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FEATURE PROJECTION LIGHTS & STAGING NEWS speaking French Canadians how the complicated introduction with lasers needed to go when he was summoned to Dio’s dressing room. Feeling that the task at hand was more important, he kept working on the show. Dio didn’t see it that way and fired him. “I flew home thinking I would never work in this business again.” That fear turned out to be fallacious. Rich Fisher, tour manager of Mötley Crüe, would give him his next opportunity. “During the 1980s I worked with a lot of heavy metal bands,” he says. “We did crazy things — like playing all 50 states with Metallica.” And every band was trying to top the others. “If Iron Maiden had 800 PAR cans we had to have 850.” The 1990s came, and Berry continued to spend an enormous amount of time on some of the top-selling tours of the day, including Mötley Crüe’s Theatre of Pain, followed by Girls Girls Girls. “It was a very creative time,” he says and recalls when they had Crüe drummer Tommy Lee spinning around with his drums during a performance. “We used a forklift and hydraulics, did it for about $85,000, and safety concerns were zilch! That effect would cost over a million dollars today. We’d just open the curtain, push it out there and then pray it worked!” Berry also worked with Roger Davis, another legendary manager whom Berry refers to as the “King of the Divas” for his landmark work with Cher, Tina Turner and Janet Jackson. Berry was part of many of those phenomenal tours. You Can Get What You Want Keith Richards, Jake Berry and Ron Woods at Jake’s 50th birtday party in 2002, during the Rolling Stones’ Forty Licks tour. plsn Once when Berry had a rare open spot in his schedule and he called Jeffrey looking for work. Jeffrey said that they were trying to find a drum tech for Berlin. “I can do that!” Berry said. Despite his lack of experience in that area, Berry came aboard and learned quickly. Typical of Berry, he had a great time doing it. He also has equally fond memories of touring for Frankie Goes to Hollywood during the same period. In 1993, Canadian concert promoter (and now chairman of Live Nation) Michael Cohl called Berry and told him the Rolling Stones were looking for a new production manager for the Steel Wheels tour. Being a fan since he was a teenager, this was an opportunity to “meet the people you idolized as a kid.” “Next thing I know, I was standing in a room at the Four Seasons in London looking out the window, and then I just froze — I knew Mick [Jagger] had walked into the room without even seeing him. Suddenly I was a little kid from Devon again.” That meeting went well, as did one with drummer Charlie Watts (“the gentleman of Rock ‘n’ Roll”). “When I went in to meet Keith, he was playing pool with [tennis star] John McEnroe. He asked who I worked with and when I said AC/DC, he replied, ‘That’s my favorite band. I love Angus. You’re hired.’” For Berry it was a like jumping to the major leagues. “It was a whole new spectrum of touring.” Working on this tour and then the Voodoo Lounge tour allowed him to work with lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe. “There is no one more passionate, committed, or able than Jake Berry to lift a huge production up onto his shoulders and then set off on tour for a year,” Woodroffe explains. “Although I have seen him in many frightening situations, Scenic designer Mark Fisher calls Berry “very noisy and certainly mad, which helps in this business.” both intellectual and physical, he has never appeared afraid. He makes decisive decisions that seem to sweep everyone along in his wake.” He adds with a laugh: “And we do both have the shared experience of having being threatened by Keith Richards. With Jake, it involved a knife, and me, a gun. But we both managed to survive with our dignity and cojones intact!” Berry adds that it gave him a chance to Ian Jeffrey tells the tale of the AC/DC gig where Berry hired a helicopter to dry a wet stage. work with “the greatest set designer of all time,” Mark Fisher. Fisher, who since 1994 has done many live events with Berry, recognized that when Berry joined the Stones he was indeed “the new kid.” “It was important that we got on well with him because he was the new kid on the block,” he says. “And Jake is very good with dealing with stars and made himself at home very quickly.” Berry quickly analyzed the workings of the organization. Jagger and Watts typically provided the creative direction a tour would take, while Richards concerned himself almost exclusively with the sound. “You couldn’t have an element on the stage that would [hinder] the sound,” he says.” Fisher and Woodroffe would start the process of design and go back and forth with the band until they had something they were all excited about. Yet Berry got off to a rocky start. Early in preparing for the tour, “I remember the rehearsals for Voodoo Lounge, and a heavy Jumbotron screen fell,” Berry recalls. In notifying the band of the setback, word failed to get to Richards, and a tough confrontation ensued. “They were honest words,” he says. “I had just taken another production manager’s place and Keith wanted to know how he could trust me after that.” Berry took his lumps and went off and proved himself. Today there’s an original artwork by Richards hanging in Berry’s house which came with a note that states simply: “He who came through — Love, Keith.” In 2002 the Stones again summoned him for the Forty Licks tour, which was memorable for being the tour in which Berry turned 50. The day before his birthday, the band was preparing for a show in Munich. LD Patrick Woodroffe says “there’s no Berry was informed that Jag- one more passionate, committed and able” than Berry. ger wanted to see him in his dressing room. It was a sobering request, as Berry points out that if one is ever summoned to a rock star’s dressing room, it is not to have lavish praised heaped upon oneself. When Berry got to Jagger, he led him to where a party was in full swing — a party for Berry. He did a double take as he spotted his mom, sitting between Richards and Ronnie Wood. “It was total class,” he said. And speaking of class, tour manager Alan Dunn treated Berry and the gang by dressing in drag. What would happen next is an embarrassment of riches. A meeting with Paul McGuiness led to an invitation to join another of rock’s royal families, U2. Berry flew to Dublin, sat down with the band, and soon he was working on their tours. Berry would become an important member of that family, too. When health-conscious Bono heard he wasn’t feeling well, he demanded Berry be sent to the Mayo Clinic. Berry asked Bono if he had a choice and was firmly told no. Soon Berry was in Rochester, Minn., getting a long overdue, thorough checkup. continued on page 49 Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info 40 PLSN OCTOBER 2009
42 44 Inside... Bangkok Motor Show Video World Video Projection Lights Up Rockestra Fundraising Event at Malta’s MFCC Dallas Cowboys Stadium Features Eight Temporary Video Displays For E/T/C London, one unusual quirk was a perfectly flat projection surface. VALLETTA, Malta — The president of Malta, George Abela, asked E/T/C London’s Ross Ashton to create a video projection show to accompany the island’s twohour Rockestra concert, a fundraising event for the Malta Community Chest charity. President Abela is the patron of the charity, the largest on the island, and with an audience of 12,000 packing into the Malta Conference and Convention Centre (MFCC), this ranked as the largest-ever indoor event to date held on the island. The concert, under the music direction of Sigmund Mifsud, included orchestrated versions of rock classics by Queen, the Beach Boys, the Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and other bands, plus instrumental pieces performed by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. Also appearing onstage were continued on page 42 The installed screens from Daktronics can be disassembled and used by industry partner GoVision for mobile displays at off-season events. DALLAS — The huge video display hanging in the center of the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium isn’t the only video element fans have been encountering lately. The football team’s management also opted to install eight Daktronics portable modular LED displays on their new stadium’s outdoor plaza. “Our plazas provide almost eight acres of landscaped outdoor space for fans to gather before, during and after the game,” said Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. “The addition of the Daktronics video boards provides engaging entertainment for our fans, enhancing everyone’s game-day experience. This connects everyone to live action from our pre-game shows, the game itself and all the way through to our post-game interviews.” The portable displays, comprised of Daktronics PST-12HD video panels, bring fans live HD continued on page 42 XL Video Aims Beyond the Status Quo with Video Visuals NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA — Phil Mercer, the new managing director for XL Video’s West Coast operation, arrives from the project management team at XL Video UK, where the company’s share of market is more dominant, and foresees more experimentation with new projection technologies that go beyond basic projection setups on this side of the Atlantic. “I want to focus on what we do in Europe, where we’re number one,” Mercer said. “In Europe a lot of our work is bespoke and most of it is quite creative. We are well known for providing more than the usual rectangular screens. Generally, both with cameras and projectors, we get involved with the more adventurous projects.” Newer, lightweight screens and other gear from lesser-known manufacturers, he notes, are “finding themselves in places they would never have previously been seen.” The newer technologies are also changing the way the crew gets the work done. “You can rig a huge screen with very few people very, very quickly,” Mercer noted. Along with a willingness to go beyond the status quo with technology, Mercer cites XL Video’s ability to custom-make unique video production elements as a competitive edge. continued on page 42 Phil Mercer, Managing Director, XL Video LA Ad info:http:// www.plsn.com/instant-info 2009 OCTOBER PLSN 41
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