#263 - Jake Berry

Here we are episode #263 just finished recording with legendary Jake Berry. Not too many people in this industry that I give legend status to, but he's certainly one of them with his work on the Stones and all of the incredible stuff he did on U2, including the Sphere and Coldplay and ACDC and Mötley Crüe. And I mean, the guy's a legend and he's just a super nice guy. He's a great storyteller.

He tells some amazing stories on this podcast, including again, telling some stories about AC/DC that you may or may not have heard before if you heard my podcast, but a lot of other stuff too, and it's a very funny start. I apologize for the beginning. Of course, we come in talking about racing, of which he's a huge fan, so please enjoy it. Welcome to Geysers of Gear episode #263 Today's podcast is brought to you by ACT Entertainment.

ACT is North America's leading supplier of the entertainment industry's principal products to professionals across six different end markets, including professional lighting fixtures and lighting control equipment, audio, video, fiber, Power Distribution, cables, connectivity, metal work, custom

manufacturing and design. With ACT Entertainment, you get the industry's top performance products as well as service, education and engineering support to bring every entertainment professional concept to reality. Visit their website actentertainment.com and today's podcast is also brought to you by Gear Source. Founded in 2002 with an ambitious mission to support live events businesses to buy and sell gear globally.

Since that time, the company transacted in more than 100 countries, selling 1/4 billion dollars in sound, lighting, staging and video gear. Gear Source continues to evolve the platform for massive global growth, enabling localized currencies, payment held in escrow to protect buyers and sellers, AI powered logistics behind a new global logistics

brand, and more. In fact, the company has just released massive new features including Gear Sync with the ability to manage up to 400 listings at once and Need Zone, an automated shopping assistant for hard to find items. Take full control over your gear with a visit to gearsource.com. So we're welcoming Sarah back this week. She was away for a week, She strayed from us.

She left us for a week and she went on tour, I think with Blink 182 in Ireland and England and Scotland, or maybe just Ireland and Scotland, I don't remember. Was talking with her this morning. She had a great time. We might have to do a podcast and discuss how touring has changed from the last time she went out until this time. And so she's back and she's happy to be back and she's happy to be back in her seat producing Geezers of Gear.

And we're working on a pretty big event for LDI as well, which we'll tell you more about very soon. So welcome back, Sarah. And also right now Plaza is going on as I am recording this Plaza is happening in England, in London, and many of our friends are there. And I didn't go. I've been to Plaza, I don't know, 15 times or something. It's a great show. I actually miss going. I would have liked to have been

there. And funny Side Story or not funny, but interesting fact is that I was at Plaza during 911. So as the terrible events occurred, I was getting messages and calls from Florida telling me what was going on and eventually made my way into a Media Center at Plaza where a bunch of Americans were standing around just staring up at the television in total disbelief. And so yeah, it was a nutty event and, and a really weird, weird time for us all obviously

terrible time. And actually, as I record this, it's September 4th, so we're, we're exactly a week away from that anniversary, which is not a happy one AI. So I actually had a couple people reach out to me thanking me for suggesting certain AI apps to try. And hey, anytime you know, it's something that I'm passionate about and I like quite a lot. And I, I do pay attention to

some new stuff when I have time. I haven't had a lot of time in this past week, but I do want to talk to you about a couple things. Starting with scientists have successfully connected AI to the nervous systems of a certain type of worm worms, allowing the AI to direct those worms towards specific targets. This technology showcases the remarkable potential of AI to interact with and influence biological organisms. This is a big deal. So, yeah, thought that was interesting.

Am I really following it closely or anything? No, I'm not. But it's obvious that AI is going to play a major role in solving things like blindness and diseases and all kinds of things. And, and of course, Elon Musk with with the chip that he's inserting into humans is going to hopefully solve a lot of problems and not create too many more.

It's a scary thought, but you know, if you looked back 20 years and said, hey, we're going to insert chips into humans that are going to help them think better and solve a lot of, you know, neurological diseases or problems or failures or whatever, I don't know that we would have believed it. It's happened so quickly. All of a sudden, one of the things I'm looking at right now or trying, testing, playing with

is something called flux. And Flux is a photo generating app or a, an image generating app. You know, some of the examples that they show and stuff that I've been playing with is where you can insert a background into a photo. And that background can be a cityscape, it can be a concert, it can be all kinds of things. They're incredibly real. They call it hyper real and it really is hyper real. Like when they show you a comparison, this photo's real. These three are made-up.

You'd be shocked. It's, it's just incredible how good it's gotten already. They can swiftly generate convincing images of people and places altering reality with a few clicks. This is one of their little promos, I guess, or, or specs or whatever. Reaching a level where distinguishing between an authentic photograph and an AI generated image is increasingly challenging. And obviously this brings about some concerns and some challenges and some problems.

So Flux's Open Access nature raises concerns about its potential misuse and brings digital ethics clearer into play here. So this is obviously a huge concern and this is something that the whole world is is at least thinking about. I would expect that there's going to be some regulation involving the use of images. What is owned by someone including their own image? You know, can I just copy images of Taylor Swift drinking a drink, a soft drink that I've created, you know, that's my

product or whatever. Can I have her using my product in an image? And what kind of fines or penalties are involved if I do that on social media or whatever? So, yeah, obviously this is the, the potential black hole side of, of AI, which is, you know, all of these intellectual property concerns and, and just rights, digital rights, who owns what it's, it's going to get increasingly complex and there's going to be a lot of lawsuits filed over this. So what do I say every week?

I'm really excited about today's guest because I'm so fortunate. I'm grateful for the fact that that so many people are interested in willing to come on this podcast and these people, some of them are legends. Some of them are people that I've looked up to for most of my career or all of my career and just gone, whoa, that guy's a superstar and this guy's one of them. So a career spanning almost 40

years now. Jake Berry is a multiple award-winning production director, production designer, production manager, production, all sorts of things known throughout the industry as a go to guy for any successful tour. Jake is the founder and CEO of Jake Berry Productions, a leading tour production management company hailing from Devon, England. Jake comes from modest beginnings. Jake's career began as a drum

and percussion technician. Actually, I wonder if that's really true because I remember the story that he told me where he was a keyboard tech for Yes, and from there suddenly got hired to be the production manager of ACDC. And we might get him to tell that story again today on today's podcast. Progressing through various international tours with groups including The Rolling Stones, U2, Metallica, Coldplay, and so many others.

We had the pleasure of Jake being on the podcast back in August of 21. That is episode #129 if you want to check it out on Apple or Spotify, it won't be on YouTube because we didn't start YouTube until just last year. So please join me and welcome Jake back to the podcast. Thanks. You, you, you need to travel with him. I travelled with him and he was the fucking worst. Yeah, the worst Who? Scott. Terrible 12 year old kid travelling. Scott Speed, yeah, so.

We we went to Bahrain and we did. He finished third in that GP two season, yeah. And the guy that won it was Hecky Kovaleinen. Yeah. And Nico Rosberg finished second in that in that championship worked. Out for both of them, didn't it? Yeah. And then Scott got promoted to Toro Rosso, Yeah. And he did not hit it off with the principal, Franz Tost. And there was lots of going back and forth. And then Scott, I think delivered like he had a direct

link to to Dietrich, right? Massachusetts had a Red Bull race and had a Red Bull. And he kind of went round, tossed his back and went there. And then then after a crash in Nuremberg where Scott crashed and so did 8 of the other drivers in wet conditions, I must admit. And they got into a bit of a fight. So then he saw they they sacked him, but then they put him in the Red Bull NASCAR program. And that's NASCAR program was run by Gunther Steiner, OK. And such a. Great guy. Yeah, so.

We got to know. I've got to know Gunter very well. And still known to these days, actually, yeah, Although I've now lost my connection to get Formula One tickets. So. So has he. He'll always be around. Yeah, he'll. Be fine. Yeah, yeah. Until we went to NASCAR, and then you know that he managed to. Actually, I went to Daytona 500 and we LED 12 laps. Yeah, fantastic feeling. And then he went down to ARCA

and he rode trucks. I mean, in ARCA series we were going to win it and it was between US and Ricky Stenhouse Junior, and all we had to do was to keep ahead of Ricky Stenhouse and Ricky Stenhouse went after Scott and pushed him into the wall. As you do, yeah, So. Then Scott Speed then came out of the pits as Stenhouse were coming back and made sure he wouldn't win the championship by T boning him. Jesus.

So there's the the the newer NASCAR people saying this is wrong and the older NASCAR people going he just got what he deserved and then and now Scott is he he's a works driver for Subaru in the GP Nitro series. Yeah, I still. He's not doing GRC anymore. Global Rallycross. Yes, but yeah, TRC, yeah, yeah. And I saw him, I saw a clip from him. He went to the Good Word Festival of Speed. Yeah. And he did the hill climbing the Subaru and he was sick. As well. Yeah, I saw that as well.

Yeah. You know he broke his back a few years ago, right? Yeah. Going over a bump, yeah. And I would go to Scott and I would, you know, everywhere I go, I like I, I took my friend Mitch Margolin to Daytona and he goes, yeah, we'll go and see Scott. And he thought that, you know, I would poke my nose in and say hi to Scott. And I went up to the pit, you know, the trailer. And, you know, I go, hey, Scott, how are you? And go like, he drops everything and comes over.

And I introduced the Mitch. And Mitch is, I think, a little bit starstruck. And he said to Mitch, he goes and he Scott will tell you this if you ask him, how do you get this far? It's quite possible to say that if it wasn't for Jake and spending money me, I wouldn't have made it this far. So that's. Amazing. You know, The thing is Jake, like today, so you know, my son's 20, he did last year in England. He raced a couple of different

series in England last year. My son, opposite of Scott would live in Europe in a second like for the next 10 years. He'd love to, but the money now is so much different than what you're talking about. Like 75,000 for 12%, you know, 75,000 wouldn't get you anywhere anymore. Like it, you know? So right now the going rate for Indy is about 12 to 15,000,000 for two seasons.

And that's as a driver coming in, like that's what you're going to pay to get in. You're going to pay to get in unless you've just won everything in the world and they want you on one of the teams. But even like Andretti and Penske and stuff are taking paid seats now. And so it's, it's like, you know, I hate to say it, but we've got friends in an IndyCar that my kid has beaten all the way through karting and, and even in cars.

We've got some friends going through the Formula One route who are in F2 or they're even reserve drivers in some cases who we've beaten in carts and cars. But you know, I can't fund it. Like I just don't you know, and even within our industry, like I've got a lot of connections in our industry who have been very gracious and have helped to support him. But the money, you know, even if I collect 100,000 or 150,000 from people that.

Erases. Yeah, I. Mean Formula two now I think is around 6,000,000 for a season, something like that. Like it's an insane number, you know? Formula 3 is around €2 million for a season of Formula 3. Formula 4 is almost €1,000,000. You know, it's just insane money right now. It's insane. Imagine that you're a top driver and you have to spend 10 million to get a seat, right? Imagine if you're a college football player and you want to go to Yeah. You got to spend 10 million to

go play for the the. The New York Jets want want you in their team and you can come and play for us if you if you give us 10 million people would say that's not right, but of course they would. I mean there's a couple of prime examples in there. You know, I mean, look, you look at Lance Tro and Aston morning right to you know, is he there because of his dad in the New York second Is he he's I think he's an OK driver, but he's an OK driver amidst a lot of very

good ones he'd. Never be in Formula One if he if he wasn't Laurence Stroll's son. There, he wouldn't, No. I was very surprised because I always thought that Lance was fast and he was not very good on on tricky circuits or or technical circuits. But he always said well in Monza and this year at Monza it was a complete disaster. Yeah, yeah. Now he's, he's there obviously, because his dad's the boss and now his dad.

I've just read a rumor this morning that they're giving Adrian Newey 25,000,000 to come to to come to them to come to Aston next. Yeah, well, I mean it is or it isn't, but it's going to put you in the in the conversation, that's for sure. And for him, 25,000,000 is peanuts. You. Know yes, so like they once said to, I don't know, there was an interview and I can't remember. I think it was Lewis Hamilton and they said what team would you like to race for most?

He goes the one with Adrian Newey. Yeah, yeah. If the guy's that good, you know he really is and he doesn't. Need the computer? It's all. It's all rulers and and can drawn, isn't it? Yeah. Well, and there's very few people like that, you know, and, and like you mentioned earlier, Mike Speed is one of the guys in karting who's like that. Like he could look at a Tony cart and tell you exactly what, how it needed to be adjusted that his biggest thing was carburetion.

Like Mike Speed in Go Karts was a carburetion genius. You know, he'd go off into a little hidden place and he'd do some adjustments to the carb and he'd come back and you'd be like 3/10 faster and you'd go, what did you just do? I don't know. I mean, MM speed with Scott. Mike believed in Scott. Yeah, I mean, they had, I wouldn't you know, they had an up and down relationship.

They argued a lot. I think they still like, but like Mike, Mike went into so much debt to get Scott where he wanted, like a double mortgage on a house. And you have to have the utmost respect for people like that, Yeah. Yeah, I mean. Trouble for being a genius. Let's face it, when your last name is Speed, you've got a little pressure on you. You know you're not going to, you're not going to make it in,

you know, whatever. You're not going to make it in a lot of industries, but you're going. To once, once I had an idea that I was going to take, you know, to try to get sponsors in it and I was going to go to American Express and I was going to Scott Speed the American Express. That's a good one. Yeah, that's a good one. Do you know Alex as well? His brother? I do, yeah. So Alex was like Jeremy's engineer for a number of years. My son's engineer in karts, they

were the best. I mean, speed, you know, I helped him come up with his name, Speed Concept Racing, because I always argued with him. You've got to use your name. It's your name. And he goes, yeah, but it sounds so cheesy, Speed, you know, race fast. And I'm like, but it's your freaking name, so you got to use it. So. Mike's wife passed away, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then and then. His They put their heart and soul and house and name and money on the line for their son.

Yeah, they did. And. Alex wasn't a mean go Kart racer either. Yeah, yeah. No. And honestly, you know, I'd like to say he's the only one because I did. And so many fathers did, you know, because you just look at your son and like, my son from the age of seven, never wanted to do anything else in the world except be in a go Kart. And then at 15 in a race car, you know, that was it. That was the only thing he wanted in the world. To this day, it's all he wants.

But you know, now, unfortunately, like most of them, he's on the other side. He's coaching and so he's coaching a bunch of US Formula Four drivers. He's SIM coaching a lot of drivers. So yeah, it's a whole thing. It's, it's sad actually, when you know, there's a lot of talent out there that's better than some of the talent is there because, you know, with the Formula One car, I don't know if if you're as much a driver as a computer genius. Yeah, it's true. Or. Or, or a mixture of both.

Yeah. And then it's always the best driver and the best car will win. I mean, it amazes me that they go like the Aston Martins really slow because it's 9/10 of a second slower on a lap than anyone. 9/10 of a second, yeah. It's insane, isn't it? It's it's like a blink of an eye. Yeah, yeah, 9/10 of a second on a, on a minute and a half lap, right or whatever. So no, it's incredible. It's all incredible. And the drivers, there's so many

great drivers right now. I think, I think a lot of them will never make it to Formula One. A lot of them will never make it to Formula Three because the money's just not there. You know, it's, it's a terrible story right now. Those with loads of money are, are making it on and the grids are going to end up watered down. You know, the grids are going to get lame. Like I think right now IndyCar

is pretty exciting. You know, there's, there's some pretty good things happening in IndyCar right now. But even there, like if you look at the last five, 6-7 drivers usually on the on the sheets, at the end of the day, those guys are paying millions of dollars to be in those seats. And yeah, it's just not right. I don't. You know, I had a burning ambition once. Just once. Oh, and racing.

I wanted to go to Indianapolis from like the start or get into like Wednesday or Monday before the race, then walk up and down pit row and find it. Who wanted $25,000? Yeah. And you'll go, you have $25,000. I just want my name on a car. And going back to what you said about our industry friends, I did that with with Colin Fleming in Formula Atlantic, I think. Yeah. And so I got my friends from stage, Co-op stage in screen works, cat entertainment. And I go, you, you want to give

me some sponsorship money. So we raised 100 grand and that was good. Yeah, that's very good season and like 20 grand for each company. And we put it over the car and we had a great car and won it. And then also there back in the GP two days, Colin was trying to race for a Swiss outfit. I can't remember the name. And they wanted some money for a wind tunnel test and at wind tunnel testing time. Yeah, I used to own a bunch of sound consoles that I rented, so I sold one and paid for wind

tunnel time. All that got me is that my company was called Fader Hire then and I have a picture of Colin driving around Monaco with Fader Hire on the mirrors. Nice. Yeah, I. Got nothing out of it except that's fucking cool. Well. So, you know, remarkably, there's a company in our industry called Ayrton Lighting, which, you know, is a major automated lighting manufacturer now, one of the top guys out there.

And the founder, Yvonne, is a French guy who was a massive Formula One fan and was obviously a massive Ayrton Senna fan. And when Ayrton died, he closed the company for a couple of weeks in mourning and then a little bit later on changed the name of his company to Airton and just totally basically so, so for the past couple of years, one of our main sponsors was Airton Lighting.

And so we had big Airton logo on, on the car and people would always be like, are you just huge fans or what's the deal? And we're like, no, no, look, it says Airton Digital Lighting. And so, you know, you got in a lot of really great conversations at the track. That was for sure. Like, you know, we were at I think Brands Hatch and a guy comes up to me and says, we just delivered a bunch of those lights yesterday, you know, And I was like, oh, really?

And so, yeah, it's great. Like I said, our industry's been very, very good to us. Yeah, but not good enough to get us into IndyCar or into any of the next steps, you know, Formula, Formula 3, which we have two or three friends in in F31 and F2 now. And you know, it's it's a long expensive Rd. Yeah, there you go. Very. Interesting. We thoroughly bored people now, Jake, so let's talk about what they want to hear about, which is our business.

So you know, I actually had you on the podcast in 2021. I don't know if you remember, but one of my favorite stories was, was the the ACDC story where you're sitting in the pub and, and you know, I think at the time, weren't you a keyboard tech for yes or something? For Rick Wakeman, yeah. Yeah, and, and what happened? How'd you get the ACDC gig? Well, sorry to make you tell it again, but I love it.

We used to drink in this bar called the Warrington Hotel, which was in medieval, which is a division of London. Yeah, everybody drank there. You know, it was you could pick up a rogue crew in a good night at the thing at them. And my very good friend Ian Jeffrey was the tour he'd worked for. When I started with Rick in 75, he was the monitor guy. And then he moved on to tour manage ACDC. So ACDC, we're looking for a production manager and he goes, I've put your name forward and I

go, but he and I've never. Done production management, he said. But you know, I told him you were a stage manager on yes. So I go, you know, which was stretching the truth, I would say. And so we got there and I met Peter Mensch. And then, you know, then, you know, later in the story, you go like, who's the people that influence you the most? And you know, you start off with Peter Mensch.

Peter Mensch. I can never have a enough thank you and a huge amount of respect for what he's achieved in business. So we kind of got to Peter and Peter agreed and he sent me out to to go and learn to be a production manager in Oakland, CA with ACDC. First gig was the Oakland Auditorium, Bill Graham Auditorium and there he'd come from a Peter had come from a management company, Libra Crepes. So, but ACDC we're OK to be managed by Liebman kept along. It was Peter Mensch was the manager.

So and then Peter, you know, left and went on his own. They stayed with him and he goes, I'm going to send out this guy Joe Baptista, who was the production manager for Aerosmith and very well respected. And so this guy was going, you're going to learn from him or you're not going to learn from him and you're going home. So Joe came in on that great guy, Joe, great, great guy. And you know, don't forget you had no, no fax machines. You had no, you didn't even have

a pager, let alone a cell phone. This was in the 80s, right? This one in 79. 70. Nine wow, so you know, you did everything with a payphone. So and then, you know, by that time, you know, I think Bill Graham organization was the first to put, you know, a long distance phone in the production office where it was MCI or I can't remember the name of the companies where you hit nine, you dialed the number, then you put hard number. So we advance. He said, listen to me, I'm advancing the show.

So I listened to him advance the show, took down some notes and he had this four page questionnaire that you know, you would ask the questions, you know, do you have loading docks? I mean, back in 79 most of the answers. What are those, you know? And so he let me do it.

And I looked at he goes and he said to the next, the next time he called, he go, well, why don't you give it a try and I'll be here to back you up. So I went through it and I mean, I could write down, but first of all, I hate writing because my writing's terrible. My spelling's awful. So I did it and I went through it like that and did a couple more and he goes, don't worry, you got it. And he told Peter, don't worry, Jake's got it. He'll be, he'll be OK. And, and that was it.

And many, many, many years later, we were playing Metallica, ACDC and Metallica in, in, in, in Russia. And I was looking for a psych coordinator. So the first person I call was Joe Baptista. I said, this is what I owe you. And unfortunately after that, that was the last gig he ever died. When he came home, he had a heart attack and passed away. So. But that's how I started. So he gave you your first gig and you gave him his last gig? I think you said that on our first one.

So it's not like I'm being smart. No, no, no, I mean it's true. And you know, you've been through, Peter mentioned. Now you're at Joe Baptista for the people that help you. Carve your career. Yeah, that's just amazing, though. Like I it's one of the things I love about the foundation of this industry is bands as big as AC/DC, as big as some of these bands and willing to hire a guy who has nothing on his resume that says production manager. You know what I mean?

Like I. Used to hang out with in the pub. I used to hang out with all of them and they all used to come to the same pub. So when somebody goes to, you know, ACDC and they go, yeah, well, I've known them since 76. So I mean, it wasn't strange and they were quite happy, you know, But I mean, it's, it's, it's not what you who the rock behind. I'm trying to explain this. Been in the right place at the right time. Not your skill level because my skill level certainly wasn't up

there with anybody now. And in some respects, technically wise, there's a whole whole bunch of people are in this business, are far technically and in our business, I always maintain that 50% of being a production manager was personality at least 50%. How to get your point across without pissing people off? Yeah, is it? Is it somewhere between, you know, being a nice guy and creating massive fear? I don't know if I ever wanted to create massive fear, but it's yes.

I think being a nice guy and listening to both sides of the story, then making and sometimes an educated guess. And that's where I learned the four, the four most important words I ever learned of being a production manager. When somebody asks you a question, you go, I'll get back to you cuz you never wanted to appear dumb. So you can find the answer and come back.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, so many people in our industry always say, you know, like if if you ask them for the best advice, they'll say say yes and then go figure it out, you know, and like Cosmo was one of the ones who said that. And so many people did that. Like they just, they didn't because you couldn't know everything, especially in those early days. Just say yes and then go find out how to do it. The. Early days were pioneering. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

I mean, there's a lot of people, you know, who were pioneers. Chipmunk, you know, Stansfield, you know, Joe Back, they were all pioneers. And you know, you go to you know the riggers like Branham and Air Banks who were the and Travis with the Disney riggers, you know, and they they were the first people to fly a sound system. You know, you had a platform, you stacked the sound, you ratched it and took it up on 4 motors.

Very, very basic. Yeah, but I mean, incredible, you know, it's incredible always to like, I love, I love this podcast because I get to hear some of these stories of how they created some of the earliest sound systems and made it work or how they, you know, just it was always a learning thing and a figure it out thing, you know, and making park cans from pineapple cans and stuff like that.

So, but let me ask you, because you you worked with ACDC from early on and, and, and also Mötley Crüe in the 80s. And it's funny because while you can't see it right now, let me see if I can turn. So that's right. There is me and and Nikki, but it's me next to him with the long hair. And that was a tour that you worked. That was Theodore Pain. Well, so that was in Calgary. That was in Calgary, by the way,

that that particular one. So you know, every, every picture tells a story, doesn't it? You know, so I got to know the motley crew and, and 1st, you know, probably Doc, you know, I was out working for Aussie at Bark of the Moon tour and the crew were the support act and they, they came up and they had, I don't know who their production manager, I can't remember. It might have been somebody called Roy Franks, I believe.

And the crew wanted to hang their motley crew backdrop and, and Roy said no. And so they were kind of pissed off and I said we can do it, you know. So we went and got a pipe and we put some nails in the pipe and, you know, we had the grommets on their drop and we would hang it and at the set change when it was over, we would just let it down. Very simple, very basic. And So what what does that cost us? And back in those days, it was either $100 or equivalent.

Yeah, yeah, I got so. That's why I need to do the crew. So after Bark of the Moon, I went on and did Ronnie James Dio. I was at with Deal and and then to be perfect on this. Deal was to this day the only tour that I've ever been asked to leave or fired really. Yeah. What happened there? Well, we were trying to save money and we Wendy Deal was, I don't know the complete story, but her and Ronnie were separated and a rumour had she was involved with a singer from a band called Rough Cut.

Rough Cut with a support act. And then we did our first loadout at Alpine Valley and we were so tight in the trucks we had to drive the truck down a slow slam on a brake so we could close the door, you know. And then we were setting up in Quebec City and they said they want to see you in the office. I mean, I can't go down the office. I'm trying to explain to a bunch of French Canadian stage chants how the show opens because it's all about laser timing, opening

a curtain and putting in smoke. It was had to be coordinated. Yeah. And at the end of the night, they said, can you come to the dressing room? So I did. And Wendy said to me, you know, it's not working out, Jake. He said, I go, why are you getting rid of me? She go, Yeah, I think so. And that was it. It took. It took 30 years. Later I met Wendy 30 years and she goes, are you still angry at me? I go, of course I am, but I forgive you, you know.

So it was good, but and then I went home and I remember so there. Was literally no reason. Well, I think I think because you. Didn't rush to the office. Maybe I yeah, maybe I didn't bow down as much. I I don't know.

But interesting you. So, you know, I went home and I had zero money and I said to my then wife Maria goes, I don't know what we're going to do. And within 4 less than 24 hours, Rich Fisher was the tour manager from the crew said, Jake, can you come out and be the stage manager for Theatre of Pain? And I go here I go. So off I went. And then that's hilarious. I felt that, you know, everybody used to come for me to decision. So you know, I've been a production manager, stage manager.

I had to go because I needed the money, but that's why I got to be the production manager for the crew, you know, from $100 worth of that's. Insane, That's so insane. That's great. Well, and you know, like you said before, like, you know, take good care of people and, and you know, treat them right and be cool with people and stuff and, and it can turn into a life lifetime of gigs, you know, and that's worked out for you and so many people in this industry. Yes, it has, yeah.

That theater a pain tour. So that picture, you know, I didn't really ever think about it until I I read their book The Dirt, and I had no idea how fucked up they really were. You know, like how much shit they were doing and ingesting into their bodies. And I look back at that picture and you can see the look in Nikki's eyes.

He was wasted. Now I'm going to tell you a story and you right, you might remember this because this happened in Calgary. And so Vince was on lockdown at this point because of the car accident and Tommy was married. But Tommy was in love with my secretary, whose name was Beverly. And so Bev and I were talking with Tommy, hanging out, whatever. And we were like, yeah, we got to get going.

We're meeting some friends at a club and he goes, I'm coming and we go, OK, well, I have a Corvette. It's only got 2 seats in it. I'm not sure how we're gonna work that out, Tommy. And he goes, no, no, no, we'll all come or no, he goes I'll somebody will drive me or something. So he grabs a radio from someone and he calls whoever. And it was like everyone had numbers. Tommy was 0. And I can't remember what the number was of the person he called, but it was a manager or something.

And he said, I'm going to go to a club with some friends of mine. And he's like, no, Tommy, you're not going anywhere. We're leaving and going to Edmonton. And he goes, no, no, I'm going to go for a couple hours and hang out with my friends and, and you know, and, and you know, I like these people. I'm going to go hang out. No, Tommy, you're coming with this. We're going to Edmonton. So Tommy starts throwing a fit and he starts like flipping Rd.

cases, pulling him off the truck, you know, flipped over a couple tables with drinks on him and stuff. He was just having a little tantrum, right? And we were like, oh shit, like let's sneak out of here or something, right? And so finally he convinces the management to pack everyone in the bus and the whole bus followed my car to this local club.

And so we're on our way to the club and I called the club and I'm like, hey, it's Marcel. Yeah, I'm coming down me and Bev and Mötley Crüe and, and the girl goes whatever, you know. And I said no, no, it's me, Bev and Mötley Crüe. And so Vince had to stay in the bus, but the rest of them came in and well, I don't think Mick came in. It was probably just Tommy and and Nikki came in and a couple couple crew guys and it was a crazy night.

It was just a nutty night. We had a lot of crazy times on the crew. I can't even imagine, you know, did you ever see the movie The Dirt, the Netflix movie? It's so funny when the fake Jake Berry is standing at the railing at a motel, and he looks at the camera and goes, you know, I've been with Skid Row and Bon Jovi and he lists a few bands. He goes. But nothing ever prepared me for this, you know? And it's just debauchery. Probably been Rich Fisher. I think no, it was.

I thought it was supposed to be Doc McGee. It was Doc McGee. It was the manager in the movie, Yeah. Well, I mean, I saw the dirt and because I was on the production side, yeah, I didn't see a lot of the stuff that was going on. Right. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, I remember being around the night that Nikki, yeah, died. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and don't forget, that was a big LA scene. It was huge, huge LA scene. Massive. Yeah, you. Know you had the crew you had poison you had.

Roses you had. GNR Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, bands like Warrant and it was pretty insane. Yeah. When everybody tells you about, you know, what went on in the 80s and the 90s, and you listen to stories and people go, what do you think? I go? I think you've only just scratched the surface. Yeah. No kidding. I. Mean It was insane, what we used

to do insane. Let me let me ask you this though, like you were with ACDC in the 80s and and Mötley Crüe in the 80s, did you have any idea that both those bands would be doing stadium tours in in 2024? Like, you know, did I honestly think I'd still be around in 2010? That's true too. Yeah, that's true too. I was there. I was very fortunate to be, you know, an A/C DCI was there when Highway to Hell came out. And that was like.

Big the start you. Know, but we were still travelling around 2 trucks, you know, and I think the first American tour we had, the support band was Molly Hatchet and then the band from Atlanta, what they call the Atlanta Rhythm Section, I can't remember. So I mean, we won't. And that was like a a great bill. I mean, Motley Hatchet were a great southern rock band. Yeah. They were great southern rock band.

Yeah. And so we went out and we toured and we did Highway to Hell and, you know, we finished America and, you know, it was obvious the band were going places. Yeah. And then we went back into England and I was working for them full time a lot of the time. Oh, wow. So I was on salary and then we went off to Paris, you know, then you know where I was living in London with my then

girlfriend. And then, you know, in the middle of the night, we, or early one morning, we get a phone call from, I think it might have been Ian, say fucking Bond had died overnight. That's incredible. Crazy you. Know and you, you put the phone down and you go. What did I just hear? Yeah. And because he never showed up for rehearsals for Back in Black and they were worried about him, and then, you know, are they going to carry on? What are they going to do? So.

That album was written with Bon Scott. I didn't realize. No, no. No, they hadn't started it. They do it in two ways. They do the music first, OK, And then Bon was going to come in with some lyrics. I see. OK, well, let me get a look. Bon would come and listen to it and we'll have some ideas for song because. It's funny to think like some of those iconic songs on Back in Black, to think of them being sung by Bon Scott, who's an incredible singer. It would have been so different,

you know, just so different. Yeah. So. You know, and then the band decided to carry on and then, you know, then I consider to be one of the hardest jobs I've ever had in Rock'n'roll. I I think it was myself and Ian, we backed up Bon Scott in Victoria, Bon's apartment in Victoria and mailed or shipped all his personal belongings home to his mother and father. In Perth, so terrible. Yeah, and. Then we had to go about finding a singer.

Yeah. And we did rehearsals and auditions in the studio in Victoria Excuse. Me one SEC, Jake. So it was never discussed like, hey, this is the end of the band or anything. It was just immediately going to be we're going to get a new singer. No, it was discussed. Oh. OK, yeah, it was So that had to be that had to be on your mind. Like I've got this great gig, I'm getting paid salary, you know, I. I, I think that I didn't know what was happening on the inner,

inner talks amongst the bands. And yeah, it went back and forth and, you know, the young family being in Australia, Georgia and, and, and the family were very involved in ACDC with Gary Vander. And they go, you guys have got this great album. It would be unfair not to let the people hear it. Yeah. So then we auditioned for singers and we had a few. So how long? Did it take to make that decision that it was going to go on like was it a couple weeks, a month? Yeah, yeah.

It wasn't a month. Yeah. Oh, OK, I. Think we all shut down for a month? It was. Pretty quick. Everybody had to go home, you know, and and then we had these auditions and along along showed off this guy with a floppy cap and he came in and 1st audition and he did really well. We've had some some people in before. I mean, there was talk of Knotty Holder from slave, but everybody felt that he'd always have the slave identity. But he had the right voice for ACDC. Oh Jesus.

Perfect. Yeah, perfect. And then we had like, Gary Halton from the Heavy Metal Kids and bands like that, and then just a couple of other people, and then Brian came along. Yeah. And Brian is, you know, if you know Newcastle, you know, the people are pretty down to earth. Yeah. So he came in, started playing pool with one of the crew because he thought he was a band member. That's how much he knew about that's. Funny. And they and I. Go. Where's this other guys?

15 minutes late. Oh, that's me. So you're not an audition. Ain't he? Good. And then all of a sudden, you know, they tell you, let's just bring him back for a second chat. Second time. So Brian came back for a second time. And after the rehearsals, we all were headed down to the the pub next to the studio. And we're sitting, you know, because we all hung out then. We were all a big family. Wasn't this the Rockstars in a five star hotel and then the crew on a bus. We go hanging out.

And I can't remember whether it's Malcolm to Angus or Angus to Malcolm. Do you want to tell him or shall I? Shall I? And somebody goes. I will. And they turn around to Brian like this. Hey, Brian, you want to be the singer in ACDC? Yeah. Yeah. And that was it. Grab another beer. Then he they will be in touch. And he headed back to Newcastle and, and then we started to go in rehearsals and we wanted to do the first show which was way out of the way.

So we went, went to a convention centre in a place called Namur, which is in Belgium. And we got there and it was the fucking worst sound in all you'd ever had. The band came in at 3:00 for a sound check, and Malcolm was distraught with his arm. And he go so distraught that he said we can't play in here. And then the promoter must have been Michelle Pearl. Then I think you know. And he goes, well, there's another hall I think sounds better. This is 3:00 in the afternoon.

So they all went over. This sounds better. OK, we're going to move the show there. So we took the whole production. Oh. My God, Oh my God talking. APA yeah, PA and you're talking 2 genie lifts or something like that. Very small, but yeah. I mean, it's not like today, but still they. Built a stage and we went over it like 530. Wow. But they show up and played at 9:00 that night and that was Brian's opening gig. Wow, that's so incredible.

Yeah, the the, there were a couple of other parts that you told in that story last time and you missed this time. 1 was that Brian just sort of went there on a bit of a whim, like he was, he was going to be, I think he was recording a a radio commercial or something across the street. No, he was doing voice overs for Hoover. Hoover. Vacuums, right? Yeah. And he goes, I don't know if I'd bother. And I think somebody said why you should go down, what have

you got to lose? He was, he was struggling a little bit. So then he had to leave the first day because he had he had to do a commercial. I mean incredible though. Like how those little tiny things set your destiny, you know? And if you think about Brian's life, what it became with ACDC, like, holy shit, thank God for that Hoover commercial, you know? And ACDC went up.

They went, they went down. I mean, there was a time when ACDC was a hard sell that a couple of, you know, not so good albums and all of a sudden, you know, they toured Europe this summer and I went to see him in Germany, actually. Yeah, Did you? And I went and I hung out with Brian and I hung out of Angus because they were the only two. Yeah, everybody. Else is gone and. You know, and people go, what do you think of ACDC?

And they go, well, back in the day, everybody used to say that they're they're heroes and who they learnt most of was was Led Zeppelin. And now all the bands go, you know, where do you get your energy from? And ACDC, so ACDC religionist status and, and you know, Brian is not, not a young man. He's he's 7576, I think. But that's to sing that stuff in your 20s is hard, let alone when you're 70. Sometimes some of the songs he struggles in, sometimes he's just great.

Yeah, and but basically, I don't know if the people give a shit that much. They just really don't. BC. And they want to hear Highway to Hell, They want to say it shook me all night long. And they want to hear, yeah, they were back in back going. Nuts like I've only seen video, but the fans are going nuts, you know so they're loving it I. Mind their legendary status.

Yeah, they certainly are. But I mean, again, like in the 80s, you saw the debauchery, you saw the the crazy stuff that crew were doing and, and whether or not they'd even survive as humans was questionable, let alone as a band. And but here they are in 2024 touring, not ACDC, not ACDC, no ACDC. We're always a little more businesslike, right? Well, no, they were. They were. They were not into all the debauchery like Angus is always been teetotaled.

Well Malcolm is well documented, had a little bit of an alcohol problem and a bit of pot but nothing serious. I mean Cliff was Cliff. Cliff just came along and played solid bass but he wasn't wild or anything I'm sure. No, we all had our vices and Phil sometimes could be a loose cannon, but they weren't. They wouldn't, they wouldn't have the reputation like the crew got the reputation, right. Not the I'm talking about Mötley Crüe, you know? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, Mötley Crüe I again, I mean, it shocks me that you know, they've, they've retired a couple times too and and they just there's longevity there that I never in a million years would have pictured well. The the pity about Mötley Crüe now is the inner fighting with the band. Yeah, yeah. You hate seeing bands suing each other and stuff, yeah. I mean. Especially original members and stuff like that. Like have you seen all the journey stuff with with Neil

Shawn and and Jonathan Cain? What an embarrassment. But they're. Playing together, they go out on stage every night. Facebook and they're slagging each other off. I mean, fantastic. You all got inner politics in bands. You don't air your dirty alert. No, it's so nobody. Gives a shit if Jonathan Cain wants to put a lawsuit to Neil Shong. Neil Shong, you know, he said. Jonathan Cain says we have it in our deal that we get $1500 a night room allowance for Neil's. Neil's overspending.

Yeah. So Neil should pay. It's very simple. Yeah. Work. It out though, yeah, like why would you go this route? It's just, and how do you get on stage every night and and play with these guys when you're going to court during the day? It's incredible. Like it's incredible. I mean, obviously at that point it's just a business. It's not about the music, it's not about the art. It's not about anything else.

It's it's just a business. Unfortunately, I think that our our industry is just a business in a lot of ways, you know, Yeah. It's definitely changed. It's certainly changed a lot. You know, it's even Sarah who, who you met at the front end of this. She, you know, she, she just went and did a little one week tour with Blink 182, you know, just to make a little bit of money and have a little bit of fun. And she spent a number of years touring and and she said it's

just so different. You know, everyone's so much more intense and it's, you know, it's all the money, I guess that's either being spent or made or whatever you want to call it. But it's, yeah, it's just different. It's very different, I mean. You look at now. I mean, I don't know if you've been reading or catching up on the Oasis saga with ticketing. Yeah, yeah, we were talking about that this morning. Look, the dynamic in ticket is seller demand, isn't it?

Yeah. I mean, if there's a huge amount of people requesting the same tickets, the tickets go up. Well, I don't see if there's nobody requesting them the tickets going down. No, never happens. Never happens. If you want to do it that way, you should pay both sides of the fence. Yeah, but also I think in the spirit of longevity, you don't want to go up too far, you know, like this dynamic pricing thing where, you know, the notorious ones like Springsteen, $5000

tickets and stuff. It's nonsense. It's, it's just crazy. It's lunacy. I, I hear that the Ticketmaster was saying that they put it down to the managers and the agents and the promoters. You know, I, I, I don't believe in a lot of it. The promoters, I mean, look, I'm sure they look, everybody wants to make money. But if you look at SGM, in my opinion, Simon ran, I think it's a really decent guy.

You know, I, I think he probably who was involved, but I don't think they, they thought it would go this far. And, and there's the one of the ticketing company trickets or something like that. When you have 138 LB service fee, something's fucking wrong. Exactly. Well, everyone I think is just saying no, it's their fault, it's their fault, it's their fault. But everyone's still willing to take their heavy piece out of it, right? Like even the artists?

The artists. They put the tickets on sale and if they were 150 lbs for standing and there were £350 for VIP and everybody went in line and bought it, nobody would have complained. Yeah, It's when you when you get online, when you get online and it's 110 and by the time you get the tickets it's 328. It's insane. Yeah. Well, and then the secondary market, the secondary market, all the Stubhubs and all these companies out there that, you know, are basically legal

scalpers, right? And yeah, it's, it's problematic, you know, And then I think the artists are starting to, well, they started to look at it and go, OK, all these people are making all this money, we just need to raise our prices. So we're keeping it all, you know, But I don't know that that's the answer either. I don't know. Who knows. What do I know? What do I know? So the sphere, I want to talk to you about the sphere.

Obviously you and you too go back a long way and you've done some, you've done some incredible things together. You did the big claw thing with that, right? The stadium thing it was. Legendary about the claw. I mean, I remember that the the start of the claw we'd finished probably Joshua Tree and we were in Hawaii was the last show and we're standing on stage and you know, the last time. Check everybody. Hey, hugs and things like that And and Bono comes up and he's Jake.

He goes, I want to talk to you. He said can we play a show in the round and I go boss, we can do anything we like knowing that there were shows in the round and I'm going this is fantastic. The next door. We're going to have a 60 by 40 stage with no production small trucks. It's going to be an easy tour, right? That was my that's. Hilarious. That's so. Funny.

And then, you know, then of course, a, a, a few months passed by and and then Mark Fisher, Mark Mark called me and you know, my life story in the industry would not be complete without the, my take and my respect for the greatest set designer of all time being Mark Fisher. Absolutely. So he's, he's his theory was he said to me, Jake, how wide is the football field? And I said, it's 68 meters roughly. That's the playing surface football field and the, the

playing surface. OK, well, we're going to play in the round, but we're not going to be in the middle. We're going to be two thirds, 1/3 because all these guys of of the older bands who have stage present always rely on a downstage centre, a downstage left and a downstage right. It's hard for them to get their head around a 360 environment and that was the same with with Mick.

We tried in the round once and Mick wanted a downstage edge and he failed to get it and he tried in the round, no security, hated it. Yeah, yeah, I just, I just did Metallica a couple weeks ago in or I went to it in Edmonton. I'm I'm at my house up in Canada right now, right. And it was weird. Like it was like, where do you stand? Because where's the band going to be? Well, yeah, there's a drum set on all four sides basically, right?

I mean, but if you look at Metallica very briefly, that's going back to the Black Album tour when Laura said two kids. Yeah, yeah. It's an entrance. True. Yeah. And, and and then Mark's idea going back to a 360, if I make the stage big enough, I'll make the stadium look smaller and more intimate. Sounds mad, doesn't it? It does, yeah. 100% correct. Yeah, Yeah.

And then I remember we get the stage, go for the first Test build and you know, you, you get these towers that hold a roof up, which are like maximum 1m wide. And these towers are right on the track and you can fucking stand up inside of them. Really. And we did a test build and then we were in the middle of a small village called Worktor in Belgium doing a test build. And the the law of building in these small towns is nothing can be higher than the church steeple.

What Really. Yeah. If you have a Church of the steeple, you can't build anything higher. The church steeple has to be going back hundred and hundreds of years and then, you know, but our thing and you know, you could see the church steeple in the background if you went 5 kilometres away and it was dwarfed by this thing. So pictures then started evolving on the very, very early days of, you know, social media and then the management, you too come.

I said, Jake, we're seeing pictures of our stage on media. You got to block it out if you can't do it. I said, well, we're in a yard and there's a road that goes by and then suddenly said to me, well, you need to put up a drape. And I'm going, you're talking about a dress or you're talking about something 120 feet tall and 80 feet long. First of all, it lasts 2 minutes when you win game 360. And it's amazing.

I was talking to Hedwig, the mayor of Stageco the other day, Dirk to Decker and a Stageco and somebody else. And we were kind of, we, we do this, we relive our past. And I sent some pictures of this the of this stage that made the city look small and everybody wrote back. Still my favorite project to work on it's. Incredible. It's such a beautiful project. You know what that was a trend set.

Are we set to go for, you know, big trucks, 4750 trucks on production, you know, 38 on steel for each system. Yeah, and and then. Jesus, no. Everybody goes, oh, I got, I got 50 trucks of production. I got 40 trucks of production. Is it great? But I did it first. Yeah, yeah. And then so then then, you know, with you 2 going, that was great. And then the next thing you know, we did the Joshua Tree. We did innocence and experience all groundbreaking shows in in their own respect.

And so then came the big offer of the sphere. So the sphere, I mean, we were there. We were the first, you know, when we first started doing our advance to the sphere, There was no screen. Well, let me ask you though, going back a little bit. So the sphere did Did the sphere come looking for you 2 or did you 2 say we want to be the first to play in this incredible thing I. Think it was kind of mutual, to tell you the truth. Yeah. I mean, you know, Bono is very creative.

The sound system appealed to Edge where he could play in stereo and get through stereo and things like that and just the whole vibe of doing it. And of course also being the 1st is a big advantage when. It had to be somebody huge too. It couldn't be, you know, it couldn't be some, you know, medium act. It had to be the Stones or U2 or somebody that big, you know well. I mean, I think I think there both parties put their balls on

the line. You know, like Jim Dolan, you can say whatever you like about Jim Dolan. He had big balls to put 2.22 point 3 billion money on this amazing unique way of seeing a concert. And then you 2 had to go in and make sure that all the hype of the venue didn't override what they were producing. So a lot of discussions, a lot of things.

And also there was a lot of technology that had to be invented how to get the the content, because the content, they all wanted it in 16 K and, and you know, 16 K, the rendering time for one song was nearly three days. Jesus, wow. And all of that. And we, we started, we, we went to look at it. I remember. Well, even just like pre vis and stuff like how you know because you can't replicate being

inside. This well, what what what we what Willie did and and and Rick and and the team we use virtual virtual reality ah. Yeah, that's smart. Yeah, that's. Smart. Yeah, You know, that makes sense. You know our whole feeling was you 2 got such a heavy schedule of other commitments outside the ban, especially B. So the thought was we can't get them all to Vegas at the same time, but we can all send them glasses and and a virtual reality and we can show the footage that way.

Interesting. Yeah. So, you know, you have to remember about the sphere when we went into when we installed the lighting, we were working first of all, they had an in house lighting and they had fuse through the lighting. And the reason we went with fuse because we thought if they put the install lighting, they can then run our cables for our lights when we want to go in, which was the case which saved us a couple of days. You know, the lighting behind the screen.

We did a test of the screen in New York on Bono's book tour, you know, at the Hammerstein in another ballroom, and found that the the spotlights weren't as good behind the screen as a wash light because, you know, we're talking about putting spots behind. But with the screen and the framework, they would be so frag fragmented. It didn't work. Yeah. It's better when it's not focused so.

Then, you know, we go there and we're there while they're putting the screen in. And so when it all came, we installed the lighting behind in the stage box behind which they call a stage box. And the rigging behind the stage box wasn't really very conducive to hang in lights because they're the big hollow plot proceed sound system over the

pre 8 proceeding. If you imagine going back to the Grateful Dead, the wall of sound, that's what you had behind you, but up high, which was another problem a little later. And so in putting the lights in, but we're putting the lights in. And then they had this movie that they were producing called Postcard, Postcard from Earth, and they were finishing building a building.

So we used to have meetings every day, you know, on what was going to happen the next two days and you get the next day change. So OK, so you, Jake, what time do you want tomorrow? You can have 8 hours and I go, we'll take from 4:50, whatever it is. OK. And then from 5:00 to 5:00 till midnight they would be showing the movie on the screen to to test the movie, colourize it, edit it and things like that. And then from midnight till 9 would be construction.

Jesus, wow, I. Mean and we all worked around each other and it was a fantastic experience. We all everybody accepted it and you know somebody once said to me you're giving the building too much time and I go OK so and if I don't give them the sign time then the seating would not have been inspected and been ready for the opening night. So therefore we would be cancelling an opening night and and I said to somebody you don't want Adele too.

You remember in Adele capital to show Vegas we all work together. You know, the ban were so enthusiastic about making this whole thing work and believing in the construction and believe in what they're doing. It all had to be, right? Yeah, you couldn't. You couldn't make you 2 happy but not make the building happy. The building had to be happy too. It was also new. And the film people and. And Jim Dolan, he'd invested money in the movie, so he wants the movie, right.

He had it produced by Darren Aronofsky. And Darren Aronofsky wanted his way. Yeah. So, you know, that makes sense. We always did. Monday to Friday. How? Early did you start though? Like how far in advance of the first show? Probably in the concept design a year. Wow. And then and then we did some band rehearsals in Nice. And what they what they've done is because you know, the hollow plot sound comes at you from 360. So nobody ever had that.

So with the help of the sphere and the sphere engineers, sound engineers, we went to a found I found a great film studio at nice, fantastic, fantastic. So we had the band rehearsing in one room and I built a mock up stage which which is the same size as the one we're going to use in a sphere, except it didn't have the video floor, but it got everybody used to the rate which everybody goes back then.

You know, that's a lot of money. I don't know if you can afford it. I go you will you all wish you had the best U2 rehearsals we ever did is when we could do it on a mock stage just bangers. So we did that and in another studio across the street, we set up this trussing system and then hung speakers, put a console in the middle and then like a couch where the band he'd come and listen to the the the asthma

asthmaceric sound. And so we set that up and the speakers were all this measurement scaled down so you could get the feel and do the mix because then you have to turn the mix like like, you know, Edgewood goes, I like my guitars to come out high section right in streets, then then then augment it with high left and down low. So you used to play with very much like a surround sound, but

way more complicated. We rehearsed that in Nice for three weeks while we did lighting rehearsals and lighting install in in Vegas. And the show was going to open September the 29th. And we're not building contractors. You know, if somebody comes to do your bathroom and they're going to be finished in three weeks, they come up to you and go, there's going to be another fire. It's going to be another three weeks and it's $2000 more. That doesn't happen in our

world, Yeah. No it doesn't. 8:00 No matter, it had to happen. And so we were doing lighting and we were building the stage in the sphere and working around construction and working around some of their installs, like a little bit of lighting and some a lot to do with seats. And then for the movie, I don't know if you've ever seen it, but you should. It's well worth it.

They have these big effects machines that are they've got 20 of them and they're 8 by 8 by 8 and they all have to be connected underground and they stand up. So there to put them through test. And so then we had the seating, then we had the test, then we had the movie and we had you too. So we took 8 hours. We would took eight hours. And if they were doing in store work and they weren't doing a movie, we used to get screen time to edit the video.

Wow, you know. It was just, for me, it was just a fantastic journey. Yeah, for me, everybody to get where we got by September the the 29th was a minor miracle. And I'm saying that from the YouTube band. They sacrificed rehearsal time to make the deadline. We couldn't sacrifice getting the seats Commission because we'd have no show. And, and Brian was the head of construction. And and because I worked on Bob the Builder, I used to call him Bob the Builder, you know.

So. We how many goes where do you want me to start tomorrow? Because we used to store our stage downstage so for so they could watch if we had to. And then the seedings were in three sections. She goes, Jake, can you push your stage down left and we'll work on the centre or or we'll work on the right, then we'll come to the centre and when we finish, you'll just move your stage on the other side. And that's the sort of things that we did. I mean, which sounds simple

enough. Become the mover the first time and it was on is on a rolling stage, 2 level rolling stage. All the back line, all the all the hollow plot sound, bass floor fill, all the video processing. Everything was underneath the stage. We become the pusher. We all went. We are well, we'll get 20 people around this 123 ports fucking nowhere. Keep it moving in a. Little heavier than we thought, perhaps, when. We tried a forklift and then it wouldn't work with a forklift.

Oh. No. Then we had to get 2 forklift people, but we found a way and it was it was a little painful. Yeah, so. I mean, I'm guessing house lights go was pretty exciting on September 29th, you know, did anything go wrong massively?

You know, we were all expecting and, and we all explained to the band with this many video tiles, this many pixels, you're going to have a show where there's a tile out and there's nothing you can do about it until the next day because all of it has there's only a few tiles that you can get to. One of them is a boom lift that has to come in the floor. And one is you have to have rope access guys hanging down from the ceiling because the Dome went like this, but the sphere

inside went like this. So it'd be 30 feet from the ceiling to the to get the the look. So, so, I mean, but the first night, you know, we had a DJ, we set him up and we played in and then when the band were ready, we had the intro tape and, you know, and, and then our creative people go. Jacob, we want to start the DJ stage right and we want to push him across the floor, across the crowd to finish stage left and the sphere of people going it

can't be done, can't be done. And I looked and I'm like, go. Evidently you've never been to EDC Electric Daisy Carnival. Yeah, no. Shit, Disney World where they do the Disney parade, we can do this. So I think we talked them into it and it worked pretty well. I think we only hit a couple of people's knees and that one or two toes that nothing that nothing that a great poster or program wouldn't solve right until we opened.

And you, you know, the first reaction to the screen opening was really fucking nerve wracking. But you know, I, I had to say we had a fantastic first show, which is scary. And normally it's the second show is pretty average, but we had the first one or two shows and and then the bandwagon started. The reviews were the best reviews I think you 2 ever had and the bandwagon was moving so. Yeah, it was. That thing picked up a lot of energy along the way, that's for

sure. If. That if that opening night had not been great, then it could have been trouble, I think, for the U2, for the career, but it would have been the demise of the sphere, I think. Exactly. And you know, there there have been a ton of naysayers. You know, I'm still on the fence with the whole concept of. The sphere, I mean, I, I saw the U2 thing and the people I took said it was the best thing they ever saw. I mean, you, you have to go about it a different way than touring.

You have to go with the aspects that you're sharing. You have to go with the aspect of your gym and sphere team will not let anybody hang lights in front of his screen. So no lighting trusses in the air. It was front lighting and backlighting. Yeah. Yeah. So it was very, very minimal. Yeah. And. But my my argument, basically not argument, but I guess where where it hits for me and I

didn't see it in person. So I've seen video and pictures like galore, but doesn't it make the band look small? Like Because I remember when I first saw the very first video of might have been the opening night and I had to look a while to find Bono. Well, I mean this is what makes the sphere so special. It's a different way of experience in a show it. Is. Yeah, it's. An immersive experience.

So the band become part of the of the building, part of the screen, part of the whole thing, part of the whole way. I never looked at it. Like that. I never looked at it like that. I just looked at it as a concert stage. You know you. Could look at all the videos you wanted for the next 200 years. Yeah, none of those videos that ever did the show justice. The only way you could say, the only way you can honestly say to yourself this is not a great show is by seeing it live.

So, you know, we went in and we did 40 shows there. Yeah, it's incredible. Which is great. And then, you know, then they got Dead and Co. And, you know, we help the dead and Co people. We we would let people come and see how we're doing it and, you know, show them the layout and come to see the show, say, because we had to move the stage up and down stage while the movie was playing. Yeah, which in the end was the show would finish at 10:45 and we'd be in the hotel at like

12:15. Yeah. And like, and then it was great for me because having toured pretty hard ass for 44 years, 43 years, whatever, I think this fear helped me. We wean off the desire of going on the road and then throw in my life to consultancy and things like that. Yeah. Good for you, good for you SO. And then I wanted to see, I went to U2 and I watched it as a production manager. Yeah, I went and saw Dead and Co and watched it as a a thing.

And I said, I said to Derek Featherstone, I go, you know, I think I must be a secret dead head because I thought it was fantastic. Yeah, I liked it. Well, I again, I only saw video and pictures, but the just the images were incredible. You know, the images of that were just like Holy Christ, you know, now you can see why everybody's high on acid and mushrooms and stuff. You know, it looks pretty tremendous.

My only thing really against the sphere, and I don't know what I'm going to say anyway because everybody must have a say. I think it needs to be more diversified. Yeah, yeah, it does seem to like everything becomes sort of similar to the same. Well, it's the same age group. The same age group of bands. Yeah, they they need to do. You need a Taylor Swift in there or something, you know.

So if you want a bit of hip hop, you want a bit of rap, Yeah, You want to get some, some that you want some Latin? You want a female as well? Yeah, yeah. You know, well, there's a UFC fight going. In there in a month or so I think, right? Yeah. So they're starting to load in now, I think. Yeah. But you, you know, you look at it and, you know, also has been fortunate to be around a long time. And I don't think I'll ever happen. But this is the ideal place for Pink Floyd.

Oh hell yeah, hell yeah. They're the perfect band. There's a band For 50 years, they've been searching for the perfect sound. Perfect. It's there. Yeah. Visuals. I mean, I was thinking you're right. About that. The wall and you see the visuals with all the hammers walking along like that. Incredible. Imagine what that would be like. That incredible. You know, I don't think that'll ever happen, but Brickman. 'S in, I think in Rome with Gilmore right now.

I think they're either at the Colosseum or next to the Colosseum or something. Like it's some incredible backdrop for a Gilmore show. What's that? Circus Maximus or something like that. Yeah, yeah. But that'd be pretty incredible too. So this other thing that you're working on that you were telling me about earlier, this thing in India, tell me, tell me about that because that's really interesting. I have, I have a couple of employees in India and it's it's always a challenge.

So I can't even imagine putting a show on there. So my first venture into India was probably Shakira way back when. And it was very basic local production. And we, you know, we, we, we struggled a little bit because there wasn't very many people. The infrastructure, it might have been The Rolling Stones

actually. We played Bangalore and we played Mumbai. And those were challenges, not because of the Indians, believe it or not, for Bangalore is because we had our freight arrive in, oh, I can't remember the name of the city. It'll come to me. And then it was 200 kilometers away from Bangalore. OK. And our our steel, steel, steel containers are so overloaded, it took them nearly four days to get there. Jesus, 200 miles.

So on Friday, a Friday show, we got our containers on Thursday morning and then everybody on that Rolling Stones crew except some of the people, you'd never think we'd do anything. We all jumped in and we got to with the Indian labour, which was not that great, but willing. But they didn't understand. So, you know, Cartner, Marlborough's, you get a guy carrying four decks at a time, you know. But we did show and it worked and we played Mumbai and it worked and it was a great experience.

I get, I get to meet one guy who was his first ever guy gig, a guy called Vincent Samuels, who now comes and does some of our shows in EDC in Vegas and he's done fantastic. And then so with Shakira and then we took EDC to India and, and then on my way to India on a plane, I didn't feel that that great. So I go to the stewardess and I

go, I'm not feeling great. So I this dull ache and it doesn't matter if I sat down, stood up, stood on my head, laid down, lay on my stomach, lay on my back, had this dark ache here. So they put me up on the galley seat and then they give you the customer aspirin and then some oxygen and some nitrous pill to clear up if you're, if you're blocked. In the end it didn't work.

So I was on my way to Delhi and then they said this, they got a lady doctor said it seems to me like you either have bad heartburn or angina. And they set up for a hospital to ambulance to pick me up at at Delhi airport. And the stewardess came to me 30 minutes later. She goes how you feel? I go this is not getting any better. And then the plane, the plane veers to the left or right, left I think as I was on the left hand side and the captain comes on the radio.

You probably see that we're veering and don't worry about that, that liquid, you say outside we're dumping fuel because we have to. We have a medical emergency and we have to make an emergency landing. Oh wow, just like that, huh? Yeah, so I got the flight guide directed to Baku in Azerbaijan. Wow. So there in, in you could go on forever, but in the end of the day, I got the stories of like, they wouldn't let me in the country because I didn't have a visa.

So I had to get $25.00 to pay for a visa. Then they'd let me in and then I finished up in a hospital, which was amazing. And four hours later I had three stents put in. Wow. So did you ever actually have the heart attack or was it just like, oh. Yeah, they they say we you had one. Yeah. Wow. So that was my first. I never got to India. So the next time we we, well, you never even. Got there. Oh my goodness. Wow, crazy. So. Then we came to do in 2019.

It picked up a bit and Bono had expressed a desire to play India. So we went through it. I met this guy who owned a company called Book My Show which is basically an Indian ticketing agent. And ever guess how many tickets they do a month in the peak season? No idea. 30 million. Thirty million bigger than tickets. Christ. I mean, look. The ₹1.00 cinema ticket, it's not the gross may be the same, but they actually do that many tickets.

So we went there in 2019 and then it was very similar to what you said about taking everything there. We took the whole Joshua Tree tour and we took a lot of the infrastructure, yeah. Yeah, that seems to be what's missing in India, for the most part, is infrastructure. This this guy, this guy at BookMyShow Ashish is very forward thinking. He has a very forward thinking staff. And then he he does Lollapalooza there. So he, he does big shows and then the infrastructure is growing.

Like this year there's been, we've had 24 people pass a scaffolding high, high scaffolding test. We've had people passes rigging tests. There's company with a bunch of chain motors. There's something. You're involved in training people over there now we. Talk about it and they do it, but it's the same company. Interesting. And yes, yeah, I do want it and I talk to the people and I'm not in on a day-to-day basis, but we talk about it all the time.

And, and then they bought more, more lights. They've got more sand. There's a, there's a great bunch of L acoustic D&B sand in India along as K1 and everything like that lightning. Everybody's, you know, gone down to like everybody has a bunch of Sharpies, you know, and you just swap them out their video in everything across the world. I would have to say that videos come the furthest because it's now more affordable and, you know, they buy the new stuff.

So it's all 5 mil, 4 mil, 3 mil, you know, you know, you hang it on a scaffolding and you get prepared to do that. But yeah, so Ash asked me if I would help him consult. So I did that last year. And basically he was starting, he was promoting Ed Sheeran in Mumbai. OK. So we, you know, we went there and also, you know, it, it gave people, I hope, a little bit of confidence that I was involved, you know.

And so he did Ed Sheeran and then I was out, you know, as I know, I started the Coldplay tour and he wanted Coldplay, so I introduced him to all the right people to get Coldplaying. And so they did Ed Sheeran last year. They did Sting at Lollapalooza last year. And then Ed came and played and they they built an arena from the ground up from the in a dirt field in the middle of the horse race track. And Ed did like 50,000 people and it was a big mixture of local and touring production

that they brought in the stage. All the sound was local. The video over the stage was tore. The video support on the towers was local and the lighting was 5050 and and all the stage hands came in. So they've improved the stagehands now to an acceptable level. And then you just bring in, you have to have more people that translate because, you know, so.

But it's come a long way. I mean, for the Coldplay adventure, it's exactly the same production that they'll bring in what they take to Asia now, like, you know, to Thailand and what we did in, in, in, in, in South America. Yeah, so we, and then you know, the, the Indian promoter, we bought a stage, we bought a star live a 25 meters, you know, stage so that you can do Lalapalusa, you can hang a bit

more weight. And on Coldplay, we use the infrastructure to help with the stage and you know, with a new found scaffolding company and there's 20 guys we can build scaffolding structure, you know, so I, I would have to say that if you went there 15 years ago and you went back there now, you would be really pleasantly. Yeah, Yeah.

Well, one of the things I noticed in our industry in in India is like, I would expect that they'd have all Chinese knockoffs of video screens and Chinese knockoffs of lighting fixtures and stuff. And there is some of that of course, just like there is here, but they have all the top brand stuff over there now like they really are buying the top brand equipment. Investment, you know, it's a mixture of the Acme Chinese lives, knock off and stuff.

You know, there's, you know, Chinese motors in some place and you know, I was talking to a trussing company there and and all their trusses is designed and engineered to the the German European spec. Yeah, and they make them. In India, and they have the biggest plan of trust, man, they could be the biggest trust manufacturer in the world. Wow, Interesting. Yeah. That's interesting. So what's your grand vision for

India then? Just to help them create enough infrastructure to be able to do massive shows all year instead of just one or two a year or whatever. I think that the infrastructure would be to take the big show, the medium show and the small show and keep working. Yeah, you know, because if you have like a show like Sting, and while it's Sting, it's it's experience, you know, and, and

things like that. And Ed Sheeran was, you know, the, you know, the things they learnt, like they built all the temporary dressing rooms and offices. And so they were doing a loadout and we'd come back next morning. The dressing rooms are dressing rooms are intact, but they taken down all the production offices. You know, just. Ass about face, but I I enjoy it. Like you say, like I said earlier, if we can, if I can just give back a little bit of what I got out of this, then I'm

gonna Yeah, well. India, I would expect that one of the biggest challenges is venues, right? Like they probably don't. You can't piece a tour together in India very easily. You know, you play cricket grounds. Yeah. And. And that is as to the Indians, that's more sacred than the New York Yankees baseball stadium. Yeah, you've got to think it on par of that. And then going back to the infrastructure, and you mentioned generators. When I was there, they had the

Cricket World Cup there. I, I don't know if you're, you're not very familiar with cricket. No, I know what it is but I'm not a fan or anything so. So they had to do like 16 venues for a world wide broadcast. That's a big deal. Yeah, so they've all bought new generators, silent generators, In Sync generators to run TV and, you know, so I don't worry about power like I used to, you know, and then, you know, because every show then had Pyro, so you would have a Pyro display.

So they're not. So you can't import Pyro, but you can use the local products and it's quite good because they had to have lighting all the way around there for this thing. So the Cricket World Cup 2 years ago was a phenomenon boost to the industry. Yeah, yeah, That's really cool. That's good to hear. And what about Insomniac? That's still a big deal for you, huh? Big deal for me. Love it. I love going to hear that thump. I love to get my trousers flat.

And, you know, and I think that, you know, the different genre music, I always thought it was one genre. There's like 98 different variations of yeah. I'm with you though I don't know them so. You know, I always like look at the wasteland stage because I feel that's a 20, that's 2024 heavy metal version of ACDC doesn't want you to go there, you know? Yeah, yeah. It's incredible, though. Like again, does that surprise you how big EDM has become?

Oh yeah, it's, it's shocking. To me, like it's shocking. Vegas. I mean we did 180,000 a night last year. Wow. That is incredible and. We're trying to get it to 200 a thousand a night, but that means moving around a bit of it because it's played in the inner bowl of Las Vegas Motor Speedway. And yeah, so if we move a little bit more stuff out that we don't need there, we'll, you know, we'll we'll get that. But. Insomniac does a lot more than just Vegas, right?

Oh they do. Probably 300 shows a year. Yeah. And so you're consulting sort of at the top level on how to make all of. Those shows great. I work for mostly with two guys, Justin Spag and Forest Hunt, who's the executive producers, and I'll do whatever they want me to do. Yeah, yeah. What a what an operation though. I mean, it's incredible what they've built. You know, it's not that long ago that this all started like, you know, the Miami, the Miami one and and then EDC in in Vegas.

It's not that long ago. And look at how big it is. It's insane. Like Insomniac have like 3 big brands, they have EDC, they have hard summer, nocturnal, beyond and escape, right? It's Escape from Wonderland, Beyond Wonderland and Countdown Countdown's New Year's Eve and they're the three major brands. So in in EDC Vegas there's like 7 different brands of music. There's Kinetic Field which is the product which is all scenery and and looking pretty.

You have stage 2 which is a little bit of scenery but just a lot of video. Stage 3, it's video and lighting. It's a production stage, so you're allowed to bring in your own video content as long as we like it, which you're not allowed to do on stage 1. And then you have stage 4, which is like Neon Garden, which is another genre. The people with the DJs like people on stage. So you can have 50 people on stage around the DJ Crazy, you know?

And then stage 5 is it's one, it's five, it's base pod, so it's a pretty base pod. And then you have Wastelands, which is fucking drum and bass. I love that fucking. They get down and you know. It's, I find it rather humorous that you're kind of like the king of, you know, king of EDM and you're, you're 70 years old, you know, it's, it's, it's awesome. Music has no age barriers. No, of course not. It's it's amazing. Do you still spend time in Greece?

Yeah, well, my my girlfriend is a promoter in Greece. Well, I didn't want to say, do you still have the girlfriend in Greece? Because I always stick my foot in my mouth saying those things. So yeah. Well, we do. We we're, I, I was there most of the summer because, you know, she has a very, she's very experienced, but they have a small operation. Yeah, she had, you know, a lot of shows. She had Rammstein at the Olympic Stadium. Fun. What a what a show.

Yeah, what a show. That is, that's another phenomenon. You know, it's just like just keeps getting bigger. East German death, death medal. And of course she had two Nike Coldplay, which I helped her because I knew how it worked. Yeah, and then that was the stadium show. And then she had her small boutique festival with Lenny Kravitz for about 7000 fun and a couple of nights with Sting. So you're still sort of working when you're there. No, I'm not.

I'm I'm Ms. Moral Pretend. Working moral support, Moral support. So Sarah, who you met earlier, our producer, she, she lives on Crete so. We live right in the middle of Athens. Nice nice, awesome. So for the rest of 2425, any big plans besides the India stuff and Insomniac?

India, EDC, Orlando, I might go to escape and then probably figure out where I'm going to be for the rest of the year and, and hopefully when a lot of stuff dies down, that Nana, my girlfriend, will be able to come and spend some time here because she loves it here. Fun. You're in Arizona, right? Yeah, Yeah. Nice. I. Used to have a desk set up here where she used to work and then she goes I can't work, you're working all the time well.

Yeah, and you probably have a more boomy voice than hers too, so you can't you can't compete with her over The Who gets to hear your phone call better or whatever. No. Should we set an office upstairs? And she, she loves it up there, you know? Nice. I sent a picture of her office say your office is missing you. So I hope, I hope that inspires. Long distance relationships are tough. I mean, sometimes they're OK, but sometimes they're tough. I. Haven't known any different. Yeah.

Of course, yeah. I mean touring. Yeah. Well, Jake, it's been amazing catching up with you. I appreciate it so much and appreciate you. And you know, you're you're a legend. There's few peoples in our industry, few people I'd call a legend, and you're one of them. Thank you very much for the compliment. I appreciate it. Yeah. You know, legend or not legend, if I can leave a legacy and return that legacy to make this industry grow because it's a

fantastic industry. Yeah. You know, it's, it's it's amazing what it does. It's amazing what it produces. Got amazing. A bunch of people from the top through the bands to the crews all the way down, and it needs to maintain so.

When you've pushed the envelope so much like with the size, the enormity, the, the challenges of some of these projects you've done the U2 claw, the U2 sphere, all the big stones tours, you know, you've just done some, you've really made things much more big and, and much more like you made people, I think, expand their visions with some of the projects that you've been involved on. I hope that's be the case, and not necessarily in large shows, but in the medium shows and the

small shows, yeah. It's all about the personality and the attitude. I Yeah. I agree. I agree. Well, thanks, Jake. We'll see you very. Well, see you. Again soon, I hope.