Its a touring life 2

In this second part of my article “It’s a touring life for me”, I shall explain to you with my in-depth take on what happens when the tour starts proper.

Let us say the show at Wimbledon ends on Saturday night. At this venue, the touring team will do everything, with the help of the production people that will follow the tour to do the ins and the outs. Also helping are the part timers, “locals”, called to do the out.
So the amount of people doing the sound get out would be x 3 (touring), x 2 (production crew who will follow the show), and x 2 local part-timers, for a total of seven people.
Sound would normally have one truck to it’s own. If it’s a larger show, more gear, than maybe another half a truck which will be shared with another department. On some shows, sound takes two full trucks!
Wimbledon is easy to do a get out. Side stage door open straight onto the road and up the truck. All departments out and all truck doors shut. 0430 hrs: home to sleep and finish packing if its not done.

NOTE: Travel day: Tours in the UK do not go in a nice circle start-point to end-point, e.g., London first than down to the south to Brighton, than it follows the coast to the west to Portsmouth and keeps going in that direction before heading up north.
The theatres are all booked by different shows. The next venue from Wimbledon could be in Leeds, then going on to Belfast, Northern Ireland, then cutting back across to the east coast of England to Norwich. Its one big zigzag road trip. I get dizzy just looking at the map itself!
On Sunday, you will relocate to the next location. The Touring Tech Crew will travel on Sunday. We have to get to the next city or town by Sunday. Some prefer to travel that same night if they have their own transport. Some will stay and travel early in the morning, depending if its near. Once at the next city, you will have to sort out your “home” for the next two weeks. 

Come Monday morning, the set-up starts. Everyone who has to be there must be there - the ‘tourers’, and the production crew that assists the set-up and teardown. The theatre would also have called the local crew of two by our company manager. However the cast and band members don’t have to be there on Monday morning, they plan their own, maybe reaching there on Tuesday itself.
I need to stop here and mention something about the trucks. The drivers are allowed to drive only after 10 hours of rest. The truck has a system connected to the main office that shows where it is, when it moves and when it stops. The driver has to keep to a set of rules. Meaning the show has to stick to it too. If there is some mix up in the timings, it means that that truck cannot “move”, and a replacement driver with his/ her rest, will have to come and pick up the trailer. This could mean your sound and lighting gear might not reach the theatre at 8 or 9am on Monday. Maybe reaching at 12 noon... And you know what that means.

Monday, 0800 hrs: Truck doors open; Dock doors open; Unloading starts. Touring crew, production crew, and local freelancers. By dinner time (lunch), most of the sound system will be up and power will be on. By tea time (dinner), there would be sound coming out the speakers. By the end of day (around 2100 hrs) the whole system would be up and running. Delay times, Balancing, Outputs tested, and Radios tested. If there is a band in the pit, most likely the larger stuff would have been set up. Monitor desk (if there is one), the instruments, stage boxes and mics on sticks. For the local crew of two, Monday evening is their last day, finishing at 6pm and no later. That’s until we see them again at the out. Hopefully it’s the same two persons. Then it’s off to the pub.
The only thing left for Tuesday would be the band seating (if there is a band), their sound check, cast on stage for their walk round, mic up and tech runs, maybe full runs. Then its tidying up, stacking of cases, tweaking the band, and making everyone happy.

Tuesday, 0900 hrs: Finishing off what was not done on Monday. All departments ready by 1700 hrs. Doors open at 1845 hrs, show starts on the dot at 1930 hrs. The show call crew, “Numbers 1,2 and 3” will be doing different things from the production crew around 1200 hrs onwards on Tuesday. While they are getting the show ready, mics ready, the production crew will be doing their own little things, e.g., sorting out the band, final positioning of speakers on stage, clearing up of all sound items, and taping cables down if needed - general tidying up. Sound No.2 and No.3 will be assisting them in this, but mainly getting ready for the show. The two production sound crew members will be there to sort out any last minute changes.

End of show on Tuesday night: And if the designers are present, they might want to give notes to their respective departments. Since this is the “first move”, most likely there would be notes. Production sound crew can leave if there are no major changes to the sound system. Normally there aren’t. So that’s goodbye to them until they are back for the out.

Wednesday morning: Back into the theatre if there’s any work to be done. If not, than it’s a 1700 hrs sound call for us. Wednesday is the time where the sound department is run by the touring sound No.1. Not that he/ she is not the No.1, but set up is shared between the No.1 and the production sound crew.
The No.1 looks after the day-to-day running of the sound department, also the main FOH Op for the show. He/she will mix the show according to what and how the sound designer wants it and the job of ensuring the show sound good falls to them. How the system gets set up on the Monday mainly falls to the production sound crew. No.2 is in charge of backstage. He/she will look after the radios and system. No.3 is No.2’s seconder backstage and will follow No.2’s orders.

So for two weeks, the same thing happens everyday. Maintenance is needed. No.1 will plan a day for it every week. Coming in at 1400 hrs once a week is normal. There might even be some cast change during the tour, so coming in for rehearsals is normal when that happens. There might be even a change of crew. They have to learn the show as well, and that involves coming in early too.
Comes the last show at the venue - which is on Saturday night. The local crew, hopefully the two there did the in, will be there. The production crew will be there. All the other departments’ teardown crew will also be there. Quite a large group really. The trucks will be parked up outside waiting for the gear to be loaded.
Curtain down and the fun starts. Packing of the small items first: Disconnecting all the cables; Getting rid of the large items before starting on the small ones; Clearance on stage in order to lower the sound truss if there’s one; Getting flight cases onto stage, and all these while trying not to get in the way of other departments. At some venues, the loading dock area is pretty large, so maybe a truck might be left behind for storage of empties. Using the truck as a storage area is sometimes needed as the theatre is so small so there is just no storage area. Each department will carry on their teardown in their own way. A method that falls into place after a few moves.

Note: With the touring production crew and hopefully the same locals that did the ‘in’.

Loading starts when cases are shut. There is always a system of which truck parks at the dock doors first. If there is a band, all their stuff would likely go on the first truck at the dock. At the next venue, their items are needed last. In that order, items needed first will go on last, e.g., rigging, flying speakers, and lights that need to be hung. There is not really a “fixed” way of “I’m to go first than its you”. If the show uses five trucks, things will be packed according to what needs to be used first at the next venue. First in - Last out, Last in - First out. E.g., if there’s a show deck, that would go into the first truck (load out), than out and laid after all the lighting booms are flown (load in).
Once all the truck doors are shut, its time to go back to your “temp” home. Sleep for a few hours than head off to your next venue. You can take the train, you can take a bus, you can book a flight, or you can hitch a ride from someone with a car. Just be there at 8am on Monday. You have to plan this yourself. The Company does not plan this for you. They give you a certain amount of money in order to travel. This money will be standard train off peak travel fare and it’s up to you if you want to travel by first class, you just have to fork out the rest.

The place that you make your home for the time you spend in any city is also up to you to find. The Company will pay you the “market rate”. If you find a place more expensive, you need to top up the rest.

When on tour, there is something we call the “digs list”. This list, kept by the company manager, has names and addresses and pricing of places that you can stay in: Cheap hotels; Residential homes sublet by the owners; Flats. It’s up to you to call and check for vacancies. Try not to leave this “part” to the end of the week. Better book early!
So now you reach your next city and it’s the same routine all over again.

* There are basically two groups of people in this industry. Those that tour, and those that don’t. That line is seldom crossed.

* Touring, when you love it, you will never quit. You will spend your whole career touring. You can’t settle down to do shows in fixed venues. But if you love your city too much and cannot be away from home for too long, then you will never tour.