Eric Clapton Dumble - pic included

[Lousyatit]

Live Nation having someone contracted for several hundred thousand dollars a night to play an arena, you can bet your left pinky toe he's running at least 2 tunes on stage with full band to be finished 90 minutes before the doors open to the public. For the set up, monitor and line check, I would highly doubt that too. But I have never seen anyone not on stage for their own sound check.

Please explain to us how you know this. Do you work for Live Nation, or a sound or lighting shop, or in a support position of some kind?

[talbany]

Live Nation having someone contracted for several hundred thousand dollars a night to play an arena, you can bet your left pinky toe he's running at least 2 tunes on stage with full band to be finished 90 minutes before the doors open to the public. For the set up, monitor and line check, I would highly doubt that too. But I have never seen anyone not on stage for their own sound check.

Iv'e worked with just about all the big name country and some rock acts (for Live Nation) and have never seen the star there at sound check (accept for Brad Paisley) but his rig is rather complex and he is very picky when it comes to tone!!..It's usually just the band...My guess is he might do a check if they want to work in a new number or if EC is already there and felt like it..
Sound checks in Sheds and Arenas are always around 2;30 then the warm up band at 4.. Stage clear no later than 6

A man worth an estimated 128 Million pounds travels by air and Limo's and stays in 5 star hotels..Not a tour bus scheduled to be at the venue at 2'30 for a sound check..


Tony

You work for live nation? I'm confused by the opening of your post. I'm sure through your line of work that you've dealt with all of those people. I completely respect you for your work, please don't think any different. I also don't have to drop brad paisley or someone like rick derringers name on a public forum to prove this point, and feel free to call me any type of name for doing so. You mentioned monitors in a previous post, maybe we are at a debate over terminology alone here and can look past it. I'm not talking about carrying gear in to the venue, setting it up, running line or mic or monitor checks, just to be upfront.

I don't know Eric Clapton, and have I ever been nor would I go to any of his shows. I have never seen his production agreements, so I can't say "I know for a fact..". What I do know is that any company worth 5 billion dollars is going to have in their contract that the product meet demands of their customers. To them, Eric Clapton is not some guy that Hendrix killed in the 60's, he is ultimately a product to generate money for their business. Yes, I'm sure he travels and lives first class, most wealthy people do. Live nation isn't going to let anyone walk on stage in front of tens of thousands of people without making sure he is healthy, comfortable, and able enough to perform that evening. I'm not going on a hunch here. Most of the acts generally do 2 numbers full band, rock star and all, I've seen a handful go 3 or 4. Last Live Nation show I had the privilege of attending as a guest/all access was the 5th night of an 8 show run at an arena in New York. The rock star, or whatever you would call him, was sure as anything on stage for 2 numbers at the sound check, this was after rehearsing with the band in the practice basketball court underneath the arena before most of the crew even showed up to do their job that night. He might be half Claptons age, and worth almost 3 times as much as the number you provided, and had his own dressing room/didn't mingle with the rest of the band back stage, but those things have nothing to do with being contracted to perform optimally. I thought it kind of funny too, they have digital consoles with full recall, nothing was taken down or set up, why the need for a full blow sound check, especially after 4 nights of shows? The contract said so. Worst case scenario- they want to find out if they have to cancel the show before the doors open, not when the artist takes the stage.

To say he doesn't have to do a sound check because he's famous and worth money would be like saying Peyton Manning doesn't have to throw a football before a game, someone just tells him that the football works and the grass is green after he arrives in his limo from the 5 star hotel and performs in front of 60,000 fans. That's not how these things work. It's ok to live in a fantasy land when listening to records, perhaps with thoughts that the guy playing guitar is from outerspace if you'd like, but he still has to work for money if he wants more of it, all while having to abide by the terms of those handing him said money.

From my experience with actually working under signed agreements with Live Nation, the contract all said the same thing every time, hard cut off for stage noise 90 minutes prior to door time. Some artists dont tour with a 'warm up' band, not everyone has the same stage, and 7:30 isn't a standard door time, at least as far as I know it's not. Not really sure where those specific times come from?

I hope that doesn't come off too harsh, and I don't have intentions of escalating this debate with this post. You could reply with some more specific points that fluctuate on a nightly basis while dropping names, sit back and chuckle to yourself that you are right and ignore me, either of those would be fine. You could also type in something like Eric Clapton sound check into your google bar and show everyone how wrong I am when?

Again, I have much respect for you and your work Tony. If it was HAD himself saying 'rock stars dont sound check', I would type the same response.

Thanks for the post and kudos!!
I don't want to drag this topic out but thought some here might be interested in how the wealthy musicians travel when on a tour..Here goes..
The only one I have worked for who comes close to a name like Clapton is Alan Jackson.
He owns his own private jet and uses it quite often.. He generally fly's out from Nashville to where ever the show is where his tour bus/Traveling hotel room picks him up and takes him to the Arena Shed where he gets there around 2 hours before the show..The only time he steps off the bus before the show is for a meet and greet..
He'' gets off the bus walks on stage does the show walks off the stage back on the bus and within minutes gets a police escort back to the jet and heads back to Nashville and is back home around Midnight..(unless he is out of the country)
Even if the show the next night is 300 mi away he still goes home..
This is not to say that this is how EC does it, but I read your post as every group/artist should be at sound check under some sort of agreement.. This certainly is not the case with Alan ( at least in the last 6 years) and doubt it is the case for EC..
How's that for name dropping..

The ones who have not quite hit the Mil mark will sometimes travel by both Bus and Air (depending on the distance and their schedule) and stay in nice hotels.. They will leave the hotels and go play the show then on to the next one..In the end I am sure it's really up to the artist if he wants to be involved in a soundcheck..All I am saying is pretty much all of them I have seen ( I've seen roughly 50 or so) ...They are never there!!

BTW..SRV total net worth at the time of his death was a little more than a 1/2 million so he still traveled by bus (most of the time)..Those who travel by bus will do a SC because they are usually there early enough to do it..It also acts as an opportunity to go over some material that they have been working on or might want to add an older song they have not done in a while just to brush up..

Interesting stuff huh!! ..Life on the road as a wealthy touring musician!!

Tony

[stelligan]

I have a good friend that is guitar tech/luthier for the Stones and plays bass in the sound check band. The Stones fly in for the gig - then gone....

[FUCHSAUDIO]

I've been at shows for Cheap Trick, Heart, and Journey. In most cases, the techs man the instruments, get things set like the artists like them, and the headliners walk in and play...no tuning, tweaking or contact with most anyone...Heart literally walked from the limo to the stage at PNC in NJ, while Cheap Trick and Doobie Brothers liked to hang in dressing rooms or green rooms before hitting the stage. To each his own I suppose....usually a guitar or two was played off stage to warm up the digits....

[alvarezh]

Here is the crew doing the stone's sound check. IMV they play just as well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqSn27nVJ88

All the best.

[stelligan]

Here is the crew doing the stone's sound check. IMV they play just as well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqSn27nVJ88

All the best.

That's Ken on bass. Cool old Humble Pie tune.....

I guess we've strayed far off topic. What I've heard of EC with the Dumble is better tone than he's had in decades....

[Aaron]

Lee Dickson did an interview for the English mag Guitar & Bass. It was basically the set up procedure for a typical Clapton show. From what I remember, he mentioned he wouldn't see EC untill he was walking onto stage to hand him his guitar. I don't know if its like that for every show. It was more an overview of his tour at that time. Also, the techs for these guys have been with them for 15-20 years or more. They'd know more about their sound/gear than the artist probably would.

When Coldplay toured Australia last year, they stayed in Sydney and used a private jet to fly in and out for all the gigs.

Saying that, when I saw Chillies they did their sound check 5 minutes before doors opened!

[LeftyStrat]

Which brings up a question. What kind of living does a tech make. If you are exclusively the tech for say, David Gilmour, or Clapton, are you paid year round?

I imagine a lot of techs have to do different gigs and only work for a band when they are touring.

[talbany]

http://guitarinternational.com/2010/02/ ... c-clapton/


So, how would I describe a typical day on tour?

We get off the bus, we go in, we shower, some of the guys have priorities for catering, like coffee and stuff. I get my cases lined up that are going on the wing. Bit by bit the sound systems are up and running and the lights on the stage start to go up, the drapes are put in, then the flooring’s laid, risers come up, get everything else up, line check it, check everything again, scan the radios for interference, restring, band comes in, grab a guitar, give Eric the guitar, Eric plays, gives guitar back, tear it all down, put it all back in the truck, then repeat ad infinitum.

[CHIP]

Hey in the future, they'll just hologram an image of the "star"on stage while playing from home.

[Aaron]

Which brings up a question. What kind of living does a tech make. If you are exclusively the tech for say, David Gilmour, or Clapton, are you paid year round?

I imagine a lot of techs have to do different gigs and only work for a band when they are touring.

Last year I did guitar tech work for a band and the tech for the headline band also techs for........ Jeff Beck......and........ Dave Gilmour

Between those 3 acts he hadn't been home in 18 months, was heading back home for a couple months before heading off for the second half of this year. And was already offered a gig for all of 2014!

[talbany]

From my experiences very few techs will actually work on amplifiers on tour and in some cases know very little about them..They generally just set them up how the musician wants them..If an amp goes down (for whatever reason) the back up comes up and the amp is immediately sent back to me.. Most techs won't even re-tube and bias an amp..I usually stay in touch with each artist and keep an eye on their schedule and will recommend when the amp should come back for routine maintenance..



Tony

[Lousyatit]

I've spent the past eighteen years employed at a local venue, an arena/pac to be exact. I've seen ALL sorts of things in my tenure and it comes down to this, some people have a sound check, some don't. Sometimes it is indeed just the band sans the artist. Sometimes, it's the artist with the band. Talbany is spot on in his comments about techs and amps. To the best of my knowledge I have only seen one artist who had a competent amp repairman on tour as his tech.

[Roe]

I've spent the past eighteen years employed at a local venue, an arena/pac to be exact. I've seen ALL sorts of things in my tenure and it comes down to this, some people have a sound check, some don't. Sometimes it is indeed just the band sans the artist. Sometimes, it's the artist with the band. Talbany is spot on in his comments about techs and amps. To the best of my knowledge I have only seen one artist who had a competent amp repairman on tour as his tech.

yes, but the exception would be some of the bigger names like AC/DC who tour with an ampbuilder

[Lousyatit]

Thanks, I forgot about him. Greg Howard of 3 Monkeys works for Brad Whitford, but he's really not an amp tech. I can't really think of anybody else. Generally, when something breaks down and it isn't a simple fix, it gets shipped out for repair.