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Access All Areas: On the road With You Me At Six
We hit the festival circuit with the pop punks' tour manager
Claire Davies, Thu 22 Sep 2011, 11:22 am BST
Heading to a music festival? 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 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'.
The latest in a series that has so far included U2, The Killers and Slipknot among others sees us backstage with Bristish pop-punks You Me At Six.
Rob Highcroft, tour manager
As tour manager for one of the biggest pop punk bands around right now, Rob Highcroft has seen and done it all. Working his way up from driver, merch seller, and general tea boy, Rob has five years of tour manager experience under his belt. "I have done all sorts of roles on tour, and it all depends on what the job requires," says Rob.
Working for Band Tours Ltd, Rob looks after a slew of acts on the road, including The Blackout, Asking Alexandria, We Are The In Crowd and Escape The Fate. Who better than Rob to give us some insider info on the role he'll be holding down on this summer's festival circuit?
As a tour manager, what are the main differences between working a festival and a normal You Me At Six show?
"The main thing with a festival is that you need to adapt to it not being your own show. There may be 50 other bands playing and everyone is pushed to the limit. When you do a club show you can advance the whole tour easily, but with festivals you need to be very specific because if you forget something, that's it! The day itself is very different too. You will spend a lot of time getting ready (if you play later on the bill), but when it's go-time, it's on! A [festival gig] is fast paced: no sound checks, just plug in and go."
