LONDON – Serious Stages, which first worked with Elton John in 2012, has once again been entrusted to provide the staging for concerts in two newly built sports stadia, Leigh Sports Village Stadium, Manchester (the setup for the June 21 concert is pictured here) and Colchester United’s Weston Homes Community Stadium (June 29). Tour promoter Marshall Arts has supported Sir Elton in finding new venues away from the usual touring circuit to take his music to the fans.
More details from Serious Stages (www.stages.co.uk)
The shows have received rave press reviews as some of the artists’ best ever, a fact that reflects the high level of commitment that both the star and Serious Stages as part of the wider production team put in.
Serious Stages first worked with the legendary artist in 2012, and has once again been entrusted to provide the staging for concerts in two newly built sports stadia, Leigh Sports Village Stadium, Manchester, and Colchester United’s Weston Homes Community Stadium. Tour promoter Marshall Arts has supported Sir Elton in finding new venues away from the usual touring circuit to take his music to the fans.
Mike Stewart, Production Director from Marshall Arts explained: “Elton John loves taking his shows to new places, so it was the first time that a rock n roll show has been into these stadiums. As we hear about new venues being built I’m visiting to check them out. It is important coming into a venue not familiar with a large scale music production that we have professional suppliers like Serious Stages, who we can trust and so that we can pool experience to overcome the inevitable logistical challenges. It’s great for us to have people in place, like Serious (Stages), who know what they are doing.
“These two stadium shows have been configured for a capacity of 17,500 and they have both sold out, so we have worked closely with the Serious Stages CAD department across the previous months to optimise our capacity. We achieved this with a clever stage design utilising an extended cantilever roof. That allows us to open out the stage sides with clear sightlines, so we can sell seats right down to the 180° angle. With Sir Elton at his piano these are great seats for the audience and means he connects better with them due to the closer proximity.”
Serious Stage’s project manager was Tim Norman. Tim began consulting with Serious in 2011, bringing many years experience working on world tours for artists such as Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson. He is now working with them to expand the company’s international touring capability. Tim stated:
“Achieving this cantilever roof design was a key to taking a show of this size into these smaller stadiums. The cantilever was 8.4m deep, creating the open-sided front section of the stage. Increased audience capacity was also a key economic driver, making it viable to take an artist and associated production into these more intimate stadiums. It is a very clean looking stage that gives great views from all angles, while retaining the necessary loadbearing capacity with a trim height of over 13m on the cantilever roof.
“Even given the company’s fantastic existing credentials spanning two decades, I’ve witnessed Serious Stages growing over the past three years. There have been significant advances in health and safety across the industry since new working practices were introduced at the 2012 London Olympics (where Serious supplied over £4million of temporary structures). Serious have continued to make considerable investments in staff training and new equipment which place them at the head of the UK staging sector.
Simultaneously to this tour, Serious Stages has also been installing all 19 of the Glastonbury Festival stages and across that weekend had 26 other sites live with outdoor stages as far afield as Norway to Scotland.
