Customer Reviews

Access All Areas: A Real World Guide to Gigging and Touring

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

ACCESS ALL AREAS shows promise for beginners in the music industry. It does give those breaking into the business a general overview about the mechanics of playing, recording and live music. It does have some helpful information about different types of microphones, effects, and live stage set up, etc... However, the book does not live up to what the title boasts about: many essential tips are left out. For example, the author does distinguish between the different types of microphones but fails to give the basic, but vital information, about mic placement. In addition, there is little detail about how this and other important issues concerning sound will affect the overall performance. The author does seem to focus a lot on the importance of not smoking pot on stage or while doing a gig. The book is good for beginners, but it will not hold up to your expectations if you hope to be a professional musician.

This book covers a lot of what you need to know about the technical aspects about touring and gigging. I don't know if it necessarily prepares you for doing a tour, but it doesn't hurt to have some of the knowledge in this book. You will find at least a quick rundown of the people you will run into, such as the sound guy, the light guy, and all the other people you won't think of right away. It also tells quite a bit about equipment you will need and that you will run across while gigging. As someone who has promoted shows in the past, I found this book to be more geared towards someone running a show, though. Whether a musician looking to do some gigging and touring, or someone looking to promote and run a show, you'll find some good interesting information here in an easy to read context.

Worth reading, but this is not the first book I would recommend. If you are wanting to tour, I would recommend How To Be Your Own Booking Agent (Revised 2nd Edition Updated) (whichever is the newest edition)

This got me up to speed very quickly with regards to managing a tour and looking out for what problems to expect on tour. The author obviously have a ton of experience and he leaves no stone unturned in handing it over to the reader. It's nice when people in the biz share like this. Invaluable!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!!!! AAA+++

My son has been involved with the lighting and sound productions for his high school drama productions for a couple of years. He's also a musician so he has an interest in both backstage and performance. This seemed like a good book to provide him with more information on the technical aspects of gigging. I found the book to be fairly basic in scope, but a great introduction for people less experienced in what goes on behind the scenes, especially if they are a new techie/roadie.

The book is very readable, in a conversational style. There are plenty of visual aids and I never felt overwhelmed with information while reading this book.

My son keeps this for reference now and has a good understanding of the material presented in this book.

The byline of "Access All Areas" claims to be "A real world guide to gigging and touring", however I must concur with a fellow reviewer here that there's far too little detail devoted to actual touring. As far as gigging, the text is an outstanding resource as it provides in great detail the intricacies of equipment setup and arrangement for live shows. What was most helpful to me was a itemized list of gear to bring to a show in order to be ready for any contingency (because as the book explains, a band's itinerary is often referred to as "the book of lies"). There's ample advice within to prepare for problems that may arise such as incompatible equipment connections (be sure to bring some adapters), things which the newcomer to the live scene might not think of prior to a performance.

As the reader delves into the book, there are plenty of helpful photographs and charts along with a quite good "theater glossary" and reasonably detailed index at the back of the book. What the text lacks in is authoritative and explicit content devoted to merchandising and touring - especially foreign travel/overseas touring. I can appreciate that the author perhaps has little knowledge of these areas, yet I was admittedly primarily interested in these areas as I have no experience in them whatsoever. Both are technically covered, but I can assure the curious that the text here isn't remotely helpful. For instance, the section on merchandising is only two paragraphs which I will condense into a single sentence: "Selling stuff at your shows is a good idea because it can make you money".

Sometimes, no matter what genre of music or measure of talent an artist has, the key to success is locating the right audience. Case in point, the American singer/songwriter Josh Ritter. Though he's well known in music circles, Ritter is almost completely unknown to the average American, whereas in Ireland he is a veritable celebrity. So much so that his most recent live album was recorded, filmed, and released entirely in Ireland alone. With that in mind, I would've liked to have seen greater detail devoted to the most likely foreign nations the American musician is bound to ply his trade.

These include nations such as Canada and some areas of Europe, most notably England and Ireland. This would be particularly beneficial to one who has never traveled abroad. Granted, once an artist attains enough clout and hires a competent manager, these things become much easier. Still, for those entrenched in the DIY mindset (such as myself), we want to know everything about everything prior to leaping into the fray. The book does include brief passages on passports and air travel, but nothing of serious pertinence. I only mention these things because the book clearly labels itself as a "guide for touring", when in fact the text is woefully inadequate in that area.

Despite these disappointments, "Access All Areas" still succeeds as an excellent guide to staging your own concert - particularly for those of us who are wholly unfamiliar with this world. There is painstaking detail devoted to stage setup and managing sound equipment, both of which are crucial elements to running a professional band. I would like to see, in a future edition, more text devoted to actual touring and merchandising, such improvements would possibly make this book indispensible to the up-and-coming musician. As it is, "Access All Areas" stands as a fine guide to setting up a stage and preparing for potential problems.

I am only giving this 3 stars because I feel the title and description are misleading. It really only covers setting up sound and lighting with the emphasis on the sound system. There is nothing about booking gigs, on your own or with an agent. Foreign touring, merchandising, promotion, setting up the van get barely a paragraph. There are many excellent books on sound already out there and if I had realized this was just another one I would not have ordered it.

In 'Access All Areas,' author Trev Wilkins manages to cram a lifetime of useful information about the technical side of rock-and-roll touring into 291 pages. Most of us will never be rock stars, but there are countless unglamorous but well-paying jobs that exist inside the business. The lead jobs are:

The sound engineer

The backline technician

Monitor engineer

Lighting engineer (Wilkins says this worker is often called the Lampie)

Tour manager

Stage manager

Within these job titles, there are many workers who support the managers, lead technicians and engineers, and in this book, the author offers a realistic and real-world explanation about the different jobs and what each involves and demands of the worker.

Each chapter after the first delves into specific detail on each aspect of the different jobs, including a breakdown of equipment, what it does, how to use it, and even a list of tools and supplies you should bring with you on the road.

Author Trev Wilkins dispels the myth once and for all about the glamour of traveling long distance on the road in a tour bus, the narrow bed, the noise, the delight of all the noise and racket that makes it difficult (sometimes impossible) to get a full night's sleep.

Ultimately what this book offers is a useful roadmap for anyone considering a career in the touring side of the music business. It's not a career that one picks, like going to dental school; this is a business that works almost entirely on personal contacts and networking.

Very basic book for those with no experience out on the road at all. Would be a great reference for those with interest in being out on the road touring, but not necessarily being a musician. My husband is a musician who has toured. He also read the book. He found it to be basic and informative as well for someone who wanted to tour with the band and not be in the band.

When I first opened the package containing this book, I wondered how the book could be damaged without the package being damaged because the book cover looked scuffed and worn. I quickly realized that the cover of this book was "stressed", to use a term from the clothing industry, to make it look road-worn as if it's been on the road with the band and their gear. I like this touch, it's a clever idea.

Success in any profession can be greatly accelerated if you have the opportunity to learn from someone with experience, someone who's "been there and done that", a mentor. You could consider this book to be an opportunity to pick the brain of a mentor, someone who has been on the road and knows the important tricks, techniques, and technology to succeed. If you learn the information covered in this book, you'll have an excellent understanding of many of the basics related to gigging.

As you can see from the chapter list below, this book covers a lot of ground and the nice thing is that it does this is a friendly, conversational manner. One added plus to this book is that it offers insights beyond the standard technical advice by also discussing topics like gossip, how to build and maintain a professional reputation, the need for a traveling crew to work as a family, and so on.

While this book is primarily written for roadies and the technical crew, I would strongly recommend it to anyone interested in working with bands in any capacity, including the musicians. My general rule-of-thumb is that "everyone on a team should be trained on everything."

The chapters:
Getting started
We are family
Ready to rock, but where is your gear?
Hello - Rehearsals and meetings
Arranging the gigs
The knowledge-basic knowledge that you need to know
Speakers and amps
Microphones and DI boxes
Monitoring
DQ, dynamics and effects
Mixing - Consoles and how they work
Connections - Plugs, sockets and cables
Lighting
Arrival - the venue and setting up
Testing one, two The Soundcheck
Good evening - the show
There and back again - Transport and accommodation

Trev Wilkins brings a enormous wealth of experience as a touring sound engineer and musician to his Access All Areas: a real world guide to gigging and touring, and he does so with humor, accessibility, and--as promised--realism. Wilkins' "guide" comes to only 267 pages minus glossaries and index. In that relatively short span, he manages to cover virtually everything a beginning to intermediate tech in live music or theater might need to know--from the logistical challenges of scheduling meetings, rehearsals, and gigs to the range of technical specifications in lighting, microphone and live speaker setups, and monitoring systems. This guide is immensely useful for musicians as well. While the typical musician is happy to simply "plug and play," so to speak, leaving all the tech stuff to the engineers, Wilkins makes a persuasive case for musicians becoming more knowledgeable about what goes on behind the boards so that they can take more ownership of the quality of their live sound. Access All Areas is littered with "real world" examples not only of gigs, and whole tours, that went right because of a level-headed and well-prepared crew, but also those shows that went horribly wrong, which are perhaps even more instructive, and cautionary. Wilkins is a Brit, and many of his experiences seem limited to touring the UK and Europe, but this presents no real challenge to American readers. The differences are minimal and fairly insignificant. Finally, while a reader with a little experience in all of the areas Wilkins covers might find some of his instruction rudimentary and a little dull, the book lends itself to a multitude of uses. The aforementioned index and glossaries are quite specific and provide handy points of reference for readers wanting to fill in certain gaps in their technical knowledge without having to wade through more seemingly remedial or unnecessary chapters. All in all, Access All Areas delivers what it promises, does so graciously, and should travel nicely with any gigging or touring tech, musician, producer, etc.