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Backstage at the grounds of Manchester City’s football club, Bon Jovi’s Production Manager, Jesse Sandler, is manning the fort before tonight’s show. Having joined the Bon Jovi touring crew in 2000 in the audio department, Sandler has since worked his way up to PM. “My father was a tour manager for many years, so it was a natural progression for me, kind of like a family tradition,” he noted. With Bon Jovi, the crew has remained fairly consistent, with key players returning time after time. “Over the past 13 years that I’ve been with the band, we’ve had about 30 people stay on the tour. We always try and have a consistent base and bring back the same guys in Europe so we have familiar faces wherever we go.” During pre-production, the design stages took around six months of virtual planning with Stageco and TAIT collaborating ideas. The design was programmed using Vectorworks,

Cinema 4d and MA 3D provided by Early Bird Visual. The stage’s classic car theme was decided upon by Show Designer Lloyd ‘Spike’ Brant who was going through various options when he came across an old photo. “Jon said he wanted the stage to look just like that. That’s where the idea all started and we got a pretty good representation of it built! Trying to find out how we could set it up, tear it down and make it work, that was actually the biggest challenge of the show,” Sandler continued. “Jon expects a high level of design, and it was a good concept to start with, so between Stageco, TAIT, our crew and Spike, we got it right.” The tour’s other suppliers include long standing audio account, Clair and lighting and video titans PRG and PRG Nocturne. THE SHOW DESIGNBecause We Can Show Designer, Spike from PEDG - Performance Environment Design Group

BON JOVI’S 15TH TOUR, BECAUSE WE CAN, STARTED IN FEBRUARY IN WASHINGTON DC IN SUPPORT OF THE NEW JERSEY BAND’S 12TH STUDIO ALBUM, WHAT ABOUT NOW. FORMED IN 1983, THE BAND BECAME ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL OF THE ‘80S ROCK SCENE AND 30 YEARS LATER, STILL PROVE CAPABLE OF FILLING STADIUMS ACROSS THE WORLD. TPi’S KELLY MURRAY WENT TO MANCHESTER’S ETIHAD TO MEET THE CREW BEHIND THE CLASSIC ROCK THEMED TOUR.

BON JOVI: BECAUSE WE CAN

ON THE ROAD: Bon Jovi

(Beyoncé, Green Day) is the mastermind behind the tour’s final look and has been working with Bon Jovi since 2000. He told TPi: “We believe that all the elements of a show need to play in harmony and that no one discipline is more important than the other. Everything should be designed for the good of the show and not for any personal desires or ego. We enlist our clients as partners and collaborators in working towards the end goal of the event or show design.” PEDG has a very collaborative and diverse environment that it develops designs from. Spike continued: “On this project, we worked with TAIT to build and engineer the scenic elements and Stageco to create the support structure. They are both the best in the world at what they do and we love every opportunity we get to work with them. “We created an inception document to begin the discussion with Jon. He saw the picture of the car and said, ‘Can you build me that?’ We then looked at how to transform the front of a car into a stadium performance environment.”With a large-scale sculpture design such as this, it becomes the centrepiece for the theme. “We had to make some compromises because of rigging limitations of the support structures and originally we were planning on projection

mapping over the whole thing. It was too costly and challenging in the outdoor overnight environment. In hindsight it would have been cool, but it is totally unnecessary!” he added. “This is stadium architecture, something that is not seen very often in an era dominated by massive video walls.” STAGINGHaving worked extensively on all of the band’s outdoor events, Stageco were brought in by Bon Jovi because of the company’s experience in creating completely custom built structures that support a unique design concept. Inspired by the photograph of the classic 1959 Buick Electra 225, the 60m x 23m x 26m Stageco structure was central to the approach by the designers, Spike’ Brant wanted to move away from the large -scale video design used on so many current stage designs that often include little to no scenic elements. In keeping with the brief to create a cohesive and unique design, the stage incorporates the 250,000 tonnes of production elements used to help create the stunning live experience that has helped to keep Bon Jovi as one of the world’s leading live artists. A 165 tonne working platform / roof hangs above the stage and an eight metre cantilever was created to fly the PA

system either side of the stage in order to keep open sightlines. Project Manager Bert Kustermans oversaw the meticulous planning required to manufacture the bespoke stages and implement the precise logistics a tour of this scale needed, with five systems and their crews touring simultaneously around the tour dates in Europe, America and Australia. He said: “Working with the whole Bon Jovi team is at the pinnacle of the live touring sector. Everyone is focused on delivering a show that will have that special ‘wow factor’ for the fans, and it’s stimulating to be part of that process to come up with something new that works at an international level.” When Spike asked TAIT to create the 30 metre inflatable 1959 Buick Electra, which spans the length of the main stage, the company supplied all the staging for the tour, including a 34 metre wide main stage, a band riser and a 30 metre rounded b-stage catwalk. The Buick Electra’s hood sits above the band and is made of three, cold-air inflatable pieces. The three separate pieces measure 30 metres in total length, and are capable of full inflation in 30 minutes. The inflatable surface has been scenically airbrushed and UV treated for the outdoor shows. It is externally lit from various

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ON THE ROAD: Bon Jovi

Opposite: The Stadium tour has seen success across the world; Bon Jovi frontman, Jon, has been a stage and screen icon since the 1980’s.

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lighting positions during the show, creating many different looks. To complete the Buick’s grill which sits beneath the inflatable, TAIT manufactured a grill section which houses 60 custom V9 frames and custom light poles for four Impressions. Four scenic car headlight surrounds were also manufactured to be situated beneath the Buick. The 2.5 metre diameter surrounds were scenically carved, hard coated and covered in chrome vinyl auto-body wrapping to provide the chrome featured on the Electra. A four metre by two metre Bon Jovi ‘Garden State’ (that’s New Jersey to me and you) license plate with integrated LED sits across the middle of the inflatable car, adding to the scenic intricacy of the set. Atop the edge of the inflatable Buick is a metal rain gutter structure, created by TAIT to move any water away from the stage when performing in inclement weather. The gutter interfaces with the inflatable roof and is scenically painted to match the silver blue of the car. The project took TAIT just 10 weeks to physically build from start to completion; reinforcing TAIT’s ability to create artistically impressive, yet extremely tourable scenic structures in a short time period.

LIGHTINGSpike also spec’d the lighting fixtures, supplied by PRG. “We chose the fixtures based on what we had in the arena design.” The lighting kit included 31 PRG Best Boys, 68 Bad Boy Spots, 40 Clay Paky Sharpys, 66 Clay Paky Atomic Strobes, three Hungaroflash fixtures, 144 GLP impression X4’s, 90 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlast TRXs, 276 Chromlech Elidys and 250 LED PARs. Spike furthered: “The X4 is my current favorite LED wash fixture, for both size and output. The Best Boys are the best all around hard edge fixtures available and the Best Boys were the big gun of choice for stadiums and keep working in all the weathers. We used the Sharpys as a cost effective way to fill out the outdoor look.”

As Spike wasn’t traveling on the road, Lighting Director Sooner Routhier took the reigns for operation. “I got into lighting because I took dance in high school and I found out that I could get extra credit if I joined the tech crew. I started learning lighting design and fell in love with concert lighting. In college it found me again, and I started working full time for a production company,” said Routhier. On this, her second time working with Bon Jovi, Routhier is using an MA Lighting grandMA 2 for control. “I use this console more than anything else, I just like the design of it. I love that you can choose palettes and effects. The layouts are my favourite part of the console, being able to set up the icons on the screen is a great feature,” she added. Felix Peralta is the tour’s Director of Programming, assisting Spike in crafting the ‘art’ for the show. “I worked closely with Eric Marchwinski (lighting programmer for the tour), Kirk Miller (Control Freak Systems video

programmer) and Sooner to help tell the story. It was a very collaborative effort by a bunch of very talented, passionate people,” said Peralta.Before the tour hit stadium capacity, the arena shows proved challenging for the lighting crew due to the ‘newness’ of technology being used. “To integrate the show elements - lighting, video, automation - there were a lot of moving parts to that show. We relied heavily on our 3D models leading up to the first shows. We only had about five full days of integration with the real rig,” noted Peralta. “The Stadium version was a much smoother experience. No moving

parts, just straight up rock ‘n’ roll lights and video!” VIDEOThe tour’s Video Director, George Elizondo of PRG Nocturne joined this Bon Jovi tour following 18 months on the road with the RHCP. “There’s a long line of video people in my family, but I’m the only one who went to the rock ‘n’ roll side, everyone else works in films and TV where as I really like life on the road, it’s all I’ve ever known,” stated the VD. “The video for this tour is pretty massive, but it can be discreet at times. There’s a fine line between too much and not enough.” Elizondo uses a full HD broadcast system for the tour with a Grass Valley HD Kayak 2 M/E Switcher and a 64x64 router matrix for control from PRG Nocturne. They also provided the camera package including six Grass Valley Thomson LDK 6000 WorldCam HD Cameras and four Ikegami HL-45 HD Cameras, two robotic, and two fixed.

“Jon is a true professional,” stated the VD. “It’s been a pleasure, it’s been challenging and fun. Jon knows what he wants in most applications so we’re not second-guessing what he, as an artist wants to see. This band makes my job easy; they keep putting on great shows night in, night out.” Video Crew Chief, Carson Austin, manages the crew and equipment, which includes two PRG Nocturne V-18 18mm LED video screens on each side of the stage and over 250 V-9 Lite 9mm LED video modules in the centre, which makes up the custom car grille and turn signals.

ON THE ROAD: Bon Jovi

Below: Lighting Director, Sooner Ruthier used an MA Lighting grandMA2 console for the show’s visual operation; A DiGiCo SD7 was used by FOH Engineer Bill Sheppell.

“The Stadium version was a much smoother experience. No moving parts, just straight up rock ‘n’ roll lights and video!”

TAIT provided the large 37.5mm LED screen that serves as the car’s windshield. Having worked with PRG Nocturne for over 10 years, this is Austin’s fifth time on the road with Bon Jovi. He likes to keep the same crew with him, as “Jon is a hard working guy. It’s enabled this tour to be very ambitious, both in terms of the scheduling and technically. We here in video world work very closely with the Control Freaks to get all the screens synced up. As the tour goes on, we do a little more along the way to fine tune,” he said. In total, there are 10 video crewmembers from PRG Nocturne. Working alongside them is Control Freak Systems (CFS), a video control solutions company. Dirk Sanders, Technical Designer for CFS, worked on both the arena and the stadium versions of the tour, putting together the complex video control systems. He’s worked with Spike on many projects including many with Bon Jovi. Sanders explained, “The stadium is very different; this was more of a traditional system design that boiled down to flexibility. We do however continue to build on the control integration; throughout the show we blur the lines continually between the lighting and the video control.

“At CFS, we are very much about the right tool for the right artistic idea,” said Sanders. “Often we will use multiple layers of different software and hardware tools. The [PRG] Mbox is really our workhorse server on the stadium shows. It was about the right tool for the right job, Mbox gives us the right paintbrushes to route video effectively. Overwhelmingly the Mbox is used as a traditional media server, but there are times we are using it almost as a screen -mapping processor where it’s being used to manipulate live input coming in, in order to make it work for the uniqueness of the grille wall.” The CFS team on tour includes Kirk J. Miller, CFS Programmer and Operator and Troy Giddens, CFS Crew Chief and Engineer. Miller discussed some of the equipment choices for the show: “We have our own CFS Freakulizer visualiser software which helps us to visualise the screens almost in real time. It’s really handy to let us work before the screens are up during load-in. CFS has put together a control solution that let’s this tour go beyond just cameras to screens, so we can integrate pre-produced content along with the cameras seamlessly. The two content design companies, Moment

Factory and Meteor Tower generated all the content under the direction of Spike. We use a lot of PRG Mbox Extremes, which is PRG’s flagship media server, and we use our own Control Freak CFS ADAMS system [Audio Driven Awesome Media Server] and the CFS Multi-Tap server for visual effects control. We have three Barco Encore processors that let us blend the cameras and media servers together so I use timecode and a lot of Macs. I use the CFS Encore DMX Bridge, which allows me to control the Encores from my grandMA2 console via Art Net at FOH.”

CONTENT CREATION“Getting inspired by the songs, we had some ideas, Jon had some initial ideas and so did Spike. We took this into consideration and built a mood board and proposed around 20 different looks, some specially attached to songs and some that were not. We got the design approved and integrated it into the show with all the lights and all the set to make sure that everything was aesthetically approved,” explained Moment Factory’s Event Director, Daniel Jean. “For the stadiums, it was important and a

ON THE ROAD: Bon Jovi

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Below: Control Freak Systems Troy Giddens and Kirk Millar; Audio Crew Chief, Carson Austin; Video, Eat Your Hearts Out’s Steve Bond.

challenge in some ways to reuse the content that was made for the arena tour which was projection based. Some content was just impossible to adapt, so to give meaning to the car look, we created an intro with the car and a height builder towards the end for the encore.”One of the challenges Moment Factory faced was to adapt the content that existed from the past tour, but as there is a different set up for stadiums, the content needed some tweaks. “We are very blessed with the collaboration we had on this tour with Spike and Control Freak Systems. As things move along there is still modification to make as the band are on the road. We need to make sure they have Moment Factory support to adapt or change the content whenever needed. Kirk Miller represents our work in operation and we need to make sure he is happy at all times. If there are any glitches or any mistakes, we need to be here to respond so that the next show is back to being perfect again.”

AUDIOClair’s Frank Principato, the tour’s Audio Crew Chief and System Tech, first worked with Bon Jovi when the band was playing in small clubs, yet he hadn’t worked with them since the 1980’s up until he rejoined the crew for the Because We Can production. “I was a musician

and since I didn’t become a rock star because I didn’t write a hit song, I stayed with the guys who did and made them louder!” Principato enthused. “I keep everything moving forward. I have to get it up in the air and get it all ready for the engineers every day. This tour is very busy, but we get it done!” The PA system used for both the arena and the stadium legs of this world tour is a Clair i5 system. For the stadium set up, the main PA comprises 18 boxes per side, the two side hangs are made up of 14 per side. For subs, Clair i5Bs are used in two columns of 18 per side with i3’s for front fill. The system was driven by Lab.gruppen PLM 20000Qs, the only amplifier Clair deploys, having its own engineers help to design the amp with the Swedish manufacturers R&D dept. Over in monitor world, Glen Collett has been with the Bon Jovi crew since 2005 and interestingly, only uses analogue consoles with the band. “Working with Jon and mixing a band that I consider to have ‘producer’s ears,’ they know what they like, and audio quality comes high up in priorities. “We did a small promo tour where we just carried a little bit of equipment, and when we did rehearsals for three days in Nashville I was meant to use a small digital console but chose to use an analogue too. We gave it a good shot

and at the end of the three days, we talked about the shortcomings of digital vs analogue. Everybody in the band had their own way of saying the same thing and it was decided that we’d never be without the analogue again! “Bon Jovi are one of the few artists that I get to use analogue with - they’ll pay to haul this thing around, it sounds great and they’re very happy with it - we tried digital and went back to analogue.” The desk of choice for Collett is a Midas Heritage 3000, which is his current desk of choice. Having worked for Clair since 1999, Collett keeps with the Midas brand, using an XL3 for Bryan Adams and a 3000 for Bette Midler. “When we have guitarist Ritchie Sambora with us, we have a combo of in ears and wedges. Old school guitar players who are used to big speakers, often like to feel the sound behind them, where as with in ears you can only feel it to the left and right. Ritchie’s monitor mix is mixed individually on an Avid Profile where as everybody else is on in ears only.” With Collett describing this tour as ‘a no nonsense rock ‘n’ roll tour!’ Being very hands-on with the audio decisions, Jon Bon Jovi himself also carried out a test when Collett started mixing the band to find the perfect in ears. “He settled on Sensaphonics, but the drummer and

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ON THE ROAD: Bon Jovi

ON THE ROAD: Bon Jovi

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bass player use Futuresonics, which basically has a real transducer - basically like mini speaker - a hard acrylic ear mold style in ear piece. Ritchie uses Jerry Harvey (JH Audio, previously of Ulitmate Ears) custom made pieces.” At FOH, engineer Bill Sheppell uses a DiGiCo SD7, his desk of choice. Shure Axient is used for Jon Bon Jovi’s vocals, which has gained huge respect in tour’s RF camp. Wireless mics are a mixture of Shure models,

which Sheppell knows he can rely on. The Beta 58a make up both the hardwired and wireless vocal mics. Backline mics include Heil PR 31 and a PR 22 for snare, a PR 31 for hi-hats and Beta 98 AMPs for toms. Shure KSM 137’s and KSM 32’s and SM57’s mic, the strings and Heil PR 30 and a Shure KSM 313’s are applied to the cabs.

“Everything should be designed for the good of the show and not for any personal desires or ego.”

Below: Clair i5’s provided the sound and PRG Nocturne and CFS were lighting and video suppliers.

ON THE ROAD: Bon Jovi

Below: Production Manager, Jesse Sandler; Monitor Engineer, Glen Collett; Director of Programming, Felix Peralta; Bon Jovi’s Head Rigger, Mike Freece; System Tech, Frank Principato.

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RIGGING Mike Freece, the band’s head tour rigger has been keeping Bon Jovi structurally safe on tour for 21 years and has hand picked his team of riggers for the road. With two systems of four riggers working together at once, Freece also uses 16 local riggers in each city to manage the show’s needs. Using a total of 120 Columbus McKinnon chain motors, supplied by California’s Stage Rigging, Freece explained that this was the kit he knew he could rely on. “I’ve used them for over 20 years now, they always perform for me and I’ve never had any issues with them, so why would I ever change?” For control, Motion Laboratories direct hoist control systems are used to individually control the rigging set up. Tomcat truss is used for the structural rigging and PRG provides its own BAT truss for the lighting rig. Once the set pieces are in, Freece and his team take five hours to complete the rig. Besides the typical weather complaints (though we talk during an uncharacteristically hot and sunny Manchester afternoon!), Freece described the cultural techniques of each countries an interesting challenge: “Overseeing the riggers in each new country can be difficult because each country learns differently. In Italy for example, we found out that a lot of the riggers actually used to be rock climbers, so they’ve learnt quite a different

technique!” Overall however, this ambitious production has so far been a very smooth operation for the experienced Freece. “It’s all pretty much status quo in our department, which is good… quiet is always good!” he concluded.

CATERINGSteve Bond of Eat Your Hearts Out, the tour’s catering service is travelling with Bon Jovi for the second time on what he describes as a very community based tour. “I’ve worked with the band before and I can say that everyone really looks after each other, right from the very top to the bottom, everyone gets on and will help out one another. It’s a lot of fun!” Feeding 100 during breakfast, 140 for lunch and 200 for dinner, Eat Your Hearts Out has a busy team working in multiple cities as the tour travels for load-ins. Working in a leapfrog system, whilst Bond is in Manchester, another team is in Birmingham preparing for the next show and as this takes place, Bond and his team will go to Cardiff. With six tour busses to stock for long drives - in Europe journeys can be 20 hours long - Bond’s team will also ensure that the vehicles are stocked with enough to keep the band and crew satisfied. “We locally source fresh fruit and veg, meat and fish from our suppliers in the UK and at specialist supermarkets. We make a lot

of healthy options, and serve anything from organic egg whites to different nuts and seeds but we also have the Danish pastries and full English breakfasts! Tonight we have a full hog roast and roasted salmon, so there’s always a good selection.” The food is so good in fact, that some of the crew put 50 dollars into a pot at the start of the tour, weighed themselves and at the end of the tour, the one who has lost the most weight wins all the money! As TPi is talking to Bond, various roadies are en route to find a work out space. “They train and they eat healthy, so it keeps them fit!” he laughed. With around 89 trucks in use, including two generator trucks supplied by EST (now part of Transam), the Because We Can tour has a hefty convoy of portable set and steel structures to transport. Buses are provided by German based Coach Service, freighting was supplied by Rock It Cargo and power services by Legacy Power. TPi

Photos: Louise Stickland and Kelly Murray www.bonjovi.com

http://clairglobal.comwww.prg.com, www.controlfreak.tv

www.momentfactory.comwww.rockitcargo.com

www.eat-your-heart-out.comwww.coachservice.comwww.transamtruck.com

www.legacypowerservices.com