From the audience, touring can look glamorous. There are bright lights, packed venues, famous performers, applause and the thrill of a new city every night.
Behind the scenes, the reality can be very different.
In My Life In The Mix, Andy Keating gives readers a firsthand look at what it really means to spend more than four decades working on the road with musicians. His career as a sound engineer placed him close to some remarkable performers, but his memoir reveals that touring was rarely just about music. It was also about broken equipment, endless driving, unpredictable personalities, strange venues, difficult border crossings, practical jokes, friendship, exhaustion and finding a way to make the show happen no matter what.
Every Night Brings a New Problem
A touring sound engineer cannot simply arrive, switch on a mixing desk and wait for the band to play. Andy’s stories show how much work happens before the audience ever enters the room.
Equipment has to be transported, unloaded, connected, tested, adjusted and sometimes repaired under pressure. Venues can present unexpected technical problems, while musicians may have specific requirements that must be handled quickly.
Andy even explains the importance of tour riders, which can cover everything from technical specifications to backstage catering. What looks excessive to an outsider may actually be essential to getting a production ready on time. Of course, some requests were also strange enough to become memorable stories in their own right.
The Road Could Become Completely Unpredictable
Touring also meant living with the unexpected.
Andy recalls working in Berlin during the Cold War and later being there with The Blues Band in 1989 as the Berlin Wall began coming down. While the band was performing, history was unfolding outside. He remembers seeing crowds at the border afterward, including an East German man who crossed into the West simply to buy a newspaper as proof that he had really made it across.
Other journeys were less historic but every bit as stressful. His memoir includes vehicle breakdowns, overnight drives, exhausting schedules, damaged equipment, difficult gigs and situations where improvisation became part of the job.
At one point, while travelling to a show involving Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes and the Chi-Lites, a wheel came off the truck carrying equipment. Another vehicle had to be found to transport the PA and Andy injured his finger while moving a flight case. He taped it up and carried on. The show still had to happen.
Famous Names, Very Human Moments
Over the years, Andy worked with performers including Ian Hunter, Ray Davies, Martha Reeves, Bobby Vee, Carl Perkins, The Crickets, Junior Walker, The Blues Band and many others.
Yet My Life In The Mix does not treat touring like a parade of celebrities. Instead, Andy focuses on the human side of the experience: friendships that developed over repeated tours, arguments that had to be managed, jokes played backstage, musicians helping one another and the bonds created by spending long periods together away from home.
That perspective makes the memoir feel less like a traditional music biography and more like being invited into the van after the gig.
Forty Years of Stories Worth Telling
Touring gave Andy unforgettable experiences, but it also demanded resilience, humour, flexibility and an ability to solve problems quickly. He was often much more than the person controlling the sound. He became a driver, organiser, mediator, confidant and whatever else the day required.
That is the world readers discover in My Life In The Mix.
For anyone who has ever wondered what happens after the lights go down, the cables are packed away and the band climbs back into the vehicle for another long journey, Andy Keating has more than forty years of answers.
Step behind the scenes with Andy Keating in My Life In The Mix**. Get your copy today:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HF9DY9R9
