As promised, 50 Random Facts from the Queen + Adam Lambert North American Tour...
Last show for me tonight...sob!
Nick
***
There are 13 trucks pulling the stage and backstage equipment around this tour.
The crew is made up of Brits, Americans, Canadians, one Irishman and one New
Zealander.
Our Head Carpenter "Keano" was a tree surgeon in the village I am from, Writtle in
Essex.
The show is shot on 5 cameras every night.
Jil our Production Coordinator used to work for Lord of The Dance Michael Flatley.
There are 285,994 light 'actions' per show - this means a movement or being on or
off.
Adam sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" for his "American Idol" audition.
Pete, Head of Catering used to be Kurt Cobain's cook.
He has also gone on to cater for Dave Grohl in the Foo Fighters, Them Crooked Vultures
and Queens Of The Stone Age.
Brian has 18 Vox AC 30 Amps on the tour with him.
Rob our stage designer cycles to the venue from the hotel at every opportunity.
We seem to be following Cher and Heart around the same venues. We find traces of them
at each venue.
Rufus Taylor on meeting Paul McCartney when he was tiny found it easier to call him
"Beatle Guy" than remember his name.
I had to bring over Marmite, Chocolate Buttons and UK Mars Bars for some ex-pats that
now live in LA.
There are 44 Crew on this tour, made up of the Production Team, Riggers, Carpenters,
Lighting, Video, Audio, FX, and Backline Team.
Adam's first ever live show with Queen was at Independence Square in Kiev, in front of
300,000 people.
We have 4 buses carrying the 44 crew. 12 bunks on each bus.
The next gig for one of our lighting team, Robin, is with Oprah Winfrey.
We are carrying 36 tonnes/ 80,000Ilbs of equipment on the road.
Our printer in the Production Office is called Malcolm.
I made that last fact up.
We have 4 confetti cannons in the kit - not always used.
Neil Fairclough and I could talk about Queen and music in general for about 6 weeks
non-stop.
Benji in the Lighting team also worked on the Queen Extravaganza US Tours.
There are 27 different T-shirts to chose from on the Tour Merchandise stand.
I have interviewed Rufus and Neil for the Official Queen Podcast.
I am not going to take pictures of the band member’s dressing rooms and upload them.
Carpenter Andy Bews was the drummer in early 2000s UK rock hopefuls 100 Reasons and I
once reviewed their debut album.
After show Toweling Robes - Brian: black, Roger: black, Spike: light grey: Neil and Rufus:
dark blue. Adam puts on a clean T-shirt.
Leah, who works in Adam's team, used to work for the late, great Jeff Buckley.
Roger on average uses 6-8 pairs of drumsticks a night - although he has been know to use
just one pair.
You can get a good haircut in Calgary. Thanks Mohammad.
On average we take 3.5 hours to load out of a venue each night.
There are over 1000 flight cases being carried on this tour. I did not count them.
I am collecting the entire set list print outs during my time here.
Before the Edmonton show the crowd performed a Mexican Wave.
This is the longest I have ever been away from my kids.
Adam's dad was a DJ at his college radio station and he played a LOT of Queen songs.
On this trek Sting's Fields of Gold is always used to test the audio equipment before sound
check. The track is good for setting the PA tones.
We are carrying specialist electrical equipment that converts US power to our UK needs.
In Calgary Brian and Roger were given the "Freedom Of The City".
We use about 40 local crew at each show...and they all get a Queen + Adam Lambert T-shirt to
wear and keep.
VIP and stage side seated guests are given a backstage tour before the show.
There is over 30 miles of cable used in the whole show.
There are over 1million pixels in the main stage LED screen.
Neil only uses a pick on Under Pressure and he has used the same three picks since LA
rehearsals.
The gold fans that Adam uses in Killer Queen - I spray-painted those.
Prior to sound check Pete has been known to play 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love' by
The Darkness.
I had the best hot dog ever - a 'Japa Dog' - in Vancouver.
On upload of this update I have just 9 hours left on tour.
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