All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” wrote Shakespeare in As You Like It. And there are few players in the staging business better known, even legendary, than Joe Gallagher. In 40 years, he has built a reputation as solid as his stages for working magic for bands, clubs, corporate and sports events, even churches, with everything done “as you like it.” Even during our phone interview, he was as busy as an air traffic controller, solving issues brought into his office, checking truck locations and tour schedules, taking other calls, getting ready for the next tour taking off in a week.
The Norwalk, California native got his start in the business of show in high school as a roadie for local bands. In the late 1980s, he graduated to production, promoting speed metal bands like Sepultura and road warriors like Foghat, and running night clubs, including Gazzari’s in Hollywood and other famed dens of rock ‘n’ roll iniquity. Tiring of that, he signed on with Eric Pearce’s Showlites in 1991. A year later, All Access Staging & Productions, located in the same building, hired him as a driver. His collection of hats grew to include crew chief, lighting tech and set carpenter on tours for acts as disparate as Luther Vandross, Boz Scaggs and King Crimson. That was followed by four years as a sales rep for the company.
“In 2001, I split off and started Accurate Staging with two partners,” he recalls, “and built that company up. In 2011, I realized things weren’t going the way I’d hoped and that I’d rather be my own boss. I just wanted to be in business with my son Joey, who was also working at Accurate as a salesman and ready to leave.” The departure of the Gallagher pere et fils was not especially amicable, and suing ensued. The senior Gallagher prevailed, and though he couldn’t take his company cell phone or the laptop containing all of his contacts, he did retain ownership of his third of the gear. Today, Joe says, “I’m still friends with my ex-partner. There are no hard feelings now — it’s water under the bridge.”
In the Name of the Father
On Halloween of 2011, the two not-so-average Joes formally launched Gallagher Staging & Productions, Inc., as equal co-owners. Faithful clients found them, thanks in part to ads in PLSN and by visiting them at their homes. By digging into retirement savings, the pair sub-rented the equipment they lacked or that was held up in the court proceedings. With the speed of Moore’s Law, the pair soon had a bustling new business. (In 1965, computer scientist Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors that could be economically placed on an integrated circuit would double about every 18 months; it’s actually been more like every nine months.) Before the first year ended, the fledgling firm had 30 employees, many with long experience in the staging industry. Disneyland became a main account, keeping the Gallagher group the happiest company on earth with events ranging from weddings to grand openings for new rides. The MTV Video Music Awards also came aboard, as did Jay-Z and Chris Brown.
“We first moved into a building in Santa Fe Springs, CA that a friend of Joey’s had, who manufactured aircraft parts,” Joe recounts. “We just needed a place to do some work.” After only a month, a shooting in the alley behind it convinced them to head for tamer pastures in Anaheim, in a building they could rent by the month. About six months later, “we found an 18,000-square-foot building in La Mirada, CA that was perfect for fabrication and rentals. But we had to shuffle everything around to get gear in and out, so we began adding facilities.” The company’s 22,000-square-foot manufacturing and printing facility in Buena Park, CA has multiple 16-foot digital printers, which, Joe points out, has made the company the largest producer of huge (e.g., 40 by 30 foot) printed backdrops for bands. “I buy more Broadway printing cloth from the distributor than any of my competitors,” he says. GS&P also has a 12,000-square-foot secure, fully insured band gear storage facility in Ontario, CA that enables bands to unload, rehearse, store and retrieve their equipment 24/7. They also have a 15,000 square foot warehouse in Orlando, FL. The company also rents additional spaces in San Francisco and Las Vegas, and plans to add one in Nashville.
At the new company, now numbering 63 employees and about 1,000 projects a year of varying sizes, the team instilled what the Gallaghers characterize as an aviation industry approach to design and development. “We wanted to build things with more precision, better welding, laser cutting, CNC machining, and more attention to safety features. It’s a matter of hiring the right people and getting them to work together as a team to put out the best products.” Joe marvels at the avalanche of technological innovation that has come along in the last decade. “I still remember being stoked at All Access when we got a fax machine!”
By 2014, Gallagher Staging & Productions had won the Parnelli Award for Set Construction Company of the Year and had handled events for everyone from Macklemore to the Muppets, Avenged Sevenfold to the Avengers Half Marathon, the Kings and Giants victory parades, and parts of several Grammy broadcasts. Says Joe Senior, “It’s been the fastest three-and-a-half years I’ve ever had.”
He’s now 55, which had been his target retirement age. Being so busy and in demand, he has re-targeted to age 60, but dreams of continuing to conduct a lot of business by cell phone while secretly lolling about in Hawaii. In fact, he says it’s his cell phone that distinguishes himself from other company owners. With it, he’s reachable 24 hours a day, and prefers it that way. “If you wanted to contact the owners of a lot of companies directly, you probably couldn’t. But my cell number is on my emails and the website, and I always answer it. Some of my longtime clients don’t want to talk to anyone but me. But over the years, I’ve gradually involved Joey more and more with them, and they’re enjoying it. He’s a lot like me. It’s scary.”
Here Comes the Son
“We’re the exact same person,” said Joey, in a separate interview. “We have the same philosophies on how to treat clients.” At the time of the conversation, Joey was as busy as his father, finishing up details on tours for Florence + The Machine and the Tenors, as well as working on projects for the Coachella Festival, Disney and LiveNation.
“When we started Gallagher Staging & Productions, my dad got back into his sales mode. He had all the contacts and was known in the industry as ‘the man.’ That made it easier to start over and build up our client base. I focused on our manufacturing and rental departments.” How is it to be working with one’s father? “It’s great. It took some adjusting at first, but as father and son, we’re always trying to challenge each other, which I think has been good for both of us.” He doesn’t pull the “dad card”? “Well, he used to (laughs). But he understands how much work I’ve put in to grow this company. And he’s ready for beach life.”
Fresh out of high school, Joey, a born entrepreneur, started his own company building cellular towers. With that industry taking a turn for the worse, he folded it to join his father in the more thriving Accurate Staging. “I started from the ground up, learned every aspect of the business, and worked my way up to project manager and salesman. By the time we left, I’d done most everything.” He credits having smart advisors and a strong team for helping him build his business acumen. “That’s the only way — learn from the people who know what they’re doing.” Gallagher Staging’s rapid rise, the 34-year-old says, “has just been out of control! It’s been sleepless nights, working around the clock, juggling schedules…you start with one employee, then after a few months you’ve got three, then it’s six, and it’s kept on growing. Every ounce of profit has been put back into the company while we lived very modest lifestyles just trying to grow the business.”
At first, he recollects, “some clients were a little wary because we didn’t yet have the infrastructure and organization they were used to. But clients who knew us were willing to take a chance, and we proved we could handle whatever they threw at us. We went all out and took on bigger projects than most companies in their infancy would attempt.”
The younger Gallagher especially enjoys building large touring sets, particularly tall structures that can withstand high wind loads. “With touring sets, I’m ensuring that everything is going out the way the designer and production manager want,” he explains. “The production manager wants everything to pack up well, travel safely, build and strike as quickly as possible, and survive handling by different crews in different cities. The designer wants the stage to fulfill the show’s artistic vision. I work to satisfy the ideals of both.”
As literally the next generation in staging, what changes would Joey like to see in the industry? “It’s already changing for the better. There’s a lot more communication between the different elements, and I’d like to see more organization and longer lead times.” (He laughs at the unlikelihood of this). “We’re doing things in new ways, the way we build things, the way we put rental packages together, with more built-in efficiency and safety. We’ve created quick latching systems instead of nuts and bolts for quicker set-ups and tear downs, eliminated as many loose parts as possible for tours, built better ground support systems for outdoor events, and come up with designs that enable us to get better wind load ratings.”
Among the company’s innovations is the award-winning G-Block. At first glance, the revolutionary ballast just seems like a big box of concrete. Joey’s description is a little more elegant. “It’s a 36-inch concrete cube that has a black-powder-coated steel enclosure with bolt patterns for 12-inch and 20.5-inch box truss on five sides, as well as bolt truss in four horizontal directions for applications requiring outriggers or to bolt tower truss vertically. It’s essentially a building block for ground support, with slots for forklift blades and receivers for adjustable feet for leveling. It’s used for truss grids, truss arches and dead weight.” More attractive than other ballast products, it can be painted or draped to blend into any situation. For applications like the red carpet events, six or eight G-Blocks might be used behind walls. Its younger cousin, the Mini G-Block, which won the 2013 Parnelli Award for Indispensable Technology in Staging, offers similar advantages in a smaller, lighter package.
“We created the G-Block initially to increase safety standards,” Joey adds. “I’m a big advocate of safety. It’s our number one priority. Anything we send out is engineered so no one is going to be injured because of something we neglected to do. That’s a big focus for me. We will spend extra time and resources on ensuring that something is safe, even if it means less profit or even a loss.”
GS&P plans on expanding into new markets and catering to clients by adding fully stocked facilities wherever feasible. “There are not many companies like us that do it all,” Joey says. “They only do staging, only do scenery or only do set construction. I don’t think anyone can compare with the relationships we have and build with our clients, They try us once and they’re with us for life. Because my dad has been doing it for so long and done so well for so many people, he’s always the guy to call when you need anything. As he has handed clients to me and I’ve gotten my own clients, I’ve taken on that same role. They’re not just customers. They’re friends, people we need to take care of, no matter what. If they call at three in the morning with a last-minute problem, we do everything in our power to make sure it gets solved. One way we make sure we can help our customers is by having great relationships with our vendors and also with our competition. If a competitor calls up stuck somewhere and needs something urgently, we’ll jump through hoops to help them out. As much as there’s competition in this industry, everybody’s family and we help each other out.”
For more information, visit www.gallagherstaging.com.
Are You TourReady?
Despite being solidly ensconced at the head of one of the country’s top staging companies, Joey Gallagher’s entrepreneurial spirit has remained lively. On reading about his latest innovation, you’ll hear a sound like applause as hundreds of people slap their foreheads and cry out, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Called TourReady, it’s an online database website for staffing live events. This valuable networking resource connects hiring managers to working crew professionals for concerts, tours and festivals worldwide. They’ve just announced “TourReady to be in the final stages of beta, but they’re ready for an expanded audience to use it, and an iOS app is also in the final planning stages. (For more, see related news story).
If you’re hiring, or want to get hired, check out www.tourready.com.
