I would like to introduce you to someone very special in my life. He’s not on FB so he will likely never see this, but that won’t stop me from writing it.
Meet Nigel Pearmund. I met Nigel about 14 years ago at a Vans Warped Tour concert. Two years later when I was in escrow to purchase my first live performance theater (the Fox in Redwood City), Lori Lochtefeld & I needed a very experienced and talented Production Manager. I remember meeting Nigel and his exploits in the music industry were the stuff of legend.
A venue’s Production Manager takes care of everything that audiences see onstage and everything they don’t see backstage. This extends from the green room all the way to the tour buses and trucks behind the venue. This is the first person to arrive at venue to oversee load-in and the last one to leave after loud-out.
It’s an unsung job in that nobody ever announces this persons name on stage, but this one person is the key to not only to the audiences’ experience but the artists as well. It’s critical that this person know what they are doing or things can go south real fast.
When we met, Nigel was working for the largest concert promoter in the world Live Nation. He was running their summer concert series at the famed Saratoga Mountain Winery and doing other Live Nation gigs the rest of the year around the Bay Area. To put it simply, he was the #1 Production Manager in Northern California. Landing him to be our Production Manager woukd be like getting the Warriors coach Steve Kerr to coach your kids grammar school basketball team. Super overqualified!
My friend Kerry made the re-introduction knowing I needed to fill this position thinking he might be a good fit. When we met again at another Warped Tour concert two years later, he conveyed that he was getting a little burnt out from doing too many shows a year, which was resulting in him not being there to raise his young sons or to be a good husband to his wife. He expressed that being present in their lives was his #1 priority. After decades of working shows for the best known acts in the world, he didn’t give a rats ass about prestige anymore. Been there, done that.
After hearing this, I saw a major opening. I knew I could not compete with what Live Nation could offer financially or the prestige of working with major acts, but I did feel I could offer something what he desired - a better quality of life. More specifically, more time being a father to his two sons and a husband to his wife Kristie.
We co-created a scenario where he could advance shows from home and only come to the theater on show days. When we agreed to this, I might as well have offered him 10x the salary Live Nation was paying him, cause his face lit up like a Christmas tree. He immediately quit his job at Live Nation and came to work for us as our Production Manager.
In twelve years working together, never once did we have to worry about what was happening on stage during a performance or behind it. Never once did we have to stick around after a show till the last road case got put on a truck at four in the morning. Rarely did we ever have to deal with an irate artist being a diva, cause Nigel had it handheld backstage (we do have a handful of such occurrences that we can all laugh about today). Never once did we have to prep or breakdown a stage.
As the owners of the Fox Theater & Golden State Theatre, Lori and I got the lion’s share of the credit for operating the theaters successfully for twelve years but…….everything that occurred from the lip of the stage and seen by our audiences, to our parking lots in the back, were due to the mastery of this one individual. Nigel Pearmund is the most reliable person that I ever worked with in my life and a Master st his craft.
Now that Lori and I have moved on from theater ownership and concert promotions, Nigel is back working for Live Nation but on his terms. He only does a handful of shows a year. He and his wife have done very well making shrewd real estate investments. His sons are raised and doing well. He and Kristie are excited about life after concerts and it’s been fun to brainstorm ‘what’s next’ with them this week.
Despite the fact that we haven’t worked together in a few years, I gladly kept my promise to host him and his wonderful wife Kristie out to Bliss Island for a week. The intention was to spend quality time together and to thank him for his loyalty and all the long hours and hard work he put in for twelve years. Also to thank his wife for all the sacrifices she made while Nigel worked over 100 events a year for us.
The moral to this story is that it was never about compensation for Nigel. It was about actually caring about what he wanted most - to be a great Dad and Husband. In the end, it’s rarely about the money for your employees unless you are denying them what they truly desire, then it only is. Nigel allowed something more important to guide his major career decisions and received many rewards in doing so.
Before he leaves, I’m going to thank him for it all. Or, maybe I’ll just hand him this. Lori and I love you with all our hearts.
