On the trail to find Electric Picnic’s creative caravans

West Cork-based Keith Payne is using his set design experience with the likes of Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones to judge inventive creations at the Stradbally event, writes Ellie O’Byrne

KEITH PAYNE sighs when you ask him about the Rolling Stones. It’s not that he doesn’t have a soft spot for them, having toured with the band for years, but at 73, he doesn’t have time any more for all the fuss and the idolatry and the hunger for scandalous stories.

“Look, Mick [Jagger] is a very intelligent and professional performer, and very bright and likeable,” he says. “Keith [Richards] is very serious and a big reader and thinker with his own philosophy in life and is probably the most honest person I’ve ever met. Ronnie [Wood] is everybody’s mate and Charlie’s [Watts] a complete gentleman. They’re a wonderful group of people and the rest is just… shenanigans.”