The past 12 months have been an interesting time for the live events sector, with several of the rental market’s most notable names that laid the foundations of how tours now go out on the road, celebrating their 50th anniversaries. One such company is Star Live. These days, Star is known globally as a staging company providing the physical infrastructure for stadiums and festivals – most recently seen in the pages of TPi for its work on Oasis’ Live ‘25 Tour. But the company’s origins actually lie in the world of audio.
“As a kid, I always wanted a career where I could work outside,” reflected Star’s founder, Roger Barrett and 2026’s TPi Industry Recognition Awards winner, as he spoke of how this wish for a less conventional working environment led him into live events. “Back then, it was a fledgling events scene with often a few flat-bed trailers that would be your stage,” he chuckled. “There were never even stairs, and you’d have to make them out of various flight cases.”
Always one to try and find a solution, Barrett, seeing the lack of staging infrastructure, started investing in various bits of scaffolding to effectively create PA towers, but even then, he realised there was a gap in the market. “By the time we got to the early ’80s, we were doing bigger outdoor events, and there were still no staging companies, but Fleetwood Mac did some substantial shows with a large American roof, and I was lucky to work on some of those shows and saw what was going on at that level of production.”
However, it was an accident at Notting Hill Carnival that became the catalyst that would change Star’s direction forever. “One year at the carnival, we had a lot of gear damaged after the show when the contractor’s scaffolding that was holding the PA collapsed. Thankfully, it was after the show, so nobody was hurt, but we were grilled by our insurers, who asked what we’d do to make sure this never happened again. A few days later, I was sitting in a pub and just thought I could do a better job and set out to the library to get a book on how to build stages – there wasn’t one,” he laughed, but the seed was planted, and Barrett started to take meetings with some major scaffolding companies and began investing in equipment.
Words: Stew Hume
Photos: Star Live and Harriet T K Bols (Oasis Live ‘25)
