Is it hard to work for concert tour firms?
Away for months but get to see all of Europe and Scandinvia or Russia.
Some to Sicily for Ricky Martin’ s tour.Chance to earn extra if help out with lighting and so on.
Was the U2 tour one of the biggest?A three stage leap frog fleet.
Can I ask what the actual question is here? Is it hard work is it hard being away for a while? Is it hard working for Ricky Martin?
I have a friend who does it, an owner-driver. He enjoys it, and it pays reasonable money, but he says that the problem is that you are doing everything at the wrong time, working, sleeping, eating.
Every time he comes back off of a tour, he has put on about three stone and he looks grey and exhausted.
I remember reading that on Pink Floyds "welcome to the machine" tour, which covered Europe and USA, the bands equipment filled 49 trucks. The crew travelled in 8 coaches. Can`t imagine many others on that scale.
It’s actually very easily done,
If you take into account a artist bus sometimes they all get there own, lighting crew audio crew etc etc
As for the trucks in the UK we tend to stack our loads right up to the top and FILL the trailers,
Some American productions have a bit more money behind them and maybe bigger artists and also for a safety factor they tend to flat pack, absolutely everything is on wheels and then secured, just roll on and roll off,
A trailer can then be tipped in about 5-10 minutes including the vehicle movement compared to an hour heaving and dropping equiptment,
If you take into account a average uk arena tour of maybe 6 trucks with cases 3-4 high and put that into a flat pack that’s easily 20-30 trucks.
Some artists have bigger sets, more pyro more instruments and some even build there own custom stages, again this can increase a truck count no end.
If the gig is to be a outdoor gig with a full stage erection you can have 15-25 trailers of steel alone, and this can take 3-5 days to build.
Due to this length of time there will often be a a,b and even c rig leapfrogging each other.
Add on to that production, back line, catering, merchandise 100+ trucks is easily done.
Hope this explains it all a bit more
You also have to take into account weight limits on US trucks, on a tour I did around 5/6000 seat arenas we had two 53ft trailers, one with sound and merchandising, the other with lighting, we both had around 30,000lbs in the back (grossing at (65,000lbs) and the limit is 80,000lbs, so we wouldn’t have got it all in one trailer. it was deck loaded, with the merchandise and backline up on a raised deck on the sound trailer.
So two trucks, a star bus, crew bus and the supporting act had a bus.
There’s a hierachy too, the star bus has the front door, then the trucks, then the crew bus, then the supporting act follows along, it looks quite impressive belting down the road at 80mph 
I was speaking to an ex Trans Am driver.
He said they pay to be escorted past the long queue at the Russian border.Under armed guard.
Road shut so the convoy can go the wrong way down the road.
Bribe money to the mafia involved to cut the red tape.
If rumours are.to be believed to a driver on rock n roll work an ego bigger than Mariah Carey’s is the main requirement.
kr79:
If rumours are.to be believed to a driver on rock n roll work an ego bigger than Mariah Carey’s is the main requirement.
From what I’ve seen, a generally bald head with a pony tail at the back is the main requirement. 
Can get that in any part of any industry, certain jobs attract certain people, but massive egos and such don’t last long in the industry,
That’s like saying you need a god complex to be a doctor or police officer.
Is the work mostly nights?
Only what I’ve heard not a business I’ve had any experience of or known anyone who has
toby1234abc:
Is the work mostly nights?
Depends on the job as it isn’t all just touring work, can be anything from corporate events, product releases etc
Sometimes you could load in early morning and pull it out the next morning
On a back to back your though yes it is mostly nights,
Gig will finish it will be stripped down straight into the trucks who will then drive through the night to the next venue, load in early doors and then wait until gig finish,
You may be required to work a merch stand, hand out flyers, operate a spot light etc
All depends on the gig,
Harry Monk:
kr79:
If rumours are.to be believed to a driver on rock n roll work an ego bigger than Mariah Carey’s is the main requirement.From what I’ve seen, a generally bald head with a pony tail at the back is the main requirement.
That’s it i’ve just canceled my next hair cut. 
Or a goatee beard and about 100 bits of string hanging from the cab with back stage passes for each concert they have collected.
Harry Monk:
kr79:
If rumours are.to be believed to a driver on rock n roll work an ego bigger than Mariah Carey’s is the main requirement.
From what I’ve seen, a generally bald head with a pony tail at the back is the main requirement. [/quote
Sounds a stylish look. My uncle had this look until recently but was.mainly a.result or excessive drug use in the 70s and 80s
Aka the skullet
Was just wondering how many trucks would likely be needed to transport Ricky Martin`s self adoration, foundation, hair gel, leather trousers and microphone?
You could google fly by night as they do this sort of work,I often see their tackle at T in the park.
newmercman:
You also have to take into account weight limits on US trucks, on a tour I did around 5/6000 seat arenas we had two 53ft trailers, one with sound and merchandising, the other with lighting, we both had around 30,000lbs in the back (grossing at (65,000lbs) and the limit is 80,000lbs, so we wouldn’t have got it all in one trailer. it was deck loaded, with the merchandise and backline up on a raised deck on the sound trailer.So two trucks, a star bus, crew bus and the supporting act had a bus.
There’s a hierachy too, the star bus has the front door, then the trucks, then the crew bus, then the supporting act follows along, it looks quite impressive belting down the road at 80mph
80000lbs =35+tons UK .