a rumor this morning that they're giving 282 00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:54,000 Adrian Newey 25,000,000 to come to to come to them to come to 283 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:58,640 Aston next. Yeah, well, I mean it is or it 284 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:01,840 isn't, but it's going to put you in the in the conversation, 285 00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:04,360 that's for sure. And for him, 25,000,000 is 286 00:18:04,360 --> 00:18:05,760 peanuts. You. 287 00:18:05,760 --> 00:18:08,720 Know yes, so like they once said to, I don't know, there was an 288 00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:11,240 interview and I can't remember. I think it was Lewis Hamilton 289 00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:14,400 and they said what team would you like to race for most? 290 00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:16,160 He goes the one with Adrian Newey. 291 00:18:16,360 --> 00:18:19,120 Yeah, yeah. If the guy's that good, you know 292 00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:21,200 he really is and he doesn't. Need the computer? 293 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:25,320 It's all. It's all rulers and and can 294 00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:26,360 drawn, isn't it? Yeah. 295 00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:29,600 Well, and there's very few people like that, you know, and, 296 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:32,760 and like you mentioned earlier, Mike Speed is one of the guys in 297 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:35,160 karting who's like that. Like he could look at a Tony 298 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:38,200 cart and tell you exactly what, how it needed to be adjusted 299 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:40,360 that his biggest thing was carburetion. 300 00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:44,520 Like Mike Speed in Go Karts was a carburetion genius. 301 00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:48,000 You know, he'd go off into a little hidden place and he'd do 302 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:51,840 some adjustments to the carb and he'd come back and you'd be like 303 00:18:51,840 --> 00:18:54,280 3/10 faster and you'd go, what did you just do? 304 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:57,920 I don't know. I mean, MM speed with Scott. 305 00:18:58,280 --> 00:19:03,440 Mike believed in Scott. Yeah, I mean, they had, I 306 00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:06,320 wouldn't you know, they had an up and down relationship. 307 00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:08,320 They argued a lot. I think they still like, but 308 00:19:08,320 --> 00:19:11,920 like Mike, Mike went into so much debt to get Scott where he 309 00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:13,800 wanted, like a double mortgage on a house. 310 00:19:14,120 --> 00:19:16,960 And you have to have the utmost respect for people like that, 311 00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:18,480 Yeah. Yeah, I mean. 312 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:22,240 Trouble for being a genius. Let's face it, when your last 313 00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:24,760 name is Speed, you've got a little pressure on you. 314 00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:27,840 You know you're not going to, you're not going to make it in, 315 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:30,440 you know, whatever. You're not going to make it in a 316 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:31,680 lot of industries, but you're going. 317 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:35,960 To once, once I had an idea that I was going to take, you know, 318 00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:39,600 to try to get sponsors in it and I was going to go to American 319 00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:42,640 Express and I was going to Scott Speed the American Express. 320 00:19:43,160 --> 00:19:46,640 That's a good one. Yeah, that's a good one. 321 00:19:46,640 --> 00:19:48,200 Do you know Alex as well? His brother? 322 00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:51,560 I do, yeah. So Alex was like Jeremy's 323 00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:55,800 engineer for a number of years. My son's engineer in karts, they 324 00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:58,560 were the best. I mean, speed, you know, I 325 00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:01,320 helped him come up with his name, Speed Concept Racing, 326 00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:03,160 because I always argued with him. 327 00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:06,600 You've got to use your name. It's your name. 328 00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:09,920 And he goes, yeah, but it sounds so cheesy, Speed, you know, race 329 00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:11,760 fast. And I'm like, but it's your 330 00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:14,160 freaking name, so you got to use it. 331 00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:17,080 So. Mike's wife passed away, right? 332 00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:19,520 Yeah. Yeah. 333 00:20:19,640 --> 00:20:23,280 And then and then. His They put their heart and 334 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:27,880 soul and house and name and money on the line for their son. 335 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:29,120 Yeah, they did. And. 336 00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:31,600 Alex wasn't a mean go Kart racer either. 337 00:20:31,760 --> 00:20:34,160 Yeah, yeah. No. 338 00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:39,600 And honestly, you know, I'd like to say he's the only one because 339 00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:42,360 I did. And so many fathers did, you 340 00:20:42,360 --> 00:20:45,080 know, because you just look at your son and like, my son from 341 00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:49,480 the age of seven, never wanted to do anything else in the world 342 00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:53,360 except be in a go Kart. And then at 15 in a race car, 343 00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:56,040 you know, that was it. That was the only thing he 344 00:20:56,040 --> 00:20:58,480 wanted in the world. To this day, it's all he wants. 345 00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:00,880 But you know, now, unfortunately, like most of 346 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:04,440 them, he's on the other side. He's coaching and so he's 347 00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:07,200 coaching a bunch of US Formula Four drivers. 348 00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:09,240 He's SIM coaching a lot of drivers. 349 00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:12,960 So yeah, it's a whole thing. It's, it's sad actually, when 350 00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:15,440 you know, there's a lot of talent out there that's better 351 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:19,280 than some of the talent is there because, you know, with the 352 00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:24,280 Formula One car, I don't know if if you're as much a driver as a 353 00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:26,800 computer genius. Yeah, it's true. 354 00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:28,280 Or. Or, or a mixture of both. 355 00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:31,280 Yeah. And then it's always the best 356 00:21:31,280 --> 00:21:32,880 driver and the best car will win. 357 00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:38,160 I mean, it amazes me that they go like the Aston Martins really 358 00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:42,400 slow because it's 9/10 of a second slower on a lap than 359 00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:46,080 anyone. 9/10 of a second, yeah. It's insane, isn't it? 360 00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:48,080 It's it's like a blink of an eye. 361 00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:52,720 Yeah, yeah, 9/10 of a second on a, on a minute and a half lap, 362 00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:55,720 right or whatever. So no, it's incredible. 363 00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:57,760 It's all incredible. And the drivers, there's so many 364 00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:00,240 great drivers right now. I think, I think a lot of them 365 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:01,760 will never make it to Formula One. 366 00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:04,000 A lot of them will never make it to Formula Three because the 367 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:07,440 money's just not there. You know, it's, it's a terrible 368 00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:10,240 story right now. Those with loads of money are, 369 00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:12,720 are making it on and the grids are going to end up watered 370 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:14,360 down. You know, the grids are going to 371 00:22:14,360 --> 00:22:17,200 get lame. Like I think right now IndyCar 372 00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:19,320 is pretty exciting. You know, there's, there's some 373 00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:21,680 pretty good things happening in IndyCar right now. 374 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:26,320 But even there, like if you look at the last five, 6-7 drivers 375 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:30,880 usually on the on the sheets, at the end of the day, those guys 376 00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:33,480 are paying millions of dollars to be in those seats. 377 00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:37,960 And yeah, it's just not right. I don't. 378 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,280 You know, I had a burning ambition once. 379 00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:44,440 Just once. Oh, and racing. 380 00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:49,200 I wanted to go to Indianapolis from like the start or get into 381 00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:54,120 like Wednesday or Monday before the race, then walk up and down 382 00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:57,200 pit row and find it. Who wanted $25,000? 383 00:22:58,440 --> 00:23:01,560 Yeah. And you'll go, you have $25,000. 384 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:05,000 I just want my name on a car. And going back to what you said 385 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:09,320 about our industry friends, I did that with with Colin Fleming 386 00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:14,240 in Formula Atlantic, I think. Yeah. 387 00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:19,240 And so I got my friends from stage, Co-op stage in screen 388 00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:21,840 works, cat entertainment. And I go, you, you want to give 389 00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:25,560 me some sponsorship money. So we raised 100 grand and that 390 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:27,720 was good. Yeah, that's very good season 391 00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:31,040 and like 20 grand for each company. 392 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:35,160 And we put it over the car and we had a great car and won it. 393 00:23:35,160 --> 00:23:40,360 And then also there back in the GP two days, Colin was trying to 394 00:23:40,360 --> 00:23:43,160 race for a Swiss outfit. I can't remember the name. 395 00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:47,520 And they wanted some money for a wind tunnel test and at wind 396 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,840 tunnel testing time. Yeah, I used to own a bunch of 397 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:55,280 sound consoles that I rented, so I sold one and paid for wind 398 00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:57,960 tunnel time. All that got me is that my 399 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:01,720 company was called Fader Hire then and I have a picture of 400 00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:06,400 Colin driving around Monaco with Fader Hire on the mirrors. 401 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:08,080 Nice. Yeah, I. 402 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:11,720 Got nothing out of it except that's fucking cool. 403 00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:14,400 Well. So, you know, remarkably, 404 00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:17,440 there's a company in our industry called Ayrton Lighting, 405 00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:22,200 which, you know, is a major automated lighting manufacturer 406 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:23,800 now, one of the top guys out there. 407 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:29,080 And the founder, Yvonne, is a French guy who was a massive 408 00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:32,760 Formula One fan and was obviously a massive Ayrton Senna 409 00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:36,080 fan. And when Ayrton died, he closed 410 00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:39,960 the company for a couple of weeks in mourning and then a 411 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:43,320 little bit later on changed the name of his company to Airton 412 00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:49,200 and just totally basically so, so for the past couple of years, 413 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:52,000 one of our main sponsors was Airton Lighting. 414 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:55,400 And so we had big Airton logo on, on the car and people would 415 00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,320 always be like, are you just huge fans or what's the deal? 416 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:01,200 And we're like, no, no, look, it says Airton Digital Lighting. 417 00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:04,800 And so, you know, you got in a lot of really great 418 00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:06,960 conversations at the track. That was for sure. 419 00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:10,600 Like, you know, we were at I think Brands Hatch and a guy 420 00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:12,880 comes up to me and says, we just delivered a bunch of those 421 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,240 lights yesterday, you know, And I was like, oh, really? 422 00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:20,200 And so, yeah, it's great. Like I said, our industry's been 423 00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:24,080 very, very good to us. Yeah, but not good enough to get 424 00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:27,200 us into IndyCar or into any of the next steps, you know, 425 00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:32,760 Formula, Formula 3, which we have two or three friends in in 426 00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:37,040 F31 and F2 now. And you know, it's it's a long 427 00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:38,840 expensive Rd. Yeah, there you go. 428 00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:39,760 Very. Interesting. 429 00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:43,320 We thoroughly bored people now, Jake, so let's talk about what 430 00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:45,360 they want to hear about, which is our business. 431 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:49,960 So you know, I actually had you on the podcast in 2021. 432 00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,920 I don't know if you remember, but one of my favorite stories 433 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:59,240 was, was the the ACDC story where you're sitting in the pub 434 00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:03,920 and, and you know, I think at the time, weren't you a keyboard 435 00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:06,680 tech for yes or something? For Rick Wakeman, yeah. 436 00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:11,240 Yeah, and, and what happened? How'd you get the ACDC gig? 437 00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:14,120 Well, sorry to make you tell it again, but I love it. 438 00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:17,960 We used to drink in this bar called the Warrington Hotel, 439 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,000 which was in medieval, which is a division of London. 440 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:27,160 Yeah, everybody drank there. You know, it was you could pick 441 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:31,040 up a rogue crew in a good night at the thing at them. 442 00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:35,960 And my very good friend Ian Jeffrey was the tour he'd worked 443 00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:38,160 for. When I started with Rick in 75, 444 00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:41,720 he was the monitor guy. And then he moved on to tour 445 00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:47,000 manage ACDC. So ACDC, we're looking for a 446 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:52,000 production manager and he goes, I've put your name forward and I 447 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,160 go, but he and I've never. Done production management, he 448 00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:57,520 said. But you know, I told him you 449 00:26:57,520 --> 00:27:01,920 were a stage manager on yes. So I go, you know, which was 450 00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:04,160 stretching the truth, I would say. 451 00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:08,520 And so we got there and I met Peter Mensch. 452 00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:12,680 And then, you know, then, you know, later in the story, you go 453 00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:15,280 like, who's the people that influence you the most? 454 00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:17,480 And you know, you start off with Peter Mensch. 455 00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:20,760 Peter Mensch. I can never have a enough thank 456 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,680 you and a huge amount of respect for what he's achieved in 457 00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:26,200 business. So we kind of got to Peter and 458 00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:30,160 Peter agreed and he sent me out to to go and learn to be a 459 00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:33,360 production manager in Oakland, CA with ACDC. 460 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:37,160 First gig was the Oakland Auditorium, Bill Graham 461 00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:41,280 Auditorium and there he'd come from a Peter had come from a 462 00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:43,600 management company, Libra Crepes. 463 00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:48,320 So, but ACDC we're OK to be managed by Liebman kept along. 464 00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:50,080 It was Peter Mensch was the manager. 465 00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:54,120 So and then Peter, you know, left and went on his own. 466 00:27:54,120 --> 00:27:57,880 They stayed with him and he goes, I'm going to send out this 467 00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:02,480 guy Joe Baptista, who was the production manager for Aerosmith 468 00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:06,240 and very well respected. And so this guy was going, 469 00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:09,240 you're going to learn from him or you're not going to learn 470 00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:13,680 from him and you're going home. So Joe came in on that great 471 00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:17,960 guy, Joe, great, great guy. And you know, don't forget you 472 00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:22,600 had no, no fax machines. You had no, you didn't even have 473 00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:25,880 a pager, let alone a cell phone. This was in the 80s, right? 474 00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:31,280 This one in 79. 70. Nine wow, so you know, you did 475 00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:36,560 everything with a payphone. So and then, you know, by that 476 00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:40,440 time, you know, I think Bill Graham organization was the 477 00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:44,600 first to put, you know, a long distance phone in the production 478 00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:49,600 office where it was MCI or I can't remember the name of the 479 00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:52,280 companies where you hit nine, you dialed the number, then you 480 00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:54,800 put hard number. So we advance. 481 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:56,720 He said, listen to me, I'm advancing the show. 482 00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:00,280 So I listened to him advance the show, took down some notes and 483 00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:07,320 he had this four page questionnaire that you know, you 484 00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,920 would ask the questions, you know, do you have loading docks? 485 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:13,160 I mean, back in 79 most of the answers. 486 00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:17,600 What are those, you know? And so he let me do it. 487 00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:20,560 And I looked at he goes and he said to the next, the next time 488 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:24,040 he called, he go, well, why don't you give it a try and I'll 489 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:27,080 be here to back you up. So I went through it and I mean, 490 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:30,440 I could write down, but first of all, I hate writing because my 491 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:32,320 writing's terrible. My spelling's awful. 492 00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:38,040 So I did it and I went through it like that and did a couple 493 00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:41,320 more and he goes, don't worry, you got it. 494 00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:43,040 And he told Peter, don't worry, Jake's got it. 495 00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:46,440 He'll be, he'll be OK. And, and that was it. 496 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:50,920 And many, many, many years later, we were playing 497 00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:55,320 Metallica, ACDC and Metallica in, in, in, in Russia. 498 00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:00,520 And I was looking for a psych coordinator. 499 00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:03,640 So the first person I call was Joe Baptista. 500 00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:07,000 I said, this is what I owe you. And unfortunately after that, 501 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:08,360 that was the last gig he ever died. 502 00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:11,560 When he came home, he had a heart attack and passed away. 503 00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:13,640 So. But that's how I started. 504 00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:18,520 So he gave you your first gig and you gave him his last gig? 505 00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:20,840 I think you said that on our first one. 506 00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:22,280 So it's not like I'm being smart. 507 00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:29,440 No, no, no, I mean it's true. And you know, you've been 508 00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:31,800 through, Peter mentioned. Now you're at Joe Baptista for 509 00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:35,160 the people that help you. Carve your career. 510 00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:37,520 Yeah, that's just amazing, though. 511 00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:40,600 Like I it's one of the things I love about the foundation of 512 00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:44,280 this industry is bands as big as AC/DC, as big as some of these 513 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:49,920 bands and willing to hire a guy who has nothing on his resume 514 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:52,320 that says production manager. You know what I mean? 515 00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:55,720 Like I. Used to hang out with in the 516 00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:57,560 pub. I used to hang out with all of 517 00:30:57,560 --> 00:30:59,480 them and they all used to come to the same pub. 518 00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:03,320 So when somebody goes to, you know, ACDC and they go, yeah, 519 00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:08,040 well, I've known them since 76. So I mean, it wasn't strange and 520 00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:14,320 they were quite happy, you know, But I mean, it's, it's, it's not 521 00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:19,800 what you who the rock behind. I'm trying to explain this. 522 00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:21,640 Been in the right place at the right time. 523 00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:25,960 Not your skill level because my skill level certainly wasn't up 524 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:28,240 there with anybody now. And in some respects, 525 00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:35,160 technically wise, there's a whole whole bunch of people are 526 00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:38,040 in this business, are far technically and in our business, 527 00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:42,280 I always maintain that 50% of being a production manager was 528 00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:46,280 personality at least 50%. How to get your point across 529 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:49,800 without pissing people off? Yeah, is it? 530 00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:53,680 Is it somewhere between, you know, being a nice guy and 531 00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:59,600 creating massive fear? I don't know if I ever wanted to 532 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:02,040 create massive fear, but it's yes. 533 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:05,720 I think being a nice guy and listening to both sides of the 534 00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:11,240 story, then making and sometimes an educated guess. 535 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:15,560 And that's where I learned the four, the four most important 536 00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:17,680 words I ever learned of being a production manager. 537 00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:20,360 When somebody asks you a question, you go, I'll get back 538 00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:22,840 to you cuz you never wanted to appear dumb. 539 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,000 So you can find the answer and come back. 540 00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:28,400 Yeah, yeah. I mean, so many people in our 541 00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:33,720 industry always say, you know, like if if you ask them for the 542 00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:37,480 best advice, they'll say say yes and then go figure it out, you 543 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,600 know, and like Cosmo was one of the ones who said that. 544 00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:43,760 And so many people did that. Like they just, they didn't 545 00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,160 because you couldn't know everything, especially in those 546 00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:48,760 early days. Just say yes and then go find 547 00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:49,960 out how to do it. The. 548 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:53,520 Early days were pioneering. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 549 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:56,920 I mean, there's a lot of people, you know, who were pioneers. 550 00:32:56,920 --> 00:33:02,400 Chipmunk, you know, Stansfield, you know, Joe Back, they were 551 00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:08,360 all pioneers. And you know, you go to you know 552 00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:16,160 the riggers like Branham and Air Banks who were the and Travis 553 00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:20,120 with the Disney riggers, you know, and they they were the 554 00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,040 first people to fly a sound system. 555 00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:25,200 You know, you had a platform, you stacked the sound, you 556 00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:27,000 ratched it and took it up on 4 motors. 557 00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:31,720 Very, very basic. Yeah, but I mean, incredible, 558 00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:35,560 you know, it's incredible always to like, I love, I love this 559 00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:38,240 podcast because I get to hear some of these stories of how 560 00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:41,000 they created some of the earliest sound systems and made 561 00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:45,440 it work or how they, you know, just it was always a learning 562 00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,200 thing and a figure it out thing, you know, and making park cans 563 00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:50,200 from pineapple cans and stuff like that. 564 00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:54,640 So, but let me ask you, because you you worked with ACDC from 565 00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:58,360 early on and, and, and also Mötley Crüe in the 80s. 566 00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:01,160 And it's funny because while you can't see it right now, let me 567 00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:03,840 see if I can turn. So that's right. 568 00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:10,360 There is me and and Nikki, but it's me next to him with the 569 00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:13,040 long hair. And that was a tour that you 570 00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:15,239 worked. That was Theodore Pain. 571 00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:20,239 Well, so that was in Calgary. That was in Calgary, by the way, 572 00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:25,320 that that particular one. So you know, every, every 573 00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:27,120 picture tells a story, doesn't it? 574 00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:34,120 You know, so I got to know the motley crew and, and 1st, you 575 00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:37,760 know, probably Doc, you know, I was out working for Aussie at 576 00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:44,280 Bark of the Moon tour and the crew were the support act and 577 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:49,920 they, they came up and they had, I don't know who their 578 00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:51,120 production manager, I can't remember. 579 00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:54,280 It might have been somebody called Roy Franks, I believe. 580 00:34:56,080 --> 00:35:01,520 And the crew wanted to hang their motley crew backdrop and, 581 00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:04,840 and Roy said no. And so they were kind of pissed 582 00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:08,840 off and I said we can do it, you know. 583 00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:15,840 So we went and got a pipe and we put some nails in the pipe and, 584 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:18,880 you know, we had the grommets on their drop and we would hang it 585 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:21,960 and at the set change when it was over, we would just let it 586 00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:25,160 down. Very simple, very basic. 587 00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:27,680 And So what what does that cost us? 588 00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:32,480 And back in those days, it was either $100 or equivalent. 589 00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:36,800 Yeah, yeah, I got so. That's why I need to do the 590 00:35:36,800 --> 00:35:40,200 crew. So after Bark of the Moon, I 591 00:35:40,200 --> 00:35:42,000 went on and did Ronnie James Dio. 592 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:46,560 I was at with Deal and and then to be perfect on this. 593 00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:50,360 Deal was to this day the only tour that I've ever been asked 594 00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:52,880 to leave or fired really. Yeah. 595 00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:59,320 What happened there? Well, we were trying to save 596 00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:06,600 money and we Wendy Deal was, I don't know the complete story, 597 00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:10,000 but her and Ronnie were separated and a rumour had she 598 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:12,200 was involved with a singer from a band called Rough Cut. 599 00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:17,840 Rough Cut with a support act. And then we did our first 600 00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:21,880 loadout at Alpine Valley and we were so tight in the trucks we 601 00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:25,040 had to drive the truck down a slow slam on a brake so we could 602 00:36:25,040 --> 00:36:29,640 close the door, you know. And then we were setting up in 603 00:36:30,680 --> 00:36:35,520 Quebec City and they said they want to see you in the office. 604 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:37,880 I mean, I can't go down the office. 605 00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:42,080 I'm trying to explain to a bunch of French Canadian stage chants 606 00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:46,320 how the show opens because it's all about laser timing, opening 607 00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:49,360 a curtain and putting in smoke. It was had to be coordinated. 608 00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:51,840 Yeah. And at the end of the night, 609 00:36:51,840 --> 00:36:53,480 they said, can you come to the dressing room? 610 00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:56,160 So I did. And Wendy said to me, you know, 611 00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:58,040 it's not working out, Jake. He said, I go, why are you 612 00:36:58,040 --> 00:36:59,600 getting rid of me? She go, Yeah, I think so. 613 00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:02,960 And that was it. It took. 614 00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:09,120 It took 30 years. Later I met Wendy 30 years and 615 00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:11,520 she goes, are you still angry at me? 616 00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:14,360 I go, of course I am, but I forgive you, you know. 617 00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:18,800 So it was good, but and then I went home and I remember so 618 00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:20,120 there. Was literally no reason. 619 00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:22,720 Well, I think I think because you. 620 00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:26,720 Didn't rush to the office. Maybe I yeah, maybe I didn't bow 621 00:37:26,720 --> 00:37:28,520 down as much. I I don't know. 622 00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:33,800 But interesting you. So, you know, I went home and I 623 00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:39,440 had zero money and I said to my then wife Maria goes, I don't 624 00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:47,080 know what we're going to do. And within 4 less than 24 hours, 625 00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:50,800 Rich Fisher was the tour manager from the crew said, Jake, can 626 00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:53,080 you come out and be the stage manager for Theatre of Pain? 627 00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:55,360 And I go here I go. So off I went. 628 00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:59,600 And then that's hilarious. I felt that, you know, everybody 629 00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:03,560 used to come for me to decision. So you know, I've been a 630 00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:04,960 production manager, stage manager. 631 00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:08,440 I had to go because I needed the money, but that's why I got to 632 00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:12,560 be the production manager for the crew, you know, from $100 633 00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:15,400 worth of that's. Insane, That's so insane. 634 00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:18,800 That's great. Well, and you know, like you 635 00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:21,600 said before, like, you know, take good care of people and, 636 00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:25,200 and you know, treat them right and be cool with people and 637 00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:28,960 stuff and, and it can turn into a life lifetime of gigs, you 638 00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:31,600 know, and that's worked out for you and so many people in this 639 00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:33,760 industry. Yes, it has, yeah. 640 00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:39,800 That theater a pain tour. So that picture, you know, I 641 00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:43,480 didn't really ever think about it until I I read their book The 642 00:38:43,480 --> 00:38:48,360 Dirt, and I had no idea how fucked up they really were. 643 00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:51,520 You know, like how much shit they were doing and ingesting 644 00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:54,280 into their bodies. And I look back at that picture 645 00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:56,560 and you can see the look in Nikki's eyes. 646 00:38:56,800 --> 00:38:58,960 He was wasted. Now I'm going to tell you a 647 00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:01,360 story and you right, you might remember this because this 648 00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:07,560 happened in Calgary. And so Vince was on lockdown at 649 00:39:07,560 --> 00:39:13,880 this point because of the car accident and Tommy was married. 650 00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:17,760 But Tommy was in love with my secretary, whose name was 651 00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:23,040 Beverly. And so Bev and I were talking 652 00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:24,720 with Tommy, hanging out, whatever. 653 00:39:24,720 --> 00:39:26,320 And we were like, yeah, we got to get going. 654 00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:30,360 We're meeting some friends at a club and he goes, I'm coming and 655 00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:34,520 we go, OK, well, I have a Corvette. 656 00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:37,240 It's only got 2 seats in it. I'm not sure how we're gonna 657 00:39:37,240 --> 00:39:39,360 work that out, Tommy. And he goes, no, no, no, we'll 658 00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:42,280 all come or no, he goes I'll somebody will drive me or 659 00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:45,160 something. So he grabs a radio from someone 660 00:39:45,160 --> 00:39:48,840 and he calls whoever. And it was like everyone had 661 00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:50,480 numbers. Tommy was 0. 662 00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:52,960 And I can't remember what the number was of the person he 663 00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:54,640 called, but it was a manager or something. 664 00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:56,880 And he said, I'm going to go to a club with some friends of 665 00:39:56,880 --> 00:39:58,960 mine. And he's like, no, Tommy, you're 666 00:39:58,960 --> 00:40:01,480 not going anywhere. We're leaving and going to 667 00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:03,720 Edmonton. And he goes, no, no, I'm going 668 00:40:03,720 --> 00:40:06,000 to go for a couple hours and hang out with my friends and, 669 00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:09,640 and you know, and, and you know, I like these people. 670 00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:12,160 I'm going to go hang out. No, Tommy, you're coming with 671 00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:13,440 this. We're going to Edmonton. 672 00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:17,400 So Tommy starts throwing a fit and he starts like flipping Rd. 673 00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:20,720 cases, pulling him off the truck, you know, flipped over a 674 00:40:20,720 --> 00:40:22,840 couple tables with drinks on him and stuff. 675 00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,160 He was just having a little tantrum, right? 676 00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,280 And we were like, oh shit, like let's sneak out of here or 677 00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:31,840 something, right? And so finally he convinces the 678 00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:35,920 management to pack everyone in the bus and the whole bus 679 00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:39,040 followed my car to this local club. 680 00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:42,160 And so we're on our way to the club and I called the club and 681 00:40:42,160 --> 00:40:46,120 I'm like, hey, it's Marcel. Yeah, I'm coming down me and Bev 682 00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:49,080 and Mötley Crüe and, and the girl goes whatever, you know. 683 00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:51,880 And I said no, no, it's me, Bev and Mötley Crüe. 684 00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:54,960 And so Vince had to stay in the bus, but the rest of them came 685 00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:56,840 in and well, I don't think Mick came in. 686 00:40:56,840 --> 00:41:00,000 It was probably just Tommy and and Nikki came in and a couple 687 00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:04,600 couple crew guys and it was a crazy night. 688 00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:08,640 It was just a nutty night. We had a lot of crazy times on 689 00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:11,240 the crew. I can't even imagine, you know, 690 00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:14,280 did you ever see the movie The Dirt, the Netflix movie? 691 00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:18,160 It's so funny when the fake Jake Berry is standing at the railing 692 00:41:18,160 --> 00:41:21,760 at a motel, and he looks at the camera and goes, you know, I've 693 00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:25,120 been with Skid Row and Bon Jovi and he lists a few bands. 694 00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:27,280 He goes. But nothing ever prepared me for 695 00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:29,480 this, you know? And it's just debauchery. 696 00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:33,760 Probably been Rich Fisher. I think no, it was. 697 00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:35,880 I thought it was supposed to be Doc McGee. 698 00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:38,040 It was Doc McGee. It was the manager in the movie, 699 00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:42,200 Yeah. Well, I mean, I saw the dirt and 700 00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:46,520 because I was on the production side, yeah, I didn't see a lot 701 00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:48,440 of the stuff that was going on. Right. 702 00:41:48,440 --> 00:41:50,640 Yeah, yeah. But, you know, I remember being 703 00:41:50,640 --> 00:41:54,440 around the night that Nikki, yeah, died. 704 00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:57,680 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and don't forget, that was a 705 00:41:57,680 --> 00:42:01,400 big LA scene. It was huge, huge LA scene. 706 00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:02,760 Massive. Yeah, you. 707 00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:06,040 Know you had the crew you had poison you had. 708 00:42:06,040 --> 00:42:08,280 Roses you had. GNR Yeah. 709 00:42:08,720 --> 00:42:13,280 I mean, it's, you know, bands like Warrant and it was pretty 710 00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:14,520 insane. Yeah. 711 00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:19,000 When everybody tells you about, you know, what went on in the 712 00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:22,520 80s and the 90s, and you listen to stories and people go, what 713 00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:23,480 do you think? I go? 714 00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:26,360 I think you've only just scratched the surface. 715 00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:27,560 Yeah. No kidding. 716 00:42:27,560 --> 00:42:29,560 I. Mean It was insane, what we used 717 00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:32,480 to do insane. Let me let me ask you this 718 00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:36,480 though, like you were with ACDC in the 80s and and Mötley Crüe 719 00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:40,280 in the 80s, did you have any idea that both those bands would 720 00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:44,560 be doing stadium tours in in 2024? 721 00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:49,760 Like, you know, did I honestly think I'd still be around in 722 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:51,360 2010? That's true too. 723 00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:55,120 Yeah, that's true too. I was there. 724 00:42:55,640 --> 00:43:00,720 I was very fortunate to be, you know, an A/C DCI was there when 725 00:43:00,720 --> 00:43:02,760 Highway to Hell came out. And that was like. 726 00:43:03,080 --> 00:43:06,200 Big the start you. Know, but we were still 727 00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:12,200 travelling around 2 trucks, you know, and I think the first 728 00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:16,400 American tour we had, the support band was Molly Hatchet 729 00:43:17,040 --> 00:43:21,440 and then the band from Atlanta, what they call the Atlanta 730 00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:22,600 Rhythm Section, I can't remember. 731 00:43:23,160 --> 00:43:26,240 So I mean, we won't. And that was like a a great 732 00:43:26,240 --> 00:43:28,680 bill. I mean, Motley Hatchet were a 733 00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:30,400 great southern rock band. Yeah. 734 00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:31,880 They were great southern rock band. 735 00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:34,040 Yeah. And so we went out and we toured 736 00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:40,360 and we did Highway to Hell and, you know, we finished America 737 00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:44,680 and, you know, it was obvious the band were going places. 738 00:43:44,720 --> 00:43:47,320 Yeah. And then we went back into 739 00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:50,600 England and I was working for them full time a lot of the 740 00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:51,600 time. Oh, wow. 741 00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:57,560 So I was on salary and then we went off to Paris, you know, 742 00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:00,080 then you know where I was living in London with my then 743 00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:02,120 girlfriend. And then, you know, in the 744 00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:04,800 middle of the night, we, or early one morning, we get a 745 00:44:04,800 --> 00:44:09,560 phone call from, I think it might have been Ian, say fucking 746 00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:12,440 Bond had died overnight. That's incredible. 747 00:44:12,440 --> 00:44:14,800 Crazy you. Know and you, you put the phone 748 00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:16,400 down and you go. What did I just hear? 749 00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:19,360 Yeah. And because he never showed up 750 00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:23,880 for rehearsals for Back in Black and they were worried about him, 751 00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:26,800 and then, you know, are they going to carry on? 752 00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:28,240 What are they going to do? So. 753 00:44:28,240 --> 00:44:30,520 That album was written with Bon Scott. 754 00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:31,720 I didn't realize. No, no. 755 00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,200 No, they hadn't started it. They do it in two ways. 756 00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:39,120 They do the music first, OK, And then Bon was going to come in 757 00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:40,760 with some lyrics. I see. 758 00:44:40,800 --> 00:44:43,960 OK, well, let me get a look. Bon would come and listen to it 759 00:44:45,240 --> 00:44:47,120 and we'll have some ideas for song because. 760 00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:50,520 It's funny to think like some of those iconic songs on Back in 761 00:44:50,520 --> 00:44:53,560 Black, to think of them being sung by Bon Scott, who's an 762 00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:56,760 incredible singer. It would have been so different, 763 00:44:56,840 --> 00:44:59,320 you know, just so different. Yeah. 764 00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:01,520 So. You know, and then the band 765 00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:06,320 decided to carry on and then, you know, then I consider to be 766 00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:09,800 one of the hardest jobs I've ever had in Rock'n'roll. 767 00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:14,800 I I think it was myself and Ian, we backed up Bon Scott in 768 00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:20,200 Victoria, Bon's apartment in Victoria and mailed or shipped 769 00:45:20,200 --> 00:45:23,120 all his personal belongings home to his mother and father. 770 00:45:23,560 --> 00:45:25,920 In Perth, so terrible. Yeah, and. 771 00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:29,160 Then we had to go about finding a singer. 772 00:45:29,720 --> 00:45:33,360 Yeah. And we did rehearsals and 773 00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:37,880 auditions in the studio in Victoria Excuse. 774 00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:40,480 Me one SEC, Jake. So it was never discussed like, 775 00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:42,480 hey, this is the end of the band or anything. 776 00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:45,280 It was just immediately going to be we're going to get a new 777 00:45:45,280 --> 00:45:47,120 singer. No, it was discussed. 778 00:45:47,280 --> 00:45:50,400 Oh. OK, yeah, it was So that had to 779 00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:53,240 be that had to be on your mind. Like I've got this great gig, 780 00:45:53,240 --> 00:45:55,800 I'm getting paid salary, you know, I. 781 00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:59,600 I, I think that I didn't know what was happening on the inner, 782 00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:03,720 inner talks amongst the bands. And yeah, it went back and forth 783 00:46:03,720 --> 00:46:08,760 and, you know, the young family being in Australia, Georgia and, 784 00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:12,520 and, and the family were very involved in ACDC with Gary 785 00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:15,040 Vander. And they go, you guys have got 786 00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:18,720 this great album. It would be unfair not to let 787 00:46:18,720 --> 00:46:20,280 the people hear it. Yeah. 788 00:46:20,800 --> 00:46:23,280 So then we auditioned for singers and we had a few. 789 00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:25,040 So how long? Did it take to make that 790 00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:28,000 decision that it was going to go on like was it a couple weeks, a 791 00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:28,920 month? Yeah, yeah. 792 00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:29,840 It wasn't a month. Yeah. 793 00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:31,880 Oh, OK, I. Think we all shut down for a 794 00:46:31,880 --> 00:46:32,240 month? It was. 795 00:46:32,240 --> 00:46:34,800 Pretty quick. Everybody had to go home, you 796 00:46:34,800 --> 00:46:42,760 know, and and then we had these auditions and along along showed 797 00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:49,640 off this guy with a floppy cap and he came in and 1st audition 798 00:46:49,640 --> 00:46:54,320 and he did really well. We've had some some people in 799 00:46:54,320 --> 00:46:57,160 before. I mean, there was talk of Knotty 800 00:46:57,160 --> 00:47:00,480 Holder from slave, but everybody felt that he'd always have the 801 00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:03,440 slave identity. But he had the right voice for 802 00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:04,800 ACDC. Oh Jesus. 803 00:47:04,800 --> 00:47:06,800 Perfect. Yeah, perfect. 804 00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:09,920 And then we had like, Gary Halton from the Heavy Metal Kids 805 00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:13,000 and bands like that, and then just a couple of other people, 806 00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:15,360 and then Brian came along. Yeah. 807 00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:21,640 And Brian is, you know, if you know Newcastle, you know, the 808 00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:23,680 people are pretty down to earth. Yeah. 809 00:47:24,320 --> 00:47:27,760 So he came in, started playing pool with one of the crew 810 00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:29,440 because he thought he was a band member. 811 00:47:29,440 --> 00:47:30,600 That's how much he knew about that's. 812 00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:32,280 Funny. And they and I. 813 00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:33,600 Go. Where's this other guys? 814 00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:35,480 15 minutes late. Oh, that's me. 815 00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:37,120 So you're not an audition. Ain't he? 816 00:47:37,120 --> 00:47:39,160 Good. And then all of a sudden, you 817 00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:43,080 know, they tell you, let's just bring him back for a second 818 00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:44,280 chat. Second time. 819 00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:46,880 So Brian came back for a second time. 820 00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:52,160 And after the rehearsals, we all were headed down to the the pub 821 00:47:52,160 --> 00:47:54,840 next to the studio. And we're sitting, you know, 822 00:47:54,840 --> 00:47:57,640 because we all hung out then. We were all a big family. 823 00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:01,200 Wasn't this the Rockstars in a five star hotel and then the 824 00:48:01,200 --> 00:48:03,600 crew on a bus. We go hanging out. 825 00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:07,200 And I can't remember whether it's Malcolm to Angus or Angus 826 00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:10,280 to Malcolm. Do you want to tell him or shall 827 00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:11,240 I? Shall I? 828 00:48:12,040 --> 00:48:13,600 And somebody goes. I will. 829 00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:15,440 And they turn around to Brian like this. 830 00:48:15,840 --> 00:48:18,480 Hey, Brian, you want to be the singer in ACDC? 831 00:48:18,600 --> 00:48:20,200 Yeah. Yeah. 832 00:48:20,560 --> 00:48:24,040 And that was it. Grab another beer. 833 00:48:24,360 --> 00:48:28,480 Then he they will be in touch. And he headed back to Newcastle 834 00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:34,600 and, and then we started to go in rehearsals and we wanted to 835 00:48:34,600 --> 00:48:37,160 do the first show which was way out of the way. 836 00:48:37,160 --> 00:48:41,680 So we went, went to a convention centre in a place called Namur, 837 00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:45,600 which is in Belgium. And we got there and it was the 838 00:48:45,640 --> 00:48:48,000 fucking worst sound in all you'd ever had. 839 00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:52,400 The band came in at 3:00 for a sound check, and Malcolm was 840 00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:57,280 distraught with his arm. And he go so distraught that he 841 00:48:57,280 --> 00:49:00,960 said we can't play in here. And then the promoter must have 842 00:49:00,960 --> 00:49:02,840 been Michelle Pearl. Then I think you know. 843 00:49:03,600 --> 00:49:05,800 And he goes, well, there's another hall I think sounds 844 00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:07,800 better. This is 3:00 in the afternoon. 845 00:49:07,800 --> 00:49:09,720 So they all went over. This sounds better. 846 00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:11,680 OK, we're going to move the show there. 847 00:49:11,680 --> 00:49:14,000 So we took the whole production. Oh. 848 00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:20,320 My God, Oh my God talking. APA yeah, PA and you're talking 849 00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:22,320 2 genie lifts or something like that. 850 00:49:22,320 --> 00:49:24,960 Very small, but yeah. I mean, it's not like today, but 851 00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:27,120 still they. Built a stage and we went over 852 00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:29,400 it like 530. Wow. 853 00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:32,600 But they show up and played at 9:00 that night and that was 854 00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:35,760 Brian's opening gig. Wow, that's so incredible. 855 00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:40,160 Yeah, the the, there were a couple of other parts that you 856 00:49:40,160 --> 00:49:43,920 told in that story last time and you missed this time. 1 was that 857 00:49:43,920 --> 00:49:48,360 Brian just sort of went there on a bit of a whim, like he was, he 858 00:49:48,360 --> 00:49:52,400 was going to be, I think he was recording a a radio commercial 859 00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:57,120 or something across the street. No, he was doing voice overs for 860 00:49:57,120 --> 00:49:58,480 Hoover. Hoover. 861 00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:00,000 Vacuums, right? Yeah. 862 00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:01,720 And he goes, I don't know if I'd bother. 863 00:50:01,720 --> 00:50:03,680 And I think somebody said why you should go down, what have 864 00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:05,840 you got to lose? He was, he was struggling a 865 00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:08,480 little bit. So then he had to leave the 866 00:50:08,480 --> 00:50:10,520 first day because he had he had to do a commercial. 867 00:50:11,600 --> 00:50:15,680 I mean incredible though. Like how those little tiny 868 00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:17,840 things set your destiny, you know? 869 00:50:17,840 --> 00:50:22,520 And if you think about Brian's life, what it became with ACDC, 870 00:50:22,520 --> 00:50:26,120 like, holy shit, thank God for that Hoover commercial, you 871 00:50:26,120 --> 00:50:28,000 know? And ACDC went up. 872 00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:30,680 They went, they went down. I mean, there was a time when 873 00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:35,040 ACDC was a hard sell that a couple of, you know, not so good 874 00:50:35,040 --> 00:50:40,400 albums and all of a sudden, you know, they toured Europe this 875 00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:44,080 summer and I went to see him in Germany, actually. 876 00:50:44,120 --> 00:50:47,240 Yeah, Did you? And I went and I hung out with 877 00:50:47,240 --> 00:50:50,600 Brian and I hung out of Angus because they were the only two. 878 00:50:50,640 --> 00:50:52,640 Yeah, everybody. Else is gone and. 879 00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:55,360 You know, and people go, what do you think of ACDC? 880 00:50:55,360 --> 00:51:00,440 And they go, well, back in the day, everybody used to say that 881 00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:04,560 they're they're heroes and who they learnt most of was was Led 882 00:51:04,560 --> 00:51:08,280 Zeppelin. And now all the bands go, you 883 00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:10,200 know, where do you get your energy from? 884 00:51:10,200 --> 00:51:15,080 And ACDC, so ACDC religionist status and, and you know, Brian 885 00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:18,560 is not, not a young man. He's he's 7576, I think. 886 00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:22,600 But that's to sing that stuff in your 20s is hard, let alone when 887 00:51:22,600 --> 00:51:25,520 you're 70. Sometimes some of the songs he 888 00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:27,400 struggles in, sometimes he's just great. 889 00:51:27,680 --> 00:51:31,880 Yeah, and but basically, I don't know if the people give a shit 890 00:51:31,880 --> 00:51:33,320 that much. They just really don't. 891 00:51:33,560 --> 00:51:35,400 BC. And they want to hear Highway to 892 00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:37,280 Hell, They want to say it shook me all night long. 893 00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:39,960 And they want to hear, yeah, they were back in back going. 894 00:51:39,960 --> 00:51:44,440 Nuts like I've only seen video, but the fans are going nuts, you 895 00:51:44,480 --> 00:51:47,960 know so they're loving it I. Mind their legendary status. 896 00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:51,720 Yeah, they certainly are. But I mean, again, like in the 897 00:51:51,760 --> 00:51:55,360 80s, you saw the debauchery, you saw the the crazy stuff that 898 00:51:55,360 --> 00:51:58,200 crew were doing and, and whether or not they'd even survive as 899 00:51:58,200 --> 00:52:00,680 humans was questionable, let alone as a band. 900 00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:08,000 And but here they are in 2024 touring, not ACDC, not ACDC, no 901 00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:10,400 ACDC. We're always a little more 902 00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:12,600 businesslike, right? Well, no, they were. 903 00:52:12,720 --> 00:52:16,240 They were. They were not into all the 904 00:52:16,240 --> 00:52:19,160 debauchery like Angus is always been teetotaled. 905 00:52:20,040 --> 00:52:23,040 Well Malcolm is well documented, had a little bit of an alcohol 906 00:52:23,040 --> 00:52:25,800 problem and a bit of pot but nothing serious. 907 00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:31,520 I mean Cliff was Cliff. Cliff just came along and played 908 00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:34,720 solid bass but he wasn't wild or anything I'm sure. 909 00:52:34,720 --> 00:52:40,120 No, we all had our vices and Phil sometimes could be a loose 910 00:52:40,120 --> 00:52:43,840 cannon, but they weren't. They wouldn't, they wouldn't 911 00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:47,000 have the reputation like the crew got the reputation, right. 912 00:52:47,160 --> 00:52:49,160 Not the I'm talking about Mötley Crüe, you know? 913 00:52:49,160 --> 00:52:51,160 Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 914 00:52:51,160 --> 00:52:54,560 No, Mötley Crüe I again, I mean, it shocks me that you know, 915 00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:58,480 they've, they've retired a couple times too and and they 916 00:52:58,480 --> 00:53:01,880 just there's longevity there that I never in a million years 917 00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:04,480 would have pictured well. The the pity about Mötley Crüe 918 00:53:04,480 --> 00:53:07,240 now is the inner fighting with the band. 919 00:53:07,240 --> 00:53:12,200 Yeah, yeah. You hate seeing bands suing each 920 00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:13,720 other and stuff, yeah. I mean. 921 00:53:13,720 --> 00:53:16,280 Especially original members and stuff like that. 922 00:53:16,280 --> 00:53:19,240 Like have you seen all the journey stuff with with Neil 923 00:53:19,240 --> 00:53:23,960 Shawn and and Jonathan Cain? What an embarrassment. 924 00:53:24,480 --> 00:53:26,840 But they're. Playing together, they go out on 925 00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:29,920 stage every night. Facebook and they're slagging 926 00:53:29,920 --> 00:53:32,520 each other off. I mean, fantastic. 927 00:53:32,520 --> 00:53:34,560 You all got inner politics in bands. 928 00:53:34,840 --> 00:53:38,320 You don't air your dirty alert. No, it's so nobody. 929 00:53:38,360 --> 00:53:42,640 Gives a shit if Jonathan Cain wants to put a lawsuit to Neil 930 00:53:42,640 --> 00:53:44,960 Shong. Neil Shong, you know, he said. 931 00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:48,440 Jonathan Cain says we have it in our deal that we get $1500 a 932 00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:51,640 night room allowance for Neil's. Neil's overspending. 933 00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:53,360 Yeah. So Neil should pay. 934 00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:54,760 It's very simple. Yeah. 935 00:53:55,720 --> 00:53:57,800 Work. It out though, yeah, like why 936 00:53:57,800 --> 00:54:00,920 would you go this route? It's just, and how do you get on 937 00:54:00,920 --> 00:54:04,040 stage every night and and play with these guys when you're 938 00:54:04,040 --> 00:54:06,160 going to court during the day? It's incredible. 939 00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:09,120 Like it's incredible. I mean, obviously at that point 940 00:54:09,120 --> 00:54:11,880 it's just a business. It's not about the music, it's 941 00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:14,360 not about the art. It's not about anything else. 942 00:54:14,360 --> 00:54:18,560 It's it's just a business. Unfortunately, I think that our 943 00:54:18,920 --> 00:54:21,720 our industry is just a business in a lot of ways, you know, 944 00:54:21,720 --> 00:54:23,480 Yeah. It's definitely changed. 945 00:54:23,680 --> 00:54:27,680 It's certainly changed a lot. You know, it's even Sarah who, 946 00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:29,240 who you met at the front end of this. 947 00:54:29,240 --> 00:54:32,720 She, you know, she, she just went and did a little one week 948 00:54:32,720 --> 00:54:37,680 tour with Blink 182, you know, just to make a little bit of 949 00:54:37,680 --> 00:54:39,000 money and have a little bit of fun. 950 00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:44,200 And she spent a number of years touring and and she said it's 951 00:54:44,200 --> 00:54:46,880 just so different. You know, everyone's so much 952 00:54:46,880 --> 00:54:50,080 more intense and it's, you know, it's all the money, I guess 953 00:54:50,080 --> 00:54:52,960 that's either being spent or made or whatever you want to 954 00:54:52,960 --> 00:54:55,880 call it. But it's, yeah, it's just 955 00:54:55,880 --> 00:54:57,280 different. It's very different, I mean. 956 00:54:57,280 --> 00:54:59,280 You look at now. I mean, I don't know if you've 957 00:54:59,280 --> 00:55:03,480 been reading or catching up on the Oasis saga with ticketing. 958 00:55:03,760 --> 00:55:06,320 Yeah, yeah, we were talking about that this morning. 959 00:55:09,880 --> 00:55:16,040 Look, the dynamic in ticket is seller demand, isn't it? 960 00:55:16,360 --> 00:55:18,880 Yeah. I mean, if there's a huge amount 961 00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:22,760 of people requesting the same tickets, the tickets go up. 962 00:55:23,520 --> 00:55:25,640 Well, I don't see if there's nobody requesting them the 963 00:55:25,640 --> 00:55:28,840 tickets going down. No, never happens. 964 00:55:29,880 --> 00:55:31,840 Never happens. If you want to do it that way, 965 00:55:31,840 --> 00:55:33,840 you should pay both sides of the fence. 966 00:55:33,840 --> 00:55:40,120 Yeah, but also I think in the spirit of longevity, you don't 967 00:55:40,120 --> 00:55:43,560 want to go up too far, you know, like this dynamic pricing thing 968 00:55:43,560 --> 00:55:47,640 where, you know, the notorious ones like Springsteen, $5000 969 00:55:47,640 --> 00:55:50,400 tickets and stuff. It's nonsense. 970 00:55:50,400 --> 00:55:53,640 It's, it's just crazy. It's lunacy. 971 00:55:53,920 --> 00:55:59,080 I, I hear that the Ticketmaster was saying that they put it down 972 00:55:59,080 --> 00:56:02,680 to the managers and the agents and the promoters. 973 00:56:03,120 --> 00:56:07,040 You know, I, I, I don't believe in a lot of it. 974 00:56:07,040 --> 00:56:10,960 The promoters, I mean, look, I'm sure they look, everybody wants 975 00:56:10,960 --> 00:56:14,120 to make money. But if you look at SGM, in my 976 00:56:14,120 --> 00:56:16,920 opinion, Simon ran, I think it's a really decent guy. 977 00:56:18,240 --> 00:56:22,520 You know, I, I think he probably who was involved, but I don't 978 00:56:22,520 --> 00:56:25,680 think they, they thought it would go this far. 979 00:56:26,040 --> 00:56:31,200 And, and there's the one of the ticketing company trickets or 980 00:56:31,200 --> 00:56:34,840 something like that. When you have 138 LB service 981 00:56:34,840 --> 00:56:37,360 fee, something's fucking wrong. Exactly. 982 00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:40,640 Well, everyone I think is just saying no, it's their fault, 983 00:56:40,640 --> 00:56:41,920 it's their fault, it's their fault. 984 00:56:41,920 --> 00:56:44,320 But everyone's still willing to take their heavy piece out of 985 00:56:44,320 --> 00:56:46,120 it, right? Like even the artists? 986 00:56:46,120 --> 00:56:49,560 The artists. They put the tickets on sale and 987 00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:54,080 if they were 150 lbs for standing and there were £350 for 988 00:56:54,320 --> 00:56:57,080 VIP and everybody went in line and bought it, nobody would have 989 00:56:57,080 --> 00:57:00,480 complained. Yeah, It's when you when you get 990 00:57:00,640 --> 00:57:05,720 online, when you get online and it's 110 and by the time you get 991 00:57:05,720 --> 00:57:08,200 the tickets it's 328. It's insane. 992 00:57:08,560 --> 00:57:10,480 Yeah. Well, and then the secondary 993 00:57:10,480 --> 00:57:13,280 market, the secondary market, all the Stubhubs and all these 994 00:57:13,280 --> 00:57:16,760 companies out there that, you know, are basically legal 995 00:57:16,760 --> 00:57:21,280 scalpers, right? And yeah, it's, it's 996 00:57:21,280 --> 00:57:24,520 problematic, you know, And then I think the artists are starting 997 00:57:24,520 --> 00:57:27,440 to, well, they started to look at it and go, OK, all these 998 00:57:27,440 --> 00:57:29,440 people are making all this money, we just need to raise our 999 00:57:29,440 --> 00:57:31,080 prices. So we're keeping it all, you 1000 00:57:31,080 --> 00:57:33,280 know, But I don't know that that's the answer either. 1001 00:57:33,280 --> 00:57:34,120 I don't know. Who knows. 1002 00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:36,080 What do I know? What do I know? 1003 00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:38,440 So the sphere, I want to talk to you about the sphere. 1004 00:57:39,520 --> 00:57:43,800 Obviously you and you too go back a long way and you've done 1005 00:57:43,800 --> 00:57:46,520 some, you've done some incredible things together. 1006 00:57:46,520 --> 00:57:48,720 You did the big claw thing with that, right? 1007 00:57:48,960 --> 00:57:51,960 The stadium thing it was. Legendary about the claw. 1008 00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:58,280 I mean, I remember that the the start of the claw we'd finished 1009 00:57:58,840 --> 00:58:03,680 probably Joshua Tree and we were in Hawaii was the last show and 1010 00:58:03,680 --> 00:58:06,040 we're standing on stage and you know, the last time. 1011 00:58:06,040 --> 00:58:08,400 Check everybody. Hey, hugs and things like that 1012 00:58:09,000 --> 00:58:11,040 And and Bono comes up and he's Jake. 1013 00:58:11,040 --> 00:58:14,920 He goes, I want to talk to you. He said can we play a show in 1014 00:58:14,920 --> 00:58:21,160 the round and I go boss, we can do anything we like knowing that 1015 00:58:21,160 --> 00:58:25,040 there were shows in the round and I'm going this is fantastic. 1016 00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:27,640 The next door. We're going to have a 60 by 40 1017 00:58:27,640 --> 00:58:30,000 stage with no production small trucks. 1018 00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:32,040 It's going to be an easy tour, right? 1019 00:58:32,480 --> 00:58:33,960 That was my that's. Hilarious. 1020 00:58:34,200 --> 00:58:35,160 That's so. Funny. 1021 00:58:35,600 --> 00:58:40,520 And then, you know, then of course, a, a, a few months 1022 00:58:40,520 --> 00:58:45,400 passed by and and then Mark Fisher, Mark Mark called me and 1023 00:58:45,400 --> 00:58:50,000 you know, my life story in the industry would not be complete 1024 00:58:50,360 --> 00:58:55,440 without the, my take and my respect for the greatest set 1025 00:58:55,440 --> 00:58:57,440 designer of all time being Mark Fisher. 1026 00:58:57,520 --> 00:59:02,080 Absolutely. So he's, he's his theory was he 1027 00:59:02,080 --> 00:59:04,640 said to me, Jake, how wide is the football field? 1028 00:59:05,800 --> 00:59:07,920 And I said, it's 68 meters roughly. 1029 00:59:08,120 --> 00:59:12,240 That's the playing surface football field and the, the 1030 00:59:12,240 --> 00:59:15,320 playing surface. OK, well, we're going to play in 1031 00:59:15,320 --> 00:59:17,720 the round, but we're not going to be in the middle. 1032 00:59:17,960 --> 00:59:25,040 We're going to be two thirds, 1/3 because all these guys of of 1033 00:59:25,840 --> 00:59:29,720 the older bands who have stage present always rely on a 1034 00:59:29,720 --> 00:59:32,680 downstage centre, a downstage left and a downstage right. 1035 00:59:33,320 --> 00:59:37,560 It's hard for them to get their head around a 360 environment 1036 00:59:38,080 --> 00:59:39,640 and that was the same with with Mick. 1037 00:59:39,640 --> 00:59:44,480 We tried in the round once and Mick wanted a downstage edge and 1038 00:59:44,480 --> 00:59:47,680 he failed to get it and he tried in the round, no security, hated 1039 00:59:47,680 --> 00:59:50,160 it. Yeah, yeah, I just, I just did 1040 00:59:50,160 --> 00:59:53,960 Metallica a couple weeks ago in or I went to it in Edmonton. 1041 00:59:53,960 --> 00:59:56,240 I'm I'm at my house up in Canada right now, right. 1042 00:59:56,800 --> 00:59:59,800 And it was weird. Like it was like, where do you 1043 00:59:59,800 --> 01:00:01,440 stand? Because where's the band going 1044 01:00:01,440 --> 01:00:03,080 to be? Well, yeah, there's a drum set 1045 01:00:03,080 --> 01:00:05,400 on all four sides basically, right? 1046 01:00:05,680 --> 01:00:08,600 I mean, but if you look at Metallica very briefly, that's 1047 01:00:08,600 --> 01:00:12,280 going back to the Black Album tour when Laura said two kids. 1048 01:00:12,400 --> 01:00:14,640 Yeah, yeah. It's an entrance. 1049 01:00:15,080 --> 01:00:15,640 True. Yeah. 1050 01:00:16,040 --> 01:00:20,440 And, and and then Mark's idea going back to a 360, if I make 1051 01:00:20,440 --> 01:00:23,320 the stage big enough, I'll make the stadium look smaller and 1052 01:00:23,320 --> 01:00:25,960 more intimate. Sounds mad, doesn't it? 1053 01:00:26,240 --> 01:00:30,080 It does, yeah. 100% correct. Yeah, Yeah. 1054 01:00:30,480 --> 01:00:33,360 And then I remember we get the stage, go for the first Test 1055 01:00:33,360 --> 01:00:37,520 build and you know, you, you get these towers that hold a roof 1056 01:00:37,520 --> 01:00:41,520 up, which are like maximum 1m wide. 1057 01:00:41,840 --> 01:00:44,960 And these towers are right on the track and you can fucking 1058 01:00:44,960 --> 01:00:47,360 stand up inside of them. Really. 1059 01:00:47,840 --> 01:00:51,240 And we did a test build and then we were in the middle of a small 1060 01:00:51,240 --> 01:00:53,720 village called Worktor in Belgium doing a test build. 1061 01:00:54,080 --> 01:00:59,440 And the the law of building in these small towns is nothing can 1062 01:00:59,440 --> 01:01:01,160 be higher than the church steeple. 1063 01:01:01,960 --> 01:01:03,800 What Really. Yeah. 1064 01:01:03,800 --> 01:01:05,840 If you have a Church of the steeple, you can't build 1065 01:01:05,840 --> 01:01:08,120 anything higher. The church steeple has to be 1066 01:01:08,640 --> 01:01:12,880 going back hundred and hundreds of years and then, you know, but 1067 01:01:12,920 --> 01:01:16,120 our thing and you know, you could see the church steeple in 1068 01:01:16,120 --> 01:01:19,160 the background if you went 5 kilometres away and it was 1069 01:01:19,160 --> 01:01:23,480 dwarfed by this thing. So pictures then started 1070 01:01:23,480 --> 01:01:27,680 evolving on the very, very early days of, you know, social media 1071 01:01:28,040 --> 01:01:29,560 and then the management, you too come. 1072 01:01:29,560 --> 01:01:32,320 I said, Jake, we're seeing pictures of our stage on media. 1073 01:01:32,320 --> 01:01:33,800 You got to block it out if you can't do it. 1074 01:01:33,800 --> 01:01:37,160 I said, well, we're in a yard and there's a road that goes by 1075 01:01:37,920 --> 01:01:39,880 and then suddenly said to me, well, you need to put up a 1076 01:01:39,880 --> 01:01:42,920 drape. And I'm going, you're talking 1077 01:01:42,920 --> 01:01:47,520 about a dress or you're talking about something 120 feet tall 1078 01:01:47,760 --> 01:01:50,040 and 80 feet long. First of all, it lasts 2 minutes 1079 01:01:50,040 --> 01:01:53,600 when you win game 360. And it's amazing. 1080 01:01:53,600 --> 01:01:56,240 I was talking to Hedwig, the mayor of Stageco the other day, 1081 01:01:56,680 --> 01:02:00,920 Dirk to Decker and a Stageco and somebody else. 1082 01:02:00,920 --> 01:02:05,200 And we were kind of, we, we do this, we relive our past. 1083 01:02:05,680 --> 01:02:10,760 And I sent some pictures of this the of this stage that made the 1084 01:02:10,760 --> 01:02:13,280 city look small and everybody wrote back. 1085 01:02:13,280 --> 01:02:15,560 Still my favorite project to work on it's. 1086 01:02:15,560 --> 01:02:17,840 Incredible. It's such a beautiful project. 1087 01:02:17,960 --> 01:02:19,360 You know what that was a trend set. 1088 01:02:19,360 --> 01:02:23,240 Are we set to go for, you know, big trucks, 4750 trucks on 1089 01:02:23,240 --> 01:02:27,200 production, you know, 38 on steel for each system. 1090 01:02:27,320 --> 01:02:30,080 Yeah, and and then. Jesus, no. 1091 01:02:30,320 --> 01:02:33,440 Everybody goes, oh, I got, I got 50 trucks of production. 1092 01:02:33,440 --> 01:02:35,960 I got 40 trucks of production. Is it great? 1093 01:02:36,880 --> 01:02:39,080 But I did it first. Yeah, yeah. 1094 01:02:39,280 --> 01:02:42,200 And then so then then, you know, with you 2 going, that was 1095 01:02:42,200 --> 01:02:43,840 great. And then the next thing you 1096 01:02:43,840 --> 01:02:46,760 know, we did the Joshua Tree. We did innocence and experience 1097 01:02:47,040 --> 01:02:50,200 all groundbreaking shows in in their own respect. 1098 01:02:51,160 --> 01:02:54,160 And so then came the big offer of the sphere. 1099 01:02:56,320 --> 01:03:00,280 So the sphere, I mean, we were there. 1100 01:03:00,280 --> 01:03:04,240 We were the first, you know, when we first started doing our 1101 01:03:04,240 --> 01:03:08,320 advance to the sphere, There was no screen. 1102 01:03:08,880 --> 01:03:11,160 Well, let me ask you though, going back a little bit. 1103 01:03:11,160 --> 01:03:15,320 So the sphere did Did the sphere come looking for you 2 or did 1104 01:03:15,320 --> 01:03:18,280 you 2 say we want to be the first to play in this incredible 1105 01:03:18,280 --> 01:03:20,640 thing I. Think it was kind of mutual, to 1106 01:03:20,640 --> 01:03:21,880 tell you the truth. Yeah. 1107 01:03:22,280 --> 01:03:25,160 I mean, you know, Bono is very creative. 1108 01:03:25,800 --> 01:03:28,760 The sound system appealed to Edge where he could play in 1109 01:03:28,760 --> 01:03:32,600 stereo and get through stereo and things like that and just 1110 01:03:32,600 --> 01:03:35,920 the whole vibe of doing it. And of course also being the 1st 1111 01:03:35,920 --> 01:03:38,960 is a big advantage when. It had to be somebody huge too. 1112 01:03:38,960 --> 01:03:42,440 It couldn't be, you know, it couldn't be some, you know, 1113 01:03:42,440 --> 01:03:46,120 medium act. It had to be the Stones or U2 or 1114 01:03:46,160 --> 01:03:47,840 somebody that big, you know well. 1115 01:03:47,920 --> 01:03:52,880 I mean, I think I think there both parties put their balls on 1116 01:03:52,880 --> 01:03:56,160 the line. You know, like Jim Dolan, you 1117 01:03:56,160 --> 01:03:58,280 can say whatever you like about Jim Dolan. 1118 01:03:58,720 --> 01:04:03,120 He had big balls to put 2.22 point 3 billion money on this 1119 01:04:03,840 --> 01:04:07,480 amazing unique way of seeing a concert. 1120 01:04:08,440 --> 01:04:11,960 And then you 2 had to go in and make sure that all the hype of 1121 01:04:11,960 --> 01:04:14,600 the venue didn't override what they were producing. 1122 01:04:15,880 --> 01:04:18,960 So a lot of discussions, a lot of things. 1123 01:04:18,960 --> 01:04:22,560 And also there was a lot of technology that had to be 1124 01:04:22,560 --> 01:04:27,000 invented how to get the the content, because the content, 1125 01:04:27,320 --> 01:04:32,800 they all wanted it in 16 K and, and you know, 16 K, the 1126 01:04:32,800 --> 01:04:35,480 rendering time for one song was nearly three days. 1127 01:04:36,120 --> 01:04:38,440 Jesus, wow. And all of that. 1128 01:04:38,720 --> 01:04:44,360 And we, we started, we, we went to look at it. 1129 01:04:44,360 --> 01:04:48,360 I remember. Well, even just like pre vis and 1130 01:04:48,360 --> 01:04:51,560 stuff like how you know because you can't replicate being 1131 01:04:51,560 --> 01:04:54,760 inside. This well, what what what we 1132 01:04:54,760 --> 01:05:00,200 what Willie did and and and Rick and and the team we use virtual 1133 01:05:00,360 --> 01:05:03,360 virtual reality ah. Yeah, that's smart. 1134 01:05:03,760 --> 01:05:05,480 Yeah, that's. Smart. 1135 01:05:05,600 --> 01:05:07,120 Yeah, You know, that makes sense. 1136 01:05:07,640 --> 01:05:11,840 You know our whole feeling was you 2 got such a heavy schedule 1137 01:05:12,000 --> 01:05:15,080 of other commitments outside the ban, especially B. 1138 01:05:15,600 --> 01:05:19,520 So the thought was we can't get them all to Vegas at the same 1139 01:05:19,520 --> 01:05:24,720 time, but we can all send them glasses and and a virtual 1140 01:05:24,720 --> 01:05:26,800 reality and we can show the footage that way. 1141 01:05:27,120 --> 01:05:28,440 Interesting. Yeah. 1142 01:05:29,240 --> 01:05:32,600 So, you know, you have to remember about the sphere when 1143 01:05:32,600 --> 01:05:38,000 we went into when we installed the lighting, we were working 1144 01:05:39,680 --> 01:05:43,520 first of all, they had an in house lighting and they had fuse 1145 01:05:43,520 --> 01:05:46,240 through the lighting. And the reason we went with fuse 1146 01:05:46,240 --> 01:05:49,320 because we thought if they put the install lighting, they can 1147 01:05:49,320 --> 01:05:52,080 then run our cables for our lights when we want to go in, 1148 01:05:52,240 --> 01:05:54,680 which was the case which saved us a couple of days. 1149 01:05:54,960 --> 01:05:58,080 You know, the lighting behind the screen. 1150 01:05:58,360 --> 01:06:01,960 We did a test of the screen in New York on Bono's book tour, 1151 01:06:02,280 --> 01:06:06,120 you know, at the Hammerstein in another ballroom, and found that 1152 01:06:06,120 --> 01:06:10,200 the the spotlights weren't as good behind the screen as a wash 1153 01:06:10,200 --> 01:06:14,200 light because, you know, we're talking about putting spots 1154 01:06:14,200 --> 01:06:16,760 behind. But with the screen and the 1155 01:06:16,760 --> 01:06:19,520 framework, they would be so frag fragmented. 1156 01:06:19,960 --> 01:06:21,240 It didn't work. Yeah. 1157 01:06:21,240 --> 01:06:23,280 It's better when it's not focused so. 1158 01:06:23,280 --> 01:06:26,400 Then, you know, we go there and we're there while they're 1159 01:06:26,400 --> 01:06:30,400 putting the screen in. And so when it all came, we 1160 01:06:30,400 --> 01:06:35,800 installed the lighting behind in the stage box behind which they 1161 01:06:35,800 --> 01:06:38,680 call a stage box. And the rigging behind the stage 1162 01:06:38,680 --> 01:06:42,680 box wasn't really very conducive to hang in lights because 1163 01:06:42,680 --> 01:06:46,520 they're the big hollow plot proceed sound system over the 1164 01:06:46,520 --> 01:06:49,640 pre 8 proceeding. If you imagine going back to the 1165 01:06:49,640 --> 01:06:52,600 Grateful Dead, the wall of sound, that's what you had 1166 01:06:52,600 --> 01:06:56,600 behind you, but up high, which was another problem a little 1167 01:06:56,600 --> 01:07:01,120 later. And so in putting the lights in, 1168 01:07:01,120 --> 01:07:04,640 but we're putting the lights in. And then they had this movie 1169 01:07:04,640 --> 01:07:07,520 that they were producing called Postcard, Postcard from Earth, 1170 01:07:08,920 --> 01:07:10,760 and they were finishing building a building. 1171 01:07:11,360 --> 01:07:16,280 So we used to have meetings every day, you know, on what was 1172 01:07:16,280 --> 01:07:19,360 going to happen the next two days and you get the next day 1173 01:07:19,360 --> 01:07:22,400 change. So OK, so you, Jake, what time 1174 01:07:22,400 --> 01:07:25,600 do you want tomorrow? You can have 8 hours and I go, 1175 01:07:25,600 --> 01:07:28,520 we'll take from 4:50, whatever it is. 1176 01:07:29,480 --> 01:07:33,840 OK. And then from 5:00 to 5:00 till 1177 01:07:33,840 --> 01:07:38,960 midnight they would be showing the movie on the screen to to 1178 01:07:38,960 --> 01:07:42,360 test the movie, colourize it, edit it and things like that. 1179 01:07:42,960 --> 01:07:47,400 And then from midnight till 9 would be construction. 1180 01:07:48,200 --> 01:07:51,600 Jesus, wow, I. Mean and we all worked around 1181 01:07:51,600 --> 01:07:54,000 each other and it was a fantastic experience. 1182 01:07:54,000 --> 01:07:59,280 We all everybody accepted it and you know somebody once said to 1183 01:07:59,280 --> 01:08:05,760 me you're giving the building too much time and I go OK so and 1184 01:08:05,760 --> 01:08:10,720 if I don't give them the sign time then the seating would not 1185 01:08:10,720 --> 01:08:13,360 have been inspected and been ready for the opening night. 1186 01:08:13,960 --> 01:08:17,800 So therefore we would be cancelling an opening night and 1187 01:08:17,800 --> 01:08:20,200 and I said to somebody you don't want Adele too. 1188 01:08:20,200 --> 01:08:24,920 You remember in Adele capital to show Vegas we all work together. 1189 01:08:25,279 --> 01:08:29,000 You know, the ban were so enthusiastic about making this 1190 01:08:29,000 --> 01:08:32,240 whole thing work and believing in the construction and believe 1191 01:08:32,240 --> 01:08:34,920 in what they're doing. It all had to be, right? 1192 01:08:34,960 --> 01:08:37,800 Yeah, you couldn't. You couldn't make you 2 happy 1193 01:08:37,800 --> 01:08:40,399 but not make the building happy. The building had to be happy 1194 01:08:40,399 --> 01:08:41,640 too. It was also new. 1195 01:08:41,920 --> 01:08:45,439 And the film people and. And Jim Dolan, he'd invested 1196 01:08:45,439 --> 01:08:48,000 money in the movie, so he wants the movie, right. 1197 01:08:48,240 --> 01:08:50,240 He had it produced by Darren Aronofsky. 1198 01:08:50,720 --> 01:08:52,520 And Darren Aronofsky wanted his way. 1199 01:08:52,960 --> 01:08:55,279 Yeah. So, you know, that makes sense. 1200 01:08:55,720 --> 01:08:57,680 We always did. Monday to Friday. 1201 01:08:58,800 --> 01:09:00,200 How? Early did you start though? 1202 01:09:00,200 --> 01:09:03,240 Like how far in advance of the first show? 1203 01:09:05,800 --> 01:09:08,359 Probably in the concept design a year. 1204 01:09:09,359 --> 01:09:13,080 Wow. And then and then we did some 1205 01:09:14,520 --> 01:09:19,640 band rehearsals in Nice. And what they what they've done 1206 01:09:19,640 --> 01:09:23,080 is because you know, the hollow plot sound comes at you from 1207 01:09:23,080 --> 01:09:26,720 360. So nobody ever had that. 1208 01:09:26,720 --> 01:09:31,399 So with the help of the sphere and the sphere engineers, sound 1209 01:09:31,399 --> 01:09:35,680 engineers, we went to a found I found a great film studio at 1210 01:09:35,680 --> 01:09:41,439 nice, fantastic, fantastic. So we had the band rehearsing in 1211 01:09:41,439 --> 01:09:46,439 one room and I built a mock up stage which which is the same 1212 01:09:46,439 --> 01:09:49,120 size as the one we're going to use in a sphere, except it 1213 01:09:49,120 --> 01:09:52,319 didn't have the video floor, but it got everybody used to the 1214 01:09:52,319 --> 01:09:55,040 rate which everybody goes back then. 1215 01:09:55,040 --> 01:09:57,520 You know, that's a lot of money. I don't know if you can afford 1216 01:09:57,520 --> 01:10:00,200 it. I go you will you all wish you 1217 01:10:00,200 --> 01:10:04,320 had the best U2 rehearsals we ever did is when we could do it 1218 01:10:04,320 --> 01:10:08,680 on a mock stage just bangers. So we did that and in another 1219 01:10:08,680 --> 01:10:13,440 studio across the street, we set up this trussing system and then 1220 01:10:13,440 --> 01:10:20,520 hung speakers, put a console in the middle and then like a couch 1221 01:10:20,840 --> 01:10:24,080 where the band he'd come and listen to the the the asthma 1222 01:10:24,080 --> 01:10:29,040 asthmaceric sound. And so we set that up and the 1223 01:10:29,040 --> 01:10:34,800 speakers were all this measurement scaled down so you 1224 01:10:34,800 --> 01:10:37,680 could get the feel and do the mix because then you have to 1225 01:10:37,680 --> 01:10:40,840 turn the mix like like, you know, Edgewood goes, I like my 1226 01:10:40,840 --> 01:10:46,240 guitars to come out high section right in streets, then then then 1227 01:10:46,240 --> 01:10:48,880 augment it with high left and down low. 1228 01:10:49,080 --> 01:10:51,960 So you used to play with very much like a surround sound, but 1229 01:10:51,960 --> 01:10:55,520 way more complicated. We rehearsed that in Nice for 1230 01:10:55,520 --> 01:10:59,640 three weeks while we did lighting rehearsals and lighting 1231 01:10:59,640 --> 01:11:05,560 install in in Vegas. And the show was going to open 1232 01:11:05,560 --> 01:11:08,480 September the 29th. And we're not building 1233 01:11:08,480 --> 01:11:10,600 contractors. You know, if somebody comes to 1234 01:11:10,600 --> 01:11:12,480 do your bathroom and they're going to be finished in three 1235 01:11:12,480 --> 01:11:14,560 weeks, they come up to you and go, there's going to be another 1236 01:11:14,560 --> 01:11:15,840 fire. It's going to be another three 1237 01:11:15,840 --> 01:11:18,800 weeks and it's $2000 more. That doesn't happen in our 1238 01:11:18,800 --> 01:11:21,560 world, Yeah. No it doesn't. 8:00 No matter, 1239 01:11:21,560 --> 01:11:27,600 it had to happen. And so we were doing lighting 1240 01:11:27,600 --> 01:11:32,240 and we were building the stage in the sphere and working around 1241 01:11:32,240 --> 01:11:36,920 construction and working around some of their installs, like a 1242 01:11:36,920 --> 01:11:41,120 little bit of lighting and some a lot to do with seats. 1243 01:11:41,120 --> 01:11:43,960 And then for the movie, I don't know if you've ever seen it, but 1244 01:11:43,960 --> 01:11:45,360 you should. It's well worth it. 1245 01:11:45,720 --> 01:11:49,080 They have these big effects machines that are they've got 20 1246 01:11:49,080 --> 01:11:52,120 of them and they're 8 by 8 by 8 and they all have to be 1247 01:11:52,120 --> 01:11:54,720 connected underground and they stand up. 1248 01:11:54,720 --> 01:11:57,080 So there to put them through test. 1249 01:11:57,440 --> 01:12:00,400 And so then we had the seating, then we had the test, then we 1250 01:12:00,400 --> 01:12:02,080 had the movie and we had you too. 1251 01:12:02,600 --> 01:12:05,960 So we took 8 hours. We would took eight hours. 1252 01:12:05,960 --> 01:12:09,840 And if they were doing in store work and they weren't doing a 1253 01:12:09,840 --> 01:12:13,000 movie, we used to get screen time to edit the video. 1254 01:12:13,240 --> 01:12:18,120 Wow, you know. It was just, for me, it was just 1255 01:12:18,120 --> 01:12:23,960 a fantastic journey. Yeah, for me, everybody to get 1256 01:12:23,960 --> 01:12:28,600 where we got by September the the 29th was a minor miracle. 1257 01:12:28,600 --> 01:12:30,560 And I'm saying that from the YouTube band. 1258 01:12:30,800 --> 01:12:33,680 They sacrificed rehearsal time to make the deadline. 1259 01:12:35,880 --> 01:12:38,320 We couldn't sacrifice getting the seats Commission because 1260 01:12:38,320 --> 01:12:43,000 we'd have no show. And, and Brian was the head of 1261 01:12:43,000 --> 01:12:45,680 construction. And and because I worked on Bob 1262 01:12:45,680 --> 01:12:47,920 the Builder, I used to call him Bob the Builder, you know. 1263 01:12:49,480 --> 01:12:51,560 So. We how many goes where do you 1264 01:12:51,560 --> 01:12:54,280 want me to start tomorrow? Because we used to store our 1265 01:12:54,280 --> 01:12:59,200 stage downstage so for so they could watch if we had to. 1266 01:12:59,560 --> 01:13:01,560 And then the seedings were in three sections. 1267 01:13:01,560 --> 01:13:04,800 She goes, Jake, can you push your stage down left and we'll 1268 01:13:04,800 --> 01:13:08,800 work on the centre or or we'll work on the right, then we'll 1269 01:13:08,800 --> 01:13:11,240 come to the centre and when we finish, you'll just move your 1270 01:13:11,240 --> 01:13:13,760 stage on the other side. And that's the sort of things 1271 01:13:14,160 --> 01:13:16,200 that we did. I mean, which sounds simple 1272 01:13:16,200 --> 01:13:18,000 enough. Become the mover the first time 1273 01:13:18,360 --> 01:13:22,480 and it was on is on a rolling stage, 2 level rolling stage. 1274 01:13:22,840 --> 01:13:26,440 All the back line, all the all the hollow plot sound, bass 1275 01:13:26,840 --> 01:13:29,880 floor fill, all the video processing. 1276 01:13:30,120 --> 01:13:31,840 Everything was underneath the stage. 1277 01:13:32,200 --> 01:13:33,760 We become the pusher. We all went. 1278 01:13:33,800 --> 01:13:37,520 We are well, we'll get 20 people around this 123 ports fucking 1279 01:13:37,520 --> 01:13:39,840 nowhere. Keep it moving in a. 1280 01:13:40,240 --> 01:13:42,240 Little heavier than we thought, perhaps, when. 1281 01:13:42,240 --> 01:13:44,720 We tried a forklift and then it wouldn't work with a forklift. 1282 01:13:44,760 --> 01:13:45,480 Oh. No. 1283 01:13:46,240 --> 01:13:50,400 Then we had to get 2 forklift people, but we found a way and 1284 01:13:50,400 --> 01:13:54,880 it was it was a little painful. Yeah, so. 1285 01:13:56,240 --> 01:14:01,920 I mean, I'm guessing house lights go was pretty exciting on 1286 01:14:01,920 --> 01:14:08,080 September 29th, you know, did anything go wrong massively? 1287 01:14:09,520 --> 01:14:12,800 You know, we were all expecting and, and we all explained to the 1288 01:14:12,800 --> 01:14:18,080 band with this many video tiles, this many pixels, you're going 1289 01:14:18,080 --> 01:14:21,520 to have a show where there's a tile out and there's nothing you 1290 01:14:21,520 --> 01:14:25,080 can do about it until the next day because all of it has 1291 01:14:25,360 --> 01:14:27,760 there's only a few tiles that you can get to. 1292 01:14:28,160 --> 01:14:30,760 One of them is a boom lift that has to come in the floor. 1293 01:14:32,120 --> 01:14:35,400 And one is you have to have rope access guys hanging down from 1294 01:14:35,400 --> 01:14:39,840 the ceiling because the Dome went like this, but the sphere 1295 01:14:39,840 --> 01:14:42,840 inside went like this. So it'd be 30 feet from the 1296 01:14:42,840 --> 01:14:47,200 ceiling to the to get the the look. 1297 01:14:47,800 --> 01:14:54,040 So, so, I mean, but the first night, you know, we had a DJ, we 1298 01:14:54,040 --> 01:14:58,520 set him up and we played in and then when the band were ready, 1299 01:14:58,520 --> 01:15:04,400 we had the intro tape and, you know, and, and then our creative 1300 01:15:04,400 --> 01:15:07,360 people go. Jacob, we want to start the DJ 1301 01:15:07,360 --> 01:15:11,080 stage right and we want to push him across the floor, across the 1302 01:15:11,080 --> 01:15:15,240 crowd to finish stage left and the sphere of people going it 1303 01:15:15,240 --> 01:15:17,320 can't be done, can't be done. And I looked and I'm like, go. 1304 01:15:17,640 --> 01:15:21,000 Evidently you've never been to EDC Electric Daisy Carnival. 1305 01:15:21,560 --> 01:15:23,200 Yeah, no. Shit, Disney World where they do 1306 01:15:23,200 --> 01:15:25,520 the Disney parade, we can do this. 1307 01:15:26,360 --> 01:15:29,880 So I think we talked them into it and it worked pretty well. 1308 01:15:29,880 --> 01:15:33,240 I think we only hit a couple of people's knees and that one or 1309 01:15:33,240 --> 01:15:37,240 two toes that nothing that nothing that a great poster or 1310 01:15:37,240 --> 01:15:40,320 program wouldn't solve right until we opened. 1311 01:15:40,320 --> 01:15:45,320 And you, you know, the first reaction to the screen opening 1312 01:15:45,840 --> 01:15:47,800 was really fucking nerve wracking. 1313 01:15:49,240 --> 01:15:53,280 But you know, I, I had to say we had a fantastic first show, 1314 01:15:53,280 --> 01:15:55,640 which is scary. And normally it's the second 1315 01:15:55,640 --> 01:15:59,920 show is pretty average, but we had the first one or two shows 1316 01:15:59,920 --> 01:16:02,320 and and then the bandwagon started. 1317 01:16:02,320 --> 01:16:05,600 The reviews were the best reviews I think you 2 ever had 1318 01:16:05,600 --> 01:16:10,120 and the bandwagon was moving so. Yeah, it was. 1319 01:16:10,160 --> 01:16:13,080 That thing picked up a lot of energy along the way, that's for 1320 01:16:13,080 --> 01:16:13,400 sure. If. 1321 01:16:14,160 --> 01:16:19,280 That if that opening night had not been great, then it could 1322 01:16:19,280 --> 01:16:24,680 have been trouble, I think, for the U2, for the career, but it 1323 01:16:24,680 --> 01:16:26,600 would have been the demise of the sphere, I think. 1324 01:16:26,960 --> 01:16:29,680 Exactly. And you know, there there have 1325 01:16:29,680 --> 01:16:32,520 been a ton of naysayers. You know, I'm still on the fence 1326 01:16:32,520 --> 01:16:35,920 with the whole concept of. The sphere, I mean, I, I saw the 1327 01:16:35,920 --> 01:16:38,440 U2 thing and the people I took said it was the best thing they 1328 01:16:38,440 --> 01:16:41,920 ever saw. I mean, you, you have to go 1329 01:16:41,920 --> 01:16:43,760 about it a different way than touring. 1330 01:16:44,080 --> 01:16:46,400 You have to go with the aspects that you're sharing. 1331 01:16:46,720 --> 01:16:50,520 You have to go with the aspect of your gym and sphere team will 1332 01:16:50,520 --> 01:16:53,000 not let anybody hang lights in front of his screen. 1333 01:16:53,440 --> 01:16:55,240 So no lighting trusses in the air. 1334 01:16:55,240 --> 01:16:56,760 It was front lighting and backlighting. 1335 01:16:56,760 --> 01:16:57,760 Yeah. Yeah. 1336 01:16:58,040 --> 01:17:00,200 So it was very, very minimal. Yeah. 1337 01:17:00,680 --> 01:17:07,480 And. But my my argument, basically 1338 01:17:07,480 --> 01:17:11,160 not argument, but I guess where where it hits for me and I 1339 01:17:11,160 --> 01:17:14,040 didn't see it in person. So I've seen video and pictures 1340 01:17:14,040 --> 01:17:19,040 like galore, but doesn't it make the band look small? 1341 01:17:19,040 --> 01:17:22,520 Like Because I remember when I first saw the very first video 1342 01:17:22,520 --> 01:17:27,040 of might have been the opening night and I had to look a while 1343 01:17:27,040 --> 01:17:32,360 to find Bono. Well, I mean this is what makes 1344 01:17:32,360 --> 01:17:35,120 the sphere so special. It's a different way of 1345 01:17:35,120 --> 01:17:37,240 experience in a show it. Is. 1346 01:17:37,440 --> 01:17:39,240 Yeah, it's. An immersive experience. 1347 01:17:39,240 --> 01:17:43,600 So the band become part of the of the building, part of the 1348 01:17:43,600 --> 01:17:47,160 screen, part of the whole thing, part of the whole way. 1349 01:17:47,200 --> 01:17:48,560 I never looked at it. Like that. 1350 01:17:48,600 --> 01:17:51,320 I never looked at it like that. I just looked at it as a concert 1351 01:17:51,320 --> 01:17:52,480 stage. You know you. 1352 01:17:52,480 --> 01:17:55,680 Could look at all the videos you wanted for the next 200 years. 1353 01:17:55,840 --> 01:17:58,840 Yeah, none of those videos that ever did the show justice. 1354 01:17:59,200 --> 01:18:03,240 The only way you could say, the only way you can honestly say to 1355 01:18:03,240 --> 01:18:05,840 yourself this is not a great show is by seeing it live. 1356 01:18:06,200 --> 01:18:09,840 So, you know, we went in and we did 40 shows there. 1357 01:18:10,080 --> 01:18:12,880 Yeah, it's incredible. Which is great. 1358 01:18:12,880 --> 01:18:16,200 And then, you know, then they got Dead and Co. 1359 01:18:16,200 --> 01:18:18,520 And, you know, we help the dead and Co people. 1360 01:18:18,520 --> 01:18:22,040 We we would let people come and see how we're doing it and, you 1361 01:18:22,040 --> 01:18:24,400 know, show them the layout and come to see the show, say, 1362 01:18:24,720 --> 01:18:27,840 because we had to move the stage up and down stage while the 1363 01:18:27,840 --> 01:18:30,800 movie was playing. Yeah, which in the end was the 1364 01:18:30,800 --> 01:18:34,760 show would finish at 10:45 and we'd be in the hotel at like 1365 01:18:34,760 --> 01:18:35,920 12:15. Yeah. 1366 01:18:35,920 --> 01:18:39,600 And like, and then it was great for me because having toured 1367 01:18:39,840 --> 01:18:46,080 pretty hard ass for 44 years, 43 years, whatever, I think this 1368 01:18:46,080 --> 01:18:49,720 fear helped me. We wean off the desire of going 1369 01:18:49,720 --> 01:18:52,920 on the road and then throw in my life to consultancy and things 1370 01:18:52,920 --> 01:18:53,560 like that. Yeah. 1371 01:18:54,000 --> 01:18:58,080 Good for you, good for you SO. And then I wanted to see, I went 1372 01:18:58,080 --> 01:19:00,560 to U2 and I watched it as a production manager. 1373 01:19:00,640 --> 01:19:05,320 Yeah, I went and saw Dead and Co and watched it as a a thing. 1374 01:19:05,320 --> 01:19:09,720 And I said, I said to Derek Featherstone, I go, you know, I 1375 01:19:09,720 --> 01:19:12,080 think I must be a secret dead head because I thought it was 1376 01:19:12,080 --> 01:19:14,400 fantastic. Yeah, I liked it. 1377 01:19:14,640 --> 01:19:19,360 Well, I again, I only saw video and pictures, but the just the 1378 01:19:19,360 --> 01:19:23,480 images were incredible. You know, the images of that 1379 01:19:23,480 --> 01:19:26,360 were just like Holy Christ, you know, now you can see why 1380 01:19:26,360 --> 01:19:29,200 everybody's high on acid and mushrooms and stuff. 1381 01:19:29,920 --> 01:19:31,360 You know, it looks pretty tremendous. 1382 01:19:31,520 --> 01:19:34,840 My only thing really against the sphere, and I don't know what 1383 01:19:34,840 --> 01:19:37,120 I'm going to say anyway because everybody must have a say. 1384 01:19:37,480 --> 01:19:39,320 I think it needs to be more diversified. 1385 01:19:40,800 --> 01:19:45,040 Yeah, yeah, it does seem to like everything becomes sort of 1386 01:19:45,040 --> 01:19:47,920 similar to the same. Well, it's the same age group. 1387 01:19:47,920 --> 01:19:51,400 The same age group of bands. Yeah, they they need to do. 1388 01:19:51,760 --> 01:19:54,360 You need a Taylor Swift in there or something, you know. 1389 01:19:54,680 --> 01:19:57,400 So if you want a bit of hip hop, you want a bit of rap, Yeah, You 1390 01:19:57,440 --> 01:19:59,680 want to get some, some that you want some Latin? 1391 01:19:59,680 --> 01:20:03,320 You want a female as well? Yeah, yeah. 1392 01:20:03,840 --> 01:20:06,000 You know, well, there's a UFC fight going. 1393 01:20:06,000 --> 01:20:07,840 In there in a month or so I think, right? 1394 01:20:08,240 --> 01:20:09,880 Yeah. So they're starting to load in 1395 01:20:09,880 --> 01:20:11,080 now, I think. Yeah. 1396 01:20:11,160 --> 01:20:14,800 But you, you know, you look at it and, you know, also has been 1397 01:20:14,800 --> 01:20:16,600 fortunate to be around a long time. 1398 01:20:16,920 --> 01:20:18,280 And I don't think I'll ever happen. 1399 01:20:18,280 --> 01:20:22,480 But this is the ideal place for Pink Floyd. 1400 01:20:23,120 --> 01:20:27,240 Oh hell yeah, hell yeah. They're the perfect band. 1401 01:20:27,600 --> 01:20:31,160 There's a band For 50 years, they've been searching for the 1402 01:20:31,160 --> 01:20:33,400 perfect sound. Perfect. 1403 01:20:33,560 --> 01:20:34,920 It's there. Yeah. 1404 01:20:35,160 --> 01:20:37,120 Visuals. I mean, I was thinking you're 1405 01:20:37,120 --> 01:20:37,960 right. About that. 1406 01:20:38,280 --> 01:20:41,560 The wall and you see the visuals with all the hammers walking 1407 01:20:41,560 --> 01:20:42,800 along like that. Incredible. 1408 01:20:42,800 --> 01:20:44,880 Imagine what that would be like. That incredible. 1409 01:20:45,040 --> 01:20:47,320 You know, I don't think that'll ever happen, but Brickman. 1410 01:20:47,320 --> 01:20:51,560 'S in, I think in Rome with Gilmore right now. 1411 01:20:52,600 --> 01:20:55,920 I think they're either at the Colosseum or next to the 1412 01:20:55,920 --> 01:20:58,440 Colosseum or something. Like it's some incredible 1413 01:20:58,440 --> 01:21:01,480 backdrop for a Gilmore show. What's that? 1414 01:21:01,920 --> 01:21:03,600 Circus Maximus or something like that. 1415 01:21:03,600 --> 01:21:07,720 Yeah, yeah. But that'd be pretty incredible 1416 01:21:07,720 --> 01:21:09,680 too. So this other thing that you're 1417 01:21:09,680 --> 01:21:13,320 working on that you were telling me about earlier, this thing in 1418 01:21:13,320 --> 01:21:15,840 India, tell me, tell me about that because that's really 1419 01:21:15,840 --> 01:21:17,720 interesting. I have, I have a couple of 1420 01:21:17,720 --> 01:21:21,720 employees in India and it's it's always a challenge. 1421 01:21:21,880 --> 01:21:24,120 So I can't even imagine putting a show on there. 1422 01:21:24,800 --> 01:21:32,720 So my first venture into India was probably Shakira way back 1423 01:21:32,720 --> 01:21:35,240 when. And it was very basic local 1424 01:21:35,240 --> 01:21:41,520 production. And we, you know, we, we, we 1425 01:21:41,520 --> 01:21:45,120 struggled a little bit because there wasn't very many people. 1426 01:21:45,120 --> 01:21:48,280 The infrastructure, it might have been The Rolling Stones 1427 01:21:48,280 --> 01:21:50,840 actually. We played Bangalore and we 1428 01:21:50,840 --> 01:21:57,080 played Mumbai. And those were challenges, not 1429 01:21:57,080 --> 01:22:00,560 because of the Indians, believe it or not, for Bangalore is 1430 01:22:00,560 --> 01:22:06,680 because we had our freight arrive in, oh, I can't remember 1431 01:22:06,680 --> 01:22:08,280 the name of the city. It'll come to me. 1432 01:22:08,880 --> 01:22:12,040 And then it was 200 kilometers away from Bangalore. 1433 01:22:12,200 --> 01:22:14,720 OK. And our our steel, steel, steel 1434 01:22:14,720 --> 01:22:20,200 containers are so overloaded, it took them nearly four days to 1435 01:22:20,200 --> 01:22:23,160 get there. Jesus, 200 miles. 1436 01:22:23,840 --> 01:22:27,400 So on Friday, a Friday show, we got our containers on Thursday 1437 01:22:27,400 --> 01:22:32,120 morning and then everybody on that Rolling Stones crew except 1438 01:22:32,120 --> 01:22:34,000 some of the people, you'd never think we'd do anything. 1439 01:22:34,000 --> 01:22:37,640 We all jumped in and we got to with the Indian labour, which 1440 01:22:37,640 --> 01:22:42,000 was not that great, but willing. But they didn't understand. 1441 01:22:42,480 --> 01:22:45,360 So, you know, Cartner, Marlborough's, you get a guy 1442 01:22:45,360 --> 01:22:47,080 carrying four decks at a time, you know. 1443 01:22:48,240 --> 01:22:51,040 But we did show and it worked and we played Mumbai and it 1444 01:22:51,040 --> 01:22:53,080 worked and it was a great experience. 1445 01:22:53,080 --> 01:22:57,720 I get, I get to meet one guy who was his first ever guy gig, a 1446 01:22:57,720 --> 01:23:01,360 guy called Vincent Samuels, who now comes and does some of our 1447 01:23:01,360 --> 01:23:04,920 shows in EDC in Vegas and he's done fantastic. 1448 01:23:05,560 --> 01:23:13,640 And then so with Shakira and then we took EDC to India and, 1449 01:23:13,640 --> 01:23:18,560 and then on my way to India on a plane, I didn't feel that that 1450 01:23:18,560 --> 01:23:21,600 great. So I go to the stewardess and I 1451 01:23:21,600 --> 01:23:26,880 go, I'm not feeling great. So I this dull ache and it 1452 01:23:26,880 --> 01:23:30,120 doesn't matter if I sat down, stood up, stood on my head, laid 1453 01:23:30,120 --> 01:23:34,240 down, lay on my stomach, lay on my back, had this dark ache 1454 01:23:34,240 --> 01:23:38,280 here. So they put me up on the galley 1455 01:23:38,280 --> 01:23:42,760 seat and then they give you the customer aspirin and then some 1456 01:23:42,760 --> 01:23:46,120 oxygen and some nitrous pill to clear up if you're, if you're 1457 01:23:46,120 --> 01:23:48,640 blocked. In the end it didn't work. 1458 01:23:48,640 --> 01:23:53,880 So I was on my way to Delhi and then they said this, they got a 1459 01:23:53,880 --> 01:23:57,280 lady doctor said it seems to me like you either have bad 1460 01:23:57,280 --> 01:24:00,600 heartburn or angina. And they set up for a hospital 1461 01:24:00,600 --> 01:24:04,600 to ambulance to pick me up at at Delhi airport. 1462 01:24:06,520 --> 01:24:10,680 And the stewardess came to me 30 minutes later. 1463 01:24:10,680 --> 01:24:13,440 She goes how you feel? I go this is not getting any 1464 01:24:13,440 --> 01:24:16,280 better. And then the plane, the plane 1465 01:24:16,280 --> 01:24:19,560 veers to the left or right, left I think as I was on the left 1466 01:24:19,560 --> 01:24:22,120 hand side and the captain comes on the radio. 1467 01:24:22,120 --> 01:24:24,880 You probably see that we're veering and don't worry about 1468 01:24:24,880 --> 01:24:28,680 that, that liquid, you say outside we're dumping fuel 1469 01:24:28,680 --> 01:24:31,600 because we have to. We have a medical emergency and 1470 01:24:31,600 --> 01:24:33,360 we have to make an emergency landing. 1471 01:24:34,000 --> 01:24:37,960 Oh wow, just like that, huh? Yeah, so I got the flight guide 1472 01:24:37,960 --> 01:24:40,840 directed to Baku in Azerbaijan. Wow. 1473 01:24:41,600 --> 01:24:49,320 So there in, in you could go on forever, but in the end of the 1474 01:24:49,320 --> 01:24:53,000 day, I got the stories of like, they wouldn't let me in the 1475 01:24:53,000 --> 01:24:54,400 country because I didn't have a visa. 1476 01:24:54,400 --> 01:24:56,960 So I had to get $25.00 to pay for a visa. 1477 01:24:56,960 --> 01:25:00,200 Then they'd let me in and then I finished up in a hospital, which 1478 01:25:00,200 --> 01:25:02,920 was amazing. And four hours later I had three 1479 01:25:02,920 --> 01:25:04,800 stents put in. Wow. 1480 01:25:05,400 --> 01:25:08,680 So did you ever actually have the heart attack or was it just 1481 01:25:08,680 --> 01:25:10,840 like, oh. Yeah, they they say we you had 1482 01:25:10,840 --> 01:25:11,640 one. Yeah. 1483 01:25:11,880 --> 01:25:14,320 Wow. So that was my first. 1484 01:25:14,400 --> 01:25:18,480 I never got to India. So the next time we we, well, 1485 01:25:18,480 --> 01:25:19,640 you never even. Got there. 1486 01:25:20,120 --> 01:25:23,080 Oh my goodness. Wow, crazy. 1487 01:25:24,080 --> 01:25:28,040 So. Then we came to do in 2019. 1488 01:25:28,040 --> 01:25:35,840 It picked up a bit and Bono had expressed a desire to play 1489 01:25:35,840 --> 01:25:43,440 India. So we went through it. 1490 01:25:43,440 --> 01:25:46,840 I met this guy who owned a company called Book My Show 1491 01:25:46,840 --> 01:25:50,200 which is basically an Indian ticketing agent. 1492 01:25:50,760 --> 01:25:53,800 And ever guess how many tickets they do a month in the peak 1493 01:25:53,800 --> 01:25:57,120 season? No idea. 30 million. 1494 01:25:57,640 --> 01:26:00,160 Thirty million bigger than tickets. 1495 01:26:00,680 --> 01:26:01,400 Christ. I mean, look. 1496 01:26:02,040 --> 01:26:05,200 The ₹1.00 cinema ticket, it's not the gross may be the same, 1497 01:26:05,200 --> 01:26:07,040 but they actually do that many tickets. 1498 01:26:07,040 --> 01:26:11,400 So we went there in 2019 and then it was very similar to what 1499 01:26:11,400 --> 01:26:16,640 you said about taking everything there. 1500 01:26:16,640 --> 01:26:20,840 We took the whole Joshua Tree tour and we took a lot of the 1501 01:26:20,840 --> 01:26:23,720 infrastructure, yeah. Yeah, that seems to be what's 1502 01:26:23,720 --> 01:26:26,680 missing in India, for the most part, is infrastructure. 1503 01:26:27,440 --> 01:26:30,920 This this guy, this guy at BookMyShow Ashish is very 1504 01:26:30,920 --> 01:26:32,880 forward thinking. He has a very forward thinking 1505 01:26:32,880 --> 01:26:36,520 staff. And then he he does Lollapalooza 1506 01:26:36,520 --> 01:26:41,600 there. So he, he does big shows and 1507 01:26:42,160 --> 01:26:43,760 then the infrastructure is growing. 1508 01:26:43,760 --> 01:26:49,760 Like this year there's been, we've had 24 people pass a 1509 01:26:49,800 --> 01:26:53,160 scaffolding high, high scaffolding test. 1510 01:26:53,160 --> 01:26:55,800 We've had people passes rigging tests. 1511 01:26:56,040 --> 01:26:58,240 There's company with a bunch of chain motors. 1512 01:26:58,600 --> 01:27:00,560 There's something. You're involved in training 1513 01:27:00,560 --> 01:27:02,920 people over there now we. Talk about it and they do it, 1514 01:27:02,920 --> 01:27:04,880 but it's the same company. Interesting. 1515 01:27:05,320 --> 01:27:09,160 And yes, yeah, I do want it and I talk to the people and I'm not 1516 01:27:09,160 --> 01:27:12,240 in on a day-to-day basis, but we talk about it all the time. 1517 01:27:12,800 --> 01:27:16,680 And, and then they bought more, more lights. 1518 01:27:16,680 --> 01:27:19,480 They've got more sand. There's a, there's a great bunch 1519 01:27:19,480 --> 01:27:24,040 of L acoustic D&B sand in India along as K1 and everything like 1520 01:27:24,040 --> 01:27:27,480 that lightning. Everybody's, you know, gone down 1521 01:27:27,480 --> 01:27:32,240 to like everybody has a bunch of Sharpies, you know, and you just 1522 01:27:32,240 --> 01:27:36,520 swap them out their video in everything across the world. 1523 01:27:36,520 --> 01:27:40,360 I would have to say that videos come the furthest because it's 1524 01:27:40,360 --> 01:27:45,040 now more affordable and, you know, they buy the new stuff. 1525 01:27:45,040 --> 01:27:50,120 So it's all 5 mil, 4 mil, 3 mil, you know, you know, you hang it 1526 01:27:50,120 --> 01:27:52,720 on a scaffolding and you get prepared to do that. 1527 01:27:53,120 --> 01:27:57,720 But yeah, so Ash asked me if I would help him consult. 1528 01:27:57,720 --> 01:28:00,600 So I did that last year. And basically he was starting, 1529 01:28:00,600 --> 01:28:02,880 he was promoting Ed Sheeran in Mumbai. 1530 01:28:03,120 --> 01:28:07,240 OK. So we, you know, we went there 1531 01:28:07,240 --> 01:28:11,000 and also, you know, it, it gave people, I hope, a little bit of 1532 01:28:11,000 --> 01:28:14,600 confidence that I was involved, you know. 1533 01:28:15,040 --> 01:28:18,840 And so he did Ed Sheeran and then I was out, you know, as I 1534 01:28:18,840 --> 01:28:22,480 know, I started the Coldplay tour and he wanted Coldplay, so 1535 01:28:22,920 --> 01:28:25,840 I introduced him to all the right people to get Coldplaying. 1536 01:28:27,120 --> 01:28:28,960 And so they did Ed Sheeran last year. 1537 01:28:29,600 --> 01:28:32,800 They did Sting at Lollapalooza last year. 1538 01:28:32,840 --> 01:28:37,160 And then Ed came and played and they they built an arena from 1539 01:28:37,160 --> 01:28:40,440 the ground up from the in a dirt field in the middle of the horse 1540 01:28:40,440 --> 01:28:43,600 race track. And Ed did like 50,000 people 1541 01:28:43,600 --> 01:28:47,640 and it was a big mixture of local and touring production 1542 01:28:47,640 --> 01:28:51,440 that they brought in the stage. All the sound was local. 1543 01:28:51,800 --> 01:28:53,640 The video over the stage was tore. 1544 01:28:53,640 --> 01:28:58,440 The video support on the towers was local and the lighting was 1545 01:28:58,640 --> 01:29:02,320 5050 and and all the stage hands came in. 1546 01:29:02,320 --> 01:29:06,280 So they've improved the stagehands now to an acceptable 1547 01:29:06,280 --> 01:29:09,880 level. And then you just bring in, you 1548 01:29:09,880 --> 01:29:16,800 have to have more people that translate because, you know, so. 1549 01:29:17,200 --> 01:29:20,280 But it's come a long way. I mean, for the Coldplay 1550 01:29:20,280 --> 01:29:24,160 adventure, it's exactly the same production that they'll bring in 1551 01:29:24,440 --> 01:29:28,680 what they take to Asia now, like, you know, to Thailand and 1552 01:29:28,680 --> 01:29:32,200 what we did in, in, in, in, in South America. 1553 01:29:32,480 --> 01:29:37,560 Yeah, so we, and then you know, the, the Indian promoter, we 1554 01:29:37,560 --> 01:29:42,560 bought a stage, we bought a star live a 25 meters, you know, 1555 01:29:42,560 --> 01:29:46,760 stage so that you can do Lalapalusa, you can hang a bit 1556 01:29:46,760 --> 01:29:49,240 more weight. And on Coldplay, we use the 1557 01:29:49,240 --> 01:29:53,320 infrastructure to help with the stage and you know, with a new 1558 01:29:53,320 --> 01:29:56,440 found scaffolding company and there's 20 guys we can build 1559 01:29:56,760 --> 01:30:01,800 scaffolding structure, you know, so I, I would have to say that 1560 01:30:02,320 --> 01:30:06,800 if you went there 15 years ago and you went back there now, you 1561 01:30:06,800 --> 01:30:08,960 would be really pleasantly. Yeah, Yeah. 1562 01:30:09,160 --> 01:30:12,120 Well, one of the things I noticed in our industry in in 1563 01:30:12,120 --> 01:30:16,520 India is like, I would expect that they'd have all Chinese 1564 01:30:16,520 --> 01:30:20,600 knockoffs of video screens and Chinese knockoffs of lighting 1565 01:30:20,600 --> 01:30:22,440 fixtures and stuff. And there is some of that of 1566 01:30:22,440 --> 01:30:26,400 course, just like there is here, but they have all the top brand 1567 01:30:26,400 --> 01:30:29,320 stuff over there now like they really are buying the top brand 1568 01:30:29,320 --> 01:30:30,800 equipment. Investment, you know, it's a 1569 01:30:30,800 --> 01:30:34,280 mixture of the Acme Chinese lives, knock off and stuff. 1570 01:30:34,640 --> 01:30:39,040 You know, there's, you know, Chinese motors in some place and 1571 01:30:39,840 --> 01:30:43,640 you know, I was talking to a trussing company there and and 1572 01:30:44,960 --> 01:30:49,000 all their trusses is designed and engineered to the the German 1573 01:30:49,000 --> 01:30:52,160 European spec. Yeah, and they make them. 1574 01:30:52,320 --> 01:30:56,760 In India, and they have the biggest plan of trust, man, they 1575 01:30:56,760 --> 01:30:59,200 could be the biggest trust manufacturer in the world. 1576 01:30:59,320 --> 01:31:02,840 Wow, Interesting. Yeah. 1577 01:31:02,840 --> 01:31:05,280 That's interesting. So what's your grand vision for 1578 01:31:05,280 --> 01:31:07,360 India then? Just to help them create enough 1579 01:31:07,360 --> 01:31:11,640 infrastructure to be able to do massive shows all year instead 1580 01:31:11,640 --> 01:31:13,240 of just one or two a year or whatever. 1581 01:31:13,560 --> 01:31:17,080 I think that the infrastructure would be to take the big show, 1582 01:31:17,080 --> 01:31:20,120 the medium show and the small show and keep working. 1583 01:31:20,440 --> 01:31:24,760 Yeah, you know, because if you have like a show like Sting, and 1584 01:31:24,760 --> 01:31:31,120 while it's Sting, it's it's experience, you know, and, and 1585 01:31:31,120 --> 01:31:34,240 things like that. And Ed Sheeran was, you know, 1586 01:31:34,320 --> 01:31:36,800 the, you know, the things they learnt, like they built all the 1587 01:31:36,800 --> 01:31:38,960 temporary dressing rooms and offices. 1588 01:31:39,960 --> 01:31:42,760 And so they were doing a loadout and we'd come back next morning. 1589 01:31:43,000 --> 01:31:46,240 The dressing rooms are dressing rooms are intact, but they taken 1590 01:31:46,240 --> 01:31:48,720 down all the production offices. You know, just. 1591 01:31:48,760 --> 01:31:51,720 Ass about face, but I I enjoy it. 1592 01:31:52,160 --> 01:31:56,000 Like you say, like I said earlier, if we can, if I can 1593 01:31:56,000 --> 01:31:58,640 just give back a little bit of what I got out of this, then I'm 1594 01:31:58,640 --> 01:32:02,120 gonna Yeah, well. India, I would expect that one 1595 01:32:02,120 --> 01:32:04,080 of the biggest challenges is venues, right? 1596 01:32:04,080 --> 01:32:06,960 Like they probably don't. You can't piece a tour together 1597 01:32:07,200 --> 01:32:11,160 in India very easily. You know, you play cricket 1598 01:32:11,160 --> 01:32:12,240 grounds. Yeah. 1599 01:32:13,280 --> 01:32:19,280 And. And that is as to the Indians, 1600 01:32:19,280 --> 01:32:24,280 that's more sacred than the New York Yankees baseball stadium. 1601 01:32:24,280 --> 01:32:26,920 Yeah, you've got to think it on par of that. 1602 01:32:27,360 --> 01:32:29,200 And then going back to the infrastructure, and you 1603 01:32:29,200 --> 01:32:32,960 mentioned generators. When I was there, they had the 1604 01:32:33,200 --> 01:32:37,160 Cricket World Cup there. I, I don't know if you're, 1605 01:32:37,240 --> 01:32:38,880 you're not very familiar with cricket. 1606 01:32:38,880 --> 01:32:41,200 No, I know what it is but I'm not a fan or anything so. 1607 01:32:41,360 --> 01:32:45,120 So they had to do like 16 venues for a world wide broadcast. 1608 01:32:46,480 --> 01:32:49,760 That's a big deal. Yeah, so they've all bought new 1609 01:32:49,760 --> 01:32:56,960 generators, silent generators, In Sync generators to run TV 1610 01:32:58,600 --> 01:33:03,560 and, you know, so I don't worry about power like I used to, you 1611 01:33:03,560 --> 01:33:06,120 know, and then, you know, because every show then had 1612 01:33:06,120 --> 01:33:10,360 Pyro, so you would have a Pyro display. 1613 01:33:10,360 --> 01:33:13,320 So they're not. So you can't import Pyro, but 1614 01:33:13,320 --> 01:33:16,400 you can use the local products and it's quite good because they 1615 01:33:16,400 --> 01:33:19,520 had to have lighting all the way around there for this thing. 1616 01:33:19,520 --> 01:33:26,240 So the Cricket World Cup 2 years ago was a phenomenon boost to 1617 01:33:26,240 --> 01:33:29,200 the industry. Yeah, yeah, That's really cool. 1618 01:33:29,200 --> 01:33:32,520 That's good to hear. And what about Insomniac? 1619 01:33:32,520 --> 01:33:34,040 That's still a big deal for you, huh? 1620 01:33:34,440 --> 01:33:35,600 Big deal for me. Love it. 1621 01:33:35,880 --> 01:33:39,000 I love going to hear that thump. I love to get my trousers flat. 1622 01:33:39,440 --> 01:33:44,680 And, you know, and I think that, you know, the different genre 1623 01:33:44,680 --> 01:33:47,000 music, I always thought it was one genre. 1624 01:33:47,000 --> 01:33:49,600 There's like 98 different variations of yeah. 1625 01:33:49,640 --> 01:33:52,080 I'm with you though I don't know them so. 1626 01:33:52,480 --> 01:33:55,880 You know, I always like look at the wasteland stage because I 1627 01:33:55,880 --> 01:34:00,240 feel that's a 20, that's 2024 heavy metal version of ACDC 1628 01:34:00,400 --> 01:34:02,240 doesn't want you to go there, you know? 1629 01:34:02,240 --> 01:34:04,440 Yeah, yeah. It's incredible, though. 1630 01:34:04,440 --> 01:34:08,840 Like again, does that surprise you how big EDM has become? 1631 01:34:10,000 --> 01:34:14,400 Oh yeah, it's, it's shocking. To me, like it's shocking. 1632 01:34:15,320 --> 01:34:17,920 Vegas. I mean we did 180,000 a night 1633 01:34:17,920 --> 01:34:19,160 last year. Wow. 1634 01:34:19,680 --> 01:34:23,800 That is incredible and. We're trying to get it to 200 a 1635 01:34:23,800 --> 01:34:26,800 thousand a night, but that means moving around a bit of it 1636 01:34:26,800 --> 01:34:31,160 because it's played in the inner bowl of Las Vegas Motor 1637 01:34:31,160 --> 01:34:36,840 Speedway. And yeah, so if we move a little 1638 01:34:36,840 --> 01:34:39,480 bit more stuff out that we don't need there, we'll, you know, 1639 01:34:39,480 --> 01:34:40,640 we'll we'll get that. But. 1640 01:34:40,960 --> 01:34:43,560 Insomniac does a lot more than just Vegas, right? 1641 01:34:44,240 --> 01:34:46,560 Oh they do. Probably 300 shows a year. 1642 01:34:46,640 --> 01:34:49,160 Yeah. And so you're consulting sort of 1643 01:34:49,160 --> 01:34:51,440 at the top level on how to make all of. 1644 01:34:51,440 --> 01:34:54,800 Those shows great. I work for mostly with two guys, 1645 01:34:54,840 --> 01:34:58,240 Justin Spag and Forest Hunt, who's the executive producers, 1646 01:34:58,680 --> 01:35:00,360 and I'll do whatever they want me to do. 1647 01:35:00,480 --> 01:35:03,680 Yeah, yeah. What a what an operation though. 1648 01:35:03,680 --> 01:35:05,720 I mean, it's incredible what they've built. 1649 01:35:06,160 --> 01:35:09,600 You know, it's not that long ago that this all started like, you 1650 01:35:09,600 --> 01:35:16,040 know, the Miami, the Miami one and and then EDC in in Vegas. 1651 01:35:16,440 --> 01:35:18,680 It's not that long ago. And look at how big it is. 1652 01:35:19,000 --> 01:35:21,920 It's insane. Like Insomniac have like 3 big 1653 01:35:21,920 --> 01:35:31,360 brands, they have EDC, they have hard summer, nocturnal, beyond 1654 01:35:32,200 --> 01:35:36,880 and escape, right? It's Escape from Wonderland, 1655 01:35:36,880 --> 01:35:41,200 Beyond Wonderland and Countdown Countdown's New Year's Eve and 1656 01:35:41,200 --> 01:35:47,840 they're the three major brands. So in in EDC Vegas there's like 1657 01:35:47,840 --> 01:35:51,440 7 different brands of music. There's Kinetic Field which is 1658 01:35:51,440 --> 01:35:54,960 the product which is all scenery and and looking pretty. 1659 01:35:54,960 --> 01:35:59,080 You have stage 2 which is a little bit of scenery but just a 1660 01:35:59,080 --> 01:36:01,640 lot of video. Stage 3, it's video and 1661 01:36:01,640 --> 01:36:03,800 lighting. It's a production stage, so 1662 01:36:03,800 --> 01:36:06,680 you're allowed to bring in your own video content as long as we 1663 01:36:06,680 --> 01:36:10,040 like it, which you're not allowed to do on stage 1. 1664 01:36:10,920 --> 01:36:14,640 And then you have stage 4, which is like Neon Garden, which is 1665 01:36:15,000 --> 01:36:18,040 another genre. The people with the DJs like 1666 01:36:18,040 --> 01:36:20,400 people on stage. So you can have 50 people on 1667 01:36:20,400 --> 01:36:23,400 stage around the DJ Crazy, you know? 1668 01:36:23,400 --> 01:36:29,280 And then stage 5 is it's one, it's five, it's base pod, so 1669 01:36:29,280 --> 01:36:31,160 it's a pretty base pod. And then you have Wastelands, 1670 01:36:31,160 --> 01:36:34,440 which is fucking drum and bass. I love that fucking. 1671 01:36:34,440 --> 01:36:39,960 They get down and you know. It's, I find it rather humorous 1672 01:36:39,960 --> 01:36:43,400 that you're kind of like the king of, you know, king of EDM 1673 01:36:43,400 --> 01:36:47,600 and you're, you're 70 years old, you know, it's, it's, it's 1674 01:36:47,600 --> 01:36:50,600 awesome. Music has no age barriers. 1675 01:36:50,600 --> 01:36:53,560 No, of course not. It's it's amazing. 1676 01:36:53,560 --> 01:36:55,080 Do you still spend time in Greece? 1677 01:36:56,120 --> 01:36:58,800 Yeah, well, my my girlfriend is a promoter in Greece. 1678 01:36:58,960 --> 01:37:01,440 Well, I didn't want to say, do you still have the girlfriend in 1679 01:37:01,440 --> 01:37:03,000 Greece? Because I always stick my foot 1680 01:37:03,000 --> 01:37:04,680 in my mouth saying those things. So yeah. 1681 01:37:04,800 --> 01:37:07,680 Well, we do. We we're, I, I was there most of 1682 01:37:07,680 --> 01:37:11,400 the summer because, you know, she has a very, she's very 1683 01:37:11,400 --> 01:37:13,360 experienced, but they have a small operation. 1684 01:37:13,360 --> 01:37:16,920 Yeah, she had, you know, a lot of shows. 1685 01:37:16,920 --> 01:37:19,480 She had Rammstein at the Olympic Stadium. 1686 01:37:19,720 --> 01:37:21,640 Fun. What a what a show. 1687 01:37:21,760 --> 01:37:24,280 Yeah, what a show. That is, that's another 1688 01:37:24,280 --> 01:37:27,200 phenomenon. You know, it's just like just 1689 01:37:27,200 --> 01:37:30,360 keeps getting bigger. East German death, death medal. 1690 01:37:30,360 --> 01:37:33,360 And of course she had two Nike Coldplay, which I helped her 1691 01:37:33,360 --> 01:37:37,160 because I knew how it worked. Yeah, and then that was the 1692 01:37:37,160 --> 01:37:39,080 stadium show. And then she had her small 1693 01:37:39,120 --> 01:37:44,000 boutique festival with Lenny Kravitz for about 7000 fun and a 1694 01:37:44,000 --> 01:37:47,960 couple of nights with Sting. So you're still sort of working 1695 01:37:47,960 --> 01:37:49,800 when you're there. No, I'm not. 1696 01:37:49,800 --> 01:37:53,440 I'm I'm Ms. Moral Pretend. Working moral support, Moral 1697 01:37:53,440 --> 01:37:56,920 support. So Sarah, who you met earlier, 1698 01:37:56,920 --> 01:38:01,920 our producer, she, she lives on Crete so. 1699 01:38:02,480 --> 01:38:03,960 We live right in the middle of Athens. 1700 01:38:04,440 --> 01:38:10,680 Nice nice, awesome. So for the rest of 2425, any big 1701 01:38:10,680 --> 01:38:13,800 plans besides the India stuff and Insomniac? 1702 01:38:14,400 --> 01:38:21,240 India, EDC, Orlando, I might go to escape and then probably 1703 01:38:23,240 --> 01:38:26,800 figure out where I'm going to be for the rest of the year and, 1704 01:38:26,800 --> 01:38:32,680 and hopefully when a lot of stuff dies down, that Nana, my 1705 01:38:32,680 --> 01:38:34,880 girlfriend, will be able to come and spend some time here because 1706 01:38:34,880 --> 01:38:36,320 she loves it here. Fun. 1707 01:38:36,920 --> 01:38:39,280 You're in Arizona, right? Yeah, Yeah. 1708 01:38:39,760 --> 01:38:40,280 Nice. I. 1709 01:38:40,280 --> 01:38:42,640 Used to have a desk set up here where she used to work and then 1710 01:38:42,640 --> 01:38:45,440 she goes I can't work, you're working all the time well. 1711 01:38:45,440 --> 01:38:48,880 Yeah, and you probably have a more boomy voice than hers too, 1712 01:38:48,880 --> 01:38:53,080 so you can't you can't compete with her over The Who gets to 1713 01:38:53,080 --> 01:38:54,960 hear your phone call better or whatever. 1714 01:38:54,960 --> 01:38:56,080 No. Should we set an office 1715 01:38:56,080 --> 01:38:58,400 upstairs? And she, she loves it up there, 1716 01:38:58,440 --> 01:38:59,320 you know? Nice. 1717 01:38:59,520 --> 01:39:02,960 I sent a picture of her office say your office is missing you. 1718 01:39:03,000 --> 01:39:06,840 So I hope, I hope that inspires. Long distance relationships are 1719 01:39:06,840 --> 01:39:08,400 tough. I mean, sometimes they're OK, 1720 01:39:08,400 --> 01:39:09,800 but sometimes they're tough. I. 1721 01:39:09,800 --> 01:39:11,280 Haven't known any different. Yeah. 1722 01:39:11,280 --> 01:39:13,040 Of course, yeah. I mean touring. 1723 01:39:13,240 --> 01:39:15,600 Yeah. Well, Jake, it's been amazing 1724 01:39:15,600 --> 01:39:17,880 catching up with you. I appreciate it so much and 1725 01:39:17,880 --> 01:39:20,640 appreciate you. And you know, you're you're a 1726 01:39:20,640 --> 01:39:22,800 legend. There's few peoples in our 1727 01:39:22,800 --> 01:39:25,600 industry, few people I'd call a legend, and you're one of them. 1728 01:39:26,440 --> 01:39:27,880 Thank you very much for the compliment. 1729 01:39:27,880 --> 01:39:29,000 I appreciate it. Yeah. 1730 01:39:29,520 --> 01:39:33,440 You know, legend or not legend, if I can leave a legacy and 1731 01:39:33,440 --> 01:39:37,280 return that legacy to make this industry grow because it's a 1732 01:39:37,280 --> 01:39:38,960 fantastic industry. Yeah. 1733 01:39:39,240 --> 01:39:41,760 You know, it's, it's it's amazing what it does. 1734 01:39:41,760 --> 01:39:43,840 It's amazing what it produces. Got amazing. 1735 01:39:43,840 --> 01:39:46,240 A bunch of people from the top through the bands to the crews 1736 01:39:46,240 --> 01:39:49,160 all the way down, and it needs to maintain so. 1737 01:39:49,440 --> 01:39:52,800 When you've pushed the envelope so much like with the size, the 1738 01:39:52,800 --> 01:39:56,120 enormity, the, the challenges of some of these projects you've 1739 01:39:56,120 --> 01:40:00,720 done the U2 claw, the U2 sphere, all the big stones tours, you 1740 01:40:00,720 --> 01:40:04,680 know, you've just done some, you've really made things much 1741 01:40:04,680 --> 01:40:08,720 more big and, and much more like you made people, I think, expand 1742 01:40:08,720 --> 01:40:10,880 their visions with some of the projects that you've been 1743 01:40:10,880 --> 01:40:13,360 involved on. I hope that's be the case, and 1744 01:40:13,360 --> 01:40:17,400 not necessarily in large shows, but in the medium shows and the 1745 01:40:17,400 --> 01:40:20,480 small shows, yeah. It's all about the personality 1746 01:40:20,480 --> 01:40:21,640 and the attitude. I Yeah. 1747 01:40:21,920 --> 01:40:23,240 I agree. I agree. 1748 01:40:23,240 --> 01:40:25,280 Well, thanks, Jake. We'll see you very. 1749 01:40:25,320 --> 01:40:26,680 Well, see you. Again soon, I hope.