As part of LDI’ 2025s 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. Despite having been in the business for longer than any of the other speakers and panelists, Berry stated categorically, “Unless you are under 50, you won’t keep up with me.” No one argued.
Berry introduced the session, The Road to Success, which 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. All people Berry described as having made it from the bottom to the top of the industry with hard work and talent, but who were also in the right place at the right time and able to make their own luck. For almost all of the panelists, getting into the business was unplanned.
From getting goosebumps when the tour trucks rolled into town, to learning to dropping out of college to go on the road, these legends of live events share how they got into the business.
Malcolm Weldon: I wanted to be a recording engineer/producer, the next Quincy Jones! That didn’t happen, and I started doing live sound in a theatre in Beverly Hills but when that closed down, I went out on the road and was a stage manager for 10 years before becoming a production manager. One thing leads to another. And the thing about touring is, you never know when you are going to get your next gig. It is so important to make the right impression because you never know who will see you work and give you your next gig. I worked on the Milli Vanilli tour – you can laugh but they were huge back then – and then didn’t get another tour for eight months. But then picked up tours with Janet Jackson, Cher, Sade, Tina Turner, Pink, Ozzy Osbourne, I got a lot of work through the manager Roger Davies. As a stage manager, if the call is for 8am I get there at seven.
Joerg Philipp: I am from Innsbruck, Austria, not exactly the heart of rock ‘n’ roll but while I was in school I worked as a stagehand on about ten shows a year and I always got goosebumps when the trucks rolled into town. When I started out, I promoted shows for a while, but no one wanted the shows I wanted to promote. Then I found out that The Commodores needed a wardrobe guy and so I polished shoes and ironed shirts for them. One day, there were no tour buses to be had in Italy and the promoter had to bring them from the UK and I thought: I should get into buses! Fortunately, I did not know anything about it or I probably would not have done it. I bought a secondhand bus that was parked behind a riding school and used as a café. Several garages told me that it would never be roadworthy, but I kept looking and found a garage that said they didn’t know how long it would take or how much it would cost but they would try. I took a job driving a delivery truck so I could pay them to fix it and six months later we had our first bus! Of course, it broke down on the third day of the first tour but we recovered.
After one ski season ended, we picked up another secondhand bus. That was 34 years ago. Things have changed since then, of course if you tried to do this now you would be picked up by the men in white jackets and put in jail! But we kept building and now we have 130 buses in Europe and 50 in the USA.
James Oliver: I tried to be a musician and toured for a decade. The last band I played in was the Strumbellas, I was attracted to that whole sex, and drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll but you don’t get the first part when you play the banjo. By then I had a kid and so I went to Adamson Systems for a job and a guy named Brock Adamson let me get into everything. From there I went PK Sound and Act Entertainment.
Emilio “Milo” Colorado: I started out in music too, in high school I was in a bunch of punk and metal bands and we started playing shows and had to load in and out our own equipment. I learned on the job and over time that becomes muscle memory, dealing with cables and set ups. I didn’t think the experience would serve me but looking back I realize I learned to problem solve in live entertainment setting up my own PA system. My dad had always said you need to choose a career because you will never make it doing music, of course, now I wonder if I should have listened to him! I chose graphic design because I wanted something visual and years later I am doing visuals for music and designing for music. It is crazy where the universe can take you.
Butch Allen: I started out acting and went to a prestigious acting school and as part of the course we had to do some technical classes. I remember we went into a dark room and the instructor said, “Theoretically, light does not exist until it has a plane to touch.” Three weeks later I was in the lighting design program.
One day I was working on the college crew and a guy for the Dixie Dregs got injured and they said, do you want a job? Thanks college, bu’bye! From there I ended up working for bar bands and basically kept failing upwards to bigger things.
A job with a band called Spyro Gyra and when Brad (Malkus) left to go to Lightswitch I ended up being the LD for them. Back them, LD meant lights and drums. I set up lights and percussion. I’ve done every job. I can drive a truck, be the video guy, be the lighting guy, so far I haven’t done sound but never say never!
Debbie Taylor: Why haven’t you worked in sound yet?
Butch Allen: Because people have an opinion about audio. All the years I stood front of house in headphones people would say how do you think it sounds? And I would say I don’t know, I can’t hear it. Joking aside, sound is important to everyone. When designing I put in audio first so no one can ever say it sounds like shit because of me… I started to design shows as a freelancer and ran my own company. Right around my 61st birthday TAIT called and said would you be interested in having a job? And so I said let’s give it a go.
In my experience there is always a door opening if you are open to it.