What Happens When Bands Get Bigger
Twelve months after their festival debut, Intrinsic Flaw are back… Bigger stages. Bigger crews. Bigger egos. Same problems with space and time.
Twelve months ago, Intrinsic Flaw made their festival debut on Stage Four at Reverberation.
Small stage, small van, shared backline, one dressing room and 5 school friends having the time of their lives.
Well… things have changed a bit.
Jack Saunders stuck by his word and supported them on his influential BBC Radio One show, which generated a bit of buzz on music sites, in turn leading to a few daytime plays. A viral video featuring the track alongside scenes from The Traitors also boosted their exposure and following, and they ended the year on the shortlist of the Sound Of BBC poll but didn’t win.
While all this was going on, the plugger hooked the band up with an agent and a management company. Suddenly, they were getting support slots around the UK and Europe, and signing deals with a very cool label for releases and publishing.
*(What is a plugger? Imagine a very, very expensive postie that delivers music to a radio DJ/Producer and says “this is brilliant, you should play it” and if they do play it, the postie, sorry plugger, gets a bloody bonus!!)
The plan for this year is to do the festivals, then announce their first proper headline tour.
It’s all, very, very exciting.
The new management company have called in the services of several industry pro’s that they know, as the band needs:
a front-of-house engineer (the sound the audience hears) called Dave
a monitor engineer (the sound on stage that the band hear) called Monty
an LD (creates a lighting spectacle that suits the band with a basic lighting floor package) called Lizzie
as well as a Guitar Tech (Gagan), Drum Tech (Plums) and Bass Tech (Jase), meaning no band member needs to set up anything anymore.
And lastly, there’s old school mate, part of the gang, Dan the driver, who is no longer driving, as he’s the Tour Manager (but little does he know that his career will last longer than the bands)
This little gang that started out as five schoolmates, Dan the driver, and the lead singer’s girlfriend, squeezed into a smelly van, has now doubled from 6 people to 12… plus the bus and truck drivers = 14
Their rider is the same for when the 6 of them started out, but doubled and more demanding. It includes the needs of the 6 new members of the touring team, special premium lager, water imported from Fiji, red wines, white wines and bottles of spirits, far too much for 14 people to consume in a week, let alone a single night.
They’ve gone from one dressing room to three;
one for the band,
one for the crew (which includes Dan the driver and now the TM)
and one for the lead singer, and his girlfriend.
They’ve also learnt from other bands that they can demand after-show drinks, and freshly pizza, made on a festival site and delivered to their bus. Much of this pizza gets thrown away, as does the humus, crisps, soft drinks and a local tea towel that they have demanded, as the band ‘stay skinny, ‘cos they just don’t eat’ [(c) The dreadful Knickleback], and there’s only so much shit the pro touring techs can handle. The bus & truck drivers, however, feel it’s a waste, and like fat gerbils, gather up as much as they can carry for snacking on later.
The band themselves have also learned from other bands that they need certain “pick-me-ups” before a show, to get over the hangover from the show, the night before.
What used to be great fun backstage is now just a routine.
Without anything to set up, they arrive, drink, do the show, drink, wake up in the afternoon in another town to do another show; arrive, drink, do the show, drink… and the rest.
If interviewed by anyone, it’s always the same dull, obvious questions, which get the same dull, repeated responses, always directed to and answered by the lead singer.
But with all these things going on behind the scenes, for the casual observer, things are going well for Intrinsic Flaw.
They are back at Reverberation Festival, they’ve jumped from the 4th stage to the 2nd stage in 12 months, and are 4th from the top.
Not many bands do this, by the way, normally it’s a slow and steady progression - and things are different on Stage 2 compared to Stage 4.
Obviously, it’s MUCH BIGGER, and often bands are playing to their biggest audiences to date on a path that will take them to headlining the Main Stage.
On The BBC Radio One / NME stage at Reading, a stage I managed from 1999 until 2025 (when I finally got promoted to Main Stage!) I saw iconic debut performances from artists like Florence & The Machine, Royal Blood (literally everyone backstage stopped, looked at each other, and went to watch), Mumford & Sons (before they became what they became), Nothing But Thieves (Wine snatchers), The 1975 (Matty briefly joining our after-festival party), Disclosure, Bring Me The Horizon - so many
As mentioned, Intrinsic Flaw are 4th from the top on the 2nd stage at Reverberation on the Saturday. For me, Saturday is the best time for a band to play at a festival, Friday no one really knows what’s going on or how everything gels together, and Sunday everyone is thinking of packing up and going home.
Saturday is where the magic happens, for bands and fans.
Anyway, here is the lineup for the day, with load-in times;
Here’s the Production Master for the stage, detailing what has been agreed in advance, and a big part of the puzzle that organises the seemingly chaotic.
The Production management team spend months compiling this, from the initial advance, to subsequent discussions, squabbles, compromises, reality checks, and agreements.
It’s what I use to create my day sheets, condensing this info into manageable, quick-to-reference sheets that fit in my urban combat utility slack’s right pocket. Here’s Intrinsic Flaw’s
As mentioned earlier, the stage is way bigger, as artists bring loads more stuff, there’s never enough space, and never enough time - not only on the stage and backstage, in the cow sheds (monitor world, dimmer world, front of house) and on the dock, the stage manager’s role is to not only run the stage efficiently but all these areas too.
Monitor packages take time to set up, floor lighting packages can take longer than the backline, and they can be the major cause of backstage squabbles.
Here is Reverberation Stage 2
Luckily for Intrinsic Flaw, the artist on stage before them, Twat Factor, is a DJ and an MC. Why is this lucky? Well, they don’t bring much equipment with them, and don’t take up much space, meaning the changeover is really quick.
That doesn’t mean it’s an easy ride, DJ’s always turn up late, expect everything as they’ve forgotten to bring anything. Headphones. Slip mats. Laptops. I’ve even had one that literally forgot to bring anything and was asking to borrow everything, even another DJ’s sacred USB stick.
Throw in an MC too, who really just needs to borrow a radio Mic, but they usually bring a truck full of attitude.
Fortunately, that doesn’t need a parking space on the dock.
Saturday 15:30
A Piece Of Leeds are onstage (name collected at Reading 2024, Beebadoobee had a bit of the Leeds tent with her), backstage, the headliners Soggy Bunting (name collected at BBC Radio One’s Big Weekend Liverpool 2025 from Sam Beecham) are storing their 4x 8x8 risers, extensive floor package, and in the cow sheds, stage left and right, monitors and dimmers. This stuff came in overnight (See earlier post, A Typical 24 hours on a
Festival Main Stage) and will stay in place until their show.
Also set up are Fake Hedges, Dusty Fixtures, and Twat Factor, and because the DJ / MC combo have very little, the Stage Manager has invited Intrinsic Flaw to load in early. Lucky them!
As you watch the flow of the stage, look how many bands are setting up backstage whilst bands are onstage, and how the changeovers work clockwise - including the additional elements into the monitor world cow shed.
Saturday 18:35
Twat Factor have done what they do, and finished their set on time; it’s now time for Intrinsic Flaws’ changeover. The local stage crew, Intrinsic Flaw’s own crew and the festival audio team needed to get everything into place, plugged in, and line-checked. By the time the band appear, 10 mins before the show, everything should be ready to go.
Jack Saunders and his Radio 1 team are back, he’s going to introduce them, and on arrival, there’s a buzz about the show, from the gathered punters to the band and their crew backstage.
But someone is missing. The lead singer, with his every present girlfriend, appears 5mins before the show, with the band’s management.
The Stage Manager does a final round of checks to see if everyone is ready, and that the band are ready, as well as reminding the band and crew of the show stop procedure, and then gives them a 1-minute to show call.
The Bass player regrets not going to the loo earlier, the drummer cracks his knuckles, and a sweaty Dan the driver watches as Gagan frantically gaffa tapes down the set list to the stage, and Plums adds another 4 pack of ice cold Stella to the drum riser.
The stage manager checks the time again, despite already knowing exactly what time it is, and checks everyone is ready, including BBC Radio 1, who are recording this for future broadcast.
It’s 18:50, and it’s showtime.
Jack Saunders walks out on stage and gives the band glowing praise, and warms the already hot revellers into a sweaty mess.
The lead singer’s girlfriend enthusiastically snogs the lead singer in front of everyone like he’s headlining Glastonbury, and the band walk on, do their stuff to an ever increasingly big audience and, as they say, smash it.
19:30 and the band finish on time, and walk off to huge applause with chants for one more (no chance.) The Lead singer stays on stage to soak up the adoration, the rest of the band heads back to their dressing room in search of cold beers, as their techs start to unplug everything, ready for the changeover.
Finally, the lead singer leaves the stage, and the stage manager gives the cue to the stage crew to swing into action to get Intrinsic Flaw’s stuff off stage, and Howard’s Van on stage in the changeover game of sweaty tetris, with 25mins to complete it.
Backstage, however, all does not appear to be well. The Lead Singer looks a bit pissed off about something and is making several gestures aimed towards Dan the driver. He eventually leaves the backstage area, heading to his dressing room, the girlfriend his ever present shadow, and a concerned manager.
Whilst the crew, Monty the monitor engineer, Gagan, Plums, Jase and eventually Lizzie lighting and Dave (who have been at front of house) get stuck into the load out with the local stage crew, packing everything back up, and getting it back in the truck.
Dan the driver has been summoned to the lead singer’s dressing room by the bands management. The lead singer is not happy - unnoticed by the crowd, there was a little bit of feedback in his in-ear monitoring. Dan the driver, as the tour manager, is taking the blame for this, and that there were not enough bottles of Fiji water in place on stage. Worse still, the Fiji water bottle lids hadn’t been loosened in advance.
Artists genuinely request this because apparently twisting a bottle cap whilst onstage is now beneath humanity.
Dan the driver is shocked it’s come to this, he’s been a mate of the bands since the start, known them for years, and whilst he’s put up with the Lead Singer’s attitude and requests over those years, he’s had enough, and walks out before he is sacked.
The rest of the band can hear all of this going on, as their dressing room is right next door to the lead singer’s. But they don’t go and defend Dan the driver, or thank him. They remained seated, drinking the cold lager and dipping Doritos into the fine selection of dips, as requested on their rider.
Outside the dressing room, Dan the driver collects his stuff from the bus and walks away from the stage and old school friends for the last time.
The crowd erupt at the end of Doncaster Presley’s set, drowning out the sound of his suitcase wheels rattling across the backstage trackway, the festival carrying on without noticing.
Festivals move on quickly.
Bands usually find out the hard way that the music industry does, too.