how do you become a guitar tech? what exactly does a guitar tech do?  do you have to go to college? how much can you get paid? ........

FTTS's Andy Corrigan in conversation with John Armitage, 'Deptford' to his mates...

John Armitage renowned rock & pop roadie and guitar tech extraordinaire has just finished touring with Kylie and is in the middle of rehearsals with Take That.

John has worked with everyone from Iron Maiden and Motorhead to The Spice Girls and all those in between - his ultimate rock gig being Spinal Tap at Wembley Stadium for Live 8 where John had 11 bass players to look after during one song!. Click here to find out more about the realities of touring with a major artist and how to get in to the business.  (John also runs his own 'Guitar Hospital').

Storme Witby-Grub so desperately wanted to work in the music business that she packed in her Manchester University course at 18 without a job or even telling her parents. It was a gamble – but it has spectacularly paid off.

At first intent on becoming a sound engineer, she wrote off to countless recording studios “offering to make the tea and learn the ropes.”

A decade later and with a touring CV that includes the Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party, it’s fair to say that she now ranks as an esteemed tour veteran. “People are coming into touring younger and younger these days, so I do now sometimes feel a bit old,” she laughs. “Whereas when I started touring myself at 21, I was considered an absolute baby-face, it was so unusual. The guys I was working with were way older. “Then when I became a young female tour manager, it was considered even more unusual. Fortunately, there are lot more of us now.”

Ed Hutchison tour  manager for Young Knives and Art Brut talks about how he got started in the business and gives a few tips for running a smooth and happy tour....

"The chief requirement for everyone is unfailing enthusiasm"

At 27, Ed Hutchinson is already known as one of the pioneers of a new species of tour manager: one for whom touring should definitely be fun for everyone but understanding that that entails a fearsome amount of organisation and planning.  He entered the music sphere some time back when, as he puts it with characteristic modesty, he played for “a few spectacularly unsuccessful bands. We did a bit of low-level touring of the UK and Europe.” When superstardom failed to beckon, he picked up odd jobs crewing “to get into things” and couldn’t help noticing that many bands, already faced with the gruelling nature of tours, were also having to deal with a fairly shocking lack of organisation and pre-planning.