"Event on the Bank" (34k). 

TOWERS OF SONG 
 

rom the north shore of the Thames, looking across to Battersea, you were at first struck by the grandeur of the Power Station with its four familiar white chimneys. Then you became aware of the intruder on this famous scene.  

Barely yards in front of Battersea, the Midland 97 "Event on the Bank" was staged in what is the largest temporary venue ever built. From the outside it was a remarkably striking structure. The contrast between soft sweeping curves of silvery fabric and tall high tech towers of steel was very much of the moment. 

Licensed for an audience of just over six thousand, this is to all intents and purposes a Wembley Arena in kit form. The fact that it went up in just fourteen days, and disappeared even faster when the curtain fell on the last concert, is even more startling. What Midland Bank and several other stout hearts had gambled on may start a revolution in the way we all think about the scale of what is and is not possible with indoor eventing. 

Back in 1995, Edwin Shirley Staging (ESS) provided a similar temporary venue in which to host the first ever MTV European Music Awards from Berlin. A well established company in the field of Stadium and Festival concerts, ESS drew on their stock of modular stage roofing components - the familiar high tech' structures we are used to seeing employed by the likes of Michael Jackson - to build something totally enclosed. Perhaps not as elegant as it's later progeny, the MTV enclosure did at least provide proof that such temporary structures were not only presentable, practical, and comfortable (mid November in Berlin is no time to be camping out), but also very affordable. 

Tony Wheeler of Aztech Productions, the organisation responsible for managing the site for Midland 97, takes up the story. "KLP, the marketing agency who created the V97 and T in the Park music festivals, came and saw the structure in Berlin. They were quickly persuaded of it's potential, and took the idea to several prospective corporate sponsors. KLP saw the structure as providing a significant focus for any company looking for something large scale on which to pin their colours. Midland Bank saw it too. Originally the idea was to stage something simultaneously in three or four cities, London being the major site, but also similar events in Birmingham, Manchester and possibly Glasgow.  

Jamiroquai, Frank Skinner, Paul Weller and Cast - a few of the acts at Midland '97.

"Considering that nothing on this scale had ever been attempted before, and no structure like it had even been built, ambition gave way to more sensible aspirations and in January '97 we began looking for a site in London. The final concept was to be a single city event taking place in the last three weeks before Christmas with eighteen concerts staged." 

Skin Temperatures 
This is not to say that the whole project - design, build and fabrication was put together in less than a year - far from it. Jeff Burke and Olly Watts, two of the  directors at ESS began the process of developing the structure almost as soon as the MTV show was complete. "Once we'd sold the idea to KLP in Berlin we were dependant on them finding the right corporate client." said Burke. "As soon as we were given the go ahead by Midland Bank we contacted Dan Fish at Design in Tension, a leading UK based fabric structural design house. Dan came up with a number of proposals based on our brief, one of which we chose. Landrells who already make the fabric covers for our standard Tower Roof systems were then called in to price the design. However, it was such an innovatory concept that Landrells needed a top engineering company to provide the design engineering and design the fabric cutting patterns. We called in the best, FTL Happold based in New York, the people who designed the skin for the Millennium Dome, a company recognised world-wide for its expertise in these kind of tensile fabric structures." Even with such exhaustive preparation, getting from plans and drawings to construction was a close run thing. 

The completed design is massive. To say it is 46 metres wide, almost 100 metres long, and 18 metres high internally, does little justice to the beauty and scale of the Big Fabric Roof or BFR as it has come to be known. What it is capable of gives a better idea. A licensed capacity of 6,000 plus is not just people herded like cattle in a stand up shed. This is modern state-of-the-art grandstand seating - seating that could just as easily grace the stands in Manchester's Nynex Arena, or the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. 

Despite the event being staged in the winter months, heating the 78,000 cubic metres for three weeks, cost just £40,000 using 22 diesel fired portable units from Verhoeven. "The only time these presented us with a problem was for a classical concert," said Wheeler. "Even then we identified the problem during rehearsals, and by judicious use of boost pre-show and during the interval, we were able to maintain a comfortable temperature and avoid any blower noise during the concert proper." 

The structure is totally self-supporting, with a self-weight of 700 tons. It is rated for the regulation wind factor of 38 metres/second (although it has been designed to withstand 51 m/s). Despite which it has a residual strength that permits the suspension of tons of equipment from the roof structure. This was amply demonstrated during the Midland Event when the BFR supported 4 tons of PA, 12 tons of house lighting system, as well as a full blown stage production, the kind of 8 ton productions we are all used to seeing shovelled in and out of the arena circuit on a daily basis. 

What makes the BFR so cost effective is that it requires nothing more than a clear open site, reasonably level ground and a couple of cranes to put it up. But it's worth examining the construction procedure at Battersea, if only to underline just what legislative pitfalls can be encountered, and how they are to be dealt with. Tony Wheeler again. "The decision to use Battersea was decided in February '97 and preliminary requests to use the site were made to Wandsworth Council immediately. Normally when you plan to stage an event of this kind you assemble the basic information for what you are proposing; a licence is either granted or it is not, and then you provide the detail as the project develops. Unfortunately, because we were siting the BFR in front of the Power Station and Battersea is a listed building; we had to apply for planning consent in the way you would have to for a permanent structure. This is an entirely different procedure requiring all the details at the front end of the application, you have to provide plans on traffic assessment, detailed structural plans, and make assessments of noise and disturbance potential. 

"Because the BFR is a fabric enclosure it is by it's very nature pretty noise transparent, however with the Power Station behind us and the Thames to the north complaints have been limited, but we did have to hang acoustic baffling to the north elevation walls to ameliorate the neighbours on Chelsea Embankment. If you were going to site it in a more urban environment then I'd consider more rigid side walls, but that will be a fairly straight forward operation with little impact on overall cost." 

In historical terms the project went into something of a limbo, following the planning application, with no real progress being made between April and August while various concerned parties weighed up the options. By running up to the wire in terms of lead time to have all the fabric work made, Tim Norman, managing director at ESS, showed considerable chutzpah in proceeding at such a late juncture. 

"I have to say ESS have done a very good job," said Wheeler. "This is a hell of a thing to build straight out of the box, especially when you consider it went up first time without the luxury of a test build. From my point of view - and I manage many of these types of events - getting the stuff in and out fast is critical. We lost two days when we first came on site due to flooding; one part of the base area was under nine inches of water. Park View who manage the Power Station site put us in touch with Witheys, their contracted builders, who came in and did a magnificent job bulldozing in 600 tons of hard-core in just two days. Thereafter surveyor Chris Howard came in and laid out the site, and the structure went up like clock work." 

In fact, the build time came in a day under schedule at thirteen days, and slightly under budget as well. With the BFR founded on nine sets of what are effectively self-climbing goal posts structures, the whole building is tolerant of fairly rough and ready sites, and can compensate for quite severe ground level variations, as it did at Battersea where the site fell by one metre across the length of the BFR. 

Lightwork 
The flowing lines and sweeping curves are down to set designer Guy Rose, who with the support of both Ollie Watts and Jeff Burke, persuaded Midland to spend that little bit extra to produce something more than a functional utilitarian enclosure. (Hence the need to involve FTL Happold.) Rose also brow beat the several PR companies involved - all of whom wanted to decorate the exterior with banners and signage in the customary way - persuading them that the budget would be better spent on lighting.   

The structure quickly takes shape (31k). 
"I take my hat off to Guy", said Wheeler, "this is very much an architectural structure and needed to be treated as such." In realisation, the contrast of the blue sodiums and the red and white floodlights across the portals of its nine sections makes for a very dramatic image. With the added power of the big neons atop each tower (simple lettering announcing Midland 97 in red) the BFR made for one of the most exciting visual attractions in London this Christmas. 

Overall the BFR has attracted attention from many quarters, specifically the show and presentation industry, and even the architectural fraternity - not the least of whom were members from the New Millennium Experience who were most impressed to discover that the BFR went up in just two weeks. Nevertheless, many others, in fact just about every major concert promoter in the UK and several from Europe have also been down to assess its potential. Perhaps the most flattering comment came from Barry Marshall of promoters 'Marshall Arts', a man used to presenting the likes of Tina Turner and Elton John. "You could be standing in any arena, anywhere in the world". At first glance a quite muted observation, in truth it says it all.