2006.08.03 - LSi Online - Guns N' Roses to EFM

Guns N' Roses to EFM

By Chris Henry

Worldwide - A busy summer season continues for Event freight specialists - EFM, who recently completed a charter schedule for Guns N' Roses, transporting the band and their equipment to four countries in five days.

For the final part of the band's world tour, EFM engaged in meticulous planning to get the band, crew and equipment for Guns N' Roses between four venues in four different countries over a five-day period. Responding to every change of plan, right up to the last minute; EFM handled every element of the logistics for the band and its equipment.

Meeting the tour in Oslo, a charter plane was supplied to carry the band's 25 tonnes of cargo which included backline, lighting, pyrotechnics, staging and PA equipment, whilst another charter flight carried the 47 crew for the tour, and a VIP plane was organised for the band members. These three charters took the band between back to back shows - from Oslo to Athens, to play at the Rockwave Festival, before heading onto Kurucesme Arena in Istanbul for a gig the following day.

EFM had a project manager in attendance every step of the way, who travelled between cities on the cargo plane after seeing the passengers off at each stage on their passenger charters, and overseeing the load in/lout out of the equipment at each venue.

For their final part of the trip, due to changing itineraries from the band, EFM had to change their tactics to get the cargo from Istanbul to Bilbao for the Live Festival. The team arranged the two passenger charters direct from Istanbul into Bilbao for the Spanish show, with the cargo flown into France, loaded onto waiting trucks and trucked overland to the show.

Project Manager for EFM, Chris Lumb explained: "The deadlines for this project were so tight that charter flights were the only possible way of getting the band to their destination on time. With so many crew, charter flights were the most sensible and convenient way of transporting them and their equipment between the gigs. The past week has been one of the most exhausting of my life! I knew that if I let the band down at any point, they would risk missing a show. We faced all the challenges head on and all came out smiling in the end."

Sunday 30 July was the last night of the European leg of the tour and EFM were waiting backstage at Wembley to load out the equipment into trucks and containers to return immediately back to the USA, where the band will be departing shortly on their US tour.