Notes
Things worth knowing before you book anyone — including us. Written so you can hand them to whoever is actually running the site.
Production · eight minutes
How to read a rider without panicking
Most of a technical rider is a wish list with a legal department behind it, and most of it is negotiable. The three lines that are not negotiable are the ones about power, weight and time — get those right and the rest is a conversation.
From the workshop
Things worth knowing before you book anyone
Production
How to read a rider without panicking
Most of a technical rider is a wish list with a legal department behind it. Here is the part that actually matters, and the three lines worth arguing about.
Power
Why your outdoor stage needs two generators
One generator is a single point of failure with a fuel tank. The second one costs less than you think and it is the difference between a pause and a cancelled show.
A durbar is not a concert
The rest
Everything else we have written down
Rigging
What a roof can actually hold in harmattan wind
Wind loading is the number that decides whether your banner goes up. Here is how we work it out and why we sometimes say no.
Permits
Writing a noise plan the assembly will sign
Two pages, three measurements and one named person. Most refusals we see are refusals of a missing document rather than of a show.
Sound
In-ears or wedges for a band that has never used either
The honest answer is wedges, and the reason is rehearsal time rather than sound quality.
Money
Where a live budget usually goes wrong
It is almost never the PA. It is transport, it is the second day of crew, and it is the thing somebody added on the Wednesday.
Schedule
Why we ask for the venue three hours earlier than you think
A rig that goes up calmly comes down calmly. Every hour saved at load-in is two lost at strike.
Next show
Tell us the date and we will tell you what it takes
A quote inside two working days, with the kit list, the crew call and the number that will appear on the invoice.
