I have been backstage at many events, many times!  Like many things, the backstage experience has changed a lot over the years.

In the late 60’s, rock concerts were still a relatively new event and things could be pretty loose.  Many times someone with a good rap could talk themselves backstage rather easily. Before I was in radio I became quite an artist at gaining entrance to concerts and backstage areas. (See Richipedia   Sneaking Into Concerts).

The secret was to act alone.  Too many people tried to sneak in en masse. (This rule does not apply to good looking women!) I would go to a music store and buy a couple of packs of guitar strings for my guitar. I would then go to the stage door of the venue at least an hour before the show. If it was open, you walked right in as if you owned the place. (If you hesitated, you attracted attention as an interloper.)  If there is someone at the door, you hold up the bag and say in a very bored voice, “I got guitar strings for Spiv Beasely. The road manager called my store.” If the guy at the door hesitated, you would say, “I know where to go, I do this all the time.” And stroll in.  I did this several times and have never gotten stopped.  Once inside, you were home free as long as you stayed out of the way.  It never failed to amaze me that I could simply walk into many places and if you acted like you belonged there, no one would look twice at you. The local crew thought that I was with the road crew and the road crew assumed that I was a local. Security was extremely lax and amazing amounts of crashers could be found partying backstage. This would never work these days.

At first there was only one level of backstage pass. You would have the cloth sticker that had a logo of the band on it. It would say “Backstage” and you were good to go. Nowadays, depending on the stature of the act, there can be several levels to your pass.  One is “Before Show”. This is usually given to DJs  who will emcee, or people who are there for the “Meet and Greet”.  This means that you are usually ushered into a room by the road manager and told to stay there until it is time to go or meet the band.  Sometime the room may have a few snacks sitting on tables. Sometimes you never see anyone with the band and you never see anything else but that room, until you are led out onto the stage to do your thing.

There is also “After Show” which could be the same thing, just a different time.  “After Show” is very often distributed by roadies and given to select “ladies” in the audience. Some groups, like The Eagles, have special passes for the ladies. They say 3E. (Third Encore!)  Roadies will give them out to those in the audience who exhibit a certain “lust” for life.

The king of passes is “All Access”. This means that you rule and that you can go almost anywhere.  These are usually laminated and worn around the neck. The crew always has these.

Most times you don’t see the group at all until they emerge from their dressing rooms to get to the stage. The famous Spinal Tap scene where the group gets lost on the way to the stage is not out of the ordinary at all. Backstage areas can be very much like a maze and it is not uncommon to have signs with arrows stuck up on the walls by the road crew.  They may say things like  “Tuning Room”, “Catering” or “You are in St. Louis.”

Sometimes the road manager will actually make a lane with duct tape on the floor so that the artists can easily follow it to the stage.

If you have never been backstage at a concert it can be pretty exciting, but like many things that you do often, it comes to be “business as usual”.

We will cover more aspects of this in future Richipedias.