Andy Bernstein - Tour Manager, Autumn 2001
By: Toby L
Your favourite band has just played a storming set to an audience of thousands in a venue the size of an aircraft hangar and - as much as you've enjoyed the experience - you want more: you want to meet the group that's just entertained you for an hour and a half, just shake their hands and reveal your admiration to them in the flesh.
Now, for this to happen, you've got to be crafty about it. Everyone's leaving the arena, many of whom are heading over to the tour-bus to try and wave off their heroes as they depart the location. However, as good as these intentions are from others, to make sure you stand out and get ahead of the pack, you need to know just where the band are and when they'll be moving.
Since it's 11:00pm, they won't be too long until the venue is departed; after all, they're playing Stockholm tomorrow and need to catch a late flight. So, let's give 'em twenty minutes to enjoy the after-show party and meet and greet all the industry-folks, another ten on top of that to get moving, and we're looking at a realistic half hour which provides them enough time to come through the stage-door at the back of the building. And, thus, the stage-door is where you run to and wait.
Suddenly, it opens. The rock 'n' roll stars are sure enough right in front of you: you pinch yourself to check you're alive and you are - and this is real. You make your step forward, unable to stop smiling to yourself that you're about to say hello to those people you've admired for so long, but then there's a halt. An arm blocks you from stepping any closer and, before you've had enough time to realise it, the band have been bundled off into their driving-vehicle and skidded off down the road. Who is this fiend of a person that prevented you from what would have been the highlight of your life? Well, there's a likelihood that it's their tour-manager.
And, all of the above, is a common perception of a tour-manager. It's no secret that some people reckon them to be complete and utter nightmares, unnecessarily treating you nastily in order to stop you from getting a chance to have any contact with the band. This isn't solely on a fan's level - oh no. Even on a personal tip, I have found myself on numerous occasions barricaded off from artists I've been officially booked to meet, due to a few tour-managers' sets of beliefs on how things should be dealt with. So, rather than carrying on the criticism and becoming jaded, why don't we give them a chance to speak up? And who better to speak with on the matter than Andy Bernstein?
It's just gone 2pm and the Oxford Brookes University's main hall is being set up once again for a live concert. The show this evening is a sell-out, to be headlined by current press-darlings, Starsailor, who received their gold records this week to recognise over 100,000 sales for their debut album, 'Love Is Here'. Roadies and riggers are running frantically around in and outside to ensure that the PA system and lighting-design are fitted in full and that everything is prepared to the best of their ability for the advancing performance tonight. It's Mr Bernstein's overwhelming responsibility to ensure that things pass and occur without a hitch, which devotes much attention.
However, amidst the organised yet hectic preparation, the onslaught of a rockfeedback interview has been added to his schedule of dealings, with which he chooses to execute on the tour-bus of the band he's currently travelling with. He nestles down consciously on the top deck of the large and luxurious coach, before placing down his two mobile phones on the table in front. Following this, he reclines and sinks into the soft leather seats. Andy is temporarily free of enough pressure to answer half an hour's worth of work-related teasers.
When and how did you get into the industry?
'I was brought up and into a lot of rock stuff,' Bernstein reveals, aboard his present road-vehicle. 'My favourite band at the time was Rush, who we all followed for many, many years. The initial reaction for three of us (in regards to getting in a band) was, 'Let's do this!' Next thing you know, it was all about getting guitars so I went to get lessons with a friend of mine and we decided that we were going to be like a kind of Rush three-piece. I then moved a bit to bass and it progressed like that for a time. But, whilst that was going on, I more enjoyed - in its early stages - the business side of things.
'I packed in playing, but had no sort of knowledge of what to do (in an industry-related position)! However, from there, it progressed into getting involved with a recording studio in Manchester - and, at that time, you could have an eight-track studio that was great! We got involved with recording loads of bands, voice-overs and adverts and stuff like that. This then sort of ceased, though, and I got involved with management.
'With management, I didn't know the first thing with what to do! However, I did that for a time during around the mid-ish '80s 'til the late-'80s. I almost signed a band! We got very close to nailing it, but it didn't happen. So, it was the usual dead-ends there as well, so I wanted to move on to label-work. I started looking to get involved with a guy, I think, that worked at FM Revolver Records, who was getting into management, looking after The Atom Seed, a funk-metal band, going back to the late-'80s. I was then asked to look after them whilst they went out on tour to do some shows and I said, 'OK,' so that's how it all sort of started.'
How did your part to play in tour-management then progress from here?
'Well, every year it got more and more busy and intense. From The Atom Seed, it moved on to working with The Buzzcocks, when they reformed. However, at this time when I started off, you'd have to cover at least two to three jobs, including acting as driver, doing the backline, actual tour-managing, forcing myself into sound, which I had experience from working in the studio, and also being in lighting-design, so I covered a lot of jobs! But, really, that is great grounding because, when you progress later on, you've got lots of knowledge about things. I didn't actually work with loads of Manchester bands, although I did The Fall for a bit as well.
'After this, I did a lot of jazzy stuff, doing acts like Gil Scott Heron, as well as a few other jazzers. However, I then did a huge three-month tour with Donovan! It all started to move up: after working with lots of rogue acts, I started with the more guitar-y/indie bands and that's when you find your way and make your name (through working with specific kinds of people).
'There was no formal knowledge of how to do it all - this is just how it happened... I did nothing at school - and I'm not disturbed by the fact that I came out of school with nothing! Of course, I believe in education if you're going to be a lawyer, doctor, or whatever, because you've just got to learn to become those. But, for me, I look at it like it's made potentially no difference: I went out there, started working and gained experience, which is probably the best way to become a good tour-manager.'
And if that isn't possibly one of the longest routes ever to finding your chosen profession, then who knows what other way it could have turned out. However, some may say why end up doing a position that many see as unfavourable...
What is it that causes some people to see tour-managers as, er, unpleasant?
On smiling, Andy begins, 'I think that everybody works in their own way, and everybody's different. I set my style up to do it, I'd say, slightly differently. I feel there's always got to be a personal angle. I'm not really a rock 'n' roll tour-manager in the classic sense. I've adapted a little bit and become more open and approachable. I think some tour-managers take it all so f**king seriously, but I've done it from pub-level to arena-level, and you can always adapt the same approach, no matter the circumstance.
'The only reason we're looked on in that sort of way is probably because we're just the guardians for the artist's life; I'd certainly prefer someone to call me a bastard than someone calling the person I'm looking after a bastard! You've got to sometimes be hard and firm, but I find myself often being attacking one moment, and then calm the next!'
It must be tough in a lot of respects, because you've got to be friendly and nice to the band you're working with, yet protect them from a lot of the other distractions...
'Yeah, it's just like that! You kind of live together in your own world when you're travelling; when you go into what I call the 'Outside World of Touring', I'm just like, well, a normal person!'
Many regard tour-management as the most difficult job in the industry - how do you see this view?
'Well, yeah, it is - just look at me! Nah, it is a tough run, whether it's on the tour-management side, or if it's with the drivers, the crew... It's hard for everyone, but you've got to pull through. The way you pull through is by everyone working together - and that's the key to what keeps everything running smoothly. It is teamwork, but - at the end of the day - someone's got to be seen leading the team and nodding, agreeing and disagreeing, and making things work, whilst saying what the bottom line is. The fact is that - if you set it up right - it can all run very easily...
'There are always challenges and potential problems that you've got to get round, but I can't think of any major specific instances that's been a real headache... Problems are usually down to transportation, or logistical issues, particularly during the summer months when the festival times are here, and you're flying in and out everywhere. I was with Muse last summer when they covered around fifty festivals in a couple of months, and I've probably done about the same amount with them and Starsailor, between the two, this year!'
How do you see the travelling-life - what are the best and worst aspects of it?
'It's all very much about routine - and that's a good thing. The travelling is tough; I can go through weeks of just crazy travel! I can think about it recently - like in the last couple of months - I was in New York on a Monday, back to France on a Tuesday, in Belgium for a four-day run, then straight back to Toronto, to Italy, to T In The Park (in Scotland), and then to Japan and, finally, Australia! It's a huge challenge in itself and I remember thinking at the start of it, 'I am going to do this!'
'On the bus, I refer to it as 'travelling without moving' (indeed, observant music-fans, the same title as the second Jamiroquai album) because you miss all the travel, as you fall asleep and - when you wake up - you're in your next place! The entire bit in the middle is therefore not that harsh; the harshness comes from flying in and out, the early starts, but, overall, I enjoy getting around and generally moving.'
What do you do in your spare time - when you're not 'travelling without moving'?
'At home, Christ, I wish I had lots of spare time! There's always work going on and, maybe in between tours, I'll try and take a couple of days off and do nothing, but there's always pre-production and post-production (to get on with). When there's potentially no work coming up, you have to fight to get new work, so it's always moving along.
'Other interests: I've probably lost a lot of other interests over the years as a result! I don't listen to masses of music at all, it's not a big thing for me and I haven't really got a huge knowledge about new bands, and I hate movies! I haven't been to the cinema for over ten years; I could even sit and watch a film to the last minute and turn it off and not have any interest in what happens at the end! Also, I'm not a big reader, never have been! I've just got a short attention-span and so I can't really hold on to anything! But that's just me, and I'm a bit, sort of, strange (pulls funny face and laughs)!'
What would you say are the best qualities for a tour-manager to have?
'I look at a 'tour-manager' being everything to everybody: management, agent, accountant, travel-agent, babysitter, entertainment-officer, you name it! You've got to cover a wide range of subjects...
'The best qualities I find are maybe having calmness, control, and being able to deal with situations in a precise way. You do develop all this and learn from your experiences... Plus, you've also got to be cunning, manipulative, evil... (Smiles)
'I'm here to look after the artists, at the end of the day, so whatever it takes to look after them, I'll do it, pretty much within reason.'
What's the most rewarding aspect of the job?
'When the lights go down and the screams come before a band starts a show, you can get very proud - especially if you've been with the artist for a long time or since the beginning... Yeah, just seeing them go onstage and being able to do their job is rewarding, because that's what it's all about - that's what we're here for, at the end of the day...'
It is, and if tour-managers weren't there, then, well, there wouldn't be an opportunity to see those bands that we hold so dear in our minds and hearts.
So, with these thoughts in mind, Andy exits the bus and enters the venue again to get back to work on making tonight actually happen. Hopefully, you've now realised just why people that live such a lifestyle may occasionally get a bit edgy from time to time; to say that the stress-levels soar to beyond 100% humanly possible is most definitely an understatement.
But, still, you can only wish that there were more people working their tour-management lives in the same way that Andy Bernstein does. Judging from his background and the level of organisation he has established in his day-to-day runnings, clearly, he seems to be doing his job very well indeed.
Artists in this article: Andy Bernstein