Backstage Pass
Billy Duffy
The Roadhouse
2016

This is my travel case. It's full of passes and stickers from events and gigs I've worked on; various cities, various bands, various jobs. I might not have gone as far in event production as some people have - I diverted back to marketing and PR - but what I did makes me proud. I didn't have any training, and learnt on the job, with some great teams teaching me and directing me as the newbie, and as a result I learnt a lot, and got to produce some brilliant festivals and work with some of my favourite bands. I couldn't have done it without so many Mancunian people.

I remember Rob and Steve from The Roadhouse teaching me about 3-phase power, the lampies at The Apollo teaching me about different coloured cases for different things, watching them stack trucks like Tetris, Jay Taylor talking me through the specifics of handling touring bands and festival management, taking The Little Ones to a favourite bar post-show for a lock-in, feeding Wild Cub at the super-posh San Carlo, bathing in Evian when the water failed at Latitude, carrying a sound desk across the city centre in Liverpool for Sound City, being dragged on stage to present a guitar in a fan-club competition for The Wildhearts, crying (with exhaustion, honest) when watching Robert Plant playing at Big Chill... The best time was drinking whiskey with Robert from BRMC at O2 Liverpool whilst watching the support band.

Superb memories, and all thanks to the people who supported me and taught me how to do what I wanted to do - we worked well together!

Happy #IWD2016.