Christopher BarrettWith Britannia Row Productions celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, AAA caught up with one of its longest-serving employees, Mike Lowe, to discuss the evolution of the audio specialist.
In 1975 Pink Floyd purchased 35 Britannia Row in London to house their rapidly expanding array of touring equipment, and it was there the Britannia Row group was born. Initially focused on renting out Pink Floyd’s sound and lighting inventory to other acts, the company was acquired by Robbie Williams and Bryan Grant in 1984 and the business began specialising solely in audio. It soon grew to become a globally recognised provider of world-class audio solutions to sports and live event productions, including tours by some of the world’s biggest acts such as Stevie Wonder, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Foo Fighters, Oasis, Robbie Williams, Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish. After 42 years as an independent, Britannia Row was acquired by US-based Clair Global in 2017.
Lowe, who joined the company in 1987 initially handled accounts for household name acts ranging from Soft Cell to Iron Maiden. Now a non-executive director, he reflects on how Britannia Row grew to become such a highly respected operation.
When you joined Britannia Row in 1987, what led you to take on the role?
I’d known Bryan and had worked on projects with him since the early 1970s, and met Robbie when I was working with Emerson, Lake and Palmer. I’d known them both a long time. Floyd were going out on tour again, and Robbie wanted to be their production manager, so he asked me if I’d cover for a year. Robbie decided that he didn’t want to run the company, he wanted to be a high-flying production manager, so that’s what he did. I bought him out in 1991, and Bryan and I carried on from there.
Did you join with a specific ambition to reshape the company?
At that stage there was quite a lot of work to be done. I’d collaborated with Britannia Row a few years earlier. Britannia had very good consoles and not such desirable speaker systems. I had the opposite. So we did a lot of joint ventures, me using their consoles on my shows and them using my speakers on theirs.
There was still quite a lot of work to be done in that direction, and we just got on with it, improving the inventory.
How did you go about expanding the offering?
We always managed to identify, and to some degree influence, the flavour of the month in terms of equipment. When I got involved, we were majoring on speaker systems such as Turbo Sound TMS 3s, which led on to Turbo Sound Flashlight. Then we moved into L’Acoustics V-DOSC and K Series, and we’ve been with V-DOSC ever since. Those choices always put us in very good stead.
When it came to mixing consoles, we used the major brands like DiGiCo, Yamaha, Solid State Logic and Midas. Then Midas wasn’t really in the large-console game anymore, so we moved to Avid and others.
Part of our success was due to us picking the equipment people wanted and championing it, and another important part is that we’ve always been big on training.
You have worked on some huge projects, from Oasis at Knebworth to the Barcelona Olympics, are there any events that proved particularly memorable?
For a long time was operated as a rock and roll PA company, but we consciously did a whole variety of genres of acts. The variety was good for the crew and everyone involved; just learning how to deal with things in certain genres and then being able to offer solutions in other areas. We did a lot of orchestras, a lot of shows in the round, and worked with many great legacy acts such as Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, who all needed special treatment and brought special things to the party. That kept us entertained and on our toes. We were very lucky to work with so many incredible artists.
What is it about the company culture that keeps people wanting to work there long-term, and what factors are behind its success and longevity?
It all starts with training. From picking up the phone to pushing the fader or putting the PA system up correctly, we have always valued people. I hope that by doing that it has led to people wanting to remain there because they felt valued. That has been a key part of the company’s success.
Did the involvement of Pink Floyd help to raise the company’s profile and play an important role in its initial growth?
At the start it was quite a negative association in some ways because some people would suggest that ‘It’s Pink Floyd’s company and when they go out on the road again we’ll be forgotten’. So there were those sort of things to overcome but over time that became more distant and there was a recognition that the company had its own identity. For others there was the kudos that they were using Pink Floyd’s company. It was swings and roundabouts.
In 2017 you sold Britannia Row to Clair Global, what led to that?
Brian and I got to the point where we felt it was right, for a number of reasons, to start looking around for a buyer. We had choices that were very similar financially and in the end it came down to what was best for our people. We decided Clair was the best way to go to give our people good opportunities. Clair has always been very fair to their people and it was a growing empire that opened up possibilities for everyone. That’s why we made that choice.
Looking at the way the company is evolving and the projects it’s taking on now, do you feel it’s going from strength to strength, and what does the future hold for Britannia Row?
Having international reach as part of Clair Global is great for clients because less equipment needs to be moved, and that is good for the planet and it creates opportunities for our people who may want to relocate. Many of our clients are international, whether they be bands, musical theatre or corporates, and they want to be serviced worldwide, so it is working well.
New avenues are opening up for Britannia Row, something that’s become very big for us in the last few years is supplying venues and sites with data and comms services. For quite a few events, financially, that is worth more than the audio. That is symbiotic to what we do, technically, and it continues to open up at events including Coachella, Sandstorm and Formula One.