Friends to the Stars lovingly set up by roadies, managers and industry insiders................

Introducing....

FRED - Studied Music Technology in Southampton.  Crewed at the Students Union and got poached by Trancepop on their 2003 “Beaches” tour to Ibiza, Goa and Phuket.  Our expert on all things beginning with P – Programming, Protocols & Profits (but no longer pills).

ROGER - Roger’s Dad was in seminal british reggae band Afrikanashun from the early 80s and was born in a flight case.  Roger had a couple of hits in 2001 as part of the band Funksoulbrother and ended up tour managing their support act and label mates, Lean Machine. Now in-house tour manager for all bands on the Raduxion label, owned by industry maverick Elliott Silas.  Known for his tour routing prowess he can get you from A to C in double quick time,  bypassing B!

SIMON - Philosopher, poet, idealist – truck driver.  Simon pulled over from the fast lane of the music business to the hard shoulder.  Keyboard player in the 90s, manager in the millennium, he now prefers life on the open road, talking bollocks to bands late in to the night.  He knows how many steps there are at the load in of Southampton Joiners, who the fourth drummer was in Jethro Tull and that Occam’s razor is not for shaving.   A good one for the pub quiz team.

LOU - Beware the sound engineer who makes knob jokes to Lou.  She’s fought long and hard to earn her place behind the front of house mixing desk and is gonna stay there.  Got her big break when mixing for support acts and got poached by headliners Mamamoose on their 2004 breakthrough tour.  Since then Lou seems to have taken up residency at Wembley Stadium.  Got a question about Line Array?  Drop her a line.

RAY - We think he’s American, we think he’s in his 50s and we think he started out at a PA company in Dallas in 1974, however, we can’t be sure. He’s apparently toured with Elvis, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors and Janis Joplin, but that would make him even older. We tend to switch the answering machine on when he calls, but we have to admit that what he doesn’t know about touring stateside isn't worth knowing.

SABS - Holds the record for the fastest restringing and retuning of a Les Paul.  Will pay £50 to anyone who can do it in less than 3 minutes.  His tales of on the road excess and derring make Spinal Tap look like the Von Trapp family.   Taught axemeister Jag Duggan of seminal Norwegian death metallers, Dead Don’t Die, everything he knows.

SPIKE - Small but hardcore.  Fearless as he scurries around the roof of the 02, he knows exactly how much weight each point will take at the Hammersmith Apollo and will also have your truss hanging exactly as you like it.  No one knows exactly where he came from but he’s made himself indispensable on many arena tours over the past 10 years.   Last one to bed, and first one up – just what we like to see. (wants to remain anonymous)

LARRY - The creative member of our team.  Despite being cast in the lead role of Joseph at school, our technicolour dreamboat, Larry, took more interest in designing the curtains than drawing them back (ah-ah-ah).  One thing led to another and soon he was designing the stage set and lighting rig for the triumphant return of boyband “This Way Up” on their woldwide 2008 reunion tour. (refused photo - bad hair day).

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment