It’s lights out for industry’s backline workers
It’s lights out for backline workers at music scene
Huntly Christie is the CEO of Christie Lights.
The largest stage-lighting company in North America operates offices in Vancouver and Toronto. Known in professional circles as “The Hurricane” for his fast-paced work, Christie’s three decades in the technical side of the live entertainment business didn’t prepare him for the slowdown since COVID-19 cancelled group gatherings.
“We’re ground zero in terms of those who make a living off the support of live gatherings, and we went to zero revenue, to zero business, overnight,” Christie said. “Because it started in March, it was corporate events first, and then concerts and then they shut Broadway down. We’ve survived 9/11, the 2008 downturn, SARS, the dot-com bubble, but bringing it to zero revenue is the ultimate challenge and it’s no fun.”
Christie employs more than 500 people, many of whom were laid off. What happens to their jobs and his business moving forward is the great unknown. The consensus among global promoters is that it probably will be a year “from start to finish” before things get rocking again.
“Young people are going to want to continue to gather and see live events, and I think Broadway shows are going to ultimately open back up,” he said. “But people’s disposable income is always going to be a factor in entertainment spending, and how will that be?”
Freelance production manager and promoter Darrell Stables is one of the many self-employed workers in B.C.’s live music business who were expecting the spike in business that spring brings. After the standard winter slowdown, this is when the touring season kicks off and the big summer concerts and festivals start announcing lineups.
As it stands now, though, that’s all gone, with no restart date in view. And the traditional Junethrough-August busy spell seems unlikely to bloom.
“Even if you slowly get back to gatherings of 50 to 250, that’s not the 500 to 1,000-plus people like me need,” Stables said. “Talking about postponing until September is nice, but who is going to prioritize taking time off of work that they haven’t had for months to spend a bunch of money on a ticket to a festival?
“Thankfully, in Canada, the opportunities are there to help the musicians, but nobody is rallying to help the sound people, the lighting crew, the roadies, the merchandise person, the tour manager — all of those people who work behind the scenes to make these things happen all the time.”
Often referred to as “black shirts” due to their preferred clothing colour of choice on the job, these backline workers are indeed the unsung heroes of the live entertainment industry. Mostly self-employed contractors, most are entitled to benefits under the various federal and provincial COVID-19 plans being put in place to protect people’s health and safety.
At Afterlife Studios, owner John Raham is looking over his empty room where everything is postponed.
Noting that his position is better than that of immediate backline workers at live shows, he is catching up on the mixing work that is usually done solo. But, the longer this goes on, the more challenging it becomes to see how traditional cycles can continue.
“Artists can get a few cents every week streaming, but that’s expecting that to generate online audiences and counting on those turning into larger audiences at live shows,” said Raham.
“For studios all over the world, the way the cycle works is artists make a record and then tour to support it. So, some have asked about coming in to record during the downtime. But a lot don’t have the revenue to dive into making a new record because of what’s happening and that just creates a snowball effect moving on, because if you don’t have it, you can’t spend it on my services.”
While the studio space is big and distancing is possible, he thinks taking no chance of spreading the virus requires being shut down entirely.
For now, he is saying no to live sessions, even with extremely limited numbers.
How long he can maintain this level of operations remains to be seen. This is true for all bricksand-mortar operators.
Rickshaw Theatre owner and booker Mo Tarmohamed says looking ahead is a “remain-to-beseen situation.” At the time of his Postmedia News interview, he had just cancelled/postponed his 36th scheduled show.
For now, the lights are out at the Rickshaw and every other venue in B.C. and the “black shirts” are in the dark.
We’re ground zero in terms of those who make a living off the support of live gatherings, and we went to zero revenue, to zero business, overnight.