Hey , I have been picked to do a series of concerts for a variety of National Act's through out the year and i am needing to know where or who do i need to see about getting a Tech rider? Do i need to call their management or do i need to get with the promoter and get it from him? where's the best place to get them from?
where's the best place to get Tech Riders from?
- Thread starter Jimmy Hardin
- Start date
If there's an actual rider, it will be part of the contract with the band and whoever signed the contract with the band will have it. Note, though, that while a rider spells out contractual obligations, in practice the rider may be out of date or inappropriate for the venue. Good practice is to make contact with the band's production manager shortly before the show (think a week or 2) and make sure that the information you have is correct and current, and that the band knows what to expect.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking that it would come with the contract. I have did a show and got the rider online and have more shows coming up with national acts and didn’t want to be spinning my wheels a lot I wanted to go directly the person that would have one.
Sent from my iPhone
And here's a tip from someone that has been hunting down Production Managers for 25 years: Check if it's a show day by going to the band's website...if it is, wait until about 2pm in whatever time zone they are in to place a call to the Production Manager.....earlier than that, and they are still dealing with Load In, later than that, the band may be in the building and the PM won't have time for you.
If it's not a show day, early to mid afternoon is still your best bet for finding someone willing to talk to you.....first thing in the morning on a day when they wanted to sleep in will not make you friends!
Mike
yeah, i am way ahead of ya on that one. I always wait till that time before i call anybody. LOL
Jimmy, there are 2 kinds of Production managers - those who will return your calls/emails quickly and those who won't answer anything but the dinner bell.
I ask for a *current* stage plot and rider. If you've already gotten a rider through the promoter or venue, make sure it's current (because it probably isn't).
<story time>
We set up and pre-wired the stage according to the rider and when the band came it, one of the horn plays went back to the bus. When we asked what was wrong the keyboardist said, "you set up 4 horn mics." "Yes, that's what was on the plot". "You must have got a really old rider, that mic is for a player who died 3 years ago, and the guy that left? That was his best friend." Groove busted...
</story time>
The other thing - the rider will likely have a number of "requirements" that you cannot meet, or at least cannot provide with the amount of money in the promoter's budget. Some of these things may not be critical, others will be must-haves. Discuss this with the PM in advance. Nobody likes surprises upon arrival.. If something is absolutely critical to their performance you'll need to get approval from promoter to increase your fee to cover the additional equipment rental (and delivery and other expenses). If the promoter is reluctant, call the PM back and say "I'm sorry, the promoter isn't approving the additional expense, you'll need to talk to him/her about that. In order to have your special mixer/mics/tube DIs/widgets sent in time for your show, I need approval by xxxxx." NEVER hire in extra stuff until you have WRITTEN approval for the specific gear and monetary amount from the promoter, or you will eventually be stuck with the bill. Trust me.
Some PMs will defy advancing (which is what you're doing when you call the PM). My final voice mail or email to those types of folks says something like this: "Hi, this Tim and I'm calling you for the last time regarding the performance of (band name) at the (venue name) on (date). I've reviewed your rider and have left several VMs and emails, none of which you have responded to. If you don't care enough to advance this show, please don't be a whiner when you show up and things aren't the way you wanted."
I c.c. the promoter in all my advancing emails so he/she is aware of the quality of communications between the act and my employer. When the PM becomes a jerk because he didn't advance the show I can point to the promoter and say "you have all the emails, tell me why me and my crew should be his whipping boys?"
All of this, Jimmy, to tell you that in spite of your best efforts, chances pretty good that 50% of your acts will never advance (or sufficiently advance) the show.
I ask for a *current* stage plot and rider. If you've already gotten a rider through the promoter or venue, make sure it's current (because it probably isn't).
<story time>
We set up and pre-wired the stage according to the rider and when the band came it, one of the horn plays went back to the bus. When we asked what was wrong the keyboardist said, "you set up 4 horn mics." "Yes, that's what was on the plot". "You must have got a really old rider, that mic is for a player who died 3 years ago, and the guy that left? That was his best friend." Groove busted...
</story time>
The other thing - the rider will likely have a number of "requirements" that you cannot meet, or at least cannot provide with the amount of money in the promoter's budget. Some of these things may not be critical, others will be must-haves. Discuss this with the PM in advance. Nobody likes surprises upon arrival.. If something is absolutely critical to their performance you'll need to get approval from promoter to increase your fee to cover the additional equipment rental (and delivery and other expenses). If the promoter is reluctant, call the PM back and say "I'm sorry, the promoter isn't approving the additional expense, you'll need to talk to him/her about that. In order to have your special mixer/mics/tube DIs/widgets sent in time for your show, I need approval by xxxxx." NEVER hire in extra stuff until you have WRITTEN approval for the specific gear and monetary amount from the promoter, or you will eventually be stuck with the bill. Trust me.
Some PMs will defy advancing (which is what you're doing when you call the PM). My final voice mail or email to those types of folks says something like this: "Hi, this Tim and I'm calling you for the last time regarding the performance of (band name) at the (venue name) on (date). I've reviewed your rider and have left several VMs and emails, none of which you have responded to. If you don't care enough to advance this show, please don't be a whiner when you show up and things aren't the way you wanted."
I c.c. the promoter in all my advancing emails so he/she is aware of the quality of communications between the act and my employer. When the PM becomes a jerk because he didn't advance the show I can point to the promoter and say "you have all the emails, tell me why me and my crew should be his whipping boys?"
All of this, Jimmy, to tell you that in spite of your best efforts, chances pretty good that 50% of your acts will never advance (or sufficiently advance) the show.
Thanks for that. So far i haven't really had that problem of not being able to get in contact with who i need to on advancing yet, But this will help me in the future. I have worked events where i needed to get extra stuff and the people hiring me paid for it with out me even asking for them to. some things (if not to expensive) I buy myself cause i don't know where or when i might need this same thing in the future. The riders have been pretty accurate , I did have a incident where two or the band members had swapped channels on their channels so i had to redo a couple channels on the board because i labeled my board to that rider but after we changed it it was ok. they hadn't had time to change it on the rider yet. I just had to make a mental note of it. other than that its been pretty good. yeah, this next artist i am furnishing the sound for , I talked to his tour manager/sound guy and there were 3 risers on their stage plot and he told me that if we couldn't get them then don't worry about it. he said it was more convenient to put their racks on for the guitarist and bass player and so on . but he did tell me it wasn't a MUST HAVE thing.