THE TOUR MACHINE

If you look down the credit page of this programme it will more than likely remind you of the boring titles that appear at the end of a movie- job titles and names that mean little or nothing to you. Important and vital people they may be-but what do they do? The same applies to the music business, and to tours and to 'Genesis'. Would you like a brief introduction to this business of touring? Well I'll do my best.

To begin with me. I've given myself the title of 'Tour co-ordinator'-why? Well that's a difficult question. I am employed to do many things- organise travel, hire personnel and machinery, and assume the role of accountant and paymaster. Of the many things I have to do, basically Carol(who very ably helps me wade through the ups and downs) and myself gather up all the pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle, make them fit together in the best way possible, put the puzzle on wheels and help it move around the world. The jigsaw pieces are many and varied.

The tour actually began to take shape almost 12 months ago. The group's manager, Tony Smith put together a schedule for 1982 - covering recording projects and tours. Phil, Mike and Tony injected their thoughts and a firm plan took shape including tours in August and September 1982. At the beginning of this year Steve Hedges our booking agent for Europe began to contact the promoters in the cities contained in the tour plan. It takes a lot of time and effort on the booking agent's part to try to piece together a string of concert venues in the right areas, in a logical fashion so as to leave enough time for the equipment to drive from A to B. You cannot simply decide where you want to play, and on what day. Concert hall availabilities, public holidays and technical requirements - (an important point when you bear in mind the amount of equipment that Genesis use -it will only fit into a certain size of concert hall) all create problems. Steve will end up with an itinerary that is as close as possible to the one proposed by Phil, Mike, Tony, and Tony Smith.

While all this is going on our tour promoter for the United Kingdom- Ms Jo Chester has the same task as Steve, to arrange concert dates in England covering the areas required in the most sensible fashion. Again not an easy task, with the technical points being the main problem, especially as this year we want to bring you the same size production as we will betaking into the vast arenas in the United States and Europe.

About this time the group was deciding on the production for this year. The emphasis again is on lighting, with our main effect being the 'Vari-lite'. Genesis were the first users of this major new development in concert lighting on the tours last year.

It was developed in the U.S.A. by Jim Bornhurst, a very gifted design engineer at Showco Incorporated - the Texas based concert sound and lighting company. The computer controlled lights have to be seen to be believed. Each light can change its emitted colour instantaneously by remote control, plus each of the lights can be moved to point in any direction at the push of a button. The computer that controls all these lights can be programmed to move one or a group of lights to preset positions while changing colours in the process. A stunning effect. The vari-lite is going to revolutionise theatrical lighting, apart from its visual effects, it saves people the time and often danger of having to climb up onto the metalwork holding the lights to point or focus them at a particular part of the stage set. The men who operate the system for us on tour are our production designer- Alan Owen and Tom Littrell who is responsible for the operation and setup of the lights. ;

Our production designer - Alan Owen sat down with the group a few months ago and went over the design of this year's lighting system, the end result is what you will see tonight. 150 varilites plus a few hundred normal 'par' lights, with a few ultra powerful 'Supertrouper' follow spots thrown in for good measure, a system that in its maximum configuration weighs over six tons.

Once the dates for the tour had been given to us by Jo Chester and Steve Hedges, a short mi pitour was arranged in June. We sent Alan Owen, Morris Lyda - our technical production manager and Geoff Banks - the 'Genesis' stage manager, out to look at all the venues to double check that all the technical requirements needed could be met.

By that I mean, enough electricity. A large and strong enough stage and roof, access for trucks and equipment. It doesn't sound much, but in reality means getting answers to many many questions, and then double checking the answers. A mix-quoted venue roof weight handling capacity could have disastrous consequences. This double and triple checking carries on right up until the day of the concert, and hopefully every detail will have been covered. We started to arrange all the travel details for the tour at the beginning of July. We have a very fine travel agent in Trinifold Travel Limited who are very experienced in music tours, and Sue, Alan and Mike Hawksworth their leader are very able people and a great help to us. Initially we sit down and go through the tour city by city, selecting first the hotels, and then the form of travel between each point. I offer my suggestions and they offer theirs, finally we agree on the perfect solution and I leave them to try and book everything. It sounds easy, but here the fun starts.With the amount of people we take with us not all the hotels we pick can accommodate us. You run up against block bookings by business conventions that were made a year ago, and so on. So we then have to look for alternatives. Eventually everything pieces together but the end result is often quitedifferent from that initial planning meeting. The travel for a tour of this size is no mean feat with so many people not always on the same schedule.

At the same time as all this is happening we start to confirm the sub-contractors for the tour. The sound system this time is by Showco Inc from Texas - a 30,000 watt system handled by a four man crew headed by Craig Schertz our long time sound engineer. For some of the outdoor shows in Europe we are supplementing the Showco system with a large system by an English company – Turbo sound Limited complete with two -men to handle it.

The vari-lite system of ISO lights has three men looking after it-headed by Tom Littrell. The other part of the lighting system in provided by an English company - TTR Limited with a four man crew for that, plusa rigger - Al Caine to correctly suspend it all from the concert halls, roofs. We take our own caterers on tour with us to keep all well fed. Flying Saucers Catering, comprising four amazing, hard working girl cooks keepus all marching on our stomachs.

Obviously all this equipment and all these people have to be moved around. This tour we are using the trucks owned by 'The Who' Their company ML Executives is providing us with six 40ft long Volvo articulated tractor-trailers to carry everything about. To legally cover the distances involved between each venue, each truck has two drivers - a total of 12 men. To carry the crew we are using coaches by the London based company 'Len Wright Travel'. Each of the three coaches has two drivers, the vehicles are specially designed for overnight travel with 12 beds and 12 seats on each coach. Between each city the equipment and crew drive overnight. With these coaches they can all go to sleep in a bedroom on wheels. The only time the road crew see a hotel is on concert engagements that mean us performing in one venue for more than one night, which is regarded as a bit of a holiday as it breaks from the usual routine of opening the doors of the trucks at 8amand working until 2am the following morning until the last truck's doors are closed after reloading everything.

As well as the multitude of people I've already mentioned there are many more I have not. The group's full road crew, who look after all the instruments, the air and sea freight gents, the 20 stagehands. They helpour crew at each venue, the people who work at the venues, the people who work for Adrian Hopkins Merchandising who sold you your programme. All these people and equipment have to be hired for every tour.

WelI I've tried to cover the build-up to this tour, the rest of the story unfolds in front of you tonight, the end results of many months of hard work, good days, and bad days included. We all tried out best to bring you the best show possible. We hope you like it. Thanks for coming.

Andy Mackril