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Friday, November 17, 2006
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How to... be a roadie
Duncan Hall gets to grips with a large speaker while trying his hand at being a roadie for local band Sumo. (6AS1013116) Picture: ALAN STORER
Each week, our entertainments reporter tries out a new activity. This time, DUNCAN HALL tries his hand at being a roadie for city band Sumo at a gig at O’Neils in the city centre.
IN his 1979 tour film Rust Never Sleeps the great Neil Young characterised roadies as little brown-cowled figures with glowing red eyes scuttling across the stage desperately trying to set up the stage for the next band.
I may be a little bigger than a Jawa, and my clothing of choice is a Levellers T-shirt rather than a brown cloak, but I can scuttle around looking busy with the best of them.
As a non-musician, but huge music fan, part of me has always wanted to play an integral part in a live show – and really roadieing is the only way I will be able to do that.
That is, unless, I can get famous playing my own unique stuttering version of Yankee Doodle Dandy on the guitar.
City trio Sumo offered me the chance to work with them on their last visit to O’Neills, in Broadway.
The band, made up of drummer Ian Schroeder, guitarist Mark Pullen and bassist Sean Parkinson have been on the city music scene since 2002, having formed from the ashes of city favourites Boba Fett.
Sean, who shares vocals with Mark, said they had no real pretensions as ace musicians, looking on themselves as a half-decent band who can put on a show.
This reputation has preceded them with a good list of gigs across the city, which generally sees them out playing somewhere at least once or twice every weekend.
And they play what the public wants to hear, dipping into a setlist of popular songs ranging from rock and roll and ’60s classics to the Kaiser Chiefs, Dirty Pretty Things and Green Day.
With a three piece you might expect them to only have the bare minimum of gear – maybe a couple of amps and a couple of guitars which could easily be transported around and set up within a few minutes.
Unfortunately when I turned up at the secret location where they store their gear I found I was sadly mistaken.
Not only do Sumo have their own guitars, drums and mics complete with amps, they also have their own PA system to mix the sound, monitors so they can hear what is going out from the stage while they are playing, and their own set of lights too.
All of this took a good 20 minutes to half an hour just to load into their van – and it’s not all light guitars either. A good way to put your back out is to lift a PA amplifier on your own.
And, of course, it is not the sort of equipment you can just throw anywhere and not worry about it – there are plenty of glass bulbs, amp valves and delicate electronic equipment to shatter or break irreplaceably.
Once the van was loaded, we all hopped in and headed down to the venue – to do the same again in reverse lugging all the gear on to O’Neills’ sizeable stage.
And this is where a lot of the more fiddly work began as the band began to set up.
No-one should be a drummer unless they love putting things together with allen keys.
And among the boxes and gear was a huge box of cables, which then had to be spread all over the stage, linking everything to everything else in a tangled web before being taped down to ensure nobody tripped over anything.
Once the equipment was put together, I got to help with the sound check – meaning I finally achieved a lifetime’s ambition to knock seven bells out of a drum kit.
I was also shown how the sound mixer worked – which afterwards I mentally vowed not to touch – and I was set the task of writing out four copies of the set list before we broke for a well-earned tea while the pub filled up.
If the band were feeling butterflies in their stomach they didn’t show it as they wolfed down a takeaway.
I was beginning to feel the first flutterings of nerves though when I realised I was going to be onstage for most of the show too, operating the lights and guarding the sound desk.
Bassist Sean seemed perfectly at home on the stage though – calling out to the crowd, cracking jokes and seemingly pointing me out every five minutes as I tried to huddle away in my dark corner of the stage.
My duties when the band were performing was essentially making sure the band were fuelled with pints of Guinness and water (not together), occasionally stepping out into the crowd to check the sound was okay and working the lights.
Operating the lights essentially meant changing the sequence when they flashed and turning them on and off again at opportune moments. In the first half I experimented with the flood and blackout controls, trying to emphasise crescendos in songs and not leave the band too long in the dark.
By the second half, fuelled by Guinness, and the fact none of the light bulbs had gone yet, I started experimenting with light patterns to try to match the music. Ian saw what I was doing from his drum stool and encouraged me with a smile – or laughed at my efforts I’m not sure which – and all of a sudden I felt like an honorary member of the band.
The set went really well. The band got the crowd up and moving on the dancefloor pretty much from the start and, as well as interacting with his audience, Sean invited two ladies up on stage to sing along.
In fact it went so well Ian later told me that the band has been booked to play at O’Neill’s New Year’s Eve bash on the strength of their performance.
When the encores were over and the crowd gradually thinned out, I could see first-hand why many people get into bands, as their supporters, mainly women, flocked around all three of the musicians to sing their praises.
The lads took a little time to come down from the show before the worst bit of the night began – packing up.
As long as it had taken to put everything together, it seemed to take twice as long to break it down as you tried to trace where all those wires were connected.
The process wasn’t helped by the amounts of Guinness I had imbibed in the course of my duties.
Finally, when everything was packed into the van, I bid goodbye to the band – who were heading off for a final drink before heading home.
For me my bed was calling – but I couldn’t help feeling some of the buzz of a great performance, as well as some ringing in my ears.