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By WriterName WWE’S JOHN D’AMICO continued from page 27 lighting and pyro—it all rolls into one big package. WWE’s Wrestle Mania Since you’ve done both, tell us about the TV events and how they differ from the non-televised events. On our non-televised events, we have a crew of about 14 people, plus the two or three people from WWE. On our televised events, it’s huge; you’re talking 14 trucks with all of our production gear, a television production truck, and a support truck with all the cabling. We travel with about 75 to 100 of our own people, depending on where we are and what show we are doing. And we pull in at least 90 to 100 local crew members in each city. We do this every Monday and Tuesday. Plus 15 pay-perviews. You’re talking about an eight or nine hour load-in and four to five hour load-out. It’s a pretty big deal. I still attend about half the Monday night RAW events just to keep up with the stories and get music updates. That’s a big part of what you guys are doing—it’s living theatre. You can compare it to theatre—some people compare it to soap opera. I like to compare it to theatre because we do a show in each city and we keep it going from town to town. If the storyline changes on the television show, the story line changes on our live events. It’s a lot of work but it is also a lot of fun. We have a good group of very professional and interesting people that I enjoy working with everyday. Since you’ve done both, tell us about the TV events and how they differ from the non-televised events. On our non-televised events, we have a crew of about 14 people, plus the two or three people from WWE. On our televised events, it’s huge; you’re talking 14 trucks with all of our production gear, a television production truck, and a support truck with all the cabling. We travel with about 75 to 100 of our own people, depending on where we are and what show we are doing. And we pull in at least 90 to 100 local crew members in each city. We do this every Monday and Tuesday. Plus 15 pay-per-views. You’re talking about an eight or nine hour load-in and four to five hour load-out. It’s a pretty big deal. I still attend about half the Monday night RAW events just to keep up with the stories and get music updates. Ad info: www.plsn.com/rsc That’s a big part of what you guys are doing—it’s living theatre. You can compare it to theatre—some people compare it to soap opera. I like to compare it to theatre because we do a show in each city and we keep it going from town to town. If the storyline changes on the television show, the story line changes on our live events. It’s a lot of work but it is also a lot of fun. We have a good group of very professional and interesting people that I enjoy working with everyday. 28 PLSN MONTH 2006 www.PLSN.com
By BryanReesman The call of the road has lured many musicians and crew members seeking excitement, adventure and, well, a good paycheck. Sure, there are the wild parties, crazy groupies and drunken shenanigans, but touring is not always as exciting as many people might have you believe. It certainly has its share of benefits for those with a wandering spirit, but it also has it share of responsibilities. As driver and musician Steve Byam proclaims, “You’re not only a bus driver, but you’re an accountant, a maid and a mechanic, and all of those things that come along with it.” Byam should know, having been active in country music in Nashville for 28 years before getting behind the wheel to drive band and crew members alike. One job that can be added to the list is therapist. “It’s almost like having a confessional up there at the jump seat,” quips Rick Foote, who has 31 years experience behind the wheel. “And you hear some neat things. You hear some things that you promise not to reveal, and things that are just funny. It can go on for hours and hours while you’re driving down the road.” Notes long-time driver Lupe Garcia of many groups: “Some of them complain to you, and you have to listen to them. The ones that go on, the alcoholics, or the ones to go on about their wives or girlfriends, you listen to all of it. You can’t get up and move.” 24/7/300+ Indeed, to be a tour bus driver you have to have your ass grounded for extended periods. The hours are long, the distances can stretch on for hundreds of miles at a time, and drivers are usually away from home 300 or more days per year. “By the end of the night, and you get to your destination, you’re pretty well exhausted,” says Foote. “But there are still bus chores you have to do—washing your bus, cleaning your bus, maintaining your bus, securing and making sure it’s parked where it won’t get towed. I would say that driving is probably half the job, and the other half is doing the political thing and the maintenance thing. Also, you still have a family at home that you have to make sure you take care of, too. It’s a 24/7 job.” Being a tour bus driver can be a strain on marriages and families. “It’s hard,” agrees Garcia. “My marriage is up and down. I have a five year-old son. It’s hard on the marriage and hard on the family. If you want to succeed, something’s going to have to hurt, and it’s usually the kids and the family.” Foote says he is on this third marriage but that his wife has accepted his gypsy life. But all three men interviewed agree that they are happy with what they do. Close bonds stem from steady gigs. Foote has been working with Lynyrd Skynyrd since ’91, full-time since ’99. Garcia has been with Dave Matthews Band for fourteen years and currently drives Stefan, their bassist. (Yes, all the members have their own busses.) Byam has worked with a variety of bands and recently has spent two-and-a-half years with H.I.M. In between their main gigs the drivers seek out other work. For the past two years, Foote has mainly alternated between Skynyrd and Kid Rock. He also got to drive Olympic gold medalist Sarah Hughes and three Russian skaters on a winter tour two years ago. Garcia often works with the Dropkick Murphys, and in the past drove the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails and Live. Byam has driven recently for Hall and Oates, Heart and Al Jarreau. Naturally, some artists are crazier than others. Foote notes that while the members of Skynyrd are basically straight arrows, Kid Rock treats touring like a non-stop party. Hedonistic rockers H.I.M. certainly like to have a good time on the road. Clash of the Titans Driving both band and crew can be tough, as Garcia experienced in the early days of Dave Matthews and Byam did on one of his H.I.M. tours. “That didn’t work too well,” admits Byam. “That was the clash of the titans right there because there are two trains of thought. The band stays up, and the crew goes to bed. The band needed their own space, and that’s why they had their own bus again this year.” Adds Garcia, with a laugh: “It was just a very dirty bus. When you have twelve adults that don’t pick up after each other, that’s real bad, but that’s usually what happens.” The experience of dealing with a band or crew can depend upon their road management. “A good road manager will delegate,” remarks Byam. “Some of them are kind of control freaks and like to take care of everything up there, keep their fingers on the pulse of what’s going on. It just depends. You garner a relationship with the guys that are on the bus, as far as working day to day and making sure it flows right and nobody’s too upset. You’re not going to make friends with everybody.” Byam offers a classic example from a recent tour. “The production manager wanted another bus driver,” he recalls. “He had it out for me from day one, and there was nothing I was going to do right for him that was going to make his life happier. I didn’t have enough experience, he didn’t like the way I looked, what ever it was. On the second day of the tour, I took a shortcut that all the truckers told me about, and he was fuming that that was going to add another 200 miles. Five minutes later, we were there. Then I couldn’t back the bus up right, I couldn’t park in the right place. He wouldn’t let me do my job, basically. During all this I just kept a smile, apologized and was very diplomatic. Well, the son-of-a-bitch ended up having three mini-strokes during the tour, and they kicked him off the tour. I prayed for this guy, and he still had strokes!” The Zen of Driving Both Byam and Foote have taken on the “hillbilly weekends,” which is slang for a country tour that leaves on Thursday night and gets back by Sunday. “They just try to live it to the max, life to its fullest extent,” says Byam.” They really think they’re rock ‘n’ roll guys in some of these younger bands, and it’s funny to see the young guys going out there and learning how vomit for the first time. With the rock ‘n’ roll guys, man, it’s the way they live, and they’ve been doing it for years. You could throw a bunch of guys together from different walks of life in the rock ‘n’ roll world, and they all know what it takes to make it work. The most important thing is that the people on the bus are like a body—there’s always going to be a d*^# and an a*^#+”@. You just have to go with the flow, man. A lot of Zen and Buddha goes on with driving a bus.” The fans can also provide plenty of amusement, particularly “the different lengths they‘ll go to to meet a band or just the fervor or the fever that they have for these guys,” remarks Byam. “I don’t care what band it is or what age group, there are just these people that are obsessed about following them. Its kind of funny with H.I.M. They’ve got some hardcore fans. Over 25 to 30 shows, I probably saw some of the same people trying to get in backstage at 15 shows and ran into them at the motels.” He notes that crews can be crazy, too. “I drove the crew for Trapt recently. They were pirates. And Howie Day—that was hedonism at its highest.” Sometimes the drivers are the protagonists of their own nutty stories. The polite, gentlemanly Foote drove for the late Waylon Jennings between 1994 and 1995. One day at a stop in Clarksville, Tenn, a man claiming to be a songwriter named Mack Vickery came to the door and asked to see Continued on page 30 “You’re not only a bus driver, but you’re an accountant, a maid, and a mechanic, and all of those things that come along with it.” - Steve Byam www.PLSN.com PLSN AUGUST 2006 29
Page 1 and 2: Headline The Backstory of Automated
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Page 5 and 6: TABLEOFCONTENTS FEATURES What’s N
Page 7 and 8: NEWS Leadership Change at MA Lighti
Page 9 and 10: Portable Feeder Standards Available
Page 11 and 12: NEWS Lighting Canada’s Element Cl
Page 13 and 14: Roy Bennett Has The Hot Hand SYCAMO
Page 15 and 16: Ad info: www.plsn.com/rsc
Page 17 and 18: INTERNATIONALNEWS Nightwish Uses Li
Page 21 and 22: Matthews Studio Equipment Colornett
Page 23 and 24: Crew Lighting Company: Premier Glob
Page 25 and 26: scenery in place. Because of that I
Page 27 and 28: New Day, New Challenge Despite the
Page 29: WWE’s Wrestle Mania RAW Wrestling
Page 35 and 36: Lighting When an architect friend w
Page 37 and 38: directors have to coordinate the mo
Page 41 and 42: Several banks of ACLs light the gri
Page 43 and 44: INSTALLS • INDUSTRIALS • FILM/T
Page 45 and 46: Production Brings Low-Res Video to
Page 47 and 48: Pretty as a The Digital Artists Too
Page 50 and 51: FEEDINGTHEMACHINES THE By Nook Scho
Page 52 and 53: FOCUSONDESIGN Killer Color Combos
Page 54 and 55: THEBIZ The rep smelled a scam, but
Page 56 and 57: PRODUCTGALLERY Manufacturer / WebSi
Page 58 and 59: TECHNOPOLIS AUTOMATED LIGHTING- LOO
Page 60 and 61: MARKETPLACE Employment Ad info: www
Page 62 and 63: LDATLARGE From the Programmer Seat
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