by Scorpions Truck » November 19th, 2011, 8:33 am
Hello Bordeaux
looks like there´s another sunny day ahead, a bit chilly this morning but sunset is close to come.
Load in at Patinoire started 06:30am with the motors, the trusses and the most important thing of all on tour, the catering.
Next step is the sound system and after this we are going to unload the backline and video.
Some fans asked me at recent venues how we make it to setup and tare down the stage within a few hrs, it´s simple hard work for each department, all of the crew are experts in what they are doing and we work hand in hand to built a stage. In all the years I am in this biz I never heard one saying. "This is not my job" so if ever one has a problem or a question there is somebody who has a solution, regardless which department he belongs to. We always try be be nice and polite to each other even sometimes it´s not easy to keep cool, There are days where the crew found just three/four hrs of sleep whilst the bus was rolling to the next gig. Than a quick shower and a strong coffee helps to get fit for the next 18 hrs of work to run another show.
So catering is a real important thing on tour as well as little things like proper bathrooms and showers. Local promoters always provide fresh towels for us, they offer a person (we call this person "runner") with a van to go shopping for the catering etc. It is like a circus we travel around to the various cities and You fans enjoy a show at nite not knowing what has to be done months before. Hotels and flights have to be booked, vans, cars and the drivers have to be ordered etc.
I remember a show when I was on the 25Live Tour with George Michael in 2006 when a local newspaper wrote a day before the show:
George Michael is coming to town. He has got a new fetish! He ordered 400 towels!!!
The reporter just heard about the request of the 400 towels and made a fetish story about it. It was written the way that all these towels are for personal use of George Michael. Some of You might know George Michael is gay and the media quite often tries to make a story of it. When I read this story about the towels I checked if this certain reporter is on the media guest list and when he appeared backstage making himself much important the first I did was giving him a towel and asked him to use the bathroom. He was surpirsed about this offer and asked me why I do it. I said, "look You twatt, even for a road crew it is a habit to wash ourselves daily and we love to use a fresh towel after showering, probably You do this too at home,so why for *** sake do You write such a *** about a fetish when the management is requesting towels??? We are more than 200 people on tour and it is obvious that these 400 towels are for the entire cast and crew." I said that in presence of the management and George Michael himself so the skin of the reporter changed colour into red really fast and he left the house immediatley.
What I am trying to explain is, what ever You fans might read in magazines or newspapers, first view can be strange but everything we ask has got a reason. It´s just to make a tour, just to setup a stage to entertain the fans but also gives a lot of people work to earn money to live
You Rock, we Roll