The ultimate summer job...

[indyld]

Hi all,

 

As mentioned in a previous thread, On Stage Lighting has an interesting story about an 18 year old school leaver who is going to Glasters with a major lighting supplier. The article finds out how he got such a cool summer job and we be will giving him a grilling when he gets back to let us know how he got on in the lighting crew at a major festival.

 

Glastonbury 2008 - Dream Summer Job

 

In the meantime, as discussions as to what a lucky bugger he is can be held here at the Blue Room or you can leave him a message at OSL.

 

Cheers

[gareth]

The article finds out how he got such a cool summer job

That's easy - the article is quite clear on that. He demonstrated a willingness to learn (i.e. he didn't go steaming in with the "I'm only 17 but I'm a lighting programmer" mindset) ; he listened to, and took, advice ; he proved himself to be reliable ; and he had the right attitude to fit in with a professional lighting crew. It's those things that almost certainly set him apart from many of the young contributors to this forum, and will give him the opportunity to get the kind of good solid start in the business that some people have almost certainly denied themselves by virtue of what the internet tells us about them. A salutary lesson for everyone there, I think - and best of luck to Josh in his career.

[steve h]

The public liability insurance is what interests me in the article...such as how much does it cost and how do you go about getting it - Time to search the blueroom!

 

Im all for the if you dont ask you dont get and have got a couple of jobs just through phoning up and asking...such as my summer job :D

 

Steve

[indyld]

The public liability insurance is what interests me in the article...such as how much does it cost and how do you go about getting it - Time to search the blueroom!

 

I didn't find our the details of the PLI and wouldn't dream of publishing them anyway, but as Josh is 18 I assume that he did not have much trouble "going legit" before he started out.

 

How much? Usually starts at a few hundred quid a year.

 

Where from? Torribles and Fidelius (used to be Westward Counties) are quite popular brokers in the UK with freelancers.

[steve h]

Thanks...thats exactly what I needed to know! - will go investigating

[gareth]

PLI has been covered extensively on the BR in the past - particularly the advantages of BECTU membership in relation to PLI. Gooooogle time ...

[themadhippy]

Best of luck Josh, and a couple of tips

1)Avoid the local rot gut cider the locals sell for £5 a bathfull.It makes the morning after smell of apples,if you do decide to give it a try,water it down with white rum

2) Forget the tent/sleeping bag/waterproofs/hat/,take bin liners,lots of bin liners

3)The further into the weekend, the more valuable toilet paper,tobacco,cigarette papers,lighters,chocolate,bin liners etc become,and can often be traded for things like leathermen tools,swag,girlfriends,trade secrets ect

4)Skin drys quicker than clothes

5) Expect mud,no lots of mud,then double it

6)Avoid the brown aci , oops sorry, wrong festival

7) Don't bother with the sun tan lotion,some form of rust proofing would be wiser

And I hope all those working the festival thank fineline for bringing the tea boy :D

[jsimbaz]

Hey Guys

 

I'm Josh - the lucky fella from the article.

 

Thanks for all your tips and ideas so far!

 

I would be happy to answer any questions etc, just drop me a PM.

 

Josh.

[JDP]

I am not doing Glatonbury this year, but believe me, its seriously not a dream job. Spoke to a friend of mine today who is down there, and its raining and the mud is gathering. An ideal job for any school leaver is going to work for Ultimate experience at one of their summer venues. Its dry, mud free and you will have a decent amount of kit to play with.

[Genus]

I may be being slightly cynical, but having done some 'big jobs, great opportunities' type gigs in the past, they always seemed to me to be mostly humping about heavy cases, and doing very little actual rigging or even touching kit, let alone using any of it.

 

And, as noted above, outdoor gigs can be a right pain in the a**e, wet, muddy etc...

 

Anywho enough of my cynical opinion.

Good Luck Josh, hope it is/was fun and will get you more work in the future. (I don't even know when glastenbury is...)

 

Genus

[Wol]

I'll agree with Genus on a level there. I was given the opportunity to help work on a Bon Jovi gig when they were touring a couple of years ago. On first impression it sounds like a really good opportunity, but I heard from the others who did do the gig (annoyingly, I had one of my exams at uni the same day...), that it involved a lot of lugging around flightcases and staging etc, and not that interesting.

 

I'd guess (tell me otherwise) that one of the bigger opportunities with having the chance to work on a big gig is getting your face out there, and getting known by more people, thus leading onto more / better work.

 

Out of interest, Josh, what kind of work are you doing for over the Glasto festival? Unless I've missed it somewhere in the original article, it doesn't seem to state anywhere.

 

Hope you're enjoying the mud ;-)

[JDP]

Can anyone please point me to when Fineline became a "major lighting supplier" please? I am slightly baffled by this statement as the big players, doing the big stages at Glastonbury are Neg Earth and DPL?

[indyld]

As mentioned in the orginial post, OSL is going to be doing a follow up interview with Josh when he gets back. I wouldn't blame him for not posting here due the amount of doom, gloom and negative comment here.

 

The real Next Generation are likely to be too intimidated to dicsuss this interesting (to them) topic in case they get flamed too.

 

I disagree with most of the negatives expressed here. I know for a fact that there is plenty of opportunities to fit in and do some interesting work on Glastonbury, learning lots in the process. The crews are also helpful and friendly to beginners ( although, you would expect them to take the piss a bit), which is also something that has been discussed on this BB. Pity that those deciding to post here are in the "grumpy lampie" category. Good job we are not all like that or nobody would bother coming into our industry.

 

 

I have heard from Josh and he is getting on well rigging, fault finding and opping some of the stages in the day. All good experience I am sure you will agree. And yesterday the sun was out.

 

That is all from me. When the next article comes out, you can all make up your own minds.

 

BTW - The fact that JDP doesn't know that Fineline is a major lighting supplier on Glastonbury only shows ignorance I'm afraid. Fineline have been supplying kit and crew for the majority of the stages, save the larger two, for more years than I care to remember. This means that they have a huge amount of kit and crew all over the festival and puts them squarely in the major supplier league.

[Andy Mel]

Just to fill out the last post a bit - Fineline are supplying Acoustic, Cabaret, Circus, Outdoor Fire & Dance plus allsorts of other bits encompassing that end of the site with GLS sneaking in to the Avalon field!! It was only in recent years that DPL (major player??) started doing Jazz that for many years was Fineline territory also. Previous to this again in the early days of the Dance tent (90 whatever..) Fineline were also supplying. All in all making them the largest lighting contractor on site I would guess....

 

Personally this is the first time in 14 years I haven't worked it, of which I think the last 5 were for Fineline. I definately fall into the grumpy lampy territory, old enough to know better, hence a weekend at home and I'm loving it!!

 

Back to the original line of this discussion though - for someone to come into lighting and see how it works a trip to pilton can only be beneficial, you might not have the perceived glamour of the main stages but for real experience and meeting some great people its great.. I know many lampies who have had the glastonbury experience as part of the apprenticeship and I don't think it did any long term damage (mostly).

[jsimbaz]

Hey guys,

 

Thanks for the positive comments (shame about the not-so-positive, but I'll take the good with the bad).

 

Im going to be doing a follow-up interview with Rob over the next few days and hopefully this will give people a better insight into the work I did (I didn't make coffee once, by the way!).

 

Thanks again,

 

Josh.