Teddy Swims UK/EU Arena Tour

Having amassed over 8.7 Billion streams globally, Teddy Swims has captured the hearts of music fans worldwide with his phenomenal live show and chart-topping hits such as “Lose Control” and “The Door.” For his 2025 UK and European leg of the “I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy” Tour, the team once again chose PRG to provide lighting, automation and video, but this time upgrading to PRG’s latest Followspot innovation – the GroundControl Multi.

The GroundControl Multi is the newest addition to PRG’s award winning GroundControl Followspot family. This system can control up to 16 lights through a single GroundControl Controller, and up to 99 in total, using the GC Multi Server media node to take any light within the rig and control it as a Followspot. This eliminates the need for inhouse spots at different venues, ensuring a clean and consistent key light in every space. The system integrates seamlessly into an existing show network and only requires 4 points directly from the console for calibration, reducing set up time and the need for complex tracking equipment. 

The lighting, including the GroundControl system, was designed and specified by Louis Oliver, with Dylan Shaleen on the road as LD.

“The GroundControl has been amazing” says Shaleen. “It allows us to take any light in our rig and use it to follow our artist, which gives us the versatility to be really creative and not have to rely on in-house spots or other inconsistencies.”

As this was a new product from PRG, and the design included a challenging multi-level set with only side light and backlight used to follow the artist, the team were in regular contact with PRG’s Chief Innovation Officer, Chris Conti in North America, who designed the system.

“The support has been great” added Shaleen. “We would come to PRG with some feedback and some changes that we needed and almost within half an hour they had a software update for us.”

For the stage design, the overall themes were super fun and jovial with lots of soft rounded edges to represent Swims’ ‘Teddy Bear” persona designed by creatives Chris Jablonski and Amber Rimell of Tawbox. Set was supplied by Tait, with plenty of hidden surprises including major pyro and Swims’ actual tattoos painted across the set.

For lighting, designed by Oliver, the package included ROBE Spikies, Aryton Huracans and Perseo Profiles, controlled by grandMA3 Lite. The main flown truss was hidden by the “Light box” adding the softness to each look.

Video also played a big part in the story telling with a large upstage screen of ROE CB5 panels and a secondary oval-shaped screen as the centre piece, all controlled by Disguise VX4 with Brompton Tessera SX40 processing and Lightware Matrix.

Production Manager Rob Bright, who has over 15 years experience in live music touring working with artists such as Avril Lavigne and Charli XCX, has been working with Swims since 2023 and seen the show go from strength to strength. This tour covered some of the biggest venues the Swims team had encountered in the UK, including two nights at Wembley Arena and record-breaking ticket sales at CoOp-Live in Manchester, which meant consistency was key to nail the same bold looks with all the moving parts every night. “PRG gave us the consistency for every show” continues Shaleen, “We had the gear that’s long lasting and gave us the best show we could possibly have.”

Before heading out for the opening night, the team spent time in THE BRIDGE, PRG’s in house rehearsal space in the UK, to test build their ambitious design. Having the dedicated space attached to PRG UK’s extensive warehouse gave the team peace of mind that any missing pieces or last-minute changes could be added or removed with ease before being loaded straight into the trucks.

Taking care of business from PRG UK’s side was Account Manager Gemma Jaques, who has been at PRG for 6 years. She was on side during rehearsals, ensuring everything ran smoothly.

“We’ve loved having Teddy Swims and his fantastic crew back this year” says Jaques. “Taking on a new system can be challenging but they took everything in their stride, put their trust in us and gave fantastic feedback to continue improving our GroundControl System. They’ve been an absolute pleasure to work with and the show looks amazing. We’re so excited to see what they do next!”

Crew List