Launching Orange Hire (1970)
Orange Hire powered major festivals and even the 1972 Munich Olympics with custom vans and pro backline, leaving a serious European footprint.
Orange Hire was created to provide the PA and backline for larger venues and the big outdoor summer festivals such as Reading and the Isle of Wight. The fleet of Mercedes 405D vans were converted into state-of-the-art hire vehicles. They were radio-equipped and had full amp repair facilities fitted.
Colin Norfield and Alan Radcliffe were the roadies for Orange at the time, and they were interviewed in the London Evening Standard describing the kind of things they dealt with. It’s a hard life, eh?
Expansion into Europe
“In early 1971, we formed a company in Germany, Orange GMBH,” remembers Cliff Cooper, “and opened an office in Frankfurt, near the Hauptbahnhof main railway station. We secured a customs-free warehouse and used the company as a springboard to boost our sales across Europe.
“This led to us signing a deal to provide PA equipment for music at the Olympic Games in the Munich Stadium. That was a fantastic opportunity, and the resulting publicity led to greatly increased business for us throughout Europe.”