Besides the stage and roof, ESS built two towers joined together, each with eight crow's nests, and two 25m high delay towers, 60m distance from the stage. Working in Russia was no more difficult than working in other countries, says Hetherton: "I've worked there before and there's no doubt it's getting better." The heat was the crew's biggest problem. "Red Square is surfaced in black cobbles which absorb the heat then bounce it straight back at you." Unusually, there was no catering facility provided for the crew, but the solution was close at hand. "Red Square has lots of little eateries all around it and we just sort of took them over," said Hetherton.
The logistics for the show were staggering: following the show in Hamburg, equipment was loaded into eight sea containers and trucked to Hamburg airport. From there, a fleet of Russian AN124 cargo planes, complete with their own in-built cranes, flew them to Moscow. Some days before, a fleet of seven EST trucks set off from the UK with staging and trussing. The familiar purple and yellow trucks drove through Belgium, Holland and Germany from where they took a ferry to St. Petersburg. Then, under armed escort, they made their way to Moscow. Despite the historic surroundings, the crew encountered no real problems. "It went as smoothly as these things normally go," concluded Hetherton.
Everyone agreed that McCartney's performance in Moscow was fantastic and clearly ESS and sister company EST's contribution were significant factors.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
