Solent music: An afternoon with tour manager Steve Cheney

Steve Cheny is a man of many hats. With 30 year's experience in the music industry, Steve has worked in tour management, stage management, production, tour accountancy and, most recently, as a music industry liaison officer for the National Skills Academy. He's spent many years working as the production contact for promotion companies such as Asgard, 3A Entertainments and Kilimanjaro. He's also worked as a stage manager for the main stages at Glastonbury, Latitude, Big Chill and Reading and Leeds Festivals.

It's this experience that brought Steve to Solent, where he spoke with music students about starting a career in the music industry, being effective in a live music environment and keeping everything in perspective. Solent Music have put together a list of Steve's best tips from the day:

• Stage managers at festivals need to ensure the everything runs on time, whatever the cost. Overrunning the curfew can cost promoters as much as £1000 a minute.
• Be lucky and get lucky. Some of it does come down to being in the right place at the right time.
• Never be afraid to ask questions. People like to see you’re interested and keen to learn.
• Be good, nice and always on time.
• Don’t stick with emails only. Be a bit of a pain, go from door to door, catch people face to face.
• No matter how badly it’s going wrong, there are only 24 hours in a day and it’s going to end at some point.
• We’re not saving babies in the music industry, so you have to keep a sense of perspective. It’s important to stay calm and not overthink things.
• Steve got to where he is by working in his university’s entertainment department. Be proactive and say yes to every opportunity that comes your way.

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