As part of LDI’s 2025's XLIVE: The Concert Touring Sessions, legendary production and tour manager Jake Berry introduced the first panel of concert professionals to the stage at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Road to Success was moderated by Tour/Production Manager Debbie Taylor and included Butch Allen, VP Global Business Development, TAIT; Emilio “Milo” Colorado, Technical and Creative Director, GetVisuals; John Huddleston, Managing Director, Upstaging; James Oliver, VP Creative Partnerships, ACT Entertainment; Joerg Philipp, Founder/Owner Beat The Street; and Malcolm Weldon, Production Manager for acts including Pink and Beyoncé.
The panelists discussed both the seriousness of working in the industry, (John Huddleston says, "They sell tickets to our deadlines") and also why people are drawn to the profession, travel, ping pong, possibly axe throwing and the fact that AI cannot replace you.
RELATED: XLIVE: The Road To Success - Part I
Debbie Taylor kicked off the discussion by asking for defining moments, or obstacles the panelists had to overcome.
James Oliver: I was working in a manufacturing environment and there was an accident and three people died. It was a defining moment for me. The press were there, the company was in the spotlight, and hundreds of people worked there and the police were involved. Handling it was so stressful I had to remind myself to breathe. It doesn’t get worse than police knocking on your door but I learned that I could handle it. That’s when I decided to start my own thing. There are things you can’t see coming that test who you are, not just in business, and that’s when you say I am in charge. Even to the point where I said I’m not going to suck at guitar anymore—I woke up one day and decided I would not accept it and would get better. You decide to define your own lives.
Debbie Taylor: We are a collection of people who fix things and make things better.
Malcom Weldon: But sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know. When I took over the office we were doing OK but not getting the big shows. We were doing James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. It was 1986 and we were not getting our share of the massive hair bands. But we focused on doing good work and people came to us. I got cocky. I thought, we got this! Then, in 1994 we got the opportunity to the Eagles ‘Hell Freezes Over’ tour and I will tell you it was humbling, we did a good job but boy did we learn. Chris Lamb, the production manager was like, hey, what are you doing? And we learned so much. Two years of doing that tour was a college education for us. A defining moment of our company.
Emilio ‘Milo’ Colorado: This industry allows change and progress. I was a beginner designer at V Squared Labs, I was employee number one, in a garage in North Hollywood. We did the Police, Sting, Beyonce, Red Hot Chili Peppers, so many artists. I was surrounded by designers making these sick designs and I hunkered down and studied 3D designs and photography. About two years in, I started making sick visuals. Velo Virkhaus took me under his wing and said ok, you are taking the lead on these projects and you can define the looks. I was able to become a director taking projects from production to the stage. I can change your life by really studying and getting good at what I wanted to do. Like getting good at guitar, you have to really embrace it and sink your teeth into it.
Joerg Philipp: And listen to criticism. We were adapting school buses and back in the ‘90s in New York there were three bands who got together and toured Europe – 18 people in a 12 person bus. Back then, touring was coming out of the UK, not Europe, and so those were the only buses we knew. We thought that’s how buses were supposed to look, with carpet etc so that’s how we fitted out our buses. But American clients said that European buses were terrible, and I was finally so sick of this I flew to Florida and got an American cruiser bus and we converted ours to look like American ones. Of course, we then gave Pantera our newest, most amazing bus, and we thought they would love it but they just messed it up. But we took the criticism and improved.
One day, the Rolling Stones had to postpone their tour two weeks because Keith Richards was injured and the UK tour bus company had a clash and hired us in at Stuttgart. On the first day the AC packed in. Oh no! That’s where we met Jake Berry. The next Rolling Stones tour a year later they hired us in again and on the first day the driver called us and told us Jake Berry – who everyone was afraid of—had picked our bus as the production bus. That was a high point.
After that we got Cher. She hated her bus and lined them all up for inspection and picked our bus as her own. A big deal BUT she had shipped her own mattress with a wooden frame from the US and we had to take the front windscreen of the bus out, put the mattress in, and then put the windscreen back. We only had one night to do it. Then we had to drive to Paris which takes two drivers and one of them was rested but I was not! In Europe the drivers sleep on their buses but we were so nervous and tired we couldn’t sleep properly. Cher ran off the stage in her Egyptian wig and got on the bus, but as we drove out there was a road closure and we got lost. We had to keep driving, because if we stopped driving they would find out that we are lost. This is before phones telling you the way! After some tense moments we found our way to where we were going. So sometimes you get what you want but it makes for a lot more work!
Our next key moment came one Christmas when Jake Berry called me directly. The industry code is that when a guy hires you in on a tour you don’t take their original client. So when Jake called and said I want you to do U2 next summer I said, “Did you call Phoenix? How many buses do they want?” And he said “No, they will not get U2, do you want it or not?” So, I took their client, but I didn’t try to do it. We got many clients through Jake.
I would caution you though, that you don’t get into this business because of the money. Pick the work you want to do, that you are passionate about. In the 1990s our accountant said don’t expand like this, you carry so much debt you will end up in jail. I thought about it for a day and I changed accountants.
Debbie Taylor: So, you are all learners and risk takers, what skills are you looking for when you hire someone?
Malcolm Weldon: Find someone who is passionate enough to want the gig.
In your career your passion will propel you to get through all the anxiety of the hard times, when you don’t know when you will get your next gig. Things will happen for you if you want it badly enough. “No” will not be a part of your vocabulary. You can be on a great tour, but you need recommendations for your next gig. Take it seriously. Everyone is important. Even the person that puts out towels and water is key. That person needs to make that happen or the artist is struggling. Honestly, it is like being in a war except no one is shooting at you. You do whatever it takes to make the show happen.
Emilio ‘Milo” Colorado: Some personal advice. As a DJ, I would have a couple of drinks to loosen up to do a gig. Then I decided to sit with my emotions and social anxiety and face it head on. I have lost friends to substance abuse and one thing I now rely on is sobriety. This industry is a bunch of merry pirates and I notice that some people like to get loaded and be a shitshow. The takeaway is: DON’T BE A SHITSHOW! Respect the craft. Absorb the knowledge. When I got the call from Rahm Anders at Raw Cereal, it is almost like sobriety brought us together and I am around all these other great artists who are sober. There is another way to be.
Butch Allen: For all of you just starting out in the industry this is one place AI will not be taking your jobs. AI will not be putting live events together. I’ve been doing this since I was 19 and it is hard work, it is not cuddly, but it is going to be here for a while.
The best advice I can give: Five minutes early is ten minutes late. Always look for solutions, if you have the right tools you can learn the skills.
John Huddleston: They sell tickets to our deadlines – we have to be ready. If you are in this industry you have to be ready to make those deadlines. Don’t be cocky. Keep learning. Also, ladies you are welcome. We had more ladies on the Coldplay tour than on any previous tours. There is a place for everyone. We are hiring. We are not hiring lighting designers, we work for lighting designers, but you can learn the business. You will work for different people and the rules might change but it won’t matter if you are listening and learning. If you see a problem in any industry and solve it you will be the most valuable person on the team.
Malcolm Weldon: Hire people with a good attitude. You can have one bad person on a tour and because of how they relate to rest of crew, and the local crew, that attitude starts to be like a cancer. People will be affected.
As a production manager I get to hire people, and fire people. The only people I can’t get rid of are people related to the artist. Once you get to touring you should consider yourself blessed. If you are liked and good at your job you can make more money than someone with a college degree and you will have more good days than bad days.
Always remember you are making things that people love – there could be someone who gets to go out maybe once a year and that show will carry them through the next few months. They don’t have money or can’t get a babysitter or whatever. So when the lights go down it has to be magical.
There is nothing wrong with starting out at the bottom. Most of the best lighting designers in the world started out in the shop and so they look at a design and say, “we can’t build that,” or “yeah, we can do that. If a designer doesn’t know how everything goes together it will hold them back.
Debbie Taylor: How do you unwind on a tour so you can stay focused?
Butch Allen: Whatever squirms up your wetsuit so long as it doesn’t hurt kids or animals is fine! You work in a fishbowl with all your colleagues so you are not alone, but pay attention to things and take time away. You will be tempted to go from job to job because it is insecure and also the job is fun but it is also intense, you need to take time off.
John Huddleston: When you are on tour, walk the city. You are traveling first class, you will never get to travel that way again. One guy I knew said he called his parents from Red Square. Who gets to do that? Enjoy the travel, enjoy the food.
Butch Allen: I will say some parts of touring are amazing, we drove past the Grand Canyon in a lightning storm and it was incredible. But I was in Paris seven times before I saw the Eiffel Tower—take advantage when you can.
Emilio Colorado: Do some team building in the downtime. Have great meals and share stories. Play ping pong.
Butch Allen: Or axe throwing! Go to museums! Wait till you see the art that is in this world!
Debbie Taylor: Final words of advice?
Emilio Colorado: Network for work! Networking at LDI is life changing. I’ve networked millions of dollars of gigs out of this trade show.
Malcom Weldon: Be careful what you wish for!