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As a vibrant year for the live
music industry draws to a close, Stageco has an opportunity to draw
breath and reflect on an incredible 2006, during which the company
has exceeded previous records in supplying staging solutions to events
in all corners of the globe.
The network of eight worldwide offices and the extraordinary efforts
of the company’s staff enabled Stageco to successfully design,
manufacture, transport and install stage systems at over 400 shows
across a wide-ranging touring roster.
More impressive than the sheer numbers of shows are the technical
and engineering innovations, logistical achievements and bespoke solutions
created.
Combined, these factors have led to overwhelming positive feedback,
demonstrating that Stageco has regularly exceeded the expectations
of clients and their audiences.
The Stageco Group has expanded to 166 full time inscribed employees
in 2006. During the busiest periods this was swelled by freelancers
to over 500 people; building, driving, dismantling and supporting
the company’s experienced project managers though the twists
and turns of the ever-challenging tour schedules.
In addition to the specifically built stages for these high profile
shows, Stageco supplied over 250 stages of all sizes to all kinds
of event from the company’s range of ‘standard stages’.
Stageco’s international infrastructure expanded its network
in 2006 with the opening of a new office in Vienna, and the acquisition
of All-Stage in Belgium, to focus more on these local markets.
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They’re still the biggest
rock’n’roll band in the world; a fact confirmed when the
Bigger Bang tour was recently confirmed as the “top-grossing
tour ever", grossing an incredible $437 million.
Since the tour began in August 2005, the band has drawn 3.5 million
people to 113 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore. In addition,
an estimated crowd of two million saw the band perform at Copacabana
Beach in Rio de Janeiro in February 2006.
The Bigger Bang touring stage was designed by the Mark Fisher Studio,
which liaised with Stageco throughout the process of turning visualisations
into a practical touring system.
Three stage sets were manufactured to fulfil the global tour schedule,
based around Stageco’s tower and trusses system, with a scaffolding
and deck and floor system.
The base structure, balconies (accommodating 400 VIP members of the
audience within the stage), stairways, lift and tusk arm elements
of the stage were all tailor made in Stageco’s Belgian fabrication
facility.
This created a 62 metre wide by 27 metre deep by 26 metre high structure
that required 34 articulated trailers to transport the steelwork of
each of the three sets.
Stageco’s project management teams from Belgium and the USA
were joined by local Stageco staff in each different region to construct
the stage.
The logistics for this already complex tour were further complicated
by the rescheduling of the European leg following Keith Richards’s
unfortunate fall from a coconut tree.
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Stageco supply he stages for the
extended U2 Vertigo World tour. The Vertigo tour began
in Europe in 2005 and moved on to the United States, Mexico, South
America and Japan in 2006.
The band postponed the Australian leg of the tour following family
issues, and once again appointed Stageco to supply the staging for
the rescheduled dates, along with an additional farewell show in
Honolulu.
Stageco has enjoyed a strong relationship with the Irish rock impresarios,
having supplied staging for the previous Pop Mart and Zooropa tours.
So the company was delighted to be invited by the band’s production
manager, Jake Berry, to supply the staging for the whole of the
Vertigo tour.
Stageco constructed six copies of the stage at their Belgian head
office facility, manufactured to the design specifications of Mark
Fischer Studio. It incorporated the Tait Towers set with two towers
supporting the PA and high resolution video screens, plus a low
density curved video wall.
In all the stage measured an impressive 60 metres (frontage), 23
metres (high) and 20 metres deep. Each stage consisted of 13 trailers
of steel structures, built in under two days and dismantled after
the show within one day. |
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Robbie Williams’s 2006
world tour began in Dublin this June, taking in 19 venues around
Europe (40 shows) before moving on for four South American shows
in October and finally onto Australia and New Zealand for the final
nine shows.
It was the fastest selling ticket of 2006, with all three million
tickets sold in a month.
Always one to put on a spectacular visual show for his fans, Robbie’s
stage show was performed on a Mark Fischer Studio design, incorporating
over 300 metres of video wall, 2,000 lights and a stadium PA supported
by a Stageco steel structure.
The bespoke 58 metre by 24 metre by 23 metre structure was based
around the Stageco ‘Tower & Truss’ and floor system
(scaffolding & decks), with a tailor-made base structure, tusk
structures, top walkways and stairs. Stageco produced two sets that
each required 14 trailers of steelwork and a dozen Stageco crew.
As the tour progressed, Robbie added a final show in Dublin where
he played for 80,000 people, with Stageco rescheduling an already
complex logistical operation. |
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Millions of rock fans were singing
some of rock music’s best known anthems in front of Stageco’s
custom build touring stage on Bon Jovi’s 2006 Have a Nice Day
tour.
While fans filled three sides of 21 sold out stadium concerts, the
fourth side was taken by the band and their Spike Lloyd-designed set,
supported on a 54 metre wide, 18 metre deep, 20 metre high Stageco
structure (Towers & Trusses) and floor system (scaffolding &
decks) with tailor-made top structure trusses, facia panels and band
“roofette”.
Stageco built three sets, each requiring 10 crew (two from Stageco
Germany, one from Belgium, partially replaced by US crew in the US),
with a total of 30 trailers of equipment on the road for the tour.
Bon Jovi did a complete trial build at Stageco’s Tildonk yard
for 10 days, with a 24/7 schedule for programming the video and lights. |
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During the “Touring The
Angel” 2005/6 World Tour, Depeche Mode played to more than
2.5 million people in 31 countries at all sizes of venue in support
of their latest album ‘Playing the Angel’.
The importance of the live show was underlined by the fact that
the band recorded and mixed each show to create a unique high-quality
CD that captured the Depeche Mode live experience.
Stageco built a three-tower roof stage system for the larger shows
at eight of the European venues and some festivals during June and
July. Two sets were required to fulfil the touring schedule, with
Stageco’s Germany office staff looking after the six trailers’-worth
of steelwork per stage.
Stageco supplied stages for eight of the shows. The rest were festivals
where staging was already in place. |
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Johnny Hallyday is one of France's
biggest stars. He’s performed 400 tours to 15 million people
over the years and has 18 platinum albums, as well as selling 100
millions discs since the beginning of his career.
Despite Hallyday remaining largely unknown outside France and other
French-speaking countries, he is still considered France's number-one
singer and is seen as a top stage performer.
The tour started in the winter – mainly at indoor venues. Come
the summer, he packed seven venues across Switzerland and France.
For the 2006 tour, Stageco supplied a four-tower roof system for seven
venues in France as well as some of the festivals where Hallyday was
appearing.
In all, eight trailers of steelwork of per set (three sets were dispatched
on the road) were constructed and dismantled by Stageco Belgium +
France crews. |
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Stageco became a favourite among
international football supporters when Stageco’s German office
supplied a range of structures for the 2006 World Cup through June
and July.
Before a ball was kicked, Stageco supplied three stages with roofs
for a series of orchestral concerts to entertain the fans arriving
in Germany in advance of the tournament.
Most notably, a giant Stageco Arch Roof (38,29x 30,5x 19,6) located
in the Olympic stadium in Munich hosted a concert by Placido Domingo,
the prodigy piano player Lang Lang and many more, conducted by the
best known conductors in the world like Zubin Mehta or Christian Thielemann
attended by the Bavarian state orchestra, the Munich philharmonic
orchestra and the symphony orchestra of the Bavarian broadcast.
The opening ceremony took place on the pitch immediately prior to
the first match of the tournament.
Stars like Seeed and Herbert Grönemeyer, Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer
and Joseph Blatter appeared on an 80m² Stage (also tailor- made)
in the centre of the pitch, and the German Stageco team scored well
when they removed all the equipment in the allotted one minutes for
the opening match to begin on time.
While the players battled on the pitch, Stageco provided structures
around the grounds, enhancing the World Cup experience for hospitably
ticket holders and for those fans who couldn’t get tickets for
the action.
The company supplied nine big screen supports for ‘fan fests’
outside stadiums for supporters (five tower constructions, four scaffolding
constructions). These screens were ‘live’ throughout the
tournament to make it possible for fans without tickets to watch the
matches.
Sponsorship and corporate hospitality are now an important commercial
aspect of any major tournament and Stageco supported several brands
in their presentations at the World Cup.
In Berlin, the Coca Cola Pavilion was a tailor- made TV studio, while
a circular stage was provided to the Yahoo sponsor pavilion where
fans had free web access and Stageco built a Mastercard sponsor tower
with full branding for hospitality. |
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It was the biggest opening ceremony
for a Winter Olympic Games and Stageco was entrusted with the structures.
Unlike the rock’n’roll touring timetable, which takes
three days to build and two days to load-out, a show of this magnitude
required Stageco to work alongside a complex network of suppliers
and be on site for three months, taking into account stringent local
health and safety procedures.
The Stageco Belgium office fulfilled the project, starting the build
in November 2005, ready for the first of three shows; the opening
ceremony on 10 February, the closing ceremony on the 26 February and
the opening of the Para Olympics on 10 March.
Stageco supplied an elaborate tailor-made roof and bridge construction
that required very intensive labour; the Olympic rings support structures
(Towers & Trusses); PA and light portals (Tower & Truss constructions)
which were installed in January ready for rehearsals.
Video screen supports were supplied by the Stageco France office in
the main stadium and in the mountains so that fans could follow the
action. |
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Stageco US supplied the stage
for the free show to commemorate the opening match of the NFL season
in September, which this year was between the Pitsburg Steelers and
the Miami Dolphins.
Among the artists were Diddy (AKA Puff Daddy) Rascal and Cassie, performing
on a specially built stage and production (with barriers) located
on the sand of South Beach, Miami.
Stageco supplied a four-tower stage with a Micro Arch 4 roof (seven
arches). |
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Stageco closed a sporting year
by supplying structures to the Asian Games in Qatar.
The Belgian office supplied 32 tailor-made banner towers to eight
locations around the games’ site and Stageco towers at the entrance
of the main stadium.
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