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pepperthemerchgirlextraordi-blog · 9 years

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The Rolling Stones, Working With Merch Mike Again, and A Step Ahead

I'm going to start by saying this:

The Cardinal Rule of Merching is merch is always the first one in the venue and the last one to leave; you stay until the job is done with no exceptions.

Merch Mike taught me that rule very early on. It was one of my early lessons when I interned with him on The All-American Rejects tour. We always were running to the truck to load up the return boxes of merchandise, the rest of the crew ready to get on the road already. I'm glad I learned that lesson because trust me at a show as big as The Rolling Stones its one you definitely don't want to break especially when the big dogs from the merchandise company you want to work for more than life are all pretty much there.

I had been harassing Kevin to work The Rolling Stones gig since he told me about it, full knowing that Merch Mike would be working it through Bravado. I was determined to get the gig, the mere idea of working even just in the same city as Merch Mike again more than I could handle. It had been far too long. Ten months, to be exact, since he taught me to do merch inventory and organize a truck when he was on the Cher tour.

Finally, I got the word from Kevin that I had gotten the gig, but instead of working that Friday and Saturday, I would only be needed on show day. I was beyond excited. BEYOND.

However, Rob in Rochester was heading up the local crew for the show. I don't agree with how Rob runs things. Personally I fell it's unorganized and not thought out as well as it should be. But despite what I might think, the dude has a successful business of his own, has a pretty huge crew, is connected to I don't even know how many other crews, and works for Live Nation. So, thinking about it that way he's got to be doing something right and clearly knows enough about the business to be staying in it successfully. He's a nice guy and I don't mind working a show with him once in a while, I'm just glad I don't work big shows with him all the time. After interning for Merch Mike anything less than a perfectionist is just sort of hard to work for. So, nothing against Rob, we just have different views on some stuff, but either way I know I could learn a lot from him just as I've learned a ton from Kevin.

I was nervous driving out Thursday night after work. There had been something that had happened in between Merch Mike and I's last conversation and the day I was driving out to see him. Until, Wednesday night I wasn't even sure if he still was cool with me staying in his hotel, but luckily he forwarded me the hotel information (I would have been totally screwed otherwise) and I made the drive out to Buffalo. Usually I love the long drives. It gives me tons of time to think things over. But this time I had far too much on my mind to be able to focus.

After dropping off my bags in the hotel Merch Mike and I and two of the other Bravado merch crew (Louis and Jay) headed out to grab some food. Apparently we were having a family dinner and cell phones weren't allowed. Because apparently adults eating at Cheesecake Factory means family time in merch land. It was cool to meet a couple more guys from Bravado, despite Jay being the dude who got my gig with Merch Mike on Alice in Chains. Not that I'm bitter or anything. He was a cool dude. But I'm gonna give him hell at the last three Alice In Chains shows, cuz I'm interning come hell or high water and he's just gonna have to deal.

Friday morning after Merch Mike headed to the stadium for work; I got myself moving and headed over to the Buffalo Botanical Gardens. It was pretty freaking awesome and if you're going to Buffalo and have a few extra hours it's definitely something worth seeing. After that I hit the nearby mall and then headed back to the hotel.

Merch Mike didn't get back to the hotel until later in the evening, around nine. Shortly after Louis, Merch Mike and I loaded into their rental car and headed to Duff's, one of the wings places in Buffalo. We ate and talked, and drank, me as usual drinking more than I intended.

Saturday morning we headed to the stadium and got there around 9:30. I was the first of the local staff to arrive, arriving before Rob. Merch Mike made the decision I'd stay with him for a little while. I chilled in the golf cart while he got on the truck and started getting things loaded on the golf cart to begin his work day. At about ten I noticed Rob pull into the parking area. Merch Mike drove me over and I hugged him bye for the day full knowing I probably wouldn't see him again until the very end of the show.

Rob put me to work right away. Turns out I was second in command of a whole booth, which was kind of awesome. It wasn't too long after this that Kevin, Jessica, Pat, Andrea, and Gage from the Albany crew arrived at Merch Headquarters. Tensions were already rising when Kevin learned that his crew had been split into different stands. To be fair to both Kevin and Rob I can understand both points of view. Kevin wanted his crew together because we all work good together and get shit done which completely makes sense. Rob probably wanted some of his own staff in the booth for checks and balances which again makes sense too. I get it. However, what went down next, I don't get so much. Again, that's why I'm glad I don't work for Rob full time. Once in a while I don't mind at all.

I stayed behind to get the tags together as Rob had instructed me to do. I usually just do what I'm told and go with it. I hadn't realized however that Kevin and Jess were the only two people in our booth or that our stand needed to be ready for a crew sale at 3:00, or that the rest of the people for our stand weren't showing up until after four. Now it would make sense to have more people in the booth that needs to get ready first then to have the least amount of people there. Just saying. So of course by the time I get to the booth, Kevin's really ticked off. I start working right away.

Once three came around we still weren't completely ready to begin the crew sale. None of our prices were up, we'd barely had enough time to get the display up and all the product off the tables. We had to count in everything to verify our numbers and it took time considering there was a ton of merchandise. When the head of the merch crew, Bill for Bravado, came over we pretty much looked like morons. As we were getting prices up a whole ton of people showed up at the booth to work the sale. I looked at Jessica and shook my head. Her and I finished the display while the other people handled the half-price crew sale and then we went to quickly go grab their cooler from the car.

When the crew sale was over we did a quick restock and then finally our remaining booth mates arrived. Four additional people and Rob was nice enough to give us Gage back, and good thing too considering two of the other four people had never sold merch before in their lives. Now, let me just say this, as a newbie to this business myself I was shocked by the amount of business this show did. With that said, I was also shell shocked the first night I sold merch. There's a system to how things work. You hold your money a certain way, you grab shirts a certain way, you replace them a certain way, you restock a certain way, and everything is done a certain way. It's done that way because then when its crazy busy you can look at a box of shirts and know if you have the size or not, you already have change in your hand and you can make that sale faster which means you can get more sales in before people begin to get annoyed and walk off without merchandise. In a business where you're getting paid a percentage of sales, the more sales you make the more money you end up with. So needless to say knowing the system is really important. To put two kids who had never sold before in a booth at a stadium show was a huge mistake. They were a fucking mess. Despite getting a run down of how we do things (which is pretty much how every merch crew does things) they didn't listen. I swear I have never been so annoyed in my life. If a customer doesn't want the shirt put it back in the right fricking place on the box so it's not mixed in the wrong size. The newbie's made so many mistakes it was unreal.

Don't get me wrong, I've made my fair share of mistakes through all this. Merch Mike could tell you countless stories and Kevin's probably got a few too. I am far from perfect, but I know the basics. And I've only ever been short once. So I must be doing something right.

Doors opened at 6pm. We were swamped literally right when gates opened. I've never had a rush take so long to die out. We were swamped like that until probably 9:30 or 10:00. When it finally died down I sat for a moment, my legs killing from already being on my feet for 12 hours. I sat at first in front of the drop box we had for the hundred and fifty dollar bills. Most merch people don't like to keep bills that large in their hand so we usually toss them in a drop box or a cash box. The newbies were using the drop box for all their money and making change from it for every sale. You can't see but I'm rolling my eyes and shaking my head over this.

Jessica, Kevin, and Gage took off for a few to handle other business so I was left in charge of the other kids in the booth. I sat on the table for about twenty minutes before getting up and beginning to straighten the booth and restock. When asked to help straighten and restock they pretty much ignored me and continued to dick around on their cell phones. So I did it by myself. Then I sat back down and chilled until the ending rush started.

End rush lasted until probably about 12:30 or one. When it was over we started immediately packing everything up and counting out our booth. None of us were too thrilled by the idea of being there super late and Kevin and Jess had said they were cool to drop me at Merch Mike and I's hotel if I got cut early. When count out was done, and merch was packed, Merch Mike came over and he and his crew started pulling down the booth. I smirked and tried to keep up doing what needed to be done. I only got yelled at by Kevin once for not paying attention. Trust me that's a record for me when Merch Mike is involved.

Once we finally got back to Merch Headquarters is when the real fun began. Now keep in mind there were probably about 14 stands for this show. That's a ton of merch crew. So as expected Rob started cutting people right away because honestly not all the people were going to fit in the room anyway let alone be helpful trying to marry all the merch back together so we could get a final count. Once everything was married together the final counting began and the Albany crew and pretty much anyone else still left took a back seat while Merch Mike and the Bravado guys got in and started getting the numbers together.

Now, I'm going to point out that I had told Kevin over and over and over and over that we weren't getting out of the stadium until six in the morning and to plan accordingly regardless of what Rob would tell him. I knew this because Merch Mike had been telling me all about each and every show including what time he got out of each show, the average being six. Just once I'd love it if people actually listened to me when I told them things. I mean I know I'm new to merchandising but fuck, I learn really fast and I learned from like the best in the business (I'd like to point out that Bravado is quickly learning that Merch Mike is the best in the business so I'm correct saying it). Not to mention that I've gone from nothing to a top seller for the TU in like a few months. Just saying, I'm not a complete fuck up you know?

At around 4am Sunday, Rob cut the rest of his local crew, the Albany crew still there. That honestly was a bad mistake, one that was probably just not thought out too well at the early hour after a hard day of merching. I get it. But despite that, it was a poor decision and one that really pissed Kevin off. I mean I was pissed off too, especially since we had been sitting there for hours waiting to box up the merch. Granted there's no way Rob could have known how long it was going to take for Bravado's crew to pack up the stuff for Canada which is why it was taking so long to get to the point where we could box of the remaining merch for the warehouse. By 4:30 Kevin made the decision to storm out. He basically threw a temper tantrum in the merch area and took his whole crew with him. I stayed. I knew better than to leave and was grateful I had another ride and was staying in a different hotel so that I could stay. I walked over to where Rob was sitting with his girlfriend Angie and one other guy from his crew. I smiled and he just looked at me,

"Well, at least of you is still talking to us." He stated.

"Yea, just tell me when and what you need me to do. I'm sort of here until the end now so I'd like to be useful." I replied before taking a seat. Soon I was chatting with the three of them before finally we could start boxing the merchandise. That was at about 4:45. I told Rob if he needed any help on another show that he could give me a call and gave him my phone number, mostly because I was trying to smooth things over for the sake of the Times Union. I mean we've worked shows with Rob three times since October when I started. That's a show every few months. I wasn't about to let Kevin fuck the rest of the TU crew out of those shows. I mean personally I love the away gigs. It makes it feel like I have some level of a life.

Once everything was boxed up and we were loading it on carts to bring out to the truck, Rob stopped me and asked if I'd be his new Albany contact since Kevin walked out on him. I agreed. Kevin's lose is my gain, and I'm more than well aware that the way you get into this business is based solely on who you know and once again I may not agree with how Rob handles his shows but the dude is connected. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure Kevin doesn't realize how badly he fucked himself over business wise by storming out. He embarrassed himself in front of Bravado. They won't ever hire him now. He embarrassed me in front of Bravado and more importantly Merch Mike; fortunately by staying I was able to save myself. And he embarrassed himself in front of Rob and embarrassed Rob. He won't work for Rob again and he'll never work for Live Nation. Finally, merch guys gossip like 13 year old girls. Trust me his reputation is ruined now, and it will get all over the merch world because trust me they all know each other because they've all relied on each other at one point or another to get work. In addition to that Rob offered me to work the Heart show at the Palace Theater in only a couple of weeks. So, basically Kevin already lost a show. Getting this new contact was a huge bonus for the weekend and brings me one step closer to getting on a tour. One small step, but one step never the less.

Once the carts were outside, I said goodbye to Rob and Angie and took a seat in the golf cart in the back of the truck where I could be seen and see Merch Mike. It was already about 6. I watched the sun rise up. Sun rises have always seemed prettier to me then sun sets. Sun sets seem so final, like things are ending. Sun rises are the beginning of a day with no mistakes and hopes as high as the heavens. That's about when Merch Mike came over and we finally got five minutes alone to talk. It was the only time we got to talk pretty much the entire weekend. And then Louis wrecked a forklift. Yup, rammed the damn thing right into a fucking pole, and that was the end of conversation time.

We finally got back to the hotel at 7:30 Sunday morning both of us crashing as soon as possible. I have never been so exhausted in my life, but was so proud of myself for sticking it out, and I'm pretty sure I made Merch Mike pretty proud too. I am his protégé after all, so I've got to make him proud.

At about 1pm Sunday I hugged Merch Mike one last time and said goodbye. I missed him as soon as the hug ended. I always do. I'll see him again in a few weeks when I head out to intern (meaning work for free) for the last few shows on Alice In Chains. I got home and immediately fell asleep on my couch.

The moral of this experience: always obey the Cardinal Rule of Merching. Oh, and stadium shows blow chucks. Night clubs and casino shows are where it's at.

#the rolling stones #zipcodetour #buffalo #merchlife #merchgirl #therollingstones #stonestour #ralphwilsonstadium

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