While the taxman was sleeping

In the early 1980's stage crews benefited from a loophole in the tax system when it came to get out payments. The payments which the visiting company made to the crew for dismantling the set and equipment and loading back onto the trucks.

The get-out payment was subject to a negotiation between the visiting Company Manager and the local stage manager, was paid in cash when the last wagon door closed.

These negotiations usually went ok. There was a generally accepted amount per wagon used throughout the country although the sheer weight and complexity of the set could cause this amount to become subject to negotiation.

In this pre-working time directive era, we would often work seven days a week with our basic pay being inflated by many overtime payments. I remember that a girl I shared a flat with told me months after the event that she had gone into one of the drawers in my room to look for something I had borrowed from her. In the drawer, she came across a roll of £20 notes that would have choked a donkey and she spent the next few months assuming that I was a drug dealer!