Meet Me Backstage Nikki McNeill

In this episode Nikki catches up with renowned tour manager Steev Toth, to talk about his career in the music industry and how he became a tour manager.  After a brief stint in a band, then progressing to work as a sound engineer, Steev fell into touring with Erasure through their old band producer Vince Clarke. He quickly moved hip the ranks going on to work with some of the world's biggest bands including Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Alice Cooper, Hurts, 30 Seconds to Mars, The Cure, The Orb and more recently Kiss. With years of experience under his belt, Steev gives insights into life on the road, how to deal with bands and their oddities and essential items to pack as well as some funny stories from the road including band members being arrested and trucks stuck at the border.

In this episode audio entertainment expert Rachel Barton joins Nikki to talk about her career in radio.  Starting out as a trainee on Pete Tong's show, Rachel went on to produce many other shows including Annie Mac, Kissy Sell Out and Dance Anthems as well as heading up outside broadcasts in Ibiza and Miami. Rachel continued to push herself and launched her own company Grape in 2011, winning pitches to produce Radio 1 shows for Annie Mac, Rob da Bank, Annie Nightingale, Skream & Benga and Dance Anthems, as well as launching the Future Dance show with Sarah Story and The Blessed Madonna show on 6 Music. As well as radio shows, Rachel and the Grape team have branched out into podcasts and produces one of Spotify's top rated shows ‘Who We Be_TALKS’. 

In this episode Nikki talks to live music industry veteran Ruud Berends, who started his career booking acts at his local youth centre in Holland. Launching the Paperclip agency in 1981, Ruud went on to work with some of the best alternative music artists such as Soundgarden, Dead Moon, Nirvana, Femi Kuti, The Feelies, Soul Asylum, L7 and Mudhoney. Having toured all over Europe Ruud shares stories of managing tours before mobile phones, losing equipment and artists being banned from hotels. His work for the Dutch Music Export took him to events such as ILMC, The Great Escape and Reeperbahn where he built a reputation for hosting jammed packed shows. Ruud also talks about his passion for helping to promote new artists in his work for ESNS and the European Talent Exchange Program and his achievements in supporting the music scene in Central and Eastern Europe.  Being a highly regarded and respected member of the live music scene Ruud, is a regular on the international music industry conference circuit and is also the co-founder of the International Festival Forum (IFF).

In this episode PR expert Indy Vidyalankara joins Nikki to talk about her career in communications in the music industry. Starting out at Columbia Records/Sony Music Indy learned her trade working with artists such as Solange, Nas, Cypress Hill and Good Charlotte, then after 3 years moved into the exciting world of radio, doing PR and Comms for BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra with the likes of Pete Tong, Mistajam, Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw.  She then moved over to BBC TV working on shows like Strictly Come Dancing, The Voice UK and Children In Need, but returned to Sony Music as Director of Communications, before finally taking the leap to branch out on her own and set up Indypendent PR.  Being hugely respected in the industry Indy works with many music charities such as Help Musicians and Tomorrow’s Warriors, and is a passionate advocate for diversity sitting on task forces for the BPI (who handle the BRIT Awards) and UK Music. 

In this episode, Nikki speaks to Festival Programme Manager Miroslav Miletić, who she has worked alongside at EXIT Festival in Serbia for many years. Miro talks about working his way up from festival stage manager to programme manager, dealing with everything from sound checks, demanding artists, working in different countries and equipment going missing in transit. With a mantra of anticipating everything before it happens or you are asked, Miro prides himself on his professionalism and the positive feedback he receives on his work. Being inspired by Richie Hawtin, Dave Clarke, and Marko Nastic, Miro is also a DJ in his own right and feels privileged to now work alongside many of the artists he admires. 

In this Episode Artist Manager and Booking Agent Katty Lange talks to Nikki about her role working with artists such as Jeff Mills, Octave One and Sam Paganini and how she started working with the legendary Detroit Techno Label 430West before launching the Triangle Agency with a roster of exciting and cutting edge electronic music artists. Katty also shares insights into her career including how a trip to study in Italy working in a record shop led to her first job in the industry at Tresor Records, proving that it pays to follow your dreams and go for it.