Want to experience life on the road with your favourite bands but possess all the musical ability of a toaster? 

Why not try and land yourself a job as a roadie, helping acts set up and look after their gear? 

Here at London Speaker Hire, we love all things to do with the techy side of music, and if you’re the same then it could be the dream job for you, and you may even get a taste of what it’s like to tour the world like a rock star.

For more information on what roadies do and what qualities you need to succeed, check out the job profile on the National Careers Service site.

It’s not exactly an industry that you see jobs being advertised for and the information on how to get into it isn’t that readily available, so we’ve put together these five top tips.

Know what you’re getting yourself into

Being a roadie isn’t your typical 9 to 5 job, which is probably half of what makes it so exciting, but it’s important to know what the job is going to entail. 

While it may all seem very glamorous, life as a roadie can be tough, and you’re going to be lugging around lots of heavy equipment and working in high-pressure environments to make sure that everything goes smoothly. 

And don’t assume that you’re going to be setting things up for your favourite band at Wembley.  

You’ll have to work your way up the ladder and work with some acts and bands that you’d probably never dream of usually listening to.

Decide on your specific role

If you just go searching on job websites for ‘roadie’ jobs, you’re unlikely to get many results, and will need to be more specific.

In actual fact, there’s a whole host of different jobs for road crew. For example, when most people think of roadies they think of the techy side of things, looking after audio, lighting, and video.

Having said this there are also many other roles, whether they’re working for the venue as security or as part of an in-house tech team, as part of the band or artist’s crew, perhaps as a stylist, a masseuse or rigger.

Go it alone

As we’ve said, roadie jobs aren’t exactly advertised like a normal career, so you need to set up your own freelance business and make things happen for yourself. 

Being a roadie isn’t a full-time job and while you could find yourself out on the road for a couple of weeks at a time, there could also be long periods of downtime where you find yourself without work.

Being self-employed means that you can be flexible and once you finish one tour, can go on to work for a different band and essentially just go where the work is, doing as much or as little as you need. 

Getting your foot in the door

Much like other job,s a big part of being a roadie isn’t what you know, but who you know!  

You’ll want to get as much experience as possible, even if it’s unpaid to begin with. Start out by getting in touch with any local bands of venues who you think could maybe do with a hand.

Even if you’re just turning up to restring guitars or essentially act as a personal assistant to the band, proving yourself as a dedicated and useful worker will go a long way, and will make you lots of useful local contacts.

Keep at it

Eventually after proving yourself as something who knows their stuff and is happy to put the work in, the paid jobs should start to roll in.  

But don’t get complacent! There are always new skills and techniques that you can learn to put into practice and give you the edge over other local roadies.

And never be too picky over the jobs you take. Doing work for local theatres or community events is just as important as working for the local music venue, and it’s all totally relevant experience which will come in handy during your career.