The insane security machine behind Taylor Swift during Nova Red Room appearance on Hamilton Island

SECURITY for Taylor Swift is so tight that she has four* bodyguards. But that didn’t stop Nova’s Wippa from making the ultimate faux pas.

SECURITY for Taylor Swift is so tight during her tour of Australia that she has four* personal bodyguards assigned to her alone.

Nova 969’s Fitzy and Wippa spoke to news.com.au after their Red Room coup with Swift on Hamilton Island last night, where just 100 people were invited to see her perform a very private gig.

The radio duo, the only media outlet in the world to secure an interview with Swift during her 1989 tour, said there was a “machine” behind the singer working to make sure her security and privacy is maintained at all times.

“We were sitting backstage waiting for her to arrive and it was just like the president had entered the building,” Wippa said of the moment Swift arrived backstage with her security in tow.

“I thought I’d seen it all with One Direction. When they came into the Nova building there was security on every level, they changed the traffic lights so the boys could get straight through the city, but this was even bigger, (four*) personal security guards with her, just on her.”

Fitzy said there was one of her personal security guards assigned to every door she needed to walk through as well as three security guards watching to see if anyone had their phones out during the gig.

Taylor swift plays Nova’s Red Room on Hamilton Island last night.

“It was a big operation and obviously there was a paparazzi everywhere,” he said. “Taylor Swift is probably the number one brand in the world at the moment and I can understand why they want to protect it, but she is so big that you do need (that many) security guards just to lead the life she wants to lead, that personal life that she wants to keep private.”

Wippa said her security posse was almost “intimidating”.

“All the phones had to be handed in so no photos until after the show, but it was all very The Bodyguard, speaking in earpieces, a lot of whispering and talking into wrists and hands over mouths. One security guard had this big scar on his arm and you couldn’t help but think ‘oh gee that’s what happened when the last person attempted to take a selfie with Taylor’. It looked like he’s been attacked by a crocodile.”

Wippa said he was told there were 83 people that had flown to work full-time on the tour with Swift on top of the 140 more for the arena shows.

“From the word go yesterday it was all a process and we only saw half of it because the Nova team were working behind the scenes on the finer detail. We had to be there earlier in the day to go through the routine and how it was all going to work. I knew it was serious when Fitzy said ‘I don’t think I should have any more beers before the show’ I thought ‘hang on a minute’, Australia’s biggest bogan is taking this seriously.”

Some of Taylor Swift’s touring crew while in Australia.

The boys and the Nova team had worked for months behind the scenes to get everything fed through multiple people on Team Swift before it got the go ahead — and there was very much a list of rules to abide by.

“You have to get approval for everything and that’s not approval from one person, it’s approval from four people,” said Fitzy.

But all that preparation didn’t stop Wippa from committing the ultimate Taylor Swift faux pas — calling one of her cats by the wrong name.

“The questions we asked had all been approved, (no personal questions and nothing about her love life) and that changes it from the normal flow of a conversation and knowing that there was only limited questions and limited time, for me to get the name of one of the cats wrong was just a devastating moment. I felt like one of those cyclists in the Olympics that have trained for four years and then their foot slips off the pedal at the start of the race and you go ‘oh I did all that work and I got it wrong’. What a mess. What a mess.”

Taylor Swift fans gather for her gig at the Hamilton Island Yacht Club.

Despite the total media ban and privacy of Hamilton Island, the boys said Swift had lamented that she couldn’t totally relax during her stay.

“She spent most of her time in the room at Qualia unfortunately,” said Wippa, “she said she loved it and it was great to recharge but she said ‘I couldn't even walk outside because there were boats everywhere with paparazzi on them.’”

FOUR* OTHER THINGS THAT HAPPENED DURING SWIFT’S NOVA RED ROOM PERFORMANCE ON HAMILTON ISLAND:

— Sam Burgess and Russell Crowe were desperate to attend. “I got a call off Sammy Burgess and they were a kilometre off shore on a boat and they were thinking about coming over but they were too late and they didn’t make it in time,” said Fitzy.

— Swift had not one but two private jets fly to Hamilton Island. Added Wippa: “The first one had Taylor, her mum, her security manager and radio manager on board. But the brother was on Jet 2, he was team B, he didn’t even make the first jet.”

Taylor Swift with her mum Andrea, her brother Austin and Willy the Koala on Hamilton Island.

— Taylor likes to know her success in numbers. “Taylor was adamant she wanted to know how many number ones she’d had in Australia to thank her fans,” said Wippa, “so just before she went on stage, her mum was like ‘hang on, hang on, hang on, how many number ones. The mum wanted to know, so everyone was running around asking and googling it, it was a frantic last minute check”.

— Fitzy can’t believe it, but he cried at the gig. “I’m not a massive Taylor Swift fan,” he said. “I’m a 38-year-old man who likes AC/DC but when she started playing there was a moment that I saw a 15-year-old girl who was there with her dad and Taylor started singing and the dad looked over at his daughter and he put his hand on her knee and she was just transfixed by Taylor and was singing every lyric and the Dad just started crying his eyes out and that was the moment when I understood the power that she has. I was trying to cover it up thinking I hope no one sees me with tears coming out of my eyes at a Taylor Swift gig.”

One of Taylor Swift’s private jets, leaving Brisbane for Hamilton Island.

* Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story contained a statement about a member of Taylor Swift’s entourage. This statement was retracted by Fitzy and Wippa and has thus been removed from story.

* Further editor’s note: An earlier version of this story quoted Fitzy and Wippa as saying Taylor Swift employed 17 full-time security guards. Swift’s management has confirmed this is incorrect and that she employs only four full-time security guards.

Originally published as The insane security machine behind Taylor Swift during Nova Red Room appearance on Hamilton Island