| The Real Wizard 16.02.2018 02:06 |
Nice 1980 article from a Toronto newspaper, giving our beloved tour manager some much deserved props. |
| Jimmy Dean 16.02.2018 04:43 |
interesting article - thanks for sharing! |
| musicland munich 16.02.2018 06:03 |
Nice one ! Oh these words towards the end ..." that's just poor planning" :) |
| jozef 16.02.2018 07:04 |
Something similar ... (thanks to The Real Wizard): An interesting article from The Bulletin newspaper issue on August 22, 1980: KING OF THE ROADIES RUNS QUEEN'S EXTRAVAGANT SHOWS ... /By Matt Damsker (Of The Bulletin Staff)/ Approximately 18,000 fans will pack the Spectrum tonight to see the British rock band Queen strut its stuff. Most of them will take for granted the regal array of lights, rigging, stage and sound equipment that illumine, frame and otherwise project the quartet's elaborate aura. But at a time when only a handful of pop acts can afford to mount major concert tours, the logistics of moving, staging and re-moving these extravaganzas fall to such fire-tried experts as Gerry Stickells, without whom the Queen fans might have nothing to cheer about. While Stickells is one of those behind-the-scenes rock people who'll probably never make the cover of Rolling Stone, this soft-spoken 38-year-old Englishman is widely recognized as the top tour and production manager in the business. In addition to shepherding the last few Queen tours - which have employed everything from a 5,000-pound electric crown to new lighting systems of truly awesome intensity - Stickells' company has done the same for acts diverse as Elton John, Fleetwood Mac and Abba. He's in steady demand, but can now afford the selectivity that comes with a peerless reputation. „You do this sort of thing for the money as much as anything, but if it's a tour that's going to make life particularly difficult, I'd rather not,“ said Stickells by phone the other day from New York City. He'd reached the mid-point of Queen's 44-city American tour, and he sounded tired but in good humor. The tour was progressing „pretty smoothly“, or at least as smoothly as any operation that runs almost daily on four 44-foot trailers, two buses, private aircraft, and with 22 technicians and enough lighting and sound equipment to suck up „several million watts“ of electricity. The ultimate cost of the entire production will probably exceed $1 million, and it's not likely that Queen will do much more than break even financially, although major rock tours more than anything else are designed to generate album sales - in this case, for Queen's latest Elektra disc, „The Game“. With recession forcing virtually everybody's hands these days, have Queen and Stickells had to cut back on the sort of lavish show their audiences expect? „We haven't cut back in that area at all,“ said Stickells. „We've just had to spend a little more time packaging and planning it. We've just cut corners wherever possible in terms of being on the road.“ As Stickells tells it, the current Queen show is actually „very revolutionary, very different“ in its use of lighting. The staging is dominated by a huge swivel arm which features several racks of lighting on one end, spotlights and their operators on the other. The device can swing in a half-circle around the stage, and the spotlight operators can illuminate the various members of Queen from as close as 10 and as far as 50 feet away. „It's impossible to describe, really, but the effect is unique,“ said Stickells. Stickells described his early self as a „drifter“ who landed a job in the late 1960s with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. „At that time, no one had any idea how huge Jimi would become,“ racalled Stickells, who drove the Hendrix band's truck around England for a meager $30 per week. He served as Hendrix's tour manager until the rock star's death in the early '70s, then became president of Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios in New York, and eventually formed GLS Productions with tour managing partner Chris Lamb. „I don't think that the logistical problems are what makes this work hard to do,“ rellected Stickells. „After all, it's your job to deal with them. The hardest thing is dealing with the personalities involved, but once you become used to artists' moods, you can usually stay a step ahead. And I don't spend too much time listening to the music. I'm too wrapped up in the practical matters.“ ~ ~ ~ (link |
| Darren_1977 16.02.2018 08:42 |
The book he wrote is that still available to buy , I think it was called on the road , might be wrong |
| jozef 16.02.2018 14:07 |
What kind of health problem does G.S. have now (as Mr May mentions in his latest book ...)? |
| Vocal harmony 16.02.2018 14:08 |
Darren_1977 wrote: The book he wrote is that still available to buy , I think it was called on the road , might be wrongHe had planned a book, and I believe started writing it. It was going to be called Road Works. I believe I'll health led to him abandoning the project |
| Vocal harmony 16.02.2018 14:10 |
Vocal harmony wrote:Darren_1977 wrote: The book he wrote is that still available to buy , I think it was called on the road , might be wrongHe had planned a book, and I believe started writing it. It was going to be called Road Works. I believe I ill health led to him abandoning the project |
| The Real Wizard 16.02.2018 23:06 |
jozef wrote: Something similar ... (thanks to The Real Wizard):Thanks to me ? I can't find it !! Can you please post the original scan again? |
| Your Fairy King 17.02.2018 01:43 |
Based on the lyrics of the song one would logically assume Stickells was their dealer. |
| matt z 17.02.2018 03:47 |
Your Fairy King wrote: Based on the lyrics of the song one would logically assume Stickells was their dealer.The band term would be "liaison" or "recreational coordinator" as he probably helped supply the hookers n blow as well (*call girls being hookers. - can't mix with too many fans or else it could compromise road work - always better for a guy of the sort to recruit a "professional" for these matters and addressing the matter as for a business partner etc. Rather than to mention the band. ...but THAT book has yet to be written. The people in KISS however, did everything in all varieties. Mother daughter teams even, and Gene has the gall to call MJ depraved. U know some of them bunnies weren't more than 16 |
| jammythedodger 17.02.2018 06:11 |
link Any idea how old this photo is? He doesn't look well, and seems to have lost an eye. |
| jozef 17.02.2018 15:28 |
The Real Wizard you're right, my mistake :-) ..... |
| The Real Wizard 17.02.2018 22:41 |
Your Fairy King wrote: Based on the lyrics of the song one would logically assume Stickells was their dealer. jammythedodger wrote: link Any idea how old this photo is? He doesn't look well, and seems to have lost an eye.Looks pretty recent. Combining these two posts together has me thinking he's lucky to have made it to be this old. He sure has lived. |
| The Real Wizard 17.02.2018 22:43 |
jozef wrote: The Real Wizard you're right, my mistake :-) .....haha, no problem ! I'm happy to take credit for things, but I know I had nothing to do with this one. What a great article. Always great to see the guys behind the scenes getting some love - they are almost always the brains of the operation. |
| gambri 17.02.2018 22:46 |
Article in Billboard magazine, Dec 1, 1978. A pity that can not be read well. |
| gambri 17.02.2018 22:47 |
First part of the article. |
| The Real Wizard 18.02.2018 00:15 |
The ultimate cost of the entire production will probably exceed $1 million, and it's not likely that Queen will do much more than break even financially, although major rock tours more than anything else are designed to generate album salesAnd nowadays it's literally the opposite. The value of physical music is just about zero, and tours bring in hundreds of millions. |
| The Real Wizard 18.02.2018 00:28 |
"I don't spend too much time listening to the music. I'm too wrapped up in the practical matters."And this is precisely what lands you a career in the music biz for decades. It's work and only work. As soon as you're even 1% Mark David Chapman, no artist wants anything to do with you. This man seriously had his shit together. He was one of the best. |
| The Real Wizard 18.02.2018 00:33 |
gambri wrote: Article in Billboard magazine, Dec 1, 1978. A pity that can not be read well."I wouldn't compare this to a military operation. After all, we have all seen how often the military screws up." Gotta love that British wit. Thanks for posting ! |
| The Real Wizard 18.02.2018 01:02 |
"I know that a band like Kiss hands out ear plugs to its crew and instructs its sound man to turn it up as high as it will go without distorting. But to me that is not music, that's combat." -- Trip Khalaf Serious respect to that guy for calling them out on that in 1978. Even on the worst Queen audience tapes from that period you can still hear every instrument. It shows how good his mix was. |
| Penetration_Guru 18.02.2018 15:27 |
jammythedodger wrote: link Any idea how old this photo is? He doesn't look well, and seems to have lost an eye.You see on the page you linked where it says "taken on October 15th 2011? Consider that a clue. Interesting other pics in that guy's collection... |