Welcome to the Industream
Welcome to the first post of my blog! In this post, I'll be examining a story I heard today from an industry professional. For this post, the subject will remain anonymous, but for the sake of convenience I'll call him John.
Years back in the 1980s, John was in a band that was quite successful. They had the opportunity to go on tour on many occasions, and not just in the United States. They were even also lucky enough to have some songs that made it in to the charts for their respective genre. It is my hope that I will be able to reveal this person's identity in a later post, as their career is sprawling and incredibly interesting.
Anyway, John was on tour with his band in Europe. Because the entire trip was being paid for, he decided to head over three weeks early to enjoy a short vacation with his girlfriend. They were set up in an apartment with an incredible view of the city's downtown. Things were going incredibly.
When it came time for his band to perform at the the festival they were booked for, everything ran smoothly at first. His crew showed up and began loading their van for their trip to the airport (the festival was a short flight way). As they were loading the final things into the van, John noticed something:
His briefcase was missing.
This was something that they could not leave without. In it was all of his money, his wallet, his passport, and his working permit that allowed him to play at the festival. Essentially, he was stuck where he was until he could find it.
They looked everywhere they could think of outside, and eventually came to the conclusion that he must have left it inside his apartment. "I know I didn't! I had it right here next to me," he recalled. Despite this knowledge, they went up and checked anyway. They scoured the apartment.
Nothing. It was starting to become abundantly clear that his briefcase had been stolen. Worse, the rest of the band was late for their flight, and had to leave. John was now stuck in an unfamiliar foreign city with, essentially, only the clothes on his back.
Eventually he was able to make it to the U.S. Embassy and explain his situation, where he received a new passport. He then had to explain it to American Airlines, who gave him a new ticket. A band who was already at the festival left a bag of cassette tapes in the city where John was, and he was even able to retrieve it for them. Things seemed to be back on track. He encountered even more problems when he got off his flight, however.
His work permit was in the briefcase, and they weren't going to let him past the airport gate without it.
As if he had not already been through enough, he then had to call his manager so that they could speak to the venue and write him up a new work permit. The manager was then tasked with driving up to the airport (45 minutes away) to bring it to him. The officials at the airport even gave him grief about the bag of cassettes he was bringing for the other band; they wanted to charge him for bringing it himself.
Touring, especially internationally, is inherently hard. It was this real-world example, however, that showed me firsthand just how hard things can get when things go wrong (which, buy-and-large, they do). Being able to adapt to situations like these is a vital skill to have if one wants to be a successful touring group. It would have been easy for John to just say "Screw it, I've had enough" and not show up for the tour. Instead, he stopped at nothing to get there. His grit in the face of so many problems inspires me, and I hope to develop that in myself one day.
Years back in the 1980s, John was in a band that was quite successful. They had the opportunity to go on tour on many occasions, and not just in the United States. They were even also lucky enough to have some songs that made it in to the charts for their respective genre. It is my hope that I will be able to reveal this person's identity in a later post, as their career is sprawling and incredibly interesting.
Anyway, John was on tour with his band in Europe. Because the entire trip was being paid for, he decided to head over three weeks early to enjoy a short vacation with his girlfriend. They were set up in an apartment with an incredible view of the city's downtown. Things were going incredibly.
When it came time for his band to perform at the the festival they were booked for, everything ran smoothly at first. His crew showed up and began loading their van for their trip to the airport (the festival was a short flight way). As they were loading the final things into the van, John noticed something:
His briefcase was missing.
This was something that they could not leave without. In it was all of his money, his wallet, his passport, and his working permit that allowed him to play at the festival. Essentially, he was stuck where he was until he could find it.
They looked everywhere they could think of outside, and eventually came to the conclusion that he must have left it inside his apartment. "I know I didn't! I had it right here next to me," he recalled. Despite this knowledge, they went up and checked anyway. They scoured the apartment.
Nothing. It was starting to become abundantly clear that his briefcase had been stolen. Worse, the rest of the band was late for their flight, and had to leave. John was now stuck in an unfamiliar foreign city with, essentially, only the clothes on his back.
Eventually he was able to make it to the U.S. Embassy and explain his situation, where he received a new passport. He then had to explain it to American Airlines, who gave him a new ticket. A band who was already at the festival left a bag of cassette tapes in the city where John was, and he was even able to retrieve it for them. Things seemed to be back on track. He encountered even more problems when he got off his flight, however.
His work permit was in the briefcase, and they weren't going to let him past the airport gate without it.
As if he had not already been through enough, he then had to call his manager so that they could speak to the venue and write him up a new work permit. The manager was then tasked with driving up to the airport (45 minutes away) to bring it to him. The officials at the airport even gave him grief about the bag of cassettes he was bringing for the other band; they wanted to charge him for bringing it himself.
Touring, especially internationally, is inherently hard. It was this real-world example, however, that showed me firsthand just how hard things can get when things go wrong (which, buy-and-large, they do). Being able to adapt to situations like these is a vital skill to have if one wants to be a successful touring group. It would have been easy for John to just say "Screw it, I've had enough" and not show up for the tour. Instead, he stopped at nothing to get there. His grit in the face of so many problems inspires me, and I hope to develop that in myself one day.
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