A Slice of Rock ‘n’ Roll Life

Review: Roadies, by Stuart Coupe

Roadies, by Stuart CoupeCompelling account of the road crews that make live music possible, with a particular focus on capturing the roadie’s life in Australia in the 70s-80s, a time that has since evolved into something else.

Each chapter reveals another character – and they’re great characters – building a multi-layered, cross-referencing tableau that puts a new perspective on the rapidly developing live music industry in Australia at that time.

Coupe adroitly avoids letting the book become overly nostalgic by following the chronology through to the modern day, including sitting in on a week long setup for an Elton John concert. Coupe has the right industry cred to get his interview subjects to open up, and uses his journalist skills to get out of the way and let them speak.

The short chapters make it easy to read in installments, although I did tend to let myself have “just one more”.

Highly enjoyable.

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