The power of a good van
One job that I used to have was that of a roadie, and for anyone who is in the dark about this, I will describe further. The roadie does all the hard grafting, from heavy lifting to assembly of the equipment for the whole show. As a fan of the group, you attend the concert and enjoy the performance and also the ambience of the whole event. But who cares about the people who work the long hours to ensure the safe transportation of the equipment from one venue to another?
Some see it as a glamorous job, obviously because you get to meet the band members, and at the start it is pretty cool. But having after three or four months on the road at a time, they soon become just ‘normal’ people.
If you end up working for famous rock stars, you will more than likely use fantastic equipment and unbelievable types of transportation. Small van transport is over, the big time means heavily articulated lorries and columns of juggernauts. This, in a way, is a benchmark of the success of a particular band.
In the old days someone would own an old Transit van, more than likely the driver would be a mate of one of the musicians. Back in the Swinging Sixties it began this way for me. The first van that I owned was a Commer, but the early seventies saw the arrival of the Ford Transit. From that point onwards, I never considered another brand – it has been Fords forever! In those days commercial van leasing did not exist to the extent that it does today. If we had even been interested in it, we were so broke we couldn’t possibly afford it.
If leasing products had been available, I would have been looking at medium or small van leasing or pick up truck leasing, which has bundles of style and fun.
