Health and safety is crucial when it comes to live performances, because there are always so many people involved there and even more people there in the audience. So to put on a live gig needs a lot of preparation and well thought of details.
Some of the main hazards at live performances include:
Trip Hazards – Wire management is a serious thing when it comes to stages, smaller stages are the worst. Little wiggle room, barely any space for equipment and very close to the edge of the stage. At these types of venues, the stage needs to be set up for both practically and also for the best sound experience too. Wires need to be secured so they don’t get in the way of the performers and keep the stage safe. Microphone cables need to flow down the mic stand in a way that they’re secured but also easy to move if a singer wants to move around. Effects pedals need to be out of the walking field but also in a place that they are accessible, the jack lead that connects them from the pedals to the amp needs to be in a wire organiser or taped down with tape that is easy to see even when the stage lights aren’t on. I personally use white duck tape or hazard tape when I’m taping cables down.
Malfunctions of equipment – Equipment breaking or malfunctioning happens soo much more often than you could ever imagine, like even a few days ago before one of our gigs, our lead guitarists amp and guitar both broke simultaneously out of nowhere and we had only a few hours to fix them before the gig and we still needed to travel to the venue, end of the day we came prepared for anything and we managed to get them sorted and played the gig with no other hardware issues. Lights also manage to, very rarely, break free from our control sometimes, this could consist of a glitch in the lighting system that makes it uncontrollable and starts strobing or it could even have bracket malfunctions, where then disconnect to the pieces holding them up and they skydive onto performers or their gear. The system usually gets updated pretty often, and tends to not crash. This could be prevented by adding chains to lights so if the bracket breaks, it will get caught by the chain and wont hit the performers. The amps can be transported carefully and checked often to ensure the health of the amp and making sure it doesn’t break. If guitars break on stage in the middle of a set, you bring back up guitars, which me and Clarke always do anyways.
Crowd – If there is too many people in the venue and something goes wrong, evacuation time can be impacted by a landslide. Most venues state that their capacity is much lower than it actually is because of this, this makes it easier for people to watch the music and also in case of emergency, they can evacuate without much issues. Crowd control is also important because most people try to enjoy the show and follow the rules of the venue, but then we get them few people that tend to ruin it for everyone. They bring drugs, their own alcohol and cause trouble. Having good & competent security will decrease the amount of drugs inside the venue and keep order in the venue.