Join the Dots – Using Special Stickers on AAA Laminates for Escort Privileges

If everyone gets the AAA, who is really special?

The AAA – access all areas – pass is the revered token that denotes hip rock-n-roll success. You either have one, or you don’t. Having one means you are in the band, in the crew, or are so close to the band they deem it necessary for you to have the same access privileges to those special places – the dressing rooms, the green rooms, the ‘artist only catering’ areas and so on. But if everyone is special – who is special?

Touring artists and their crew will receive AAA passes from the tour manager. These passes are usually in the form of a laminated picture or graphic, worn on a lanyard around the AAA holder’s neck and are good for the entire tour. For each tour stop, the tour manager produces a pass sheet and gives one to the security and stewarding personnel working the show. The pass sheet tells the stewards what type of pass allows what access, and to where. This includes the temporary passes for the night (which may replace the artist’s own passes) issued by the promoter/ organiser. These temporary passes are called ‘stickies’ or ‘silks’.

Types of sticky passes

Passes issued by the promoter will indicate various categories and privileges that go with them:

  • Working: Stage hands, caterers, drivers – no ‘back stage’ or dressing room access
  • Press – journalists, bloggers, and photographers – limited back stage or dressing room access
  • VIP – issued to ‘important’ working people – local record store owners, radio station heads, regional record company employees, regional booking agents – allow access to meet and greet/VIP area after the show with little or no dressing room access.
  • Access All Areas – as it says on the tin – the bearer can go anywhere. Remember though, touring music artist and their crew will have their laminate AAA passes, which are good for every concert on the tour.

Everyone wants the AAA

I have noticed heads of record companies, artist managers, guitarists’ boyfriends, and booking agents, will often insist on being given AAA tour laminates even though they might only attend a single concert on the tour. A sticky isn’t good enough – they often want an AAA laminate to show they are ‘one of the club’ – important beyond being the mere head of the record company with a temporary sticky. What to do?

For political reasons, it makes sense to give AAA passes to your agent, manager, label staff, and boyfriends; their hard work on your behalf is essential to the band’s success, and they should receive the same status as the rest of the touring party. However, it is not a good idea to give all these people the same access privileges as the full-time touring party; you really do not want guests (however important they may be) escorting a load of their drunken friends to the backstage areas. The backstage area of a modern concert is a working environment. There are production offices filled with laptops and printers, clothes, and personal effects, and there is sound and light equipment everywhere. Amplifier racks, lighting dimmer racks, mains distributions boards, hundreds of cables, and other trip hazards – there may even be pyrotechnics. It’s not a safe place to be if you have had a few beers.

So you need to give “higher” access to these VIPs, and you need to control just how much access they have without pissing them off. You will risk offending these special guests if you give them a lowly sticky pass. You also have to decide who is eligible to escort other people into certain areas. Ideally, no-one except the tour manager, or the artist themselves, should be able to usher non-AAA pass holding human beings into certain designated areas. The reality is different, and all those important-but-not-important people with an AAA pass will insist on waltzing pass security accompanied by their niece, personal trainer, or someone else they are trying to impress. And you can’t say to the security people, “This person with an AAA can escort, but this person with an AAA cannot.” So how do you get around this problem?

Put dots on the laminates

A common solution is to have ‘dots’ on the laminates given to the touring artists and crew—small sticky stars or circles (or whatever) that signify special privileges. Guests with temporary, sticky passes can still go anywhere they want, but they cannot bring non-AAA guests with them as they do not have dots to signify escort privilege. The guest don’t know that of course – they just feel super-important because they have an AAA pass. And, having dots on laminates means although everyone ‘important’ gets an AAA pass, everyone who is properly important has dots, and so can get where they want, and be able to escort bloggers, radio station presenters, and friends. The system doesn’t offend anyone, and it grants everyone reasonable access.

Restrict the escort privileges

As a last word, I try to restrict escort privileges as much as possible. Music artists and crew get far too much pressure from friends and family for backstage access; everyone is asking for everyone else to get into the dressing room. I am not trying to create a bizarre personal kingdom by limiting access. As stated before, the backstage area of a modern concert is a working environment, and safety is of the utmost importance. Therefore, I always feel it necessary to restrict the number of people traipsing through these areas to the working personnel only.

There is always the hotel bar for socialising!

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