ISSUE 3 2010


ENTERTAINMENT LOGISTIcS


Music may move you, but who moves the music?


The lights go down, the auditorium is heaving and then one big scream fills the air as the band bursts onto the stage. Provided, that is, the freight people have done their job right. While most forwarders talk about flown as booked and delivering cargo on time, the movement of sound equipment and stage sets is a much more urgent business. If the cargo doesn’t arrive in time, the show won’t go on, says Marcia MacLeod.


“Handling entertainment industry gear is different to general forwarding,” says Richard Lawford, director of DSV Entertainment Logistics. “Every job is different, and tour managers and production managers have different expectations.” “Everything is time sensitive,” agrees Simon Jackson, business development manager at Sound Moves. “We have to get the band and their equipment in, do the gig and get them out again. We call it Global Freight Orchestration.” The entertainment industry, and especially the music business, is growing. As fans download music from the Internet, bands earn less money from record sales, forcing them to tour more and often in more obscure places, to boost their income. But every day on the road costs money, so the band’s manager and promoter try to cram as many shows into one tour as possible. The need to please the ever- demanding and ever-fickle fan, as well as increased competition between bands, has also led to bigger shows. “Tours are getting bigger and more complex,” comments Matt Wright, business development manager at Rock- It Cargo, an early pioneer in the music forwarding business. “And the bigger the band, the more gear has to be moved.” Tours take a huge amount of planning - by the band, their promoter


and the freight service provider. “The band normally comes up with a concept for the show and tells us whether it wants to use airfreight - the preferred option for 75-80% of tours - or seafreight,” explains Martin Corr, Sound Moves’ MD. “We then work with the set builder to try to ensure the cargo fits into a scheduled flight, or sea container. If not, we may have to charter an aircraft. Most people working in the industry are pretty good at knowing how big they can build a set and still fit within the dimensions of an airfreight pallet.” “All of this takes a lot of time,” Corr continues. “U2 began planning its 2009 tour when the 2005 shows had just finished. Any hitch in the schedule - such as failure to deliver the gear on time - can throw the whole thing out, which is one reason we don’t want to use seafreight: shipping lines have a habit of changing their schedules and dropping ports, which causes huge problems for us.” Because bands play 364 days a year (sometimes 365), forwarders


serving the music industry also have to work all hours. Most gigs finish between 11pm and midnight, which is when equipment is loaded up for the next venue. There is rarely much time between gigs, though, and problems have to be dealt with quickly. “Our staff are on call 24 hours per day,” says Lawford. “We have


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Who’s who in the music freight business


There are a few specialist forwarders and hauliers serving the music industry. Rock-It Cargo was possibly the first, being formed in 1978. It has handled tours for Franz Ferdinand, Kylie Minogue, Muse and Lady Gaga from its Heathrow office, relying on a network of experienced specialist agents around the world. It currently has a small 3,000 sq ft warehouse, but is looking for bigger premises to provide more space for pallet building and an X-ray machine. Sound Moves was started 14 years ago by Martin Corr, Wayne Daniel in New


York and Duane Wood in Los Angeles. In addition to its Heathrow headquarters, it has two offices in New York and one each in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Dubai, as well as a global network of specialist agents. Its 22,000 sq ft warehouse is big enough to allow Sound Moves to store gear for bands like Stereophonics, AC/DC and The Killers between shows. It has also handled forwarding for U2, the Pet Shop Boys, Florence and the Machine and Prodigy. Global forwarder DSV opened its entertainment division in the UK at the beginning of April when it saw an opportunity in a growing market. A team of four dedicated staff will be expanded as demand increases, but it has already trained key personnel in other locations. Probably the oldest specialist haulier, EST was formed in 1974 to carry rock


and roll gear. It now has 50 trucks and around 55 trailers, a mixture of megacube flat floor artics, curtainsiders, flat beds, 18 and 7.5 tonne vehicles, for operation throughout Europe. Stage Truck came on the scene 27 years ago when Robert Hewett, a sound engineer, got fed up with trucks turning up late. It has 50 tractors and 70 trailers, 11 of them curtainsiders.


trained people throughout our network, and can call on local expertise where needed, but people in this business want a single point of contact. If we have to turn up at 3.00am, we do it.” The fragile nature of sound equipment, lighting and stage sets


requires special packaging and handling. Flight cases - those black boxes that litter every gig stage - are not as robust as one might think. “The bands’ crews are experienced in packing gear,” says Wright. “Electronics need to be in foam-lined cases with shock mounts; guitars are packed in individual flight cases inside bigger flight cases. When we handled Lady Gaga’s tour, she used fake cacti on stage; we packed this in a set cart on wheels and moved the cart, rather than the cacti.”


All the forwarders specialising in this business build their own units. “Pallets and containers have to be packed very carefully,” says Corr. “We have to make sure delicate items are at the top of the pallet.” Sound Moves bought its own


X-ray machine in 2007. “We found airlines were damaging the pallets with forklifts and not taking notice of the fragile labels,” Corr explains. “We also


found our cargo would miss flights because of the time taken to clear customs. If we do it ourselves, we plan better and take better care of the cargo.” Other forms of entertainment require greater control. “Theatre movements are different to those for gigs,” Wright comments. “Bands know about touring; theatre people don’t. They pack cargo in a way that is not suitable for quick movement by air. Theatre equipment is bigger than music gear, but the shows are in one place for longer, so we have more time between movements, which means there’s more chance to ship by sea and save money.” “Some bands prefer to use seafreight whenever possible because


of environmental concerns,” Corr adds. “Radiohead’s entire South American tour was based on seafreight.” Whichever mode of transport is used, cargo still has to go through customs, which presents its own problems. Equipment for music or theatre is not considered urgent, even if delays can lead to a cancelled show. For cargo moving into the EU, ATA carnets are used, but when travelling outside of the EU, whether they are accepted or not can be a bit hit-and-miss. “Russia sometimes accepts them,” says Ollie Kite, director of EST, a European haulier specialising in the entertainment sector. “The Ukraine and Belarus didn’t, until recently.” Specialist forwarders sub-contract to specialist road hauliers, although some have small vans for local tours. Although equipment


is handed over to hauliers already packed, it still requires careful handling. “When we open trailer doors, we fold the handles back to avoid damaging the load or the trailer,” explains Neil Dowsett, transport manager at Stage Truck. “The trailers are loaded in the same order after each gig, so each piece of cargo goes in the same place. A truck pack diagram is produced for each tour and every case is labelled - sometimes with the weight of the item. Sound equipment is heavy and we have to be careful not to exceed weight restrictions.” “Equipment has to be well-maintained to avoid breakdown,” Kite


points out. “And it has to comply with the latest EU environmental regulations. Some places, like Austria and Switzerland, ban older vehicles at night because of the noise.” If necessary, two drivers per lorry are used to avoid the need to


stop en route. Loading ramps are faster than tail lifts, although fork lifts are employed when necessary. And all vehicles have air ride suspension - at least in Europe. “Some parts of the world are more difficult to work in,” says


Wright. “It’s hard to get decent size lorries - and trying to explain you need a 45’ air ride falls on deaf ears. On a recent South American tour, gear was moved in 40’ sea containers on flat bed trucks.” Challenges aren’t limited to road transport. “I’ve built airfreight


pallets many times,” Wright adds, “but when we took the Kylie Minogue tour to China, I wasn’t allowed to. It took the Chinese 10 hours to build a pallet; it takes me 90 minutes. And they don’t take as much care with the cargo as I’d like.” “Ten years ago we could go into a warehouse and do things ourselves,” agrees Corr. “Now we can’t, so we have to make sure we communicate how we’d like the cargo to be handled.” Clearly, without the expertise of these specialist forwarders, it wouldn’t just be the fans doing the screaming.


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