I ask the question in the title because i had the misfortune to come across an arrogant EST driver the other day and he seemed quite uppity and had an air of arrogance about him. This reminded me of a story a driver told me a few month back when he was on the boat to France and something happened whilst they were boarding the boat which must have irked my mate. He ended up parked next to a Brian Yeardley driver who had been giving it the big i am at some point and then when Yeardley driver was asked for his metal fastener to put on front of unit to fasten it to deck as it was a rough crossing, he didn’t have a clue where it was and how to use it when he found it. My mate took great delight in seeing him squirm. Later on upstairs the Yeardley driver was sat with his fellow roadies and my mate saw a Yeardley driver sat elsewhere on his own. My mate got chatting to him and asked why he wasn’t sat with them and the driver said that as he is just a general haulage driver then he is not welcome to sit with the Roadies. Are some drivers so far up their own arses that they treat fellow drivers with such contempt. Do they think they’re special because they may rub shoulders with musicians and the like. Have they all come from General Haulage and now think been a Roadie is a step up?
I think its only natural that groups who do the same work converge together. Coach drivers and bus drivers are the same in this regard. Ultimately what would the general lad input into the conversation? Would he understand aspects of their conversation? Not saying it’s right or wrong but it happens, and this is coming from myself who will talk to pretty much anyone.
When you work in music as a truckie you are a god of rock n roll, you don’t socialise which the lesser classes, come on FFS
Spent a pleasant evening with a yeardly general driver in the summer, and the event boys are/think they are better than the rest, on bit more money, and throw their teddies out if they get put on a general load when events go quite, he use the words Prema Donna’s, and arsenal’s hole.
Years ago…
I bumped into the F1 Buzzin Hornets team in a service area in France. A right stuck up bunch of up their own backsides they were. Complaining about having to stop everywhere to hand out hats, keyrings and all the shenanigans that involved.
They said I’d never make the grade as an F1 one truck driver, which was odd because I never asked them if I could be one.
Got tipsy with a few BY truckers in Italy and the south of France, just a good bunch of lads back then.
Truth be told tour drivers very rarely get near the artists though they do get treated well at the venues -food,showers etc and get the chance to earn a bit extra working the clickers,spotlights and helping to flog the merchandise. That’s one of the reasons they don’t mix with us mortals-we might want in!
Roadies is just a nick name, they are also known by the rest of the crew who are professional as a skivvy
Cleaning the bog sweeping the floor doing all the odd jobs there is definitely nothing mystic about being a do anything person the only time they feel worthy is when they are driving the rest of the time you would laugh at what they do to earn a crust embarrassing
I’d not want to be a member of any club that is prepared to accept me (to badly paraphrase one of them Marx chappies ) meaning that I’ve always ploughed my own furrow, I neither seek nor require acceptance from any peer group. Whilst they’re all blowing smoke up each other’s arses I’m the one getting drunk and shagging the chicks!
Bigtruck3:
Roadies is just a nick name, they are also known by the rest of the crew who are professional as a skivvy
Cleaning the bog sweeping the floor doing all the odd jobs there is definitely nothing mystic about being a do anything person the only time they feel worthy is when they are driving the rest of the time you would laugh at what they do to earn a crust embarrassing
I’ve never cleaned the bog or swept the floor and I dont know of any tour driver who has, every venue has their own cleaners so theres no need for us or anyone else to do it. I know theres arrogance amongst some drivers, personally I dont get it, and while they all have a hole in their arse, they are all the same as each other. The drivers I work with never ignore other drivers irrespective of what part of the industry they work in, and are always happy to help others. Im not interested in bragging about what I do or what I earn, I’m in it because I like music and the good money is a bonus, and while some of the acts will be in catering at the same time we are and will speak to the us and other crew, there are a lot who you dont see. It is what you make it, and there are a lot of inaccurate stories put round about the job, and you can either believe them or ask those of us who do the job and we’ll tell you the truth, or most of us will. I did it for 5 years and now just back in…
I doubt most drivers on the music tours are any more or less arrogant than other drivers, just you get arrogant ones in all types of work, some think they’re a cut above because of the work they do, or company they work for or even the make of Truck they drive, but it doesn’t mean everybody in that group is arrogant just an arrogant ■■■■ is an arrogant ■■■■■
Then there are those think others are arrogant because of the job they have, company they work for or truck they drive and look for evidence real or imagined to confirm it.
As for driver spitting dummies because they’ve been taken off their chosen type of work, well I think I’ve seen that in many a general haulage company.
Bigtruck3 care to elaborate on this sentence
the rest of the time you would laugh at what they do to earn a crust embarrassing
muckles:
As for driver spitting dummies because they’ve been taken off their chosen type of work, well I think I’ve seen that in many a general haulage company.
Not a truer word spoken! Where I am we’ve got about 35 trucks, and it’s the same few drivers bombarding us with 20 questions. Where’s he going? What’s he got? Cream boy doing a scotch again! I’ve not had one in weeks! (Nah you did one last week)
robthedog:
Bigtruck3 care to elaborate on this sentence
the rest of the time you would laugh at what they do to earn a crust embarrassing
Gofors, every crew needs gofors and it’s usually the truck drivers do this do that do anything when not behind the wheel
Bigtruck3:
robthedog:
Bigtruck3 care to elaborate on this sentence
the rest of the time you would laugh at what they do to earn a crust embarrassingGofors, every crew needs gofors and it’s usually the truck drivers do this do that do anything when not behind the wheel
Really? Never seen that of any driver, theres paid work like spots etc but cleaning bogs, and gofering, not sure where thats come from. I’ve done the job and just back into it and on their downtime the drivers either get ■■■■■■■ sleep or go out for the day… crews have runners and new guys and they generally do the gofering.
Bigtruck3:
robthedog:
Bigtruck3 care to elaborate on this sentence
the rest of the time you would laugh at what they do to earn a crust embarrassingGofors, every crew needs gofors and it’s usually the truck drivers do this do that do anything when not behind the wheel
Never done music tours, but done the odd event job, I’ve never been asked to to do anything other than set up our own kit. They seemed to employ plenty of local labour to do all the grafting of moving kit, cleaning etc, once we’d done that didn’t need to return to the venue until we had to pack down.
I’ve always thought the roadies at concerts moved the bands gear and set it up, all the drivers did was transport it and load their trucks?
muckles:
I’ve always thought the roadies at concerts moved the bands gear and set it up, all the drivers did was transport it and load their trucks?
If that’s the case then i may have worded my topic title wrong. I just assumed that drivers on tours were classed as roadies but not too sure tbh
ArcticMonkey:
muckles:
I’ve always thought the roadies at concerts moved the bands gear and set it up, all the drivers did was transport it and load their trucks?If that’s the case then i may have worded my topic title wrong. I just assumed that drivers on tours were classed as roadies but not too sure tbh
.
Truckies Is the more appropriate word mate. Local crews will load the trailer, we supervise it, secure it and transport it. Then we park up, eat and then if it’s a back to back we sleep, if it’s a couple of nights at the venue we can do what we want.
biggriffin:
Spent a pleasant evening with a yeardly general driver in the summer, and the event boys are/think they are better than the rest, on bit more money, and throw their teddies out if they get put on a general load when events go quite, he use the words Prema Donna’s, and arsenal’s hole.
Wasn’t Alan C was it?
Bigtruck3:
robthedog:
Bigtruck3 care to elaborate on this sentence
the rest of the time you would laugh at what they do to earn a crust embarrassingGofors, every crew needs gofors and it’s usually the truck drivers do this do that do anything when not behind the wheel
You’ve obviously never done the job as you are talking out of your ■■■■■■■■.