Backstage Pass

The Metallica Report is coming! Keep up with all things Metallica by going straight to the source for your news. This weekly report is hosted by Steffan Chirazi, long-time rock scribe and editor of the band’s online mag, So What!, and Renée Richardson, a well-known Bay Area radio personality who now oversees the band’s foundation, All Within My Hands.   Steffan and Renée will keep you in the loop each week with updates, features, and interviews. They’ll also get YOUR questions answered by those in the know. It’s your quick, weekly fix covering our most relevant topics of the day. The first report drops this Wednesday July 26! http://metallica.lnk.to/TheMetallicaReport Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this the final episode of Backstage Pass, our six part series telling the story of the development of rock and roll lighting and production in the seventies by  those that made it all happen, we hear about the various crew members scattering to the four corners of the world and what they are doing now.  They are multi talented as you will have heard in the previous episodes of Backstage Pass and job descriptions range from sheep farming in New Zealand, to becoming a trade envoy, from heading a multi national lighting company to founding an internationally renowned restaurant chain. A few others have remained in the business one of who is now recognised as one of the world’s top lighting designers, another is one of Europe’s top rigging experts, both worked on the London 2012 Olympic games, whilst others run their own exhibition and event staging consultancy, a conference and wedding venue, previously a recording studio, another heads up a ticketing agency in Canada, whilst teaching fly fishing and making chocolate chip cookies feature too and not just as hobbies. Part of Pantheon Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the start of the penultimate episode of Backstage Pass, giving more than a unique insight behind the scenes into the world of rock and roll, you can hear about a band coming to blows, which was not unusual, doing the hard yards and making the deals, having your own wizard in the company cupboard, making waves of the ocean kind and taking to the high seas, a glowing press review which led to strained relations, the start of big outdoor shows in the UK, the gentleman star drummer who didn’t have a backstage pass and fell foul of onstage security and ESP Lighting giving birth to EST, a trucking company and how they both keep rolling. Part of Pantheon Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Backstage Pass lifts the curtain on how those from a theatre background bought their experience and expertise into the world of rock and roll, how life on the road wasn’t all glamour and glitter but was hard and gruelling with some bands and artistes easier to work with than others and how some were just downright and unnecessarily aggressive, how the police suspected possible terrorist activity and questioned one crew member’s mother and how Frank Sinatra’s lighting control board exploding led to a car chase across London and the crew feeling that they narrowly avoided being cast in concrete boots by the superstar’s ‘henchmen’ Part of Pantheon Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As ESP Lighting developed into the market leader in the rock and roll production business it pioneered the use of equipment and design and became a bench mark for others to aspire to. In this episode, your Backstage Pass gives you a taste of Osmond mania, you hear from the man who was proudly to become the longest serving employee of the Rolling Stones, the arrival from the USA of monster follow spots called Super Troupers which threw a new light onto performers, about how lasers didn’t cut it but how Queen and Freddie Mercury particularly impressed crew members with their interest in the lighting and professionalism approach and about how being at the sharp end of music management and contracts which was not always all sweetness and light.             Part of Pantheon Podcasts   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your Backstage Pass allows you to learn about how the worlds of theatre and television came together as live music audiences grew more demanding. Rock and roll shows grew in ambition and scale and burst out from functional civic halls and venues to take place in sporting arenas and stadia.  After riding an open topped bus with Paul McCartney, who opens up about the breakup of the Beatles, you will hear from those that set up ESP Lighting, the London company and about the early days when the visionary Chipmonck – the eponymous voice of the Woodstock Festival - came from the States to work with the Rolling Stones as their lighting designer and needed UK based crew and equipment to get their European tour on the road in the early seventies. From this the company blossomed and its stable of clients read like a check list of rock and roll royalty each hoping to catch the musical press headlines by being bigger, better and more visually exciting than other bands or artistes going on the road with those in the company ‘making it up and they went along because no one had ever done it before.’   Part of Pantheon Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It wasn’t all sex and drugs and rock and roll and we start the series with a look back by former crew members of a small London production company who were in the forefront of the development of the staging of rock and roll shows as they recall working with the Who, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Queen, Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, Neil Diamond, The Osmonds, Donovan and many others. You hear about a birthday party on a plane complete with brass band and lighted candles on a cake, a snake in the bath that caused mayhem, riding the railroad across Europe drinking beer with Bob Dylan, the making of the biggest music video of all time, why an elephant can’t play guitar, why a drummer couldn’t drum and much, much more.  Part of Pantheon Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Backstage Pass is a series of six episodes that tracks the evolution in the early 70’s of an era when production and staging exploded in the ‘rock and roll’ industry. Get your own Backstage Pass and go on the road to some of the biggest and most iconic ever musical events during that time.  Hear how the industry grew from the Moody Blues touring with two small trucks in the UK  carrying all their equipment accompanied by just a handful of ‘roadies’ to Abba, the Rolling Stones and many bands and artists having multiple articulated or semi trucks on the road. The growth was seismic - Abba’s fleet of trucks had ‘Abba bigger than Volvo’ emblazoned on the side - tours criss crossed continents, massive crews and endless road boxes and crates of gear and specialist equipment travelled by air as well as road and shows would take days to set up and take down. With your Backstage Pass you will hear from some of those that were there. Their stories, told with warmth, affection and humour will tell you how they made it happen. You will also hear how some of the crew(s), went from being the archetypal long haired hippies dressed in blue denim  to carve out long careers for themselves to become internationally recognised and acclaimed industry leaders in the field of stage lighting and production. Whatever line they are now in, all are agreed that working with the lighting company was the ‘best apprenticeship ever’. They are waiting to share their stories so grab your Backstage Pass and join them.   Backstage Pass is a podcast mini-series produced by Chris Smith and Christian Swain edited by Jerry Danielsen and is a joint production with Pantheon Podcasts, the home for music lovers.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices