The "Five Minute Drill" with Old Rock Bands

We have had the interesting experience with a couple of rock rands from the 60’s and 70’s who still think it is “cool” to make the audience wait in anticipation for their grand entrance on stage. 

At a recent corporate event, the stage manager for a “rock band” listened to the rehearsed band introduction by a corporate sponsor and then told the band to “go on in 5 minutes”.

When we work with rock bands at corporate shows we always have five minutes of music and simple lighting effects planned to fill the five minutes the band waits to go on stage. We call it "the five minute drill." Hopefully you will never have to use it, but the "five minute drill" is a good thing for a production team to have in their back pocket.

When the Band Van Breaks Down

The Saturday afternoon before a large corporate show that we were producing, I looked down to see my cell phone ringing—not always a good thing this close to a show. The call was from the production manager for the band scheduled to be the Tuesday night entertainment. Three previous calls had planned this part of the show down to the smallest detail. 

This was a drive show and the band (a name you would easily recognize) was supplying backline, monitor boards and all the mics and cables. We were only supplying a FOH (front of house) board and the PA—until their production manager called. It turns out that their production truck broke down and they wouldn’t be able to provide their equipment.

The Show Must Go On

When we work with riders and the band is providing some of the equipment and backline, we always identify emergency backup vendors for both band equipment and instruments in the event something changes with the performer.

By the time the band showed up to load in on Tuesday, we had secured all of the equipment they needed and the show came off without a hitch. 

Riders that are included in an entertainer’s contract often include the specifications for a full rock show regardless of the size of the corporate performance and are often not changed by clients even when the band agrees to bring in some of the equipment. 

The time and effort to identify back-up vendors for expensive entertainment is most of the time a wasted effort, but if a truck breaks down, it may be the difference between a great show and a show that never goes on.

When Failure Leads to Success

Five minutes into the CEO’s presentation, one of the projectors on a two-screen widescreen blend went out. Half of a 60-foot wide and 20-foot high screen went black, and somehow this event was still a success.

The elapsed time from the moment the projector failed to the point that the entire back-up scenario was in place was 15 seconds. Let me say that again—a partial black screen turned into a fully blended, perfectly functioning, back-up image. In 15 seconds.

Back-Up Plan to the Rescue

The point of this post is not to point out how great we are, but rather to draw attention to the need for backup plans. It is helpful to have backups for key pieces of equipment and procedures that are assigned and understood by the crew. We take ten minutes before every show to meet with the show leads and discuss each back-up option and the roles and responsibilities that each crewmember has in successfully implementing the plan.

For the last 10 years, through the countless shows we have put on, we have not needed to use a back-up plan. But when that screen went black, our team was able to successfully implement our backup plan, getting the screen working again in just 15 seconds. This moment of panic ended up being a victory for us. And it is all thanks to that pre-show crew meeting. 

Add it to the Job Description

While having and reviewing back-up scenarios are clearly not in the job description of an event planner (the hundreds of things that planners juggle on a typical show is more than enough), a good tip is to ask your production team “What will we do if a projector fails?” or “Not that it will, but what is your procedure if the wireless mic on stage fails?”

There is no way to guarantee that a piece of equipment will work flawlessly. What we can guarantee is that we have a backup plan in place that quickly and seamlessly gets the show back on track, and a fantastic team that knows what they are doing.