Festivals
What a festival production manager actually does in the fortnight before gates open
Two weeks, one spreadsheet, and four hundred decisions an audience only notices when they go wrong.
Festivals
Interviews
June Alvarez reads a room before she plays to it
On Sunday afternoons, on leaving space in an arrangement, and on never opening with the strongest song.
Venues
The Orpheum restored lighting rig is doing work the sound system used to carry
A 1920s room spent its budget on lights instead of speakers, and the audience got quieter.
Gear
Backline hire is the hidden cost nobody puts in the budget
A kit, a bass rig and two amps for one night cost more than most support acts are paid to play it.
Artists
Marlon Bay plays thirty minutes that never sag in the middle
Two guitars, one fuzz pedal, and a set list built backwards from the final song.
Industry
The valley needs more mid-sized rooms, and the buildings already exist
Between the two hundred capacity bars and the stadium dates there is almost nothing, and that gap is where careers grow.
Venues
Harbour Tap Sunday session has run for nine years without a booking sheet
Sign up on the night, fifteen minutes each, house guitar in the corner. Nine years and no booking sheet.
Festivals
Five things that make a festival stage schedule survive contact with the day
Changeover time is not padding, it is the only thing protecting every act that plays after it.
Interviews
Sarah J. on writing an album in dressing rooms between acoustic slots
Forty gigs, eleven songs, and a notebook that never once left the guitar case.
Artists
The Halcyon Quartet are amplified now, and the arguments have already started
Two channels and a decision that split the group for a month, settled by moving rooms rather than buying gear.
Live Reviews
A late set at Fabric is a different job to an early one, and the booking should say so
Eleven until one is a different job to nine until eleven, and most contracts still price them the same.
Live Reviews
Friday night at The Foundry: a full band bill that earned its overrun
Four acts, one shared kit, and a headline that ran twelve minutes long without a single person checking the time.