To the Crew of the Michael Jackson Concerts
The whole world was shocked last week to hear of the death of Michael Jackson. This was a tragic loss to his family and friends, and all of us here at Sew What? Inc. offer our condolences to them. We can’t even imagine the profound emotional distress that Michael’s family and friends, especially his children, are feeling right now.
Behind the scenes, however, there is another group of people affected by this tragedy, and that is the crew of the Michael Jackson 2009-2010 concerts planned for London’s O2 arena. These are the many people – grips, sound guys, lighting techs, “roadies,” backup singers, dancers – involved in the production of the now-cancelled London concerts. Many of these folks work on a tour-by-tour basis. If they aren’t working on a tour, they aren’t getting paid. I can only imagine how many people (perhaps hundreds) had set aside the next nine months – July 2009 through March 2010 – to work on the Michael Jackson shows. Many may have turned down offers to work on the tours of other artists or bands, just for the once in a lifetime opportunity to work on Michael’s show.
When the news of Michael’s death was announced last Thursday, these people suddenly realized that they were unemployed. Many were probably at work at the rehearsal space in Los Angeles when they heard the news. While fans mourn the loss of Michael Jackson, these folks are wondering how they are going to pay the rent and feed their families for the next nine months. They are scrambling to find a spot on another tour, not an easy task since most summer / fall tours have already started.
And what about the equipment providers? The companies that build the set, provide the lighting, rent equipment and soft goods. What will this do to their bottom line? Will they be hard hit financially? If so, how will they cope? Will they be forced to lay off staff?
In this particular case, it was Michael Jackson’s untimely death that lead to the cancellation of these concerts. But concert tours get cancelled for other reasons as well – poor ticket sales is one reason that comes to mind – and whenever it happens, a group of hardworking people behind the scenes is suddenly out of work. Something to think about the next time you go to a concert – for the price of a ticket or two, you have contributed to the livelihood of a whole lot of great people whom you will probably never meet or even see, but who have worked their butts off to try to give you a great show.
Thanks to all those hardworking crews out there – without you, the show really couldn’t go on.
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