Call it a lack of preparation; but personally, when I go and cover a show, I don’t like to read too much about the production before speaking to the crew. My justification for this is that I like to give those who have toiled away for weeks, months or years the chance to highlight the most interesting elements of the show from their perspective and not influence their interview with my own views. I bring this up because there was no way of avoiding reading about the Music Of The Spheres World Tour when it first hit the road in March 2022 – and for good reason. This is a production that is addressing the challenge of making large-scale touring more sustainable and doing so in a public forum.
Being a more sustainable touring act is not exactly a new concept and something we’ve followed with interest over the years in TPi, but suffice to say, this tour has taken things to a new level and yet still managed to create a show that lived up to the band’s established reputation as one of the world’s best stadium performers. Before a single confetti cannon was fired or the 60,000 PixMob LED wristbands flickered with light, TPi found itself in the centre of Manchester’s Etihad Stadium with Production Manager, Chris Kansy to learn how far sustainability went within this production and to pose the question; how might this tour influence the wider industry?
This article originally appeared in issue #276 of TPi, which you can read here.
Words: Stew Hume
Photos: Anna Lee (@annaleemedia) and TPi