Twenty-five years since Liam Gallagher’s last big shows at Knebworth, the former Oasis front-man returned with the anthemic Rock N Roll Star, with a set combining ‘classics’ blended with material from his new album, C’mon You Know. Technical Production Manager, Dick Tee was employed by Festival Republic to support the delivery of the show. Surprisingly, given his vast experience, his only previous employment at this site of so many iconic concerts was a classical orchestra on the lawn of Knebworth House, two decades ago.
As ever, Melvin Benn, Festival Republic Managing Director, was attentive to all elements of this project and tailored the site to this audience. Tee picked up the story: “We met Liam’s Production Manager, Davey Murphy; Tour Manager, Neil Mather and Site Manager, Tim Spears beforehand. This is very much a Liam concert with support artists, rather than a festival setup, so we’ve worked closely with his team to make sure the look and feel of the site and production met their expectations.”
This was the first big outdoor ‘back to work’ show for a lot of people after the two-year COVID-19 enforced pause. “While we can all remember ‘how to do it’, I think there are a fair few people who aren’t ‘match fit’, so it’s about allowing a bit more time for ‘recall’. There are also quite a few new faces as we’ve lost a fair amount of experience from people crossing into other sectors during lockdown. Allowances have to be made across the team, with a recognition that everyone will be experiencing their own challenges and we have to pull each other through. If we add in the well-documented issues with the supply chain, labour shortages and rising costs, it has certainly been ‘back to work’ with a bang. I have to say, after supporting the BBC Events team for BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend across the previous week, I’m certainly feeling back in the swing of things,” Tee reported.
Sunbelt is now a major player in the sector through acquisition. “They are a new ‘brand’ on-site, supplying trackways, tower-lights and generators, but there are quite a few familiar faces, who’ve stayed with the ‘acquired’ companies,” Tee remarked.
It was a known quantity in terms of suppliers, with Serious Stages, Creative Technology (CT) for the IMAG screens, audio by Solotech and lighting provided by Neg Earth. “There has been a great deal of pressure on all suppliers to get back up to speed. I was very pleased to see Serious Stages deliver so well and on time, before we had to load in the technical production,” Tee concluded. “I’m familiar with this six-tower TZ-roof, having worked with it at Reading Festival over many years. It’s a tried-and-tested stage system, but it had an interesting loading ramp configuration in place here, due to the sloped topography at Knebworth.”
This article originally appeared in issue #270 of TPi, which you can read here.
