Riders & Advancing
A rider is more than a list of food demands such as only green M&Ms. It’s the written document that specifies every detail a local promoter needs to know to get an artist’s show on stage. Advancing is the process of working through those details prior to the show day. Jen and Jim Digby, Director of Touring for Linkin Park, will dig into this topic with tangible takeaways for all levels of touring.
We covered A LOT in this workshop. Scroll down for more info, and resources mentioned.
Full workshop video:
Special Guest:
Jim Digby - Show Maker, Speaker, Philanthropist
Jim has spent three decades bringing celebrated talent to stages across the globe. Longtime Director of Touring for multi-platinum recording artists Linkin Park, he has shepherded productions for diverse and high-profile clients including Enrique Iglesias, Backstreet Boys, Marilyn Manson, The Bolshoi Ballet, Phil Collins, and Bon Jovi.
Jim’s is passionate about event safety, sharing professional knowledge, and driving positive change in the industry. He is the Co-Founder and Chairman of the Event Safety Alliance, and recently co-founded the “Show Maker Symposium”, a non-profit designed to educate, develop standards, and strengthen the live event community.
Jim is a board member of the Behind The Scenes Foundation, 4-time Tour Link Production Manager of the Year, and the 2012 Parnelli’s “Production Manager of the Year” award. He regularly serves as a conference keynote speaker where he speaks on matters relating to event safety, event production as a trade, and the often challenging human condition in live events.
Muse load-in time lapse:
Rider sections and topics to cover in advance:
About Us / Contact Info:
Management
Tour Team
Routing
Typical Run of Day
Hospitality & Dressing Rooms
Meet & Greets
Security
Press & Promo
Ground Transportation
Technical
Audio
Rigging Plot
Power
Stage details & photos
Labor needs
Resources mentioned in the workshop (thanks to David ‘5-1 Norman for providing most of these):
Well Dunn organization (Internships with a monthly stipend)
SoundGirls (Directory of women crew that can be used as a resource for hiring)
Girls Behind The Rock Show Networking Group (Group of 8,000+ women and non-binary people who work in
music) and GBTRS Main FB Page
She is the Music (Database of women working in all facets of music - touring, studio, etc.)
Color of Music Collective The Color of Music Collective was started to amplify the voices of people of color and LGBTQ+
individuals working in the music industry. Our goal is to change the lack of representation for
these groups in music by uniting our communities. We want to hear from the crew, production
team, photographers, A&R, artist managers, promoters — you name it.
From Alexander Prince: Inclusion Riders - something that I worked on as a student at USC - were found to be the best
method after gathering (or seeing the lack thereof) statistics of diversity in TV /
Film. This inclusion rider has now been adopted by many different vendors and
companies within the TV/Movie world. TMs/PMs/Management companies definitely would be
able to adopt these for our tours.
From Eddie Urdiales: Jane Elliot “Take a Walk In My Shoes” exercise
If you find value in the workshops, and have the means, I’d greatly appreciate a tip to keep this workshop machine running. I will donate a portion of all proceeds to help roadies out of work during the pandemic. Thank you!
