Yann Hamon

Profession: tour organiser

Paris 

13/11/2006 - 

There are estimated to be around 100 tour organisers in France today – half of whom manage to make a living from their work. Yann Hamon, lucky enough to fall into the latter category, runs Yapucca, a company that organises tours for thirteen artists including Louise Attaque and Les Wampas. Hiring vans, renting equipment, booking hotels, "all part of the job, he says, "everything that's not the artistic side is down to me!"

Although he's a Breton born and bred in Rennes, Yann Hamon punctuates his conversation with typical Norman reservations, frequently resorting to "Hmm, that depends" or an affable "Well, more or less." When asked to define his profession, the veteran tour organiser has to think twice before settling on the fact that he's "a supplier of concerts, somewhere between rock and 'chanson', to numerous music venues and festivals. Basically, what we do is send venues and festivals a list of groups on tour and they select what they want. At the end of the day, we're really sales engineers, part technicians, part vendors. If you want to get anywhere in this job, you have to listen to a lot of CDs, get out there and see a lot of live bands and then assess what impact they can make on the market – because let's not forget this is very much a market!"

Hamon, who learnt the ropes as he went along, claims his profession is "a craft – and one where you learn something new every day!" He fell into the business quite by chance, he admits, "Every now and then I was asked to lend a hand at local associations organising concerts. I went along and helped out once, twice, then a few more times and ended up making friends with people from the associations. Then we eventually got together and set up other associations to organise other concerts. Back then, in the late '80s, I was working as a playground supervisor in a school so I had quite a bit of free time on my hands. I basically ended up organising more and more concerts, first just locally then on a regional level and it started taking up more of my time. It got to the point where I was able to make a real job out of what I was doing."

Hamon officially launched his career in 1992 and five years later was able to make a living out of it. He claims the turning-point in his career and his motivation was "meeting Miossec, a totally original artist in touch with the musical universe of the moment." Now, aged 40, Hamon finds himself at the head of Yapucca, a company employing a full-time staff of five, that organises tours for thirteen artists.

Keeping losses and sharing gains

"We act as producers on all our tours," Hamon says, "which means we pay the artists and the support team. Then we bill the entire show at a fixed overall price. It's my job to make the whole thing profitable. I assume 100% of any losses. The musicians and technicians are all guaranteed to be paid whatever happens and if we end up making a profit we often redistribute the takings with around 80% going to the artist." Hamon claims he currently makes a loss on half of the groups on his books. "But I see this as a form of investment," he muses somewhat philosophically.

Once he has organised the basic tour structure for a band, Hamon sends a tour manager out on the road with them to deal with day-to-day nitty-gritty, such as "where everyone's sleeping, what they're eating and what time they’ve got to be where…" When Hamon started out in this profession, bands would have to have solid live experience behind them, at least in their own region, before he would dream of taking them on. But these days things have changed. "For a start," he says, "There are less and less bars that put live acts on. We often get contacted by bands who've never played a single live gig in their life. We have to take a leap of faith and look to the future the same way record companies do when they sign an album. The best example of this is a band like Deportivo. They’ve got a few dates behind them now, but when I first me them I think it was only the third concert they'd played in their career. And the worst thing was there were several tour organisers in the audience that night, but there was next to no interest in the band's live potential."

Speed dating

Given the fact that there are often several tour organisers on the look-out for new talent at the same time, Hamon bemoans the fact that organisers have to seduce bands just as much as bands have to seduce them. "When there's a buzz around a group these days, you're not going to be the only one onto it. Things can often get a bit mad like you're speed dating or something. It's like you've got five minutes to explain yourself and sum up your approach. But that kind of speed thing rarely works. I've come to realise that I don't operate at all well if I've got to go out there and 'pull' artists. They have to want me a bit in the first place!"

There are currently around a dozen structures operating on the same market as Yapucca, but Hamon claims he's not too worried about competition. "Everyone's operating with more or less the same fixed costs," he says, "so you can't radically undercut your competitors. What makes the difference at the end of the day is the way you work, the way you relate to people. There has to be a sense of being on the same wavelength as the artists you work with." There are now a few schools in France that offer theoretical support for budding tour organisers (including lessons on accounting, general management and legal issues), but Hamon declares that passion remains the motivating force in his business. "You can get out there and sell yoghurts even if you'd never personally touch the stuff, but you can't do that with music!"

Ask Hamon how he sees the future of touring and he replies, "Support, support, support!" "That's often where the opportunity lies for groups that are relative unknowns. The headlining acts of today would never have existed if they hadn't had the chance to support someone else in concert when they first started out!" Hamon claims he no longer gets the same kick out of going to concerts as he did in his younger days. Basically, his outings are all work-linked now, limited to gigs by groups already on his books or bands he's looking to sign. And if you're looking around for him in person at the next gig, don’t bother looking in the front row. He'll be at the back by the bar. "That's where all the talking happens, where all the deals get done!" he laughs, a mock expression of resignation on his face.

Ludovic  Basque