It’s hours before showtime at Def Leppard’s Rock of Ages tour. They will soon take the stage with “Photograph,” “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” “Armageddon It” and other hits — with the bands Poison and Lita Ford opening. Hanging in catering with production manager Phay MacMahon, one catches up with MacMahon’s evolution in the industry.
Anyone in the business for a number of years knows Phay MacMahon. After all, he’s “Phaymous” — his nickname for the past 32 years or so. He started out as LD with Def Leppard’s U.K. tour in 1980. Jake Berry was the production manager then, but had to leave to return to AC/DC. So the LD added PM to his title, doing double-duty until 1987, “when it got too big to do both,” he says. So when Charlie Hernandez came in to production manage, MacMahon could return his focus to lighting for the band’s huge Hysteria tour.
All these years later, MacMahon is now happy to focus on one job: production managing, with LD Kenji Ohashi now designing the lighting.
One wonders if he misses being in the LD seat. But he doesn’t. “The most important thing about being the LD then and being the production manager now is to learn to let go, to step back and let the LD do his own thing,” MacMahon says.
That said, MacMahon marvels at all the new lighting and video technology they’re using, which packs 10 trucks on the road. But he’s also about letting the next generation have their chance under the spotlight. On this tour, it’s not just a production family, it IS family — or you could call it “Phamily.” His own son, Eoin MacMahon, is out on this — his first — tour, as video LED tech/camera operator. “We call him the Hysteria kid,” Phay says, “as he was born before the Hysteria tour (in 1987).” Eoin spent a few years with an AV company in Ireland, and now that he’s graduated from college, he says he’s got a good, real working relationship with his Dad.
Meanwhile, tour manager Malvin Mortimer (who’s also been with Def Leppard since 1983 starting as guitar tech) has his daughter, Lesley Mortimer Wallace, on the crew, handling wardrobe and dressing rooms. “She’s the Pyromania kid (1983-84),” says MacMahon. He also took a chance on his new production assistant, Sinead Madden. She is a violinist who has performed on tour in Ireland, but wanted to try her hand on the road team. With her computer skills and road experience, she passed the audition, MacMahon says.
As the authority in charge of hiring crew, MacMahon says he’s harder on his own son, as Eoin’s work ethic reflects on himself. But he’s hard on everyone when it comes to safety.
He gives each crew member a detailed job description, outlining every single duty that’s expected of them. And with the recent spate of accidents hitting the headlines, MacMahon has also devised extra safety procedures in the form of accountability. Once production is set up, and before each and every showtime, each crew chief signs a document swearing that they have all inspected their areas. “Each crew chief has to sign off to show that elements of safety have been adopted and enforced,” he says. Although the production manager holds the ultimate responsibility, he says, everyone in the production family has to work together to make the team strong.
Phay and his Phamily finished Def Leppard’s tour Sept. 15. After a month off, the “Phaymous” one reprises his role as production manager on Maxwell’s tour.
Carrie Underwood’s Blown Away
“It’s insane what’s going on with that tour. We lit the hell out of it!” says LD Peter Morse. Carrie Underwood’s 55-city North American Blown Away tour kicked off Sept. 14, with a production conceived by show director Raj Kapoor and set designed by Michael Cotten.
Part of the extravaganza that Morse is talking about has the country singer flying out over the audience, while video panels tilt and fly in the air as well. Video is the backbone of the show, Morse says, with all content created by Kapoor. “It’s the wildest,” Morse says. Brian Jenkins is the touring LD.
Morse has Barbra Streisand’s tour design up next, then Morse and Kapoor collaborate on the next big thing: Shania Twain in Las Vegas. Her run of shows begins Dec. 1 at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.
The Nomadic Joel Reiff
The life of an LD is frequently nomadic, but LD Joel Reiff and his wife are living out the definition literally. They just sold their house and bought land outside of Boulder, CO.
On that land, they have two barns — but no house. “So we’re nomads,” he says. “Our two horses are there, though. We all have our addictions, and mine has four legs and a really big head.”
Reiff doesn’t miss having a house — although one is being built — as he is still on the road with Jason Mraz, which started last year while Avril Lavigne finished earlier this year.
“With 28 years in the biz, it’s the first time I’ve gotten to work with Butch Allen (on Avril) and Paul Normandale (on Mraz), both great experiences,” Reiff says.
“We’re into the U.S. leg of Mraz’s Love is a Four Letter Word tour. It’s an eco-friendly tour. We use biodiesel fuel in the buses and trucks, and all of us have containers and coffee mugs from the tour, which we refill, instead of pounding bottled water, and we recycle backstage and on the buses.”
Metallica in 3D
Programmer Troy Eckerman continues working on a Metallica 3D movie incorporating elements of the band’s live arena shows. “We have been working on this for a year off and on. It is a huge indoor show with tons of gags. John Broderick is the designer and Rob Koenig is the operator. I have worked for JB and Metallica for about 10 years now. It is great to work with the team again, but it is a wonderfully tough show to work on, to say the least.”
Quick Cues…
Larry Boster is working with Gary Allan’s tour as production manager and lighting designer/director. To help on day-to-day lighting duties, he hired his brother, Glenn Boster, as his assistant. He handles all the lighting focus updates, daily programming and takes care of the media server and video wall…LD Eamonn McKiernan is on the road with Silversun Pickups…Trevor Burk just finished up the Animal Collective tour as production and projection designer, with Zach Matusow collaborating on lights…LD Trevor Shirley is out with Linkin Park, which co-headlined with Incubus this summer; Shirley worked with lighting director Matt Mills and programmer Drew Gnagey…LD Matt Druzbik continues to work in his home base of Las Vegas, currently at the Stratosphere with singer/songwriter Frankie Moreno. “He is unbelievably talented and is currently taking Vegas over by storm,” Druzbik says…LD John Labriola recently returned to the U.S. after a two-month run with Blink-182, spending the past year between Blink and Angels & Airwaves. What’s next? “Hopefully something creative, lucrative and soon,” he says… LD Mike Duncan continues touring with Fiona Apple…LD Dan “Malibu” Krygowski is out with John Legend.
Share people and project news with Debi Moen at dmoen@plsn.com.
