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We have been asked about who does what on a tour and how they fit into the crew hierarchy. Does a drum tech outrank a monitor engineer? Well it’s a bit like the navy with the tour manger as the captain of the ship of the road, and all the crew down to the stagehand galley slaves all below the captain. Not that we’ve been in the navy!
So from the top…
1 THE BAND, it’s their show so at least pretend that you are taking notice of what they want otherwise they will get…
2 …THE MANAGER to fire you, the manger will be in overall charge of tour strategy, if any, but will generally send missives (letters, esp. long official ones) through…
3 THE TOUR MANAGER, in actual charge of the tour and responsible for everything that happens or doesn’t. However as the TM generally travels with the band they won’t be at the gig until sound check when all the technical problems will already have been solved by…
4 …THE PRODUCTION MANAGER, who should be at the gig from the start of load in until the catering equipment is loaded onto the last truck will solve all production problems and sort out the inevitable fights between the sound engineer who will want to hang a speaker cabinet in the same position that the lighting designer wants to hang a lantern.
5 FOH SOUND ENGINEER, next in the hierarchy is the front of house sound engineer. This comes from the generally held view, by sound people anyway, that sound is more important than lights. Very important ones are known as “white glove” engineers denoting that they do nothing except operate the desk. This obviously makes them very popular with the rest of the crew.
6 LIGHTING DIRECTOR/DESIGNER often these days on large productions the lighting will be designed by a famous lighting designer and operated by a mere operator.
However it is more usual for the band to want the hands on skills of the designer operating the desk and so the ld is very important!
7 MONITOR ENGINEER, as the monitor engineer mixes what the band actually hear, bands sometimes are under the delusion that their particular monitor engineer is indispensible and so will pay them far too much money and take far too much notice of them.
8 BACKLINE TECHS often have the ears of the band, having sometimes worked with band members for many years and historically have been employed between tours to do odd jobs, cutting the grass, removing the Rolls Royce from the swimming pool etc.
9 RIGGER, often regarded with a sense of awe by the rest of the crew as while anyone can lean on a mixing desk and look important it takes a certain amount of bravery and skill to hang off ropes 40 feet in the air.
10 WARDROBE PERSON, again can often be in the band’s confidence as they work closely together, always worth keeping on the right side of as you might manage to get your laundry done with the stage clothes
11 CATERING, good catering can mean the difference between a happy and a grumpy tour, caterers are first in at load in time to make breakfast and their equipment is always last out, so always say thank you for your dinner.
12 OTHER DEPARTMENTS, video, set, pyrotechnics etc. will all have their place on a large tour and their heads of department sort of fit in here in our order.
13 Sound , lighting and other department crew, in no particular order.
14 DRIVERS, each bus and truck will have at least one driver and probably two for parts of the tour, European driving regulations being what they are. They tend to be shadowy figures generally sleeping during the day and only emerging at dinner time. They are however usually keen to earn a bit extra by operating a follow spot during the show.
15 MERCHANDISER, sort of part of the crew but with a different agenda, when bands start out generally one somebody’s mates.
16 TOUR ACCOUNTANT, job used to be done by the tour manager but nowadays on large tours it is the tour accountant who counts the money and tries to work out how the promoter has been fiddling the band.
17 LOCAL CREW, as the name suggests these are general crew people who are employed on a show-by-show basis generally by the venue or promoter. At worst they simply push and lift boxes as directed but the best local crews are skilled people who often know as much about the job as the touring crew and can prove invaluable.
There are probably people who have been left out of this list and you are one of them please let us know!
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The basic duties of a promoter are to secure a venue for a show, promote the show via the media and via posters/flyers/etc in the local area, work with the band and agent to make sure all the show night needs are covered.