U2 360 Tour Crew
U2 are finishing up the highest grossing tour of all time: the 360° Tour. When the band closes out their North American leg on July 30 in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, U2 are projected to rake in around $700 million total. That easily bests past champions The Rolling Stones, who earned $558 million on the A Bigger Bang tour of 2005-07.
Perhaps nobody knows the guys of U2 better than tour director Craig Evans. After all, he’s traveled with them on literally thousands of shows across the world.
“They’re family men,” Evans said of Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. “As the band has gotten older, they feel the need to maintain a good sense of family, and they’re sincere. They realize the voice they have, and they take that with a sense of responsibility. This is not reckless rock ’n’ roll.”
Speaking before a recent tour stop, Evans checked in with Gibson.com to talk about his experience on the 360° Tour and the 164-foot-tall in-the-round set known as “The Claw.”
This isn’t your first tour with U2. How does the 360° Tour compare to PopMart, Vertigo, Elevation and the others?
I have to say, by far, it’s the most ambitious. I don’t know a better word to use. We took a giant leap of faith. We had to look at taking a touring model and ramp it up to point where you’re not just going to do a stadium, you’re going to build an entire stadium and play around with production, sound and video. This kind of set-up has certain complications and challenges, and to play these types of large crowds takes custom engineering. Our goal was to make the stadium actually look small, since the touring stage is so big.
How involved were U2 on the stage design and overall tour concept?
Everything is custom built, and it was a huge financial leap of faith. We needed to know the demand would be there. So, all of these things the band needed to make decisions on. After the success of Elevation and Vertigo, we decided to take it to another level. Bono is the one who came up with the “Claw” design for the stage. We were eating dinner towards the end of the Vertigo tour, and he put up four forks and placed them vertically and said, “Is there a way the stage could kind of look like this?” So, it took a custom stage design. In the end, you ask, were all these chances worth it? Well, we’ve surpassed the record for the highest-grossing tour of all time, and that’s an indication the risk was worth it.
When the show was envisioned, what was the main objective?
Our goal was to be different from any other stadium tour. Wherever U2 played, we wanted them to connect and be in the middle of the crowd. When we went to Willie Williams for the design of the stage, we wanted the stage to be so big that it would feel bigger than the stadium and, because of that, create a sense of intimacy. That way, every seat in every stadium would have a terrific view. That’s what makes this an unrivaled event: that intimacy.
Tell us about the elliptical main stage, “The Claw.”
Bono had the idea to actually play a full stadium, instead of the usual set-up where you play to part of the stadium. On the Vertigo tour, Bono looked around after a show in Honolulu and said, “Could we play to everyone?” That brings a community of people who are going to experience it in a different way. You’re in the middle of a community, and that brings emotion and excitement. Fill the stadium and have people on the field, and you’re the voice in the center of a sea of people.
What’s your favorite aspect of being U2’s tour director?
I love the mathematical complication of puzzle making. I love putting a bunch of pieces together and seeing them fit together in a bigger picture. I love creating a business plan that we can put forth logically and achieve. I work with a lot of incredibly talented people on tour that, in my view, are the best tour professionals out there.
You’ve seen thousands of U2 concerts. Do you ever get tired of the shows?
Honestly, never. Before every show, even with all the thousands of shows I’ve been at, I get that same feeling when the lights go down and the crowd starts screaming and the lights go on. Feeling the connection that’s instantly made between the band and audience, every time, makes the hairs on the neck stand up.
Follow Gibson on Facebook and Twitter for guitar giveaways, new product launches, music news and much more!
As anybody who’s experienced a U2 concert knows, these events can fill a sports stadium with light and sound. To match the intense rock beat of the four musicians—drummer Larry Mullen Jr., bassist Adam Clayton, guitarist The Edge, and singer Bono—the stage presentation simply has to be huge, and it is. In the case of this year’s international U2 360 concert series, the stage is seven stories high and weighs 54 tons. It unfolds to cover most of a major league baseball field, and it carries virtually all the electronics directly above the stage where the band works. To ensure that each show comes off without a bit of feedback or any type of video hitch, show producer Live Nation Entertainment, which used to build all its own custom IT, now has deployed a purpose-built control package that sits in a control tent opposite the stage. The IT consists of off-the-shelf Dell Precision R5400 rack-mounted workstations and UltraSharp U2711 monitors for concert video control and management, in addition to Precision M6500 17-inch mobile workstations—used for off-site, on-the-go content creation and rendering. There is not a single customized workstation or monitor in the tent for this concert, and every function is replicated in case something goes down, which is rare. Recently eWEEK had the opportunity to check out the results of a U2 show first hand; the one in this slide show was staged June 17 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif.
Dell Nerve Center
In an obscure tent, way at the back of the stadium, U2′s video and sound directors manage all the lights and video from 15 cameras to go with prerecorded video and graphics for the two-hour-plus stadium “U2 360″ concert. It’s all controlled using off-the-shelf Dell workstations and monitors.
It will be a beautiful day for U2 fans on May 24 – the day the Irish rock band performs at Rice-Eccles Stadium – but also for the Utah economy.
In an exclusive interview, U2 tour director Craig Evans said that the largest tour ever to roam the Earth will employ some 1,500 Utahns and is expected to pump between $20 million and $40 million into the local economy.
That’s one big rock stimulus package.
“It will have a huge economic impact on the community,” Evans said in a telephone call from his Los Angeles office. He’s leaving May 7 for Mexico City, where the band will play three shows between May 11 and May 15 before moving on to Denver on May 21 and then Salt Lake City on May 24.
Local crews will be involved in nearly every aspect of the show’s build-up, the show itself and the disassembling, which will take eight days to accomplish. The jobs, Evans said, will include steelworkers, client services, show security, operations personnel, catering, concessions, plus a small army of people needed to help assemble the largest concert set in history.
Utah crews will supplement the tour’s full-time crew of more than 200 workers from 17 countries. “Without a doubt, it’s an expensive show,” said Evans, who declined to say how much money the show costs. “It’s definitely the most ambitious and most challenging tour ever.”
The reason this tour is the largest in music history is because of what Evans calls the “steel structure,” but what audiences and media around the world have dubbed The Claw.
The Claw is a 164-foot-tall in-the-round set, which spans the width of a stadium and is perched on four legs with sound systems inside each. The steel set supports a whooping 72 separate subwoofers and holds a 360-degree video screen custom designed by Belgian company Stageco.
BY DAVID BURGER
The Salt Lake Tribune
During the shows in São Paulo, U2tour.de had the chance to speak to U2 360° roadie Arne de Knegt about stage building, his life on the road and memorable moments on the 360° Tour.
U2tour.de:
Arne we are very happy to do this interview with you today. How are you and how are things going in São Paulo?
Arne:
I am doing good and things seem to be good as well here in São Paulo.
U2tour.de:
You work for StageCo. When did you start working as a stage builder?
Arne:
I started working as a stage builder for StageCo in 2005. So the first show I ever did was the Vertigo tour in Germany, Gelsenkirchen.
U2tour.de:
What exactly is your job at the U2 360° Tour? What are your responsibilities?
Arne:
Here on the 360° Tour I am mainly responsible for the skins that service the cover over the stage, the green covers that absorb light and all the steel that is required to get that skin over the steel structure. That’s the main job I’m doing here.
© Arne de Knegt Photography
U2tour.de:
There are three teams of the touring crew that put together the steel structure. You are in the Blue Steel group. How many members does each team have?
Arne:
It depends a little bit on where we are because in Europe we had StageCo truck drivers who transported a part of the stage. Obviously here in South America that’s been outsourced to a transport company. So currently here in South America we are 26 crew members per team. And it’s also like 26 in North America. Outside Europe we use a 23 to 26 strong crew and inside Europe we are with 30 people.
U2tour.de:
You have worked on stadium tours along with huge bands such as The Rolling Stones, Muse or Bruce Springsteen so I think you are clearly an expert in terms of touring and staging. In your opinion, can outdoor stages get any bigger than the Claw in the near future or is this the biggest stages can ever get?
Arne:
No, stages can get bigger. The question is if this will happen but currently this stage actually uses a tower system to lift the Claw, as you call it, or the spaceship or whatever you call this structure. The Stage is lifted with four hydraulic motors, which seem to only use 40 percent of their capacity now. So theoretically you could still lift a structure twice this weight with these same motor systems. I freelance for this company so I don’t know all the insights now, but obviously there is speculation that you can still build bigger stages with the same motors that StageCo now has. They have four motors per team times three steel crews, so that is twelve hydraulic motors, so theoretically you could still build three stages that could still be bigger, since these motors are designed to still lift heavier structures.
U2tour.de:
That sound very expensive. Can any other band than U2 pull that off?
Arne:
That’s indeed the question that only time can tell. However, if you look at the last Vertigo stage, which was only half as big as the current 360 stage in terms of the amount of trucks needed to transport the steel. You know like this was in 2005, 2006. If you look at Muse or Coldplay, who toured last year as well: those structures were equally big or even slightly bigger than the one of the U2 Vertigo Tour in 2005. So even in 2005 you thought: “Can anything be bigger than U2?” And a few years down the road, what we think as maybe smaller bands, as Coldplay or Muse, have built bigger stages than U2 did in 2005. You know, in 2016 Muse might build a stage much bigger than U2 did now.
© Arne de Knegt Photography
U2tour.de:
Travelling the world as a roadie generally sounds like a lot of fun. Is it really like that or do you have to work so hard that you wish the tour to be over soon?
Arne:
Yeah I think both are correct. Mostly people, who hear about your job would say “Wow, that’s cool. I want a job like that” and I must say, of course I am not complaining of being in São Paulo now and I was in Cape Town like five or six weeks ago. So there are certainly very positive sides to staging, however, obviously being a roadie means long hours, a lot of time pressure. So a lot of us actually see this purely as a job. And offdays are quite often really offdays where you just need to recover from the build. So I think there is a reality in both.
U2tour.de:
Which places have you been so far for U2 360°?
Arne:
Well it started in 2009. We were the team that started in Barcelona, the first gig and then we did the cities in Europe and after that we went to North America.
U2tour.de:
Were there any places you felt like “Let’s get out of here soon, this doesn’t seem to be cool here” or something like that? I heard there had been some trouble in Moscow?
Arne:
Yeah, we were in Moscow. Well, it depends what trouble you mean. We got a virus or something. I would say 25 of the 30 people that were on the team got sick including myself. Obviously it’s no fun taking down a stage, being on time pressure if you have to throw up five six seven times in the morning and equally often visit the bathroom. But stuff like that can happen and having said that, Moscow surely was really a highlight because when you tour Europe for a few years you know what London is like, you know Amsterdam, you know Paris. It’s all those places you see quite often. But going to Moscow or going to Istanbul is surely like a more adventurous or enjoyable destination. As for a change, you know. So a lot of us will look back at that as being one of the most difficult ones, everything that happened and then the virus most of us got. I still consider that to be, I cant say highlight, but certainly one of the most memorable moments, or venues.
U2tour.de:
It seems to be a very tight schedule even though one steel team always skips like two cities. Just an example: There have only been 12 days between Moscow and Istanbul. Is it possible to tear down the Claw in Moscow and ship it all the way to Istanbul in just 12 days or does it just sound like being that difficult?
Arne:
No, well, actually in Europe I also drive trucks, so I was part of that team that had to drive the stage from Hanover to Moscow, take it down in Moscow, drive it through all of Eastern Europe to Istanbul and then build it again and all that indeed within these 12 days, as you said. Of course in terms of enjoyment, that is the least enjoyable part of this tour where you know that even though you are sick that stage has to come down as soon as possible, because every minute you lose is a minute less of driving time. We drove single-handed to the the Russian-Latvian border, where we had doubledrivers waiting for us who would drive with us the next four days to Latvia, Poland and then all the way down to Turkey. Yeah obviously a schedule like that is not fun if you have to live purely by the tachograph and that’s surely putting a lot of stress on the team and on the wellbeing of the individual truckdrivers.
© Arne de Knegt Photography
U2tour.de:
Coming to the next topic: Do you actually like U2’s music?
Arne:
Personally, I am not too much of a music fan in general. I like to listen to the radio but if the radio is off I will not directly switch it on myself. However, of the bands that I toured with I must say that I’d rather see U2 live than a few other bands that I’ve travelled with as well.
U2tour.de:
But you don’t have to attend every show, do you?
Arne:
We don’t have to attend at all. As I said, we are 26 and we have standby schedules on the production on showdays so that means every now and then you will have to do a standby show. I will in general see a show if it is possible. However if the show is late night and we have to work early morning on the next day I won’t always see it. But, for example, here in São Paulo we do three shows and I plan to see the one tomorrow night, because the day after we still have off and so you have time to recover and be fit for taking down the stage.
U2tour.de:
Have you had the possibility to meet any of the band members in the past few months?
Arne:
No, I mean we will have dinner in the same catering, like backstage, in the tour catering and you know you see them there but that’s still a different reality to you approaching them or having a conversation with them.
U2tour.de:
Coming back to the construction again. The whole construction is set to offer audiences a panoramic view of the band. Why is it that the band’s performance is rather a static one, most of the times they only play in one direction, they only play into the front actually. Are there any technical issues which require the band to play into the front?
Arne:
I personally would say no, because I know about stage constructions that do have a rotating stage which then basically turns 359 degrees and then turns back 359 degrees. So that way you do like an almost 360 degrees circle. So when we started in 2009, that was what I expected it to be actually, a revolving stage, but indeed they play, I would say 80 percent of the time, towards FOH where also the majority of the audience is sitting. I think they could have gotten more out of that in terms of entertaining the people that are sitting what is almost like behind the stage.
U2tour.de:
Why isn’t the Claw situated in the middle of the pitch, as many fans initially expected when the tour concept was announced? In Milan and in Norman, Oklahoma it was quite in the middle in of the field.
Arne:
I was not in Milan but I was in Oklahoma and in Oklahoma it was basically done because the stage wouldn’t fit the normal way. So it was mostly done out of limitations regarding the dimensions of the field.
U2tour.de
So, American football stadiums are not as big as the European soccer stadiums?
Arne:
No I can’t say that but the Norman field was like a college field and it had to do with. It was was the only city so far, where we had the structure actually not basing the short side of the football field but basing the long side. But we all expected that stage to be in the very center of the football field. But then I think it still might have to do with, I don’t know, well 80 percent of the time they play in one direction and in that one direction is also where 80 percent of the fans are.
U2tour.de: Are you actually in touch with the U2 fans gathering around the stadium when you are building up the stage?
Arne:
It depends really on the location itself. Sometimes, if the hotel is too far away we will take the shuttle from the stadium to the hotel and we are less likely to be in contact, whereas, for example, here in São Paulo people have been camping literally with their tents in front of the gate since build day one. So the people right now have been camping for five days. If we, for example, go to catering which is, you can either take the shortcut through the stadium, but if you walk a few steps and walk around the stadium then you basically see the people camping and they know we are working with the band and we know they are camping to see the band so obviously there is interaction then.
U2tour.de:
Are there any geographical differences in the fan bases, if you compare, for example, the South American fans to the European fans? I don’t think European fans would camp three days before the show.
Arne:
No maybe not, even though I worked with a good friend of mine who did Metallica in Southern Spain a few years back and they said the same thing. They were being awaited by the Metallica fans and they were there through all the three, four days of build. Generally, what we see here we haven’t seen in Europe. That’s for sure. But then again there are people here who might not even know what the band is singing. I was working with local crew and you know, they don’t speak English at all and they just imitated some Bono songs but they clearly have no idea what they’re singing.
U2tour.de:
So what’s up next for you on the road for the U2 360° Tour?
Arne:
Next is Salt Lake City.
U2tour.de:
There have been some rumours of U2 360° Tour returning to Europe or visiting Asia later this year, but no official word yet on where the tour is ending. Can you maybe spill some beans?
Arne:
[laughs] As far as I know, confirmed, the last show process is in Moncton, Canada, in New Brunswick… as far as we know. We know the steel is supposed to go back to Belgium, as is most of the other: the light, the video. Those are all from European companies. But no confirmation on what is happening after the last show in North America.
U2tour.de:
Okay, so as for now, the tour is definitely ending in Moncton, Canada?
Arne:
That’s what it seems to be. But you never know.
© Artefacting Mumbai
U2tour.de:
Alright. Then one last question. You are part of a team working on a photography project called Artefacting Mumbai. Can you tell us something more about that?
Arne:
Sure. You researched well by the way. Artefacting Mumbai is a project that I and two American friends of mine have developed over the last year and a half which was actually also the reason why I did not join the U2 tour to Australia and New Zealand I asked my co-chief to skip that part because I wanted to be in India to do a project that talks about the gaps in society between rich and poor, between Muslims and Christians, between Indians and the East and Western people in the West. So within that project we had a photographer, which was me, we had a videographer, which was a friend from Portland and we had an artist from New York and the three of us used arts basically to break down social barriers. We worked for three months in what is Asia’s largest slum and what we wanted to do is to show a different reality. Most people who think about the slum only think about poverty, crime, unemployed people, misery, disease. And I will not deny that any of them do exist in the slum, but there is also the other side of a very strongly organised social structure of people accepting fate and being happy way more than I in general see in North America or in Europe. We basically wanted to use art as a way to tell that story.
U2tour.de:
Thank you very much for this interview!
Arne:
I wish all the German fans all the best and I hope for them that U2 will come back soon.
Christoph Beller for U2tour.de
U2\’s 360 Stage “The Claw” was mounted at the Estadio Unico de La Plata. More than 1,200 technicians worked to install it.
expand | EMBRACING THE FANS. Organizers expect about 70,000 come to the Stadium Unico de La Plata to see U2. PHOTO TAKEN FROM TN.COM.AR
LA PLATA .- The heartbeat of the fans of the Irish band U2 are a thousand because it takes only one day to the first of three concerts that will provide in the country, under the “Tour 360 º” . “The Claw” , the the megaescenario to use the whole was mounted on the State Unico de La Plata after working more than 1,200 workers.
The show’s production director, Craig Evans , anticipated that the work will continue tomorrow, but only with the latest technical details. “In the afternoon, the band will sound check, before 16, when it will open the doors to the public,” stressed the organizer.
The team led by Bono will provide tomorrow’s show number 77 in the context of his world tour, planned for 110 performances before the end of the year. Evans announced that there will be many surprises during the show and one of them will be the guests. “The band is sending out new requirements for the guests, there will be many surprises, there are always surprises for U2 concerts,” he predicted.
Facilities
The field features Unico Stadium provided a great advantage to operators, since it allowed the entry of all the band equipment, including cranes and semi trucks that set up the structure, which is coated with materials used in cars Formula 1.
Besides the huge platform has a cylindrical screen 400 square meters, which crowns the scene, whose segments are mounted on a pantograph to split, open to achieve a surface of 1,300 meters or align vertically.
U2 again set foot in Argentina after five years (in 2006 presented “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb” in the stadium of River Plate). An estimated 70,000 people attend the premises of the city of La Plata, one of the most modern and the only Latin American roofing. (Télam)
Tuesday March 29, 2011 17:47 |19:52 – Martes, 29 de Marzo de 2011 – Tucuman – Argentina/ LA GACETA (SOURCE)
ABOUT
U2 Now and Then
RECENT POSTS
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Apr | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
