"You don't get Soul II Soul playing a live set twice..."

A client once said to me: "It's only TV." Nomatter how much people act like the world will end if all doesn't run smoothly, it is only TV. The fact is, we're all part of the vicious circle that is this end-of-the-world mentality. Since one person, somewhere, genuinely does believe - or rather, likes to believe - that all of hell will break loose at the slightest delay of a tape, or the lack of maple peacan pastries and granola yoghurts at 11am, we are all dragged into the same way of thinking. Thus we all, at some point, overreact to any glitches, or any sign of delay.

It's fine, it's the way the industry works. If we didn't react that way, who knows... maybe nothing would ever get made on time and we'd be faced with constant reruns of Come Dine With Me and Friends........ Oh wait. On the other hand, everything might go just fine, driven on by everyones passion, and with a lot more happy people. Ok, probably not.

One such event happened recently that triggered a memory from a few months ago. It was something trivial, one of those things that, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't all that important and didn't really warrant the tension and stress it actually evoked. Nothing would have gone all that wrong had it not worked out. Nothing. This is what it reminded me of....

The year was 2009. I was working in my first runner job at the Autumn/Winter London Fashion Week. I had been a runner for a total of two and a half days, I believe. We had just filmed the amazing Pam Hogg show which had taken place in the underground carpark of the building, and which many celebrities had attended. The aftershow party took place back upstairs in the main On/Off catwalk room, and they had none other than Soul II Soul performing live that night. Five minutes before they were due to come on stage, someone in our team realised that we needed some sort of XLR cable to get the audio from the performance, a cable which they had left down in the carpark after the show.

Naturally, I said I'd sort it, and promptly ran down to the side entrance to the carpark through which we had entered before, only to find it locked up. I ran from there around the perimeter of the building to the main entrance on the opposite side (I don't do measurements, but let's just say it was a bloody big building so it was pretty bloody far), and down about three massive ramps to where the catwalk had been. I say "been" because everything had already been packed up. Everything. All that were left were a few sweaty men and a load of boxes.

I looked at my watch at this point. It had been seven or eight minutes since I'd left the party. If everything was going to plan, Soul II Soul were performing at that exact moment. Bugger. I went over to one of the more friendly-looking guys, who was probably a little startled by my bedraggled appearance, and I asked him, whilst trying not to die from lack of breath (I'm no sprinter) if he'd seen a spare cable lying around. He told me, of course, that everything had been packed away. I thanked him and went up a level, having a look around a van and huge stack of boxes that were about to be loaded. I must have looked pretty frantic, because when the same guy came back up he offered to have a look in the waiting boxes. He said there were so many boxes that the chances weren't high, but low and behold, in only the second box he opened were more XLR cables than you could possible know what to do with (and I didn't even know what to do with one!). I could have kissed him. I didn't. He said I could take one, because they must have ours, and I legged it back around the building, knowing that the show was probably halfway through already.

I got back to the party fifteen minutes after leaving, and squashed my way into the room to the sound of loud but indistinct music, found my team, and peeked over the many heads to see nobody on stage. Nobody. I'd bloody made it. I handed over the cable, playing it cool whilst secretly beaming at the sheer luck of the thing, and received a pat on the back from the editor and a "Nice one, Ash."

Sweet. The show began, the camera guys got some great shots, and the audio, although not of amazing quality, existed at least! I danced my socks off with the rest of the team, built up even more of a disgusting sweat, and had a freaking awesome time.

So, whenever something is going slightly wrong, or someone's blood pressure is visibly rising from just the threat of impending television doom, and although they wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about, I now always want to grab them by the shoulders and say:

"It will be fine. It could be Soul II Soul's live set at risk. You don't get Soul II Soul playing a live set twice..."

Well, you don't.

:D