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Access All Areas: On the road with The Killers
Backstage with the Las Vegas stars' techs
Claire Davies, Thu 7 Jul 2011, 12:34 pm BST
Heading to a music festival this summer? While you're out front enjoying the plentiful supply of live music thrills, spare a thought for the hard-working, gear-laden tech crews who will be oiling the wheels of your favourite band's festival performance.
From in-ear monitor catastrophes, slippery drum risers and over-stretched stage managers, to impossible 20-minute changeovers, tuning-warping humidity, and dressing rooms the size of toilet cubicles, these incredible techs are practised in the fine art of getting the job done.
Professionals who have honed their trade with some of the biggest, hottest, and most influential acts in the world, these drum, guitar, bass and keys techs, plus backline wonders, tour managers, production managers, stage managers, lighting engineers, production directors and sound directors have decades of experience between them.
In an exclusive new series on MusicRadar, Access All Areas brings you an invaluable insight into what it takes to tech at festivals, how to survive one of the toughest days of your working life, and when to stand back and say, 'job well done'.
Following on from U2 and Slipknot, here are two of the men who make sure that when Vegas's finest come to town, it's the hottest ticket around...
David Fidyrch aka Fiddy, bass tech
Like any newbie tech, David Fidyrch cut his teeth on a variety of instruments when starting out. Working with various bands for over 10 years, David now handles tech duties for The Killers bass guitarist Mark Stoermer. He has also leant his guitar and backline tech-ing skills to a variety of acts including MGMT (backline tech), Laura Marling (guitar tech), Louis XIV (guitar tech), and Stellastarr* (backline tech).
"I'm getting more involved with the production side of things now." Says David. "I worked with the The XX as the production manager last summer, and I'm about to start a tour with Kaiser Chiefs."
Tech-ing for The Killers at Hard Rock Calling among other summer festival dates, David lets us take a peek inside his tech kit bag while running us through his day on a festival site.
As a bass tech, what you do upon arriving at a festival?
