TechRider

Ist es nicht erstaunlich, wenn man sich die TechRid­ers von Bands ansieht, mit all den Punk­ten, die erfüllt sein müssen, damit die Band über­haupt spielt? Vor allem die Spez­i­fika­tio­nen in Bezug auf Garder­obe, Verpfle­gung, Trans­porta­tion etc.

Ich habe hier mal die techs ein­er mein­er Lieblings­bands, den Tiger Lil­lies, aufge­lis­tet. Man kann, auch wenn es sich hier­bei um eine Musik­er­gruppe han­delt, doch sehr viel auch für die Zauberei ler­nen, vor allem, wie man die Forderun­gen auch nett schreiben kann. Lohnt sich auch für Zauber­er, sich sowas mal genauer anzuse­hen. Vor allem der let­zte Absatz ist inter­es­sant:

Audio Sys­tem and Light­ing Spec­i­fi­ca­tions

THE TIGER LILLIES sound require­ments by Claus Buehler and Adri­an Stout

The Tiger Lil­lies are a three-piece acoustic band.

Mar­tyn Jacques — vocals, accor­dion, piano, ukulele

Adri­an Stout - vocals, upright bass, theremin, gui­tar, musi­cal saw

Mike Pick­er­ing — vocals, drums

Please pro­vide on stage:

one (1) good qual­i­ty grand piano (Yama­ha C3 pre­ferred) recent­ly tuned to 440Hz

one (1) piano stool with height adjust­ment

one (1) drum kit (see below for details)

two (2) chairs (with­out arms)

two (2) music stands

three (3) small bot­tles of still water

haz­er and/or smoke machine

one (1) 240V pow­er out­let (110V in US/Canada)

Drum kit

We need a good qual­i­ty pro lev­el jazz drum kit to be pro­vid­ed for our shows.

Sonor, Gretsch, or DW, is pre­ferred but Yama­ha or Pearl are also ok.

12″ (rack) & 14″ (floor) tom-toms or sim­i­lar, with white heads

one (1) 18″ or 20″  bass drum

one (1) snare drum

four (4) cym­bal stands

one (1) snare stand

one (1) hi-hat stand

one (1) pair of hi-hat cym­bals

one (1) bass drum ped­al

one (1) drum stool

one (1) drum car­pet

Piano/Keyboard

We need a  grand piano (Yama­ha C3 prefered/Steinway also accept­able) pro­vid­ed for our shows.

Elec­tric keyboards/pianos are suit­able in a rock club/festival. A baby grand piano is accept­able only if space/loading/cost is a prob­lem, please inform our man­age­ment before the show if this is an issue. We are will­ing to dis­cuss an elec­tric piano if cost or load­ing is a major prob­lem as a good qual­i­ty elec­tric piano is bet­ter than no piano or a cheap upright piano at the end of the day!

So, if the venue is a rock club or large fes­ti­val stage then a high qual­i­ty, 88-note weight­ed elec­tric piano, such as a Yama­ha CP5, Clavi­no­va or Nord Stage, is usu­al­ly bet­ter than an acoustic piano. Less feed­back issues and faster to sound check. If your sound tech­ni­cian is a genius then by all means plonk a grand piano on a fes­ti­val stage, but in our expe­ri­ence we have bet­ter results in rock venues and out­door fes­ti­vals with a pro elec­tric stage piano.

We have found that upright pianos are not good enough for most shows, so if you are think­ing of pro­vid­ing an upright then please inform us before the show. It may be bet­ter to hire in a high qual­i­ty 88-note weight­ed key­board than rent a sub-stan­dard upright piano. Bet­ter you check with us first to decide.

Gui­tar

We need a pro­fes­sion­al nylon string acoustic gui­tar with pick­up pro­vid­ed for our shows.

Option­al Back­line

A Gal­lien-Krueger MB 150 (Mk II or III pre­ferred) for dou­ble bass. Sim­i­lar amps by AER, Phil Jones, Mark Bass, Ampeg, or oth­er pro bass amp are also accept­able, 150W min­i­mum. For small­er venues the dou­ble bass can use the mon­i­tors, but a suit­able bass amp is very help­ful on larg­er stages. If your venue has a bass amp then please put it on stage but it doesn’t need to be hired in if the mon­i­tors are good.

Stage Plan. Click to enlarge

The band sets up in a dia­mond for­ma­tion, with Mar­tyn at the front and the bass and drums set slight­ly behind, on stage left and right. Piano to be set behind the cen­tre vocal posi­tion. The piano should be about 1.5 m from the front vocal posi­tion. Please set the band up as close to the front of the stage as pos­si­ble.

The band will pro­vide a pre-show CD or USB stick of suit­able pre-show music to the venue.

Gen­er­al Sys­tem notes

The band some­times trav­els with­out a sound tech­ni­cian for most shows, how­ev­er we pre­fer to use our own tech­ni­cian so please con­tact man­age­ment for con­fir­ma­tion and his con­tact details before the con­cert day.

If our sound tech­ni­cian is trav­el­ing with the band he will arrive at the venue to set the PA up pri­or to the band’s arrival. Please ensure that an in-house tech­ni­cian or rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the PA hire com­pa­ny will be there on his arrival to assist with set-up.

When using in-house sound tech­ni­cians also please ensure that all PA sys­tems and lights are installed, set-up and test­ed at least two hours before the band arrives at the venue to ensure a quick low-stress sound check. We hope that when we arrive on stage all mics are on stands and line-checked ready to be posi­tioned, DI box­es set, the piano is tuned and miked-up and the mon­i­tors and mics have a basic lev­el ready to start.

The band will arrive at the venue about three hours before the house opens. Sound checks should take no more than 90–120 min­utes.

A good qual­i­ty PA with high def­i­n­i­tion is required such as d&b.

We need a 4‑on‑4 (4 sends to 4 speak­ers) mon­i­tor sys­tem. The bass mon­i­tor and drum mon­i­tor should be 12″ min­i­mum to pro­vide enough bass-fre­quen­cies, 15″ is pre­ferred. The accor­dion and piano mon­i­tor can also be a 12″ dri­ver. ALL mon­i­tors should be floor-wedges. In a very small club suit­able (small­er) mon­i­tors can be used pro­vid­ed they have a full range.

Side-fills can also be used, though they are not essen­tial for most con­certs.

The band require these instru­ments in their mon­i­tors:

Drums — Front vox, accor­dion, bass, piano vox, piano, drum vox, bass vox, kick drum, uke, gui­tar

Front Posi­tion — Front vox, accor­dion, bass, uke, gui­tar, drum O/H, drum vox, bass vox

Bass — Front vox, accor­dion, bass, piano vox, gui­tar, uke, piano, drum O/H, kick drum, snare, drum vox, bass vox, theremin,

Piano — Piano vox, piano, bass, gui­tar, uke, drum O/H, drum vox, bass vox

Desk

We need a (min­i­mum) 32-chan­nel desk of good qual­i­ty (Midas, Sound­craft, Yama­ha, Allen & Heath, Crest, Mack­ie).

Each chan­nel must have (min­i­mum):

Low-Cut, Low-Shelf, two (2) para­met­ric Mids, Hi-Shelf, eight (8) Aux-Sends (4 pre for mon­i­tor­ing, 4 post for Effect-Sends)

Each chan­nel must pro­vide 48V phan­tom-pow­er and a plug-sock­et for inserts.

For sound check we need a SM58 at the desk for talk­back.

Pro­cess­ing

We need four (4) de-esser/­com­pres­sors, eight (8) is bet­ter, six­teen (16) is per­fect! (DBX, BSS or sim­i­lar pre­ferred)

A good qual­i­ty reverb unit is required. Some­thing like a Yama­ha, Lex­i­con or TC Elec­tron­ics.

Micro­phones & DIs

For detailed micro­phone wish­es, see chan­nel-plan.

We can always accept alter­na­tive mics depend­ing on the venue (except vocal mics should always be Shure SM) but please try and fol­low our sug­ges­tions.

Five (5) 1/4“mono jack-to-jack instru­ment cables (6 m length).

Six (6) active DI-Box­es (accor­dion, con­tra­bass, theremin, ukulele, gui­tar, lap steel). Radi­al or BSS pre­ferred.

All four (4) vocal mic stands must be tall stands with tele­scop­ic booms.

One (1) upright micro­phone stand for mount­ing the theremin.

One (1) 240V (110 v in US/Canada) pow­er out­let at the bass posi­tion for the theremin, ped­als and tuner.

For sound check, pre-show and in the inter­mis­sion we need a CD-play­er or a mix­ing desk that can play MP3 from a USB stick.

Light­ing Plan

The band require a dark floor.

The Tiger Lil­lies light­ing should be kept sim­ple. The colour wash­es togeth­er with the three spots from the front should be regard­ed as the min­i­mum require­ments. The show should be oper­at­ed man­u­al­ly, using slow cross­fades and no chas­es. Gen­er­al­ly low­er lev­els are much more effec­tive. The spe­cials should all be tight-focussed to the per­form­ers with soft edges. The Tiger Lil­lies require mood light­ing, with the colour wash­es enhanced by use of the spe­cials from the front, behind and the floor. The gen­er­al tem­po and instru­men­ta­tion of the num­bers should dic­tate the use of colour for the gen­er­al stage light­ing lev­els and choice of spe­cials.

The light­ing of the show should evoke 1930s cabaret, expres­sion­ist film, the­atre, so dra­mat­ic shad­ows and high con­trast are encour­aged. Please try and avoid mod­ern light­ing effects (Vari-Lites, lasers, com­put­er any­thing).

Haze and smoke effects are par­tic­u­lar­ly suit­ed to The Tiger Lil­lies style. Lots of fog is good.

The show requires some con­cen­tra­tion to oper­ate, but with sim­ple colour changes and care­ful use of the spe­cials an effec­tive result can be achieved quite eas­i­ly.

Stage man­age­ment and show times

NO SUPPORT ACTS… Please.

Nein, No, Ne, Non, Nai, Nid oes.

The Tiger Lil­lies pre­fer to per­form with­out a sup­port act, we usu­al­ly play two com­plete full-length sets and so do not require or need a sup­port act. We also do not want to have to move our instru­ments and mon­i­tors to accom­mo­date a sup­port as we have many del­i­cate instru­ments that need care­ful posi­tion­ing. We assume and hope that an audi­ence have come to see us per­form and so we pre­fer to not have the dis­trac­tion and incon­ve­nience of a sup­port act, no mat­ter how small, nice, sim­i­lar, dif­fer­ent, or good they are. We like to cre­ate a unique atmos­phere for the audi­ence that can be eas­i­ly bro­ken by a sup­port group. After twen­ty-five years we think that is fair enough.

We don’t mind pho­tog­ra­phy but would ask that patrons refrain from flash and irri­tat­ing the oth­er mem­bers of the audi­ence dur­ing the show by film­ing con­stant­ly. Press should take pho­tos at the start of the con­cert with flash and then leave the stage area and con­tin­ue with­out flash. Please inform press that we require copies of all pho­tos to be sent to our PR per­son.

The Tiger Lil­lies play two sets of 45 min­utes each (90 min­utes in total). Please noti­fy the band 30 min­utes, 10 min­utes and 5 min­utes before the con­cert starts.

At the start of the show, drop the house­lights and have some­one make a small intro­duc­tion through the PA such as,

“Ladies and Gen­tle­men, please wel­come… The Tiger Lil­lies.”

This will also serve as the cue for the band to enter the stage. The band will play 45 min­utes and then take a 20-minute break. We pre­fer if a bar is in the same room as the stage that it be closed dur­ing the per­for­mance. It should only be open before and after the show and dur­ing inter­mis­sion.

After the break please make a sec­ond announce­ment,

“Ladies and Gen­tle­man, please wel­come back… The Tiger Lil­lies.”

which will be the cue for the band to enter the stage again for the sec­ond set.

The band will play anoth­er forty-five min­utes plus any encores. Once the band has fin­ished play­ing they will pro­ceed straight to the foy­er to sign CDs.

Mer­chan­dise

The Tiger Lil­lies always sell CDs at their show. As an inde­pen­dent band this is a vital part of our job as it pro­vides an oppor­tu­ni­ty for our fans to meet the band and pur­chase CDs that are dif­fi­cult to obtain in shops. Please pro­vide a well-lit table in the foy­er where the band can sell and sign CDs. We would also like the venue to arrange a per­son to sell mer­chan­dise before the show, at inter­mis­sion and after the show. After the encores we will pro­ceed to the mer­chan­dise table to encour­age peo­ple to buy CDs and give auto­graphs. CDs will be sent to the venue or pro­mot­er in advance, please pro­vide a con­tact address for deliv­ery. After the show we some­times need to arrange col­lec­tion of unsold CDs by FedEx or post. We will pro­vide the cor­rect paper­work so that the CDs can be shipped at the band’s expense. Adri­an Stout is respon­si­ble for mer­chan­dise, speak to him when he arrives at the venue or before the event.

Trans­port Require­ments

Check with man­age­ment about lug­gage require­ments before book­ing flights.

The band will bring accor­dion, elec­tric upright dou­ble bass, and some per­cus­sion. The dou­ble bass is in a hard case 1.6 m x 0.8 m x 0.6 m, weight 22 kg.

Please arrange col­lec­tion to and from the air­port to venue/hotel. The min­i­mum size of vehi­cle required is an eight-seater peo­ple car­ri­er, or large estate/combi/station wag­on able to fit the lug­gage and three band mem­bers, sound man, and dri­ver.

Flights

Please book the band on a nor­mal air­line (British Air­ways pre­ferred), as low-cost and bud­get air­lines such as Ryan Air, Easy­Jet, Air Baltic, etc. will charge so much for the excess bag­gage that they will be more expen­sive and dri­ve us all mad with their unrea­son­able pol­i­cy on musi­cal instru­ments. The air­line should have a bag­gage allowance of 23 kg per per­son and allow one car­ry-on plus a lap­top.

British Air­ways is best for the band as excess bag­gage is nev­er a prob­lem.

Please con­firm all flights with our agent before book­ing to pre­vent mis­takes.

Hotel Require­ments

Hotels should be four- or five–star.

All rooms paid by the pro­mot­er.

All rooms should have a dou­ble bed.

All rooms should have en suite bath­rooms.

All rooms should have a phone, wifi inter­net access (at no cost to the band) and a tele­vi­sion.

Break­fast should be pro­vid­ed at no addi­tion­al cost.

We pre­fer a decent hotel close to the venue or in a down­town loca­tion.

Boutique/Classic/Arty/Character hotels are bet­ter than a soul­less cor­po­rate busi­ness hotel. We don’t need a con­fer­ence room or gym, but we do like to be close to ameni­ties and the cen­tre of town. If you want to go mad and put us in the best hotel in town we won’t com­plain.

Please run hotel book­ings past Tim and he will con­firm that they are ok.

Dress­ing Room

Please pro­vide one dress­ing room big enough for 4–6 peo­ple with hot and cold run­ning water, four (4) chairs and a sofa, mir­ror with lights for make­up appli­ca­tion. En suite bath­room would be an advan­tage.

We would also like three (3) tow­els, soap, two (2) packs of facial make­up wipes (the nice kind Neu­tro­ge­na, Sim­ple, etc., not baby wipes) for removal of our make­up.

Please pro­vide a refrig­er­a­tor and ket­tle.

Food & Drink, Misc

Eng­lish-lan­guage news­pa­pers (so we have some­thing to do before the show)

small bot­tles of still min­er­al water

fruit juice, soft drinks

one (1) pot of cof­fee, one (1) pot tea

selec­tion of teas

hon­ey

fresh fruit selec­tion

crisps, dips and nice choco­late

one (1) bot­tle good qual­i­ty red wine

one (1) COLD bot­tle good qual­i­ty white wine

one (1) case COLD bot­tled pil­sner type lager beers (12 min­i­mum). No Amer­i­can beer please (Boston Lager and such, it’s not lager as we under­stand it and we don’t like it)

bot­tle opener/corkscrew

light food selec­tion (such as sand­wich­es, soup, sal­ad, fish, cheese, crack­ers, bread, fruit).

Please have food avail­able when the band arrives, i.e. dur­ing the sound check, so they have time to digest before the show.

the band have no dietary require­ments.

If you want to make the band REALLY hap­py, they would love a more sub­stan­tial hot meal before or after the show. Please check when band arrive if they need a meal to be pre­pared or to be tak­en to a restau­rant. A cash buy­out is also accept­able for din­ner.

Please have three (3) cold lager beers (bot­tle or draught) ready in the dress­ing room dur­ing the inter­val. After the show The Tiger Lil­lies will sign CDs in the foy­er or where the CDs are on sale. Please have three (3) cold beers avail­able at the point of sale at the close of the show. Did we men­tion we like a cold beer? It’s thirsty work being in a band and we are hap­pi­er to min­gle with your audi­ence after a show with a cold bev­er­age in our hands.

Es ist offen­sichtlich, dass diese Kün­stler nach 25 Jahren im Busi­ness wis­sen, was sie wollen und was nicht. Und wir Zauber­er? meis­tens beste­ht unsere “Garder­obe” aus einem Neben­raum (oder schlim­mer). Wir kom­men mit dem eige­nen Auto, wir “machen keine Umstände”, wir treten “fast über­all” auf.

Wenn ich an die bevorste­hende Seminar“tour” denke, dann weiß ich, dass ich noch lange nicht auf dem Niveau ein­er kleinen Musik­band bin. Würde ich auch nur einen Bruchteil der Bedin­gun­gen ein­fordern (z. B. die mit dem Bier finde ich ganz gut, Denis Behr sich­er auch), dann hätte ich wahrschein­lich kein einziges Sem­i­nar auf der BURN­ERS-Tour auf dem Ter­min­plan. Den “Ver­anstal­tern” in unser­er Szene ist soviel Aufwand das nicht wert, es ist ja “nur” ein Sem­i­nar im Klu­braum. Ana­log bei Auftrit­ten ist es eben oft “nur” der Zauber­er …

Vielle­icht ist das mit ein Grund, warum die Zauberei im Gegen­satz zur Musik­branche oder anderen darstel­len­den Kün­sten so schwach da ste­ht und nicht respek­tiert wird. Soll­ten auch die Zauber­er (vernün­ftige und angemessene!) TechRid­ers präsen­tieren? Und den Ver­anstal­tern damit zeigen, dass wir dur­chaus ern­stgenom­men wer­den kön­nen?

Ich denke, es wird endlich Zeit, das zu tun …