~ The Riverdance Orchestra ~

~ Lee Company ~

Chicago Illinois, USA - February 1999:
Dubliner Vinny Osborne has been with 'Riverdance' since the show's beginnings at the Point Theatre in February 1995.  He's now the Backline Technician - as well as performing drums on-stage for two of the show numbers - but as he points out, he got involved with the show almost by accident.

"Yeah it started in a very strange way for me," he recalls. He was working at the time in Sound Gear, a leading Dublin musical instrument store, and was asked to deliver a Korg keyboard for the Musical Director. He installed the instrument and while he was at The Point he began helping out some other band members. "Then I was asked, 'What are you doing for the next few days?' so I just fell into it," he laughs. "Right place, right time. The show was only supposed to run for six weeks at The Point but when it went to London it became a full production."

He was involved in setting up the 11 piece band's equipment for the show at the Hammersmith Odeon and for four months he was responsible for all the equipment at weekends. The arrival of once off Sunday acts at the Odeon meant the 'Riverdance' band area front of stage had to be cleared Saturday night. On those weekends, Vinny would shuttle back and forth between Dublin and London, restoring the instruments to their original stage position so that everything was ready for the show's musicians by Monday afternoon. By the time 'Riverdance' crossed the Atlantic to New York it was time for Vinny to climb aboard full-time.
"Backline Technician" is basically a rock 'n' roll term for the person who looks after all the band's equipment," he explains. "You obviously need a certain amount of technical knowledge and have a good idea how the instruments work. But I'd find the biggest thing is understanding what the musician needs." In touring a show such as this, the performance space on-stage can be pretty tight for musicians and their instruments.

Everything must be precisely arranged. The band stage design has to be very compact but naturally each of the musicians need enough room to perform comfortably. The band used to be out front at the side of the stage but now they are at the back of the stage on raised platforms.  When the band was stage right, access to the musicians could be a problem if anything went wrong. Once he recalls the switch breaking on a wah-wah pedal used by violinist Eileen Ivers. Vinny had to get over to the front of stage, rewire the pedals in darkness and race backstage to change costume for one of his on-stage drumming numbers. He made it, just about.

Usually however, running repairs are not so dramatic. It might be a broken guitar string - most likely during heavy strumming on 'Reel Around the Sun' or 'American Wake'. Vinny has to substitute the guitar immediately and to change the broken string and have the instrument ready for use once more. If, during performance, a problem occurs, the musical director will tell the monitor engineer who, in turn, communicates with Vinny by walkie-talkie. The message is received by earpiece and then it's up to Vinny to sort it out.
"My day would be going into the theatre at 6.30 p.m. We pack all the instruments after the show, so when I return for work the following evening, I need to unpack the instruments and change strings if necessary. We have a large stock of instruments & spare parts - on this tour for example we have five guitars for Des and six bass guitars for Eoghan - so they all have to be checked.  "What we find on the American tour is that the atmosphere is very dry in winter. As a result, the wood of the instruments expands and contracts, something you wouldn't encounter in Ireland. That's why a lot of the instruments have to be packed away, to keep them at a specific humidity.   "I'd run through the keyboard rig, drums and amps - By doing the pre show checks and making sure everything is tight -- down to the checking the nuts on cymbals so they don't come off -- you help prevent things going wrong. I've been doing this for so long it has become second nature to me.

"The way I see it, it's my job to have everything ready for the band. So as soon as they come in, they are in a position to perform straight away without having to worry or think twice about anything."
With a technical and performing background of his own, Vinny has also looked to improve the reliability of the instruments by suggesting different instruments and different equipment. " I work closely with various instrument manufactures who's products we now endorse, I find the back up I get from these people makes my job less complicated & very reassuring when problems crop up"
While his work as a backline technician puts him in care of every 'Riverdance' instrument, Drumming is Vinny Osborne's passion. Coming from a Dublin family of five children his love for drums goes back a long way. "I started playing the drums when I was nine," he recalls. "To this day I still do not know why, but maybe it had something to do with a family friend who played in a band. One day he left a drum kit in our garage and when I saw it I knew it was something I wanted to try. Then I got my first drum set for my ninth birthday - not the most glamorous drum set but a drum set nevertheless!" For Vinny, the bug had bitten.

He studied under private drum teachers and at Dublin's College of Music before playing in various bands, including two years with Runaway, a cabaret outfit fronted by Niamh Kavanagh, who later went on to win the Eurovision song contest. It was great experience but not leading in a way Vinny saw his long-term career.   "I always wanted to be the drummer in a band," he says. "I was on the showband circuit and I saw others who had been in the same business for a lot longer than me. I saw these people driving from Dublin to Donegal every weekend but I didn't want to be doing that for 10 years. So I decided to go for a job with Waltons (Dublin's best known musical instrument store) and play in bands at night when I could. So, obviously it's gone from there.

"Now as the Backline Technician with the 'Riverdance Lee Co.' and performing drums on-stage I have the best of both worlds, the people I tour with are more like family than work colleagues now.  I suppose it was a funny way of getting this gig, but had I not made the move back then, I wouldn't be doing this now."

Interview by Frank Shouldice.  ©Riverdance.com