Our second Crew Q&A is with Francois Elalfy aka Mido, a freelance Tour Manager and Sound Engineer currently working with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Temples.

He has been touring worldwide since 2007 with major artists including Kaiser Chiefs and Yellowcard, following seven years running and promoting Leeds venue Josephs Well, and a role at the Dance to the Radio record label.

We grabbed 5 with him to discuss life on the road….

You ran a venue and worked at a record label before becoming a freelance tour manager and sound engineer. What was it that inspired the move to touring? 

It kind of happened by accident! One of the bands I was looking after at the label, iForward, Russia!, had their FOH engineer leave shortly before a tour was due to start.  I’d done venue sound and a Music Tech/Electronics degree, so they asked if I fancied covering the run.  That was February 2007, and I haven’t stopped touring since (apart from now, of course).

You’ve worked with huge bands such as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Futureheads. How did you get work with all these artists?  

They tend to lead into each other – rarely had to apply cold for a job. Futureheads came from working with bands that supported them (Grammatics and I Was A Cubscout), BRMC came because Rob happened to be at a Temples LA show and liked what I did.

I got The Twang because I’d done smaller bands with the same management (Red Light Company), I got Yellowcard as they were huge fans of Saves The Day who I’d worked with….

It’s a pretty small industry, which can be great in times of need, but also means reputations are valuable and very visible at times!

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ l’Ancienne Belgique, Bruxelles, 30/05/2019

What’s the one item on tour that you can’t live without?  

I could say something contrite or witty, but honestly it’s probably good red wine.  It’s my way of unwinding after a long day, shutting out the noise and flicking the switch. I do usually share it with the band and crew, of course.

We’ve all heard of the post event blues that comes after working 24/7 on the road. How do you manage your wellbeing between tours? 

I tend to ‘binge detox’ when I get home, avoid listening to much music to get my ears back (they start to feel compressed after a few weeks on the road), and exercise and sleep well, both of which are hard in a bus bouncing around freeways.

Sadly as a tour manager, the time in between tours is also full of admin, accounts, advancing, pre-production, booking crew, travel and equipment etc., so in real terms I’m lucky to get a handful of full, real, days off in a month or so break between tours.

You’ve been in event and sound production for many years – what has changed in the industry since you started? 

Much of it is the same from crew perspective but since when I started it was the tail end of bands touring to sell physical records. Now bands ‘release’ records for stream to sell concert tickets, as the revenue stream has swapped almost completely.

This also makes merch a much bigger deal on the road, as without show fees, overage, performance royalties and merch sales, the band isn’t a viable business anymore. There’s much more emphasis on making the road profitable compared to previously, likely having tour support from labels as it was seen as a promotional activity.  I see more spreadsheets than most businesses!  

Other than that the big change in audio has been the complete move to digital desks.  When I started almost every venue, festival and tour still had huge analog consoles with racks of outboard, now they’re seen almost as a treat on the road, and usually not in full working order.

Finally, what’s your favourite memory from being on tour?  

After 13 years and around 40 countries around the world, it’s hard to pick one moment! Maybe my first trip to Japan and getting mistaken for the keyboard player in the band. They didn’t understand my protestation so I ended up having to do photos and sign their CDs anyway at a festival in Osaka. Ha. We did both have the same haircut, so not their fault, I guess!

Follow Francois ‘Mido’ Elalfy online: