Road crew
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- "Roadie" redirects here. For the 1980 movie, see Roadie (film).
The road crew (or roadies) are the technicians who travel on tour, usually in sleeper buses, with musicians and who handle every part of the production except actually playing the music. This catch-all term covers Tour Managers, Production Managers, Stage Managers, Front of House and Monitor Engineers, Guitar Techs, Bass Techs, Drum Techs, Keyboard Techs, Security/Bodyguards, Lighting Technicians, and pyrotechnic technicians, amongst others.
The road crew are generally uncredited, though many metal bands take care to thank their crew in album sleeve notes; Pantera and Motörhead even go so far as to feature their crew in their tour videos, and Motörhead wrote the song "(We Are) The Road Crew" about their crew. Pink Floyd showed theirs on the rear sleeve of Ummagumma and recorded them speaking on The Dark Side of the Moon. Jackson Browne wrote his famous song "The Load-Out" (usually heard in a live version hybrid with a cover of the Maurice Williams tune "Stay") in order to honor his roadies. The DVD version of Dire Straits' album On The Night features an extended introduction to their song "Calling Elvis", while the video shows the preparatory work of the roadies. Lynyrd Skynyrd went as far as to feature their road crew on the cover of some of their albums as members of the band. Simple Plan has an entire chapter on their DVD A Big Package For You dedicated to their roadie, Patrick Langlois. On each of the KMFDM live dvds, roadies play huge parts. Most are interviewed and some are given the spotlight. Problem Child (1990) child actor Michael Oliver has been a roadie for the past 8 years for several bands.
A number of roadies have gone on to join bands. For example, Rick Biddulph was a roadie for Hatfield and the North and National Health and then went on to play in several bands with members of those bands, while Noel Gallagher was a roadie for Inspiral Carpets before he formed Oasis.
Professional wrestler B.G. James wrestled as "The Roadie" for a period in the mid-1990s.
