Behind the scenes of a gig

Scott, 17 tells us how it all works

Hi I'm Scott and I work as an apprentice for Youth Connexions. As part of many job duties, I also help out with the After Dark under 19s gigs at Bowes Lyon in Stevenage. I wanted to up date you with how I get involved in making some of it happen. The gigs are organised and run by the Stevenage Youth Council Music Development Group which is made up of young people, supported by Youth Connexions.

On the night of the gig it's generally a busy and there is a lot to do from the beginning to the end. The evening starts when the young people queue at the door. We go out in three teams of two. One team have clipboards to gather general information from the crowd, while the other teams sell the wristbands for entry.

I am normally with another person on the door and we go and sell the wristbands, my peer will take the money while I put there wristbands on. This process will normally take an hour or so until the doors open. When the doors open the young people will have to be checked by security (the gig operates a 'dry house' policy - no alcohol and no drugs).

After the crowd are let in, I normally go to the cloakroom and help out there or I go into the office to see what else there is to do. If not then I go and see my friends or wait for the next job to come up. If there isn't another job then I just sit down and enjoy the music and take videos to

When the bands have finished and the evening is drawing to a close, the young people start to leave; some of them stay and talk to their friends for a little bit longer.

Towards the end of the evening there is a lot of clearing up; having up to 300 young people in the den isn't the tidiest of things to say the least! When the barriers are put away and the building is tidy, we then start to make our way home.

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