Thursday, November 2,1989
The Battalion
Page/
Life as a roadie
Crew members spend long
hours doing difficult work
Cliff Atchanson of Clear Brothers Sound fine tune R.E.M.’s sound system to G.
makes alterations during a sound check to Rollie White Coliseum.
The stage is almost complete as roadies put finishing touches on the set.
Bill Thompson, one of R.E.M.’s roadies, sets up Bill Berry’s
drum kit.
Story by John Righter
Photos by Mike C. Mulvey
Of The Battalion Staff
After a concert, when the exhilaration
is over, the crowd has departed, and the
band has already begun carousing their
way toward another night of shameless
debauchery, there are a few, often forgot
ten, less fortunate individuals just begin
ning their night’s performance.
Like the offensive lineman in football,
the life of a roadie is one continuous, un
recognized toil in the pits, paving safe
and successful lanes for their rock ’n’ roll
quarterbacks.
Their work, depending on where their
group’s last performance took place, can
start as early as six in the morning, and
that’s when they’re lucky. Many times, es
pecially on weekends or when they are
playing several close localities in a row,
the crew may spend a whole night dis
mantling and loading the set only to hit
the road so that they can reset the same
stage and equipment for the next night.
Understandably, this stress can cause hos
tilities among the crew.
Wes Moore, a rigger from the Local
205 of the International Alliance of The
atrical Stage Employees, spoke before
R.E.M.’s Sunday performance about the
difficulties that arise on the road.
“It’s hectic because you finish taking
down a set and then you hop in a car and
you’re driving while the band is sleeping,”
he said. “You can end up doing four or
five nights in a row where you haven’t
slept, ’cause there is no time. You are on a
real tight time schedule.
“When we did U2, they (U2’s regular
road crew) were about ready to kill each
other by the time they entered Austin.
Talk about an attitude — it was a giant
yelling and screaming mess all day long.
They had been out together for almost a
year straight, with no breaks, one night
after one night after one night, with a lot
of heavy partying in between.”
Glenn Dunn, a coworker from Local
205, adds, “After they finish at three or
four in the morning, they drink till they
can’t stand up anymore and then take
speed to get going again. They can only
do that for so long. It wears you down
and makes you edgy. There’s an old say
ing that if you can’t handle your drugs
and alcohol on the road, then you don’t
belong in rock ’n’ roll,’ and they weren’t
handling it very well.”
When a band decides to tour, one of
the first things its members consider is
how many full-time roadies they need to
bring with them. Much of that decision
depends on the size of the stage and the
extent of the band’s lighting, sound, and
technical.equipment. A young club band
will take along one or two personal roa
dies, who usually double as managers,
and then recruit club personnel to help
them unload and assemble their equip
ment.
An arena and large-hall band, like
R.E.M., will take anywhere from 15 to 50
people with it on the road to construct
and operate a set that can weigh up to
15,000 lbs. R.E.M. on this leg of their tour
brought 25 full-time roadies to assist with
their 6,000 pounds of equipment that fills
four 16-wheeler trucks.
In addition, R.E.M., as most bands do,
hired riggers from Texas’ union of theat
rical stage workers based in Austin. The
riggers are responsible for bringing the
machinery and equipment to construct
the stage, and for determining how the
equipment, especially the sound system,
will be positioned. In G. Rollie White Col
iseum, for example, where the air condi
tioning already hangs from the ceiling,
there were problems hanging the sound
system.
“This ceiling already has too much
stress on it,” explains Dunn, “so we had to
stack all the sound equipment on the
floor. Normally we would fly it so that the
sound covers the whole (coliseum).”
The riggers are the first crew to arrive,
surveying the building for structural
problems and safety hazards, then map
ping the points and deciding what equip
ment should be used, before finally con
structing the stage. While the riggers are
filling in the set’s base, the lighting starts,
with the lighting truss (support structure)
flown and the lights assembled.
“The last time we did R.E.M. it was real
unusual ’cause they had their lights set to
tally asymmetrical,” Dunn explains. “Plus
they had a lot more. But everytime it’s
something new, which makes our job
really challenging.”
After the second lighting truss and
truss box are flown, the set is finished and
the sound is set by points and fldwn.
Then the riggers leave and R.E.M.’s regu
lar roadies take over.
With a major band like R.E.M., the
crew is broken down into section heads
with a couple of subordinates under each.
Usually, sound, lights, band equipment
and set construction will all have specific
heads who answer to a crew chief, the
man responsible for stage design and any
necessary set modifications.
Bob Weber, a veteran roadie, has been
touring with R.E.M. since January. “I’m
in charge of keyboards and guitars for
both R.E.M. and Pylon,” Weber says. “I
make sure they’re tuned and ready by
sound check, before they go on, and dur
ing the set if there are any difficulties.
Plus, there’s other guys who do the bass,
drums and mikes for the show. We’re all
part of the equipment crew.”
An interesting point for A&M shows is
that students are hired to help the roadies
assemble the sets.
Mark Chaloupka, Rudder Theater’s se
nior stage manager, is in charge of fur
nishing the stage hands requested by the
band.
“I hire student volunteers, who are all
paid,” he says. “Twice a year we place an
ad (in The Battalion) that asks everyone
interested to come in to the theater (Rud
der) complex where we explain what the
job is and take their names and phone
numbers.”
“When a show comes we start calling
names until we have enough people to fill
a list given to me by the promoter or or
ganizer. It’s a good opportunity for any
one interested in production to get their
feet wet . . . (and) experience isn’t nec
essary.”
After spending hours assembling sets,
tuning instruments and arranging lights,
the show takes place. But, you won’t find
many of the roadies enjoying it.
“People think being a roadie is great
’cause you get to see all these fantastic
shows,” explains Dunn. “But hell, that’s
the only time we get to sleep. We’re the
last people who want to see the show',
’cause when it’s over we go back to work.”
Adds Moore, “I’m out in my truck
praying they do three encores.”