Tour Concepts

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The tour diary will continue, in the meantime here is a great review of ‘The Tour Book’ in Performing Musican magazine (published by Sound On Sound publishers).

“While the record industry is in terminal (and some might say justified) decline, the live touring industry is flourishing. Whereas as few decades ago touring was regarded as a loss leader to promote the real money-making product of the record, live touring and its ancillaries in the form of T-shirts, memorabilia and the rest can add up to a jolly good thing for acts. Not only that, most musicians actually enjoy playing to real live audiences.

If you’re not the best thing in music, what’s the best alternative? For many, it’s working as part of the tour crew. You get to live the rock & roll lifestyle, see the world, meet interesting people and get paid very well, right? Well, only up to a point.

The fact is that touring is not just a case of chucking the gear in a van and setting off for a venue whose sole method of promotion may be fly posting in the most insalubrious areas of a town. Tour planning and organisation is a complex, multifaceted, multitasking project that means long hours, no sleep, bad food and working conditions and little job security. If you’re a failed, would-be rock hero, look elsewhere for fulfilment.

So where do you look for the real gen on touring in all its forms? Right here with The Tour Book. Author Andy Reynolds has nearly two decades of work in all aspects of touring, from FOH mixing to full blown Tour Manager, and has seen and done it all.

This book is not a ‘How to make grillions/have a career in/behind the scenes in touring’ book; it’s all those and a lot more, looking at just about every facet of touring, promotion, marketing and the rest, the way the top guys do it – and also chock full of what not to do as well. You’ll actually save a lot of money from the information presented herein.

(The Tour Book) starts off with an overview of the industry, which is flourishing as never before – live performance revenues of $14.4 billion in 2005 were an 11 percent increase over the previous year, and obviously not to be sniffed at. Andy shows how the ‘60’sera package tours (where bands really didn’t know what they were doing and got ripped of mercilessly by promoters) evolved through good managers and promoters (the Stones and Led Zep were amongst the leaders in the field) through the ‘70s and ‘80s, where the touring industry came of age and into today’s multi-billion pound industry.

Each chapter presents priceless information on all aspects of touring: ‘The Industry’ describes in detail all the progenitors, and who exactly does what: Managers, Promoters, Agents, Reps, Marketing, Crews, Security, Audio, Backline, Lighting and Catering folks (insult the latter at your peril!).

The chapter on ‘Contracts and Riders’ features specimen documents showing details of everything required to help a tour run smoothly, by showing what is expected of everyone for each venue and tour. Part II deals with how to get your music on the road.

‘Getting On Stage: The Basics And Preparation For The Show’ takes the project from initial rehearsals and rehearsal venues to the stage itself, creating a show and dealing with any problems as they occur. Once again, this chapter is full of examples from the author’s experience.

The chapter on equipment is a master class on live sound engineering in itself, with a general overview of sound for mixing engineers, stage hand signals, a basic guide to PA mixing and care of instruments (including vocals, which should be required reading for all performers) – and , most importantly, your ears.

The chapter ‘At The Show’ is the biggest in the book (90-plus pages), written in the form of two show diaries chronicling everything that happens through the day, problems that might occur and how they are dealt with, all in superlative detail.

The last few chapters deal with the business end of things: ‘How To Get The Shows’ looks at targeting venues and bookers, doubling up, playing for free, and radio and TV gigs (and how to get them). ‘Getting Paid’ deals with fees, percentages, ticket pricing, merchandising, licensing deals, PRS and sponsorship, while the ‘Marketing’ section gives you all the info on personal contacts, press releases, online marketing and databases. There’s an advanced information chapter on budget and advances, and that’s only the second section of the book.

Part III looks at working in the industry, looking at life on the road with all it’s pros and cons, and how to gain work and keep it – more essential material to keep your career on track over the decades – while Part IV looks at the future of the (live) music industry and how it will evolve.

Finally there’s an epilogue, which is a true story from the author’s own experience of what can go wrong on a tour. I could go on at length about all the goodies contained here; suffice to say it’s the definitive guide to all aspects of live work and touring. As the author presciently points out, the principle explained here are applicable to any kind of act, from full-blown international rock tours to cabaret, cruise gigs, folk and classical artists. A smooth-running tour or live concert is the same regardless of the type of idiom you are dealing with. Clearly written, informative and enlightening, this should be the Bible for all live crews, tour managers and anyone involved with live gigs.”

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One of the onerous tasks associated with concert tour management is that of arranging work permits and visas in order for the travelling party to enter certain countries. I say onerous as the tour manager has to deal with foreign government organisations that have extremely strict procedures and regulations regarding the admittance of hairy rock stars into their country. As borders are tightened (not only because of the fear of terrorism but also to protect local employment and revenue) the application process and subsequent granting of authorisation to enter particular countries is becoming even more difficult, time consuming and expensive.

 The need for work permits/visas is based on the assumption that you are entering a country for employment. Ok, playing a bunch of rock shows would not be classed as ‘employment’ by most people but technically a band is employed/engaged by a promoter for a fee – therefore they are gainfully employed a.k.a working.

 The actual application for work permits will usually be made by the promoter. It is they who are employing the act and they are (hopefully) based in the country of the engagement.

 However it falls upon the tour manager to gather up all the necessary information about the touring personnel, keep on top of the application process and make sure that the associated costs are budgeted for. Work visa/applications are expensive and, once the process starts, impossible to amend or change. A major problem the tour manager will encounter is the lack of solid information about the crew or supplementary musicians for the tour.

 Through experience this lack of information can involve such things as the band deciding they are taking some session musicians for the next tour but not knowing exactly who they are going to hire, applications being submitted for crew members only for those crew members to be fired/become unavailable after the applications have gone through or (my personal favourite) the band turning up at the airport with ‘our great mate who is coming on tour to tech for us.’ (with no airplane ticket or work visa!).

 A good tour manager will impress upon the band and their management the necessity of providing the touring party information in very good time and being aware of the associated costs.

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I use a simple Excel spreadsheet to put together my LPE/tour budget. I have created and amended the sheet over the years and am now pretty happy with it. As well as helping make basic calculations the sheet also acts as a memory aid as it contains categories for most of the expenses a large rock tour is liable to incur. By working my way down the spreadsheet I cannot only get a picture of costs but I also know I am not forgetting anything!

The screen shots show an overview of the budget/LPE I am working on. You may download your own copy of the sheet here . Please feel free to adapt and amend the sheet as necessary.

Using the sheet is a simple matter of researching the particular costs (from experience or from quotes you may have asked for) and then entering the figures in the appropriate columns.

The final ‘multiplier’ column must have a value of at least one for the sheet to calculate properly. For instance if you look at Per Diems in the screen grab you will see that drivers PDs are $88 x 29 days with a multiplier of 1 as there is just one guy getting the per diems for 29 days. However when you look ‘crew days off’ (I always try to a higher rate for days off as there is no catering supplied on those days) you can see that the calculation is $25 x 6 (the numbers of days off) x 3 (number of crew).

Now I can work my way down the sheet, entering numbers and dealing with the organizational activities associated with each of the various categories as I go along.

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4^th June 2008

I have decided to go back to one of the original sleeper bus companies and have made sure that the bus we are offered has enough space in its luggage bays for all our back line. I can get all the back line in the bays and so I will not need to hire a trailer. This will save the tour another £105 a day; £60 for the trailer and £45 extra wages for the driver to deal with pulling a trailer.

My next task is to prepare a budget. I actually prefer the term ‘list of predicted expenses’. A ‘budget’ is how much money you have allocated to spend; ask any rock band or artist manager how much they want to spend on producing the tour and they will answer “as little as possible”! So, it’s a ‘list of predicted expenses’ (LPE) until signed off and then it becomes ‘the budget’.

The importance of the LPE cannot be overstated. Touring at any level is expensive and a band from the US undertaking a club tour of Europe is going to spend a lot of money on transport, accommodation and crew wages. The income from the shows is not going to cover these expenses and a touring band is going to have to find some extra money somewhere.

The band I am working for on this tour is signed to a major record company and so can find extra money by applying to the record company for ‘tour support’. Tour support is money advanced to the act by the record company to enable the act to go off and tour. (The thinking is that the touring will help to promote the act and sell more records.)

The amount of actual money and the terms surrounding tour support are determined during the contract negotiation stages of the artist’s deal with the record company. Tour support is ‘recoupable’ i.e. the money has to be paid back to the record company from the artist’s record sales. As such there are strict controls regarding the application and granting of tour support. These vary from company to company but follow the same basic procedure. A responsible person (artist manager or Tour Manager) should prepare a list of predicted expenses, a detailed ‘activity diary’ (not just a list of the concert dates) and a breakdown of the expected income from the shows (usually not including money made from merchandising sales at concerts). This information is then submitted to the record company who will then scrutinise the figures and (hopefully) agree to grant tour support to the band.

This is why my LPE is so important. I have to figure out every conceivable expense a band may incur while touring, explain/justify each expense and present all this information to the artist management and record company in good time. Tour support has to be agreed before I can start to confirm suppliers and crew for the tour; with no tour support in place the band will not be able to pay wages and invoices from the tour.

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Random thoughts while preparing a budget/expenses for a forthcoming tour.

The price of fuel is rocketing, airlines fares are escalating and governments are imposing stricter controls on granting entertainers work visas.

At the same time the US is developing a very lucrative festival circuit of its own.

I predict that in a couple of years time you will see hardly any non-domestic acts on the either the European or US festivals.

Why spend all that money on visas and airfares when you can stay in your own continent and still reach out to 20,000 people at a time?

This may be a disappointment for music fans but has to be a good thing for new talent, especially in the UK. By removing the competition from the touring US acts, UK’s new bands may have to a bit of room to develop into world-class touring acts themselves.

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May 09th 2008

I have decided that a sleeper bus is the only way we can do this tour, having looked at the distances and travel times between the cities involved. The quotes for sleeper buses I have received are all from UK based companies and, what with the new driving regulations and increasing cost of fuel, are pretty expensive. Including ferries, double drivers and trailer costs the quotes are averaging GBP 23,000 for this tour. However given the logistical challenges of getting the backline from London and the advanced mileage between some of the show dates we will have to go with a sleeper bus and I will try my hardest to save money elsewhere.

Then I receive a quote from a German based company who quote to supply a bus for almost GBP 8,000 less!

Now this may be good news to the bottom line (in fact, if the bus is suitable it will be fantastic news for the bottom line!) but now makes my previously sharp picture go all fuzzy again.

The bus company is based in Köln but the backline gear is at Music Bank in London. It will not be cost effective to send a bus from Deutschland over the channel to the UK and back just to pick up this equipment. (I would also have to get the bus to take it back to the UK after the tour ends).

The location of the bus company also alters my plans to fly the band in and out of Amsterdam – I may be able to fly them into Köln, Düsseldorf or Frankfurt. Despite the added logistical complexity, my first thoughts are that I am going to have to make this work – there is too much of a cost saving at stake.

13th May

I need to establish a cost to get the backline from London to Köln. It would not be cost effective to have the bus drive over and get it. This would add 1.5 days bus hire to each end of the tour and also cost us 700 GBP in extra ferries. The cheapest option is to hire a van and drive the gear over. I will also need a second person to drive the van back or else I will have a rental van sitting in Europe for 27 days. Adding up the cost of a van, ferries, fuel and wages for a second driver is reducing the cost saving of the original German quote.

Looking at the quote again I also notice the price offered does not include a trailer. A sleeper bus may have enough space in the luggage bays (usually underneath the bus) to accommodate all the backline but this space is totally dependent on the make of the bus and how much extra a/c and a/v kit has been installed previously. If there is not enough space for your backline then your only option is to pull a trailer. You can then carry all your backline and have extra space for tour merchandise (T-shirts etc) as well as any other sound or lighting equipment you may want to take. In recent years bus companies have started to charge extra to pull a trailer. You now have to pay a set rate per day for the trailer itself and also pay extra to the driver for dealing with the trailer. Pulling a trailer also affects the speed and handling of a sleeper bus and will attract extra tolls and restrictions in some mainland European countries.

The German bus company is offering a 12-berth single deck sleeper bus made by Bova. I know from experience these buses do not have a huge amount of space in the bus bays, a fact confirmed when I receive the dimensions of the proposed bus. I am certain now that the backline is not going to fit in the bays – I am going to need a trailer.

I ask the German company for a quote for a trailer, which they duly supply. Suddenly their quote is no longer as competitive. The added cost of the trailer and extra driver wages couple with the associated costs and ball ache of getting the backline into Germany means there is no advantage to using this company. In fact, because I am not familiar with the company, I would be inclined not use them and to go with one of my regular suppliers instead.

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I am aware that my ‘Tour Manager Challenge’ posts fizzled out with no real information as to how the band and I resolved the various logistical and financial constraints.

I am happy to report that the tour went very well, we had good fun and the band made a tiny amount of money – not much but certainly no where near the huge loss I was projecting.

I have a tour starting in mid- August and so have decided to document the work I do before and during a tour, here in this blog, in an attempt to describe what a modern concert tour manager really does.

May 01st 2008

I receive one of those ‘hi guys, I cannot do this one but can any one of you do it?’ type emails from a touring colleague of mine. The email specifies that a band is looking for crew for a tour of Europe and the UK to take place in August – the show dates have already been booked by the band’s booking agent. The email also advises that the band require FOH engineer and TM in one person as the budget for salaries is not large.

After reading the email I decide I have availability at that time and so after a flurry of emails back and forth with my colleague I find myself chatting on the phone to one of the band members along with a spreadsheet of the dates in my email inbox.

May 05th 2008

The band is a four piece from West Coast USA and is signed to a major label. They have a couple of previous releases and have been opening up for some very large, successful acts recently.

This tour is in support of their new album and takes in a mix of 350-900 capacity clubs and some festivals, 21 shows over 27 days. Standard stuff really.

My aim when starting with a new project is to get as much of a feel for the band and their ‘world’ as possible. For instance, I need to know where they are on the planet before the start of the tour and where they need to get to after the last date. Information about the band’s line-up and backline equipment they use will also help me with the first draft of production logistics.

My second priority when starting with a new act is to establish my salary for the tour or event, which person is actually paying me and what the invoicing process will be. For these reasons I very much prefer working with American acts as they nearly always employ business management as well as artistic management. (From experience it is always a very good thing if the artist manager is not also responsible for the band’s money.)

Business managers are usually very efficient when dealing with record company accounting departments; they can sometimes help freelancers avoid the protracted process of having to be set up as a vendor on the particular record companies accounting system.

My chat with the band member tells me that, yes they have artist management and a business management team. I also learn that William Morris in LA are the bands booking agent.

I email the artist managers in LA to introduce myself and through a series of messages we reach a compromise regarding my salary. I then talk to the business managers who send me a load of forms (I-9, W8) enabling me to be paid directly and also a road cash book they have devised.

I have my own road accounting system in place and am more than willing to use a system provided by the business management team. There can therefore be no disagreement regarding expenditure, providing I use their system correctly.

This entire process of negotiating salary and dealing with the business manager took me a couple of hours but it was time very well spent. I now have an agreed framework detailing the scope of my responsibilities, all my financial arrangements are in place and I know who I should be dealing with when it comes to invoicing. Tackling these matters at the start of the proceedings is a vital step – don’t skip it!

May 06th 2008

Right, I can start getting some work done!

The initial part of the concert tour pre-production process can be compared to an extremely infuriating jig saw puzzle. You have a lot of information and none of it fits together. With any tour there are myriad travel, equipment, financial and legal arrangements, some already in place and others needing to be arranged. There seems to be no logic to the information and, just like a jigsaw puzzle, you need to stare long and hard at the facts before the overall picture becomes clear.

An example would be travel arrangements for the start and the end of the tour. It is all very well knowing that the tour starts in one city and ends in the another; my problem involves assembling people and gear in on place, hopefully at the same time. This is difficult, especially when money is tight.

The first show of this tour is in Denmark on 6th August. The band have a show on the East Coast of the US on 4th August. This gives one day to travel from the US up to Scandinavia. The band has some of its backline in storage at Music Bank in London. The last date of the tour is in Deutsch-land, near Munster. The band are then flying back to the West Coast of the US. For travel, it makes sense to use a sleeper bus, given the distance involved between the cities on the tour.

Those are the facts but they are not making my logistical challenges any easier. For instance, where should I fly the band in and out of? Ideally it would be East Coast US to Denmark and then out of Deutschland back to West Coast US. However that routing will be extremely expensive. I also have to think about the bus and the backline. A bus from the UK could pick up the backline and then head up to Denmark, which will take about 3 days, and then head back to UK, dropping the gear back in London after the final date. So I could fly the band in and out of London and then they could travel up on the bus to Denmark.

This last option would be less expensive but we do not have three days to play with. The band have a one day travel window between the US and Scandinavia.

With this kind of problem I find consulting a map usually helps – after a while a solution will become apparent! After staring at the map and doing a lot of research I find that many flights go direct from Boston to Amsterdam. Given the bus is traveling from England up to Scandinavia, I could have the band fly into Amsterdam and have the bus pick them up from there on the morning of the Denmark show. I could then also drop the band back at Amsterdam after the final German show for the return flight to the West Coast, also a direct flight.

A previously fuzzy picture is now coming into focus.

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My thoughts on the proposed National Skills Centre appeared in the Guardian newspaper April 22nd.

The link is here: http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,2275374,00.html

Obviously I am not against relevant education for those wishing to enter the live production industries - I now lecture at a university on live sound production!

However I do think that the money and time involved in setting up and running the NSA could be put to better use. (The article states one of my ideas on this).

There is a big pot of money earmarked for the NSA. How about we use that money to encourage the technicians/road crew/’roadies’ already out there to contribute their knowledge and time, in order to nurture and encourage the next generation of touring professionals?

I know from many heated discussion in the back lounge that ‘you cannot teach this job, and even if you could, who would teach it?’ The argument being is that freelance professionals cannot block out time to deliver teaching (even if they wanted to) due to the complicated financial and logistical reasons that are the bane of a freelancer’s life.

The industry needs input form the existing technicians/road crew/’roadies’. What if we could offer these existing freelance professionals a significant sum of money to be available for teaching? Or to write a manual, record an instructional DVD or help to promote online resources?

I don’t think many freelancers would like a full-time teaching post but might be really interested in properly contracted consultancy and delivery of teaching and learning content. Especially if they knew they would be paid well for a set time and be home every night while they did it.

I am sure retaining a set of skilled and current industry professionals would be cheaper than building a brand new training centre and filling it full of equipment, even if you did pay the equivalent of professional touring rates.

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Sky News have written this nice piece based on some of the advice featured in ‘The Tour Book’. You can read the article here or see it below.

(For the record, I did not tour with The White Stripes. I actually organised pre-production for their European tour a couple of years ago.)

Sky News:
It’s a recurring problem for music venues across the land - how do you get rid of the fans who just won’t go home when the gig’s over?

The answer is apparently quite simple - start playing them music they loathe through the PA system and watch them turn on their heels.

“There’s always a section of the crowd that won’t go home,” says tour manager Andy Reynolds, who’s been on the road with bands like The White Stripes and Super Furry Animals.

“I’ve found the fastest way of telling people that the show’s over and getting them moving is to play them 1920s Trad Jazz. You’ll be surprised how quickly that gets hairy heavy metallers out of the door,” he told Sky News.

The tip is just one on offer in a new guide Andy’s written called The Tour Book.

It’s designed to help new bands understand every aspect of touring from crewing to contracts.
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“It always amazes me how little bands know about the work that goes into a tour,” Andy said.

“Even established acts don’t know much about what goes on behind the scenes.

“Often a band will turn up at 4pm to soundcheck, not realising that the crew’s been on the go since 8am. Bands should always be mindful of that.”

-end-

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My good friends at Electric Fly contacted me with this helpful explanation on the impact of the new EC driving regulations on the touring industry:

“Maybe we are being obvious here but………..

Regarding this years new EU driving regs – download here- for tour buses here’s something that we at Electric Fly have figured out and which you might want to send out to your booking agents in advance of tours, as I’m sure most of them won’t be thinking about this in advance

In order to achieve the enforced 45 (continuous) hours off each week (which must be taken stationary), either the last show before a day off must be a short drive (eg 3hrs) or the drive to the next show after the day off must be. This is obviously dependent on show and load in times, but it does rule out situations such as recent tours we have been involved in where both drives either side of the day off were very long and required considerable palm greasing to get drivers to co-operate. Some drivers could just refuse, in fact, some bus companies refuse and will even report the situation to the ministry, which can be come a big issue when trying to get to the next gig which is 500miles away. Double drivers don’t work due to the ‘stationary’ clause.

Having a short drive before the day off or after the day off will achieve the 45hrs and and / or save the wedging up of drivers

Feel free to forward to other deserving TM’s

Festive greetings to y’all

Noel

Noel Kilbride Office Manager / Project Manager

ElectricFly Productions

Office Tel +44 (0)1530 274 731

Mobile Tel +44 (0)7770 956 816

skype: noelectric

e-mail: noel@electricfly.co.uk”

Thanks Noel! You can download a copy of the EC Drivers Hours regulations by clicking here

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