There's a common phrase over here: if you want it done properly, get it done in Britain or America.
I've worked with French and Dutch and German businesses, and I have to say it's true. The British (read: London) way of doing things is just better. And most of the people in the industry aren't British, they're just based here. Like me I suppose.
So yeah, they'll have to re-jig all their logistics. Megafests are out, but there's still sports and film/tv. But there's going to be a dilution of competent people who're going to have to follow the work and get spread all over Europe. And that's going to make everything shitter and more expensive for everyone on this continent.
When it comes to working at gigs, the absolute worst tours to work are the British-hire ones.
What the British-hire tours will do, every single time, is pack their 40 foot trucks as full as they can right to the roof the entire length of the truck, as naturally it means they can use far less trucks and thus save money on the transportation. That means packing and unpacking their trucks is a complete fucking pain in the hole. There's been many a truck that we've got right to the end of and basically run out of room for the last few boxes, because there is literally that much shit in the truck that if it isn't all perfectly packed, then you end up fucked.
Almost every British tour operates in that manner, pack whatever vehicle it is to the gills so that you only need 1 rather than 2. What this means is that I reckon probably 90% of these vehicles are driving around completely overweight and illegal, and also are generally far more dangerous to unload. (P.S Most Irish companies will do this exact same shit too, to be clear)
The American tours almost never have trucks packed in this manner. I mean, I literally can't remember the last time I unloaded an American truck that was stacked badly in this way. I'm pretty sure they have far stricter rules and checks for road transportation in America (and they have a massive union there that probably calls a lot of shots too) so I think they're literally not allowed to overpack trucks there, so then when they come to Europe they just stick by the same process.
The Americans will therefore use 3 times as many trucks for the same amount of gear, and that's far fucking preferable because you'll pack those 3 trucks faster than you'll pack that 1 British truck, because you're not worried about totally running out of room so you don't have to get every single thing in exactly the right spot which means much faster loading.
American trucks can still be dangerous too though, most of the American tours we get here that will bring their own trucks are big arena shows, so as a result there'll usually be some big heavy shit in some of those trucks. Like hydraulic lifts, big heavy fuckers that you need to be real careful with. And the actual stage decking if they bring their own stage, that shit goes on seriously heavy duty trolleys.
All of the above, to give a rough example from arena size shows, I'd say after a show you could usually load 20 American trucks in about 2-3 hours easy enough, whereas loading 5 British trucks would usually take 3-4 hours.
As far as the crews themselves go, I find American and British crews to be quite similar, they usually have 95% really good guys to work with that know their shit, and then 5% fuckin dickheads that nobody wants to work with. Ha one of the worst I ever came across is this fuckin dude from up North, I'll say no more than that except for upppp his ownnnn hole.
My absolute favourite crews to work with are always the Dutch, I find they're always fairly chilled and at the same time know exactly what to do and when. It's like Holland in general, I fuckin love how they get shit right in this relaxed kind of way.
I find Scandi crews are generally really good to work with too, but obviously there's a slight language barrier there. The Dutch speak better English than the English.
I find German crews are usually really good as well but naturally can be a bit more abrupt and it throws some people, personally I like them cause they get shit done quick.
The worst crews all round are almost always the ones where the dickheads have lasted and made it to the top and are now in charge of things, then everything below them just turns to shit as well.
