If nothing changes, every single person on future European tours will have to secure the correct paperwork to work in every single country they visit. Furthermore, every truck will now need its own ‘carnet’ – a document listing all the equipment on the vehicle, that could potentially be checked and unloaded at every border crossing. Carnets were already carried on most trips, but Jamal says needing one for every vehicle could see costs spiral on big tours.
“These are big changes,” sighs Jamal. “There’s a lot more paperwork. It all depends on how strictly they run things…”
Perhaps the biggest problem could revolve around the trucks needed for big arena tours. Jamal explains that around 85 per cent of specialist “rock’n’roll trucks” are UK-based – but, as things stand, UK vehicles could be limited to a maximum of three “drops” on any trip to the continent, nowhere near enough for most tours.
“We don’t have the capacity to start hiring in European drivers,” he says. “And rock’n’roll drivers are a breed apart, God bless them. They know the importance of the show, understand how to load a truck, understand the whole beast of rock’n’roll. Substituting them for people who drive fridges around is not the same. There will be a huge loss of expertise.”
Some UK firms are contemplating setting up in Europe to get around the restrictions, but Jamal warns staff may have to retrain if they do, as a vicious circle of bureaucracy threatens every possible solution.
“A lot of people are saying, ‘Thank God we’re not on the road right now because any tour would be in an absolute quagmire of unknowns,’” says Jamal. “But the other school of thought is that, if we were touring, there would be 100 rock’n’roll trucks sitting in Dover or Calais, which would force the government to make decisions. It would be a world of pain, but we’d be pushing that pain through for a quick solution.”