That was an ordinary case for that artist's career. She released great albums every 3-4 years, only played in big arenas and festivals (no club gigs or corporate events), and took long time-offs to go to the States, mostly Los Angeles. It was cool and all, but her crew also had to take these long breaks. In turn, all her live events were amazing sold out shows, satisactory on every level.
Anyway, that summer, while waiting for her return, I worked at open air festivals as an artist guide. I've always enjoyed meeting international artists at the airport. Most of the time I'm the first person they see in this country, and they like it when this person is someone fluent in English, has a good attitude, who is always there to solve in case of any problems with the luggage, transportation, etc.
This is how I first started working at concerts, and although I enjoyed it, I had no intention of doing it any longer.
When the artist returned in the end of summer, we had a show booked at a special open air venue in a beautiful city. It was going to be an acoustic show with a larger orchestra and different arrangements of the songs. It included a special stage design with vintage furniture, velvet curtains and chandeliers.
And it would be my first event without Jenny.
She was sick and she could only be there by the showday, on showtime, but she would be accessible by phone in case of any problems. I was quite confident about it. A little too confident, maybe..
I started by checking flight dates. The crew was more crowded and some people were travelling from different cities. Prepared a daily schedule with only the basic info (sent it only to the promoter), sent backstage rider to the promoter, helped Jenny pick the stage furnitures, went to the store to make sure correct items were being loaded, and that was all the preperation I did for that highly important show.
I was oh so inexperienced, so unprepared!
I didn't check names on the flight list, just got the tickets,
I didn't prepare a rooming list, I didn't have the crew's ID copies,
I didn't call the hotel to inform them about our arrival time and double-check the rooms,
I didn't have a detailed daily schedule,
I hadn't done online check-in for flights.
And I went there with the band and the crew, by myself. We had two days for rehearsals and the show.
After finding out at the airport that some tickets were missing, I had to buy new tickets, and after a very, very long wait in the lobby (our rooms were not ready) and an annoyingly long check-in time, everyone went to their rooms.
I was answering everyone's questions there, telling people what time they needed to be where, etc. But it kept causing problems. Not all the band members heard my announcements, so someone was always late. And I had to tell the same thing to different people over and over again. It was a stupid waste of time.
In the mean time, the visual production crew were having problems with their flights. They needed a new flight, as they had already requested it to Jenny but the correct name wasn't on the flight list..
In that great holiday resort, while everyone was relaxing at the beach or by the pool, I was freaking out in a hotel room, trying to send text messages to everyone in the crew about rehearsal times, pick-up times, calling the drivers, answering musician calls from my room asking what time the breakfast was, sorting out per diems for everyone, all at the same time.
The rehearsal day was fine, except it lasted much longer than expected, and I had to work for more than 16 hours. I was exhausted.
In the evening of the show day, I was checking the dressing room riders, receiving calls from the artist's invitees, meeting vip ones in the entrance, and if there were any problems with the invitations, I had to go to the box office to solve. Every time I went to the box office, I had to deal with the fans, receive their gifts, letters, pictures for the artist.
While I was dealing with all these, just before the band was about to come to the venue, a band member called me and he basically bawled me out on the phone, asking questions. He wasn't actually asking, he was telling me all the things that I'd fucked up, such as:
"I heard from the guitarist that we were gathering for dinner at hotel restaurant, why didn't I know that?"
"Another one in the crew didn't know we had per diems, did you tell him?"
"We had to wait for the shuttle in the hotel lobby for 30 minutes, why is that?"
"All these are your responsibility, why don't you focus and do what you have to do!"
I just apologised and promised I'd do better next time.
This was getting too much for me, I was having a hard time handling all these. Tried so hard to keep my mood up, before and during the show, but it was difficult to accept that he was right.
The concert was great as always.
This was also the first time I witnessed the artist's huge ego. Normally she was a very sweet woman, but everytime she stepped down these stairs from stage, minutes after thousands of fans literally worshipped her, sang along to all her intimate, personal songs for hours, she became someone else.
I had to interrupt her while she was talking to bandmembers as I had to tell that the sponsors wanted to meet her. She didn't let me speak.
I saw a certain look in her eyes that night, in that dressing room while she was telling me never to do it again, in front of everyone. It was a furious look, which made you instantly realize that you did something very, very terrible and it made you feel awful.
Didn't make it a big deal, but I never forgot that look.
Everyone went to partying afterwards, I didn't join them. I had a terrible night alone in my hotel room. I kept thinking about that phone call, listing everything that went wrong in my head. I felt like shit.
In the morning, I pressed cold glass bottles from the minibar on my puffy eyes (this later became a sad ritual for me), put on a heavy make up, tried to be that positive, happy girl again.
Came back home, opened excel, and prepared this:
itinerary template
In all of the events after that one, I sent the crew this spreadsheet, asked if everything was ok, had it printed for everyone as a badge along with their passcards.
It saved me an enormous amount of time, everyone liked having all the necessary info easily accessible, drivers, promoters, caterers all appreciated it.
Today, I still appeciate that phone call from the band member. It made me realize everything quicker.
Oh, and I forgot to tell the surprise:
On the evening of the show day, Jenny arrived. She still looked sick. She was a heavy smoker. We used to have long talks while smoking in the tourbus, or during the concert. I offered her a cigarette that night, she said she quit.
She was pregnant.
As she was almost 40, it would be a difficult pregnancy and she had to avoid travel, stress, etc.
This meant I would be doing all the shows as her assistant, by myself for the next 8-10 months.
