Madonna was in the UK for her MDNA tour. Her dates were Hyde Park (July 17, pictured), Birmingham NIA (19) and Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh (21). Showsec was engaged by promoter Live Nation to supply security consultancy and management for the UK leg of the tour. Showsec director Mark Logan worked alongside Madonna’s chief security officer Scott Nicholls to guard the superstar, her crew and the audience at the shows.
Mark said: “It’s a facility that we have continually developed with Live Nation whereby I head up a small team of Showsec managers and supervisors who tour with an act. The aim is to bring continuity to all security operational areas; from the barricade system to onstage management and dressing room and production security. This ensures the same security standards are being achieved across all UK dates in the touring artist’s schedule. On these occasions, as well as supplying the frontline security staff, our focus is on providing touring intelligence and facilitating the sharing of information between venues, tour staff and promoter.”
For this tour some of Showsec’s most experienced staff were enlisted including John Hadland who looked after the barricade area, Keith Etchells who oversaw onstage security and Scott Anderson and Steve McCafferty who managed the dressing room and production areas. The MDNA tour ran a wristband system across all three dates which allowed the audience – up to 80,000 people at Hyde Park – access to different areas. These included the barricade ‘inner V’ and the golden circle. A separate wristband was also used for early site access.
Mark added: “This tour was particularly interesting as it encompassed three distinct venue types; an outside festival format, an arena and a stadium. We have years of experience as a company working across all of these types of venues and were able to plan and implement tailored security strategies that took into consideration the ingress of fans at different times and to different areas as well as the seamless communication between departments.”
