As the music business continues to go through many dramatic changes, music groups are quickly discovering that in order to build and sustain a successful career they must stay on the road and do as many shows possible each year. Because of this, skilled tour managers for music groups are now needed more than ever.
In One for the Road: How to Be a Music Tour Manager, author Mark Workman shows you how to become a tour manager for a music group in any genre of music; how to organize a music tour the right way; how to effectively complete one; and how to build your career as a music tour manager into a successful one.
Written with an acerbic wit and brutal honesty, Mark Workman pulls no punches in telling you what it’s really like to tour the world with a famous music group. One for the Road: How to Be a Music Tour Manager is the first and only book on music tour management. 356 pages in length, this book covers every aspect of being a road manager touring the world with a music group.
One for the Road: How to Be a Music Tour Manager also includes an insightful foreword by virtuoso lead guitarist of Testament–and author of his new memoir, Geek To Guitar Hero–Alex Skolnick.
Glance through the book’s table of contents, to grasp the monstrous amount of information and detail explained by Mark Workman.
Part One—The Beginning: How I started in the music business.
Part Two—Organizing the Tour: Gathering vital information – Working with the team – Preparing an accurate tour budget – Hiring the best road crew – Hiring the right bus company and driver – Booking hotels – Booking air travel – Backline rentals and endorsers – Tour credentials – Backdrops, scrims and stage sets – Tour supplies – Carrying sound and lighting – Foreign artist tax – Visas and work permits – ATA carnets and equipment manifests – Trucking – Air and sea cargo – Catering companies – Riders and contracts – Creating your tour book – Coordinating with the support acts – Preparing your tour accounting – Creating signs for the tour – Tour management software.
Part Three—Advancing the Tour: Getting organized to advance the tour – Stage plots and input charts – Making a proper advance sheet – Preparing your pre-advance package – How to properly advance a tour – Advancing your cash requirements – Online show advance system.
Part Four—On the Road: The first day of the tour – Day sheets, press sheets, and the flow of information – The power of the press – Venue security – Guest lists and passes – Doing your daily road accounting – How to do show settlements correctly – Advancing your hotels – Merchandising – Union venues – Surviving fly dates – Foreign currencies – Crossing crazy borders – Working double-duty on a tour – Supporting a bigger band – Taking care of your client – The last day of the tour.
Part Five—Building a Successful Career: Networking and self-promotion – How to find your first gig – Road hazards up ahead.
“This book, and the eventual companion editions, will no doubt become an invaluable asset to anyone who thinks they have what it takes to run a tight ship on tour. This will be the guide that many tour vets wish they’d had when starting out. Reading it, one can imagine what might have happened if Charles Bukowski or Hunter S. Thompson had been a fight fan who spent his life as a member of the road crew for some of the world’s fastest heavy metal bands and wrote about it. I will not be the least surprised to see One for the Road: How to Be a Music Tour Manager become a must read among road crews for many years to come.” – Alex Skolnick
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