Don’t Kick the Can Down the Road: Bernie Boyle on Tour Manager Advice (Episode 4)

Everything you do is an audition.

What do The Beatles, Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson have in common? They all called on tour manager Bernie Boyle to get their shows on the road. In Episode 4 of The Career Musician, Nomad sat down with Bernie in Johannesburg, South Africa, for a set of stories that cover about 45 years on the road.

Bernie calls himself "just an old guy that managed to hang on." What he really is, is proof that a career in this business is built on showing up, being useful and handling the details nobody else wants to handle. If you want tour manager advice straight from the source, this is it.

Start by being useful

Bernie grew up in Liverpool and left school at 16, as kids did then. A guy he met on the train took him to a lunchtime show in a cleared-out warehouse club, and then to a place called the Cavern. On a return visit, four guys in black leather were on stage. They were The Beatles.

He was, in his words, a cheeky kid, and he got to know them. He started humping gear in and out of the Cavern, became a general gofer, and went with them to Hamburg in 1962. Back home, their manager Brian Epstein gave him a job at his store and sent him out putting up posters, taking tickets and running lights. A general dogsbody.

A few years later, someone asked if he knew how to set up gear. John Mayall needed a guy to help carry his B3 organ up and down staircases. That job brought him to America, where he got promoted to road manager. From there came Cat Stevens, Electric Light Orchestra, The Tubes, Air Supply, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Satriani, Black Sabbath, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney.

Nobody started Bernie at the top. He started by carrying the heavy end of the organ. Work begets work.

Your reputation remembers you

On the McCartney tour, Bernie was introduced to Paul as the new tour manager. They hadn't seen each other in at least 25 years. Paul said he knew him, kept looking at him all day, and the next day asked: isn't that our Bernie who came to Hamburg? He came out, grabbed Bernie around the neck and told everyone he had known him since he was 17.

Later, when something went sideways on that tour and Bernie made it right, somebody said Bernie's a good guy. Paul's answer: he learned from the best.

Nomad's note on that story: it feels good when people recognize you even when you're not jumping up and down saying look at me. Do the job well for long enough, and the work speaks for you.

Do it yourself: the day sheet rule

Nomad loves that Bernie still does bag call, so the band isn't juggling a guitar, a backpack, a computer and a suitcase. Bernie explained that modern airport security has made a lot of that impossible on fly dates, but on a bus tour he can still do it. The point is to make things run smoothly where he can.

His other habit: a printed day sheet under every door, even though people get them by email now. Phones die. And he does it himself, instead of tipping a bellman to do it.

"The last thing I want to hear from some guy who's late in the lobby is, hey man, I didn't get my day sheet. Well, you did, because I stuck it underneath your door."

Bernie Boyle, 17:32

Read your day sheet. Check your itinerary. There are a lot of moving parts on a tour, so do your part and be where you are supposed to be. Reliability beats virtuosity.

Don't kick the can down the road

Nomad asked Bernie for words of wisdom for young musicians and crew. After a joke about plumbing school, he got serious.

"Don't be kicking the can down the road. Check everything yourself. Dot all the i's, cross all the t's yourself."

Bernie Boyle, 22:09

Sending an email to the guitar player and the bass player doesn't mean your job is done. Follow up. Make sure they got it and understood it, so there can be no screw-up. And don't delegate something you can do yourself just because you are being lazy.

His tip for everyone on the receiving end is just as simple. When someone asks you to confirm receipt, reply. All you have to say is "got it." That is Low maintenance / no drama in two words.

And if somebody in the band is a problem? Don't let it fester. Go to his room, sit down with him, and talk it out. You are all out there together trying to make a living.

Project over the footlights

Bernie feels the business has changed, and not for the better. He came up in the sixties and seventies, when there was more of a family spirit and people looked out for each other. In his view it started to sour when the bean counters showed up and everything became about the bottom line.

He pointed to an old theater idea: the job is to project over the footlights to the back of the hall. With all the production razzamatazz now, he worries we lose the pure essence of people performing. Bring back the music, and let the old-school style of performing live on in every show you do.

The takeaway

Bernie's career started with carrying gear and running posters, and it lasted because he checks everything himself and follows up until it's done. Be the person who says "got it," reads the day sheet and shows up on time. If you are aiming for your first tour, the free Get the Gig guide is a good place to start.

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

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