Music & Stories: How an International Rock Show Came Together in 48 Hours

An evening phone call, no idea what we were in for – two days later, the show goes on. For the Music & Stories tour with Andy Scott (The Sweet), Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash and Nazareth, we produced everything the show still needed within 48 hours: backstage content, an opener for the video screen, inserts between the bands – and, in the end, even the live announcement. Ten minutes before showtime, the final edit was still on its way to the mixing desk on a USB stick.

The Connection: A Documentary, a Phone Call

2020 – right at the start of shooting our documentary "Heart and Soul" – we met Lothar Strunk. At the time, Lothar was tour manager and production manager for Deep Purple, among other roles, and over the decades he had also worked with acts like Aerosmith, AC/DC, Scorpions, Jeff Beck, Simply Red and Herbert Grönemeyer. One evening he called us out of the blue: "Pirmin, can you help me out?" We said yes, without really knowing what we were getting into.

On Site: A Concept That Wasn't Finished Yet

A few days later we headed to Ludwigsburg with two additional camera operators, Raphael Federer and Lukas Karl. A new touring format was about to premiere there: Music & Stories, built on the more than 150 combined years of rock history that Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash and Nazareth bring together. Each band plays a full set – and right afterward, while the stage is rebuilt for the next act in the background, Andy Scott of The Sweet sits down with one or two band members to swap anecdotes and stories from rock history. Once on site, we learned the overall concept wasn't finished yet. There were no inserts from behind the scenes, from backstage, from the tour bus – and no opener for the video screen at the start of the show. The show itself was due to go on the following evening.

Day 1: Setup, Arrivals, Stories

We got straight to work. We filmed the stage build, the set design, and the musicians' arrival by tour bus and at the hotel. Andy Scott then walked us through the empty arena, sharing anecdotes from rock history – material that would later run between songs on the screen. We prepped the edit late into the night.

Day 2: Interviews, Editing, Deadline

The next day continued right where we left off: interviews with the bands, more backstage footage, interactions between Andy Scott and the other musicians. In parallel, we sat editing in a backstage room – intro, opener, and a dedicated insert for each band as a transition into the "stories" between acts. All of it had to be running on the arena's big screen that same evening.

The Live Announcement

The only thing still missing was someone to announce the show. Pirmin simply took it upon himself – live, behind the stage, microphone in hand. Three inserts, an opener, a live voice: to the audience, it looked like a long-planned concept. Nobody in the room had any idea about the actual sequence of events – the phone call, the drive out, the overnight editing shift, the deadline ten minutes before doors.

Result: The Show Went On, and So Did the Trailer

The show was a success. We also filmed live material during the concert, which fed into the official tour trailer released a few days later. We delivered it two days after the show, and it went online shortly after that. No preparation, no long deliberation, no hesitation – we simply drove out, did our job, and three days later we finally got to sleep again.

What This Means for Your Project

Music & Stories shows what we're capable of even under extreme time pressure: concept, shoot, edit and live production in a single evening, with no safety net. Thankfully, most projects come with more lead time – but that same ability to deliver reliably under pressure is built into every concert film we produce. And if all you need is the audio mixed from an existing recording, we handle that separately through Mixing for Concert Recordings.

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