TFNation Blog | In this life

Tuesdays. They've never sat well with me.

Weekends tend to be nice. Mondays are fine, but Tuesdays sneak up on you. Look out for yourself because even with seven days' notice, you'll never quite see the next Tuesday coming. Terrible, awful things with nefarious minds of their own, putting an abrupt stop to your plans for a great week. If something can go wrong it will, but it'll wait till Monday's done.

Naturally then, it's the day I've chosen for blogging. Consistency is key so I'm going to make an effort to share stories on Tuesdays from now on. Maybe not every Tuesday, but definitely some and hopefully most. It'll give me a chance to do something which is neither work nor TFN, by way of working on something related to TFN... sounds very me. (That said, should this, in fact, prove to be my first and last Tuesday blog, so long! But hopefully not).

So, let's talk about a thing, shall we? Given our most recent Big Broadcast of 2020 announcement, I thought this might be a good time to tell one of my 2018 Stan Bush stories.

There are numerous stories I could tell (and hopefully will, Tuesdays permitting) revolving around the huge team effort behind our first concert. I'm going to start with something short and fairly low-key. In fact, it was a mistake too (and mine, at that) but one which turned out okay.

Months before the convention, Stan had introduced me to a great UK band who he trusted to put on an awesome show for us. Naturally, the infrequent nature of their collaboration meant Stan needed to prepare a setlist in advance, so the guys could go away and rehearse separately in the weeks prior to the event. They wouldn't have a chance to rehearse with Stan until the days before the con, at a secondary location we'd hired for a few nights.

David Ruck (largely) and me (sort of) spent the day of the concert constructing the stage, which was a shame as it took us away from other core conventions duties. To this day, I've no memory of TFN 2018 other than the concert; I'm sure I probably did go into the main hall at some point, but I just don't remember it. There's no point sugar-coating this part, so I won't - we underpriced the concert tickets comparative to the spend involved, meaning we ended up doing lots of the work you'd normally contract out. That was largely intentional because we wanted to try and make the concert affordable for people, but with the benefit of hindsight, that's something I would have done a little differently. I think most people would've supported the decision had they known of the hours we put in!

Point person for the concert was big Gruff (hero). Events and crowd safety are his gig, pun intended, so we were happy to take his advice, and fine advice it was too. It did, however, result in me being placed on door duty, which is important to the story. Remember that part.

With the stage built, and the now sun-deprived mini-crew depleted of energon, we sat exhausted for a while whilst Stan and the band ran through the final soundcheck. Somebody (presumably Sarah) brought sandwiches. I can't remember if I ate anything as I was very tired, but it was appreciated. During this period, being the utter pro that I am, I used my minutes of concert experience to sneak in a chat with the band, so I could see the setlist. Part of my "door duty" job was to control the house lights, so I needed to know the final song of the evening, so as not to accidentally cut off an encore segment. The band told me there would indeed be an encore, which would end with the title track to Stan's 2007 album In This Life.

"In this life". Great. Easy to remember, and several words - lots of words are important when you're chatting over radios and such. Later in the night, I would pass my newfound knowledge to Gruff who, via radio, would have the whole team ready to commence operation: clearout as that track ended.

I assume those who've decided to read this post were probably at the concert. So, you know things didn't quite go down like that...

As the band hit the final notes of "In This Life" and left the stage, I commenced the two-meter journey from my door position to the light switches. This particular venue's light switches are, inconveniently, as far from the stage as you can get, so the lights couldn't be controlled from our technical area. As I got to the lights I stood, waiting to ensure everybody was safely off stage, when I heard those in attendance starting to chant "one more song"... dilemma... I knew there was no material left. I tried to radio backstage but the chanting was too loud. Really I should have taken a quick decision and threw the lights up. That would be it then. But for all I knew the band might have decided to come back out to wave or something, so bringing the lights up would have been embarrassing. I made what was probably a bad call and instinctively ran towards the backstage area so I could get some better information to make a decision. Or at least I tried to; within about two strides, the band had walked back on stage, leaving me in "funny run" central, but relieved nonetheless.  

In truth that whole segment probably lasted a few minutes but in my head it was a frantic few seconds. The band went on to re-perform "Dare" which I think made the evening feel even more special. The energy levels for the final song were off the charts. I can also confirm that post Dare II - the house lights went up very quickly indeed! 

All in all, it wasn't a terrible error. It might not have mattered anyway - Stan may have returned, lights and all; but to me, it's a great example of how even after a year's planning, a small element can result in a pretty substantial change. 

Everyone makes mistakes and if you're lucky, you'll wish you'd planned them.

- B

PS: if you've not done so, check out Stan's most recent single The 80's