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| "Being young and female is becoming the norm on tour at last.." |
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.” The old-timers – crew who had been doing it their way for as long as anyone could remember – initially gave her ‘gip,’ as Storme euphemistically calls it. But then they are unlikely to have bargained for Storme’s own brand of cheery, entrepreneurial chutzpah that won her her lucky breaks and seen headlining bands queue up for her services. At first intent on becoming a sound engineer, she wrote off to countless recording studios “offering to make the tea and learn the ropes.” Perhaps unused to applications from young women in an undeniably male scene, every single one rejected her. Her first breakthrough was after she abandoned the recording studio gambit and applied to the indie record label, Fat Cat Records, who were about to sign the Icelandic band Sigur Ros. “I just thought they were amazing and so I applied for a job with the label and got it. “It was just office stuff, answering emails and so on, but it was the first proper job I’d had apart from working in Woolies in the holidays,” she says. Although earning only £25 a day, Storme was at last at the gateway to bigger and better things. But it was her persuasiveness and eye for an opportunity that won her the day. “I really wanted to move out of home with my mum and got to Iceland and so I convinced the Sigur Ros management to send me to Iceland to look after them,” she says. “I was only 19 but they agreed to employ me half the time as a sort of PA to the band, and their Icelandic record label offered me a job for the rest of the time. So I moved to Iceland for two years.” There she was spotted by Einar Orn, the influential figure of Sugarcubes and Bjork fame, and was drafted in to oversee the international PR for the hardcore Icelandic band Minus. She soon scored a series of media hits in the rock mags back in Britain, creating a lot of press interest in the band for the first time outside their homeland. “I was working out of this broom cupboard in Reykjavik, surrounded by piles of Sugarcube records and suddenly they were asking me to arrange distribution deals, PR coverage and helping to bring over bands. “It was exciting but I had to phone up Fat Cat back in Britain for advice sometimes,” she recalls. Not content, though, with working at the epicentre of the vibrant Icelandic music world, Storme decided to return home, bizarrely with ideas of returning to college to study law. “I worked really hard for the exams, but then decided against taking the course.” Back on track, her Icelandic cred saw her being hired at the age of 21 by another band Mun to handle the merchandising on tour. Word got round and she was soon approached by a raft of other bands who wanted her to deploy her cocktail of charm and organisation on their ‘merch’ efforts. This breadth and depth of experience saw Storme tour for 11 months every year for the past four years – and consequently emerge as a respected figure on the tour scene, able to hire and fire and generally hold sway. “Suddenly,” she says, “I wasn’t getting gip from people anymore whether for being young or for being a girl. I used to face a lot of sexist attitudes. But the old dinosaurs have become more tolerant, and know I won’t hire them if they cause problems. “I’ve never met another female production manager in the touring are in this country, but there are more women coming through in a lot other touring jobs and venue production, which is great. “I see a whole new generation coming in, younger than me. It’s much more accessible now, because you can now do college courses in it. I’m even starting to feel a bit old. “Being young and a girl is becoming the norm on tour at last. And the old timers who used to give me gip are now emailing me asking for work.” Comments (4)
  written by Jazz , October 30, 2010
Wow - what a great read! - I currently searching for an on to it tour manager - I hope I can find someone with as much drive and enthusiasm as you! So many times when you tell people your job or something you've achieved they say 'Oh you're soo lucky' this articles say's it's not easy but follow your dream - don't give up and you can get there! Rock n Roll www.imjazzyj.com JAZZYJ
 written by Live Sound Audio, June 04, 2010
And the interaction will add a great diversity to the industry.... maybe even a little clean up culture.
 www.livesoundaudio.com
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I just started writing a blog about how I became a tour manager, if you want to check it out: http://backstagelife.blogspot.com/