Roadie: My Life On The Road With Coldplay

This is an interesting look into the life of a guitar tech for Coldplay. Matt McGinn started out with musical ambitions of his own. However, he ended up settling on working for the guitarist of a young band. At the time Coldplay had started to gain some momentum, but were still not a big thing. They needed some help with their local tours in the UK and Matt signed on. Then their first record came out and started selling like crazy and Coldplay became a big thing. 

This book is the story of the life of a roadie. However, it would not be nearly as interesting if not coupled with the rise to fame of Coldplay. There is some "dirt" on Coldplay, but even the dirt makes them appear to be very nice blokes that occasionally let tempers flare in stressful situations. (And then make up and work together again.) Everything is not always peachy with the band, but they all seem to work hard to help each other. They share credits equally for all songs and freely hand out credits to any collaborators. (Having a lot of money to go around does make it easier to be so generous.) Chris Martin is the dominate personality. However, everyone else has an important role to play.

The roadies life differs greatly by the type of band. Coldplay now has a crew with somewhere in the vicinity of 100 people. There are the instrument techs, the carpenters, and many others. (You can see all the trucks lined up at a concert - there are plenty of drivers to go with these.)  This is a far cry from a young band that all fits in a van. 

The life of a roadie is something like a sailor. They are away from home for long periods of time, yet don't have much opportunity to enjoy their surroundings. They are working for a wage, and need to make sure the don't waste it and drinking or other vices. They also have an important job to do that can be very stressful. Everything must be set up right and tested. Bad things could happen and they must account for them and be able to adapt quickly and get things fixed.

As a guitar tech, the other became the most knowledgeable about the guitar gear. He was called in to help Jon (the Coldplay guitarist) set up his own gear to manage his sound. The tech knew about the equipment better than the guitarist himself. This lead to opportunities to join the band in the studio to help make records. The roadies have important skills that complement the musicians.