Electric’s impressive laser effects © Rob Sinclair
Reverse Engineering Starting the tour in that most fraught of regions, South America, preparation for Electric was a prolonged process, but such is the deep thinking behind the production that the tour’s principal planners were somewhat extended out of necessity. “Because it was kicking off in South America, I was involved at the conception,” says Andy Lovell of freighting specialists Sound Moves. “[Tour manager] Andy Crookston basically gave me a list of cities they wanted to play in and between us and agent Pete Nash, we came up with a schedule doing certain cities on certain days of the week so we could ensure there would be a crowd. With the recession and the downturn in passenger travel, airlines are using smaller aircraft and as a result they cannot take as much cargo. So part of the planning was to find the maximum number of pallets we could travel with – you could say that the show was planned around the freight restrictions.” Fortunately for the band, the tailored production was effectively able to have a large-scale preview courtesy of the Cumbre Tajín Festival in Mexico in March, where the creative team was able to test some new elements, such as lasers, before taking to the road. The tour proper began in the Chilean capital, Santiago, on 13 May at the Movistar Arena. Tour manager Andy Crookston explains, “It’s like a huge, expensive game of Tetris.
We manage to fit 8.6 tonnes of equipment on four pallets. That’s the maximum you are allowed to take on commercial flights, which we use wherever possible.” Crookston has been working with PSB for more than 11 years. “It’s the best job I’ve had in music – they look after me well and we get along great.”
Leave Them Wanting More Agent Pete Nash has represented PSB for close to 30 years and has booked more than 500 dates for the band. Talking about the current tour, Nash reveals some of the strategy he employs for his clients. “There’s value nowadays in exclusivity, not just for promoters, but also for artists,” he tells IQ. “We deliberately underplay certain territories because we want to sell-out a hot ticket, for example in Copenhagen. By doing that we potentially set-up another headliner appearance down the line – they headlined Roskilde [Festival] last time they played Denmark. Chris and Neil understand the concept. They have better ideas than most of the industry and have said ‘no’ at all the right times in their career. For instance, they’ll never play a retro show or 80s event. They only recorded two albums in the 80s and have released ten since, and that’s why they are still headlining festivals.” Underlining that philosophy, Nash says the decision to miss out certain territories in recent years was key. “The
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