Unleashing their third studio album, Humanoid, Germany’s biggest rock band, Tokio Hotel, is currently embarked on a mammoth tour visiting over 30 cities throughout Europe. Touring with them, under the guidance of Production Manager, Phil Broad, is a set built by UK-based Brilliant Stages.

As Germany’s most successful band ever, with credits including Germany’s first ever Moonman, MTV VMA for Best New Artist and EMAs in both 2008 and 2009, the Welcome to the Humanoid City tour is the biggest show this multi-award winning band have ever produced.

“This was the first time I have worked directly with Brilliant Stages and they were absolutely amazing,” says Buckley. “Tony Bowern and Mel Welch were so accommodating and understanding of what I was trying to achieve. They were happy to spend time discussing my design and were excellent on delivery. I was also lucky to have Malcolm Birkett to realise my design and help make the transition from design to stage a comfortable one.

“The process of taking my design from sketches to model construction was a very collaborative process in which I could take advantage of Brilliant Stages super-technological abilities. Brilliant Stages meanwhile were very open to any changes that occurred during development and, since Mel Welch and I both speak a common CAD language, we were able to communicate and develop the ideas on this level.

“Brilliant Stages give you real respect as a designer and nothing is ever a problem for them.”

The result is a set that lives up to Tokio Hotel’s well-deserved reputation for delivering spectacular live shows.

The centre piece is a giant, 6m high, metallic sphere, or Pod, with a crenellated split around its equator. The Pod breaks open around this split to allow the top half to elevate above the stage and reveal the drum riser. The top and bottom halves of the Pod are each formed from 16 facetted panels. Each panel is covered in an aluminium Expamet mesh laid onto a profiled backing, with a slotted detail which allows Lighting /Video Designer, Dave Maxwell, to back light with stunning results.

Seven of the lower panels are hydraulically operated to open out like the segments of an orange, revealing the band as they make their entrance onto stage. In the centre of the Pod is the drummer on the drum riser which can be raised 3.2m into the air by a pair of scissor lifts to the mid point of the Pod. At this level the drum riser meets an upstage semi circular walkway, flanked by safety barriers, from which, by means of two flown bridges, the performers can access upstage ego platforms to stage left and right. The bridges were also constructed to take the extra weight of a number of moving lights.

The Pod presides over a main stage measuring 23m x 8.5m which incorporates custom built tech bunkers complete with the, now-standard, Brilliant Stages’ louvre viewing grills giving sight lines onto stage. Set within the mainstage are a lift at centre stage and a piano lift on stage left, while the downstage edge is finished with Neaco grill decks. Incorporated into the grills are pyrotechnics from ffp Spezialeffekte & Veranstaltungslogistik GmbH which sit abreast of a set of central stairs leading down to a catwalk stretching 7m into the audience.

Finally, the set was given an urban gothic scenic finish by Perry Scenic.

“I found the entire design-to-construction process very straightforward,” says Phil Broad. “The team at Brilliant made every effort to ensure we had exactly what we wanted, and were very amenable to all the last minute small changes that always occur. In the end the set looked exactly like the model. As always it was a pleasure to work with them.”