Tony McGuinness Talks Above & Beyond ‘Group Therapy’ Stream From London

“Group Therapy” is the name of the band’s weekly radio show, which has led to an annual live event to celebrating the past year. 

Past “Group Therapy” sessions took place at Alexandra Palace in London, Madison Square Garden in New York, Allphones Arena Sydney, Australia, the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, the Gorge Amphitheater in George, WA, or AsiaWorld-Expo, Hong Kong, to name a few.

This year is going to be different, as no audience will be allowed to gather for the show, seeing that the UK has just tightened its Covid restrictions. What is more, this year’s “Group Therapy” will look back on the band’s 20-year history, and celebrate some of its most iconic hits, as Above & Beyond’s Tony McGuinness told Pollstar.

Above & Beyond were all set to go on an acoustic tour when Covid hit. They’ve decided to push it back two years, as they didn’t want to risk cancelling it all over again in Spring 2021.

With no sign of any meaningful gigs on the horizon, the band began thinking of ways to perform for its fans. The idea for doing it on London’s River Thames came from McGuinness. “I often go to the leafy part of the River Thames at the weekend,” he explained, “there’s lot of lovely pubs, you can get on boats for a couple of hours and go up and down. I said to James, ‘we should do a stream from a boat on the River Thames.’ 

“There’s only so much entertainment seeing someone stand behind the decks, if you were to cut it in with the lovely scenery, it might make for a more entertaining stream.”

And he continued, “We found this beautiful barge with sail masts that lived quite close to Tower Bridge. We learnt that boats have right of way, so if a boat with a tall mast want to go through Tower Bridge at any time, the bridge will open.”

Whoever wants to find out whether Above & Beyond will succeed in getting the operators of this London landmark to raise the bridge, will need to tune into Above & Beyonds stream on Saturday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. BST, on the Twitch channel of the band’s label Anjunabeats.

McGuinness has embraced the live stream ever since lockdown hit. For him, it has become a way of exploring new music, deep house in his case, and letting fans be part of the journey. 

Every Sunday, McGuinness performs a set from his kitchen table in his London home. It’s a completely new experience for him. “You’re actually a lot more naked and visible,” he explained.

“We did a show in Miami a few years ago at Ultra Music Festival. Rain had ruined our decks. But they had this rotating turntable thing, so at the back of the stage was Armin’s [van Buuren] setup with the same three decks and the same mixer, and he kindly let us use that. So after a short break, we kept the show going from the back of the stage. I think we were three meters away from the canvas back wall of the stage, with our backs to our audience.

“Contrast that to me on Twitch talking to people on the chat as it’s happening. They’ll ask me where I got the pictures in my kitchen from, and other very personal questions. In some ways, I think, the nature of the communication is a lot more personable, and in some ways more honest. And I think people appreciate that,” McGuinness explained.

And he added, “You could argue the whole point of a gig is to give people an excuse to get together with other people who are of a like mind, and I think what the streaming reality has given everybody is a way of doing that visibly in real time.”

Streams from the kitchen or even a boat on the Thames aren’t long-term solutions, obviously. The crisis has affected everybody’s bottom line negatively, Above & Beyond are no exception. The four directors, including McGuinness, have taken a 75% pay cut. 

Said McGuinness, “We can keep going like it is now for at least a year and not have to worry, but, obviously, looking forward, we’re doing what we can to increase our streaming income. It’s been a blessing that the more time people spend at home, the more time they spend on Spotify and YouTube. But it’s obviously quite small compared to the money that we used to be able to get from touring.”