Chapter 12 Working behind the Scenes
Most TMs and engineers I have met have been friendly and very open with advice and help. Talking to people who do the job is invaluable and will teach you a lot. I try to be the same; you never know when you need some help, and they may be the only people that can help you out at that point.
—Timm Cleasby; tour manager, the Artic Monkeys
In my work as a band tour manager, I receive many inquiries from people who want to work in the live music industry, usually along the lines of, “I wanna be a roadie; take me on tour.” This worries me slightly because obviously the image of “roadies” (I loathe that word!) in most people’s minds is of a group of people so unskilled that anyone can suddenly become one!
If you have read Chapters 2 and 7 already, you will have some appreciation of the technical skills and personality traits that a successful road crew person must posses. Being on the road is not a case of simply hanging around with pop bands; to be effective and to keep your job you need to be skilled, professional, selfless and compassionate. You are going to be dealing with insecure and worried artists, artists who are sometimes completely out of their depth in the concert environment. You cannot be seen to panic when things go wrong. You are paid to make sure things go right every time the band sets foot on a stage. You will hve very little opportunity for hanging around with the band!
It is true that years ago bands would employ a general “roadie” who would shift cases, set up gear, and generally take care of everything to do with the stage. Today, that role is still applicable to some bands, especially in the early days of a band’s career. That kind of road crew person does have a lot of contact with the band they work for; this kind of a crew gets seen with the band at social events and can become almost like one of the ‘family’.
I suppose the image of this kind of person excites potential road crew people. They see the ‘roadies’ having direct contact with the band, living on the same tour bus and staying in the same hotels, even the same hotel rooms, as band members. The life looks glamorous and makes potential road crew people excited. This excitement is slightly misguided, though. Let me give you some warnings.
The Cons of Life on Tour
To try to give a more rounded exploration of the role of the road crew, here is a list of several of the downsides to life on tour.
Money
Ninety-nine percent of the tour crew I know work freelance. (The Oxford English Dictionary describes freelance as “earning money by selling your work or services to several different organizations rather than being employed by one organization.”) Being freelance means we are free to choose when we work and for whom. We have to search for the work, but usually there is enough to sustain us throughout the year. All the crews I know go through periods of incredible abundance with plenty of work, hot leads, and money rolling in. And then, for whatever reason, there is no work.
A tour can get cancelled, for instance. Or perhaps it is a quiet time of the year, and there simply isn’t any work. Even worse than no work is late payment (or nonpayment) from your client. No current tour work and no income can leave you facing financial ruin.
Before you accept any freelance work, you should always check out the financial position of a new client. You may be offered a road crew job by a booking agent, artist manager, or business manager. However, these people do not actually pay your invoice. In nearly all cases, your salary as road crew is paid by the band, either from their own vast cash reserves (if they are U2 or the Dave Matthews Band) or, more likely, from record company tour support. I mention this because it is very easy for an artist manager to call a freelance touring crew person, order that person’s services, and then not pay the crew person.
Get written invoicing details for your work before you actually go out to work: “Xxx artist care of Xxx business manager” or “Xxx record label.” Many bands set up a small company to administer the finances of their touring (such as Millions of Americans Touring, LLC), in which case your invoice should be sent there. In other cases, all invoicing is handled by the artist’s record company.
When you have found out the invoicing details, you should find a live person in the relevant record company accounting/accounts payable office. Drop that person a line to let him or her know who you are and what your role is, and tell that person to expect your invoice!
Ask whether you need a purchase order number or other reference. Large organizations do not accept invoices for purchases that have not been authorized. Many record companies I work for also require you to be on their supplier list before they will accept an invoice from you. You will therefore have to fill out some forms and return them, a process that can take two to four weeks. Only then can you submit an invoice!
Draw up a contract. Insist on at least one third of your salary for the road crew work on the tour in advance. Getting a portion of the money up front will help your cash flow and shows commitment from the artist’s business team. Likewise, if the tour is going to last for three months or more, then insist on being paid monthly for the duration of the tour Can you really afford to work for three months without any income form the tour and then have to wait another thirty days once the tour has finished to get paid? Again, it’s all about cash flow. You may be on tour but your rent/mortgage/bills still need to be paid!
Any terms you have for payment should be clearly stated in your contract for road crew work.
The Production Services Association has produced a very useful contract for freelance crew. Although the PSA is based in the UK, the style of the contract is applicable to any freelance technician. You can download a copy of the contract from their website, www.psa.org.uk.
I learnt as I went along, watching other people, and used a bit of common sense….
—Scott McKenzie; backline technician, Muse, Sigur Rós, The Dammed, and Super Furry Animals
Health and Conditions
If you like comfort, regular food, lots of sleep, a modicum of privacy, and job security, then touring life is definitely not for you. Especially sleeper bus tours. I always liken touring on a sleeper bus to being in a traveling frat house—mess, noise, unsociable behavior, and more people than there should be packed into a small space. There is no privacy on a tour bus, a fact that seriously irritates and upsets many people.
I am serious—this is not a glamorous life.
Your health will also suffer. A combination of lack of proper sleep; moving from hot, sweaty rooms to the cold outside; lack of decent food; heavy lifting; and too much drinking and partying will soon take its toll. At the very least, you will get a bad cold—a cold that will spread around the bus in no time.
Learn to live and function without sleep. It may seem harsh, but your body will adjust. You cannot allow yourself to get cranky because you have not slept—no one sleeps properly on tour.
This is how I survive touring:
- Make sure you learn how to nap—sleep anytime you possibly can.
- Buy earplugs and eyeshades to enable you to sleep anywhere.
- Make sure your cell phone has the loudest alarm known to man.
- Get a backup alarm as well.
- Never rely on hotel wakeup calls.
- Drink plenty of water all day.
- Make the tour manager strike meats and cheeses from the rider deli tray. Meats and cheeses go off pretty quickly in a warm dressing room. This can cause food poisoning.
- Don’t store any food in the bus fridge.Food left in a tour bus fridge tends to stay in there for a long time because no-one is responsible enough to tidy up the fridge. Eventually this old food will go moldy. Mold can contaminate other food, again causing food poisoning.
Finally, this job is murder on relationships. Friends, family, and significant others get resentful of the amount of time that you are away. The worst part is when you promise to call, and some disaster takes place on the tour, and you end up being super busy when you should be calling home. This does not go over well.
Work hard at keeping your communications current—an e-mail or text message twice a day will keep you in people’s heart and minds.
The worst thing about being on tour? Being away from family and loved ones. Having to live with the same people 24/7 for months on end. Never being able to hold a regular place in your Sunday football or cricket team.
—Andy Dimmack;. backline technician, Franz Ferdinand, Super Furry Animals, Pavement, …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Pay Rates
I mentioned in Chapter 11 that the wages paid to touring crew are a huge bone of contention. The economics of the touring market have not really supported an increase in pay amounts in the last 10 years or so.
The other problem is that, as a freelancer, you need to work. If you have just finished a two-month arena tour with an international superstar, then you may have been paid pretty well and you may be doing okay financially. You are going to have to go back to work at some point, though, and what if your next job is with four kids in a van playing bars? You cannot charge them arena-tour rates, despite the years of skill and experience you have built up. My point is that it does not matter who you have worked for and how long you have been touring; you cannot simply set a fee and expect to get it.
There is no international standard pay scale for touring road crew. You charge what you think you are worth. I think I am worth my weight in gold, but I cannot realistically charge that for a tour. (At the time of writing, gold is $20,600/£10,500 per kilo. I weigh 71 kilos—you do the math.) If you are challenged by a prospective employer about your proposed fees, then you need some formula that you can use to explain how you arrived at the daily rate. A good starting point is to take the minimum wage for your state or country, multiply it by 10 (for the average 10 hours a day you work), and then add what you feel is appropriate, depending on your skills and experience.
Suppose you live in California and you have been hired by a band that you have previously worked with, but who has just been signed. They used to pay you $50 a day with no per diems and no wage for days off. You want to take things to a more professional level with them, so you ask for $105 and a $15 per diem for days off. They balk at your request until you explain your reasoning.
Minimum wage in the state of California is $7.50 at the time of this writing. You work an average of 10 hours a day, so $7.50 [ts] 10 = $75. Add another $30 for the skills and experience you can bring to them, and this gets you $105 per day. You then explain that you do not really need a per diem on show days because there will be food and drink provided by the promoters. However, you would like $15 per diem on the days off because there will be no supplied catering and you will have to fend for yourself.
The band can either accept your offer or not; the point is that they can see the reasoning and that you are not simply doubling your fees because they have been signed!
In case you are wondering about wages of the top dogs, the backline crew for U2’s Elevation tour was paid $2,500 a week.
From the bands point of view playing live is good because you get to present your songs the way, and in the order, that you choose. It is especially useful if you can play new songs live a few times before actually recording them. IT IS FUN BEING ON TOUR!
Mark Parson – tour manager, ‘!!!’, Squarepusher, Autechre
When Things Go Wrong
You may be attracted to the glamour and power of working with a touring act—the parties, expensive hotels, and international travel. I have tried to point out that it is not all glamour and it is in fact really hard work. In case you still think you want to work for bands on tour, I have one final sobering thought.
On February 20, 2003, the tour manager for the band Great White detonated stage pyrotechnics as part of the band’s show at the Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The pyros (called gerbs) ignited the soundproofing behind the stage and started a fire that killed 100 people and injured 200 more. The tour manager, Daniel Michael Biechele, was prosecuted and eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison.
I am sure that during all the fantastic shows, thousands of miles traveled, and good times with friends and fans on the road, Mr. Biechele considered himself to be a lucky man, leading a fantasy lifestyle. Then 100 people lost their lives at a rock show, and Mr. Biechele ended up in prison.
The fire was a tragedy and a terrible reminder that accidents happen. The fact that you work for a rock band on tour does not mean you are exempt from the responsibilities of life. Look out for yourself and everyone around you.
