Doing gigs as part of the crew can be a lot of fun and when you work with one band regularly, quite a formula. For a tour, you have anything up to six weeks preparation before you even set out on the road and in that time, you have a good part of it in rehearsal rooms where new equipment is ordered, delivered, set up, tried out, adjusted and set. That may, for example in the case of a new drum kit, then lead to needing a new drum riser which has to be spiked (a posh world for marking where the legs of all the cymbal stands sit) or a new set of flight cases to be designed, ordered and delivered. Spares are needed for a tour so a list is drawn up which would include drumheads, cymbals, stands, sticks, gaffer tape, leads for electronic equipment, etc and appointments are made to see the representatives of various sponsorship companies to blag those drumheads, cymbals and sticks along with any amount of T-shirts, caps, stickers and you can get your hands on. Small adjustments are made to everything as the band go through their set day after day and come the end of rehearsal time, both band and crew are ready for the month or so of gigs ahead of them, each prepared for any little thing that could (and often does) go wrong at a show.

There are no such luxuries with the one-off gig, especially if that one-off gig happens to be a band you have never worked with before. These gigs usually start with a phone call or a casual question from a fellow roadie along the lines of ‘Are you busy on Wednesday?’, said day of the week usually being less that 72 hours away. It’s difficult to answer ‘Sorry I’m busy’ to this kind of request for several reasons. First and foremost, what your mate is really saying is ‘I need some help’ and you know that if you asked him the same, he’d be there for you. Second, they usually paid cash so you didn’t have to declare it to the taxman and third, even though you’ve never heard of the band, there is always that possibility that they will be the next big thing and you don’t want to miss out on future work. That said, you do start the day with no idea about the equipment, personalities of the members, their onstage requirements, their music or their prospects so it’s a case of getting in there, doing your best and hoping it all goes well – usually, it does. I don’t know how many one-offs I did but a few of them did throw up unexpected bonuses; here is one of them.

‘Are you busy on Wednesday?’. The dulcet tone of Tony’s voice came through a grin that I couldn’t refuse. They were spoken over a second pint he had just bought me in the Balmoral Castle, a pub on the corner of Brewery Road and Caledonian Road, London N7 the previous Monday night after we had caught up on each other’s recent activities. I was in rehearsals with John Wetton and new line-up of Asia (Wetton, Palmer, John Young, Alan Darby) who were about to go out and do some festivals around Europe with The Beach Boys and Tony – if memory serves me well and I have to admit I’m not too sure on this point – was working with Bob Daisley in the Gary Moore band. In fact, it was Tony who had recommended me to John to do the tour as Tony had previously been John’s bass tech so as well as being a mate who needed some help, I felt I owed him a favour. Tony of course knew I wasn’t busy on Wednesday as he had just dropped in to see his old employer and had noted that John and Carl had told the band and crew that Wednesday would be a day off from rehearsals. Hence I couldn’t refuse on several counts and asked ‘Who is it then?’. ‘Torino’ he replied ‘at the Hippodrome.’