Rock ready crew
With stories of shows and tours being cancelled or postponed because of a shortage of manpower , Access examines how serious the situation is and what the industry is doing to address it .
Words : Joe Gallop
Surrey-based Rodeo Crew , set up three years ago by former Pinnacle Crew manager Rui de Oliveira , recently worked on the Concert for Ukraine televised charity concert , where it provided a dozen crew at no charge to support the cause . Among the many major outdoor events it has worked on include the Farnborough International Airshow , Wimbledon and Ed Sheeran ’ s concert at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff .
Oliveira says that since events began to be staged again following the pandemic , the biggest challenges have been finding people that can be relied upon and dealing with countless last-minute requests from clients .
“[ There have been ] many nights spent without sleeping reworking schedules , optimising the resources until you can ’ t squeeze anything in any more ,” he says .
Oliveira says that some crewing companies began offering higher pay rates in order to attract staff , which caused all crewing companies to follow suit , and that added cost has had to be passed on through the client chain .
He says , “ The rising fuel cost also doesn ’ t help because there are a lot of travelling jobs , and then the van insurance has shot through the roof too , so getting crew safely to jobs now costs a lot of money . Some clients still think the crew are safely kept in a cupboard outside each venue , and therefore there shouldn ’ t be a cost involved to get them there .”
Oliveira ’ s major concern is a
lack of experienced crew and new candidates who are suitable : “ We concentrate our primary efforts on finding crew members with the right attitude for the job , with common sense , which seems to be a very limited resource .”
Planning ahead He says that the wider industry should work to change the culture of doing things last-minute and that better advanced planning would help avoid many of the existing problems : “ The way crew are booked doesn ’ t help , with calls for just two hours and upwards . Having so much inconsistency doesn ’ t create the right
“ You can ’ t take your eyes off the ball because you ’ re going to be missing talent .”
environment to attract people who could offer so much more . Perhaps there should be more reliance on getting the right quality of individuals instead of more people .” London-based Spartan Crew , co-founded by Ciaran Boylan
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