Faith No More: Crew Relief

With their loyal touring family out of work, Californian rock legends Faith No More launch a campaign to ensure their crew are taken care of during the lockdown. TPi’s Stew Hume reports...

With a fiercely loyal fanbase across the globe, Faith No More have been a mainstay of the alternative-rock scene for many years and, since reforming back in 2009, the band has enjoyed a great level of success touring, and headlining numerous festival slots. Since reigniting the flames at the tail-end of the noughties, there has been a constant roster of men and women working tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure Mike Patton and the band get to each venue and their stage shows meet fans’ lofty expectations night after night.

However, like many people across the globe, 2020 meant one thing – a sudden halt of touring plans. “We were set to roll from May to midSeptember this year,” reflected Production Manager, Shaun Kendrick. “I had been working on the project on and off since October 2019 with setup and advancing due to start on 1 April 2020 and the New Zealand shows due to start at the start of May. As it became apparent the gigs were going to be off, we were devasted, personally and financially, having lost all of our work. I knew how much this was going to impact our crew. We are all part of a freelance community across the world and, at that very moment, we were all in exactly the same position.”

Th e worry was not lost on the band and upper management, who began to put their heads together to find a way to raise some funds for the hard-working family.

“A f ew weeks went by and I noticed a few acts – The National, Deftones and Run the Jewels – put some type of crew relief online,” explained Kendrick. “I’d been thinking about it, too, and Tim [Moss, the band’s

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Manager] clearly had the same thought. Tim then spoke to the band and they were totally behind the idea.”

The original concept was to create a T-shirt that would be sold to fans, which in turn would be used to create a fund for the crew. Soon the merch catalogue expanded to include some old signed posters, vinyl and drumheads – they even brought on the company Sew What to produce custom face masks.

The T-shirt design featured a re-layout of small logo the band were donning as part of their self-released album, Sol Invictus, in 2015. The band had formed Reclamation Records to self-release the record and used two hands in a pray pose as part of that record label artwork design. “I’d always loved the design, and said it needed to be a shirt,” stated Kendrick.

“Once the crew relief went live, the whole situation became totally humbling – the love and support I received personally was unexpected,” stated Kendrick. “My family bought the shirts; friends, colleagues, people I’d not heard from for years and, most importantly, the fans totally got behind it. I bought other bands crew shirts to help them, too, as I believe you can’t take out if you don’t put back into the machine. The bands and crew couldn’t believe the response and positivity.”

Long-time FOH Engineer, Michael Brennan commented: “It’s such a simple idea and it’s been fantastic to see the response from everyone – it was really organic,” he stated. “It was one of those tours where each member of the crew would do anything for these guys – it’s a really tight unit and we truly do have each other’s backs – no matter what.”

He concluded that this latest campaign reflected the mentality on the road – a statement echoed by Kendrick. “The Faith No More crew is small and tight – we move fast, and everyone rolls their sleeves up. There is no deadweight, which is awesome. We really enjoy spending time together and delivering the shows night after night with good-humoured momentum.” TPi Photos: Faith No More www.fnm.com/crew-relief