Would be a Roadie: Multiple Choice Vocabulary Test

The boy had already been called for lunch three times. Each time the door was opened, deafening heavy metal music (1) _________ through the rest of the house like a fireball. Finally he appeared in his teenage splendour, all dressed in black with studs and piercings. He (2) _________himself among the adults with a scowl. He didn't (3) _________to the conversation unless addressed directly. «What are you planning to do when you leave school? » the woman next to him asked at one mo­ment.

«I wanna be a roadie», he replied. There was silence for a moment as everyone digested this. He looked pleased with the lack of reaction.

«I was a roadie for a while », said one of the men at the table. «And the whole of my job consisted of humping huge boxes around — from big trucks onto stages and then from stages into big trucks ».

«Which band did you work for? » asked the boy.

«I didn't work for a band, I worked for the production company that (4) _________the concerts — like most roadies do».

«But don't bands have their own roadies? »

«Yeah, they do», the man said, «bands have their own roadies – usually somebody's brother or best mate – who are trusted workers that travel with the band and form part of the «family» along with the musicians themselves, their managers, the technicians, etc. But the vast majority of roadies are (5) _________by the production company like I was, and they're as low as they can be – they don't travel with the band, and they aren't (6) _________ to do anything except for humping huge boxes around».

The boy wasn't going to let this put him (7) _________.

«What about free concert tickets? »

«The roadie is the (8) _________of the pile, remember, and the last person who gets free tickets for the concert».

The boy was still not convinced.

«But you must get to meet the rock stars».

«The closest I ever came was when I was doing the Rolling Stones at Wembley. The door of the first one opened and Mick Jagger got out. He looked in my (9) _________and then began walking towards me, a big smile on his face. I panicked! «What am I going to say to him? » I thought. Of course, he walked straight up to the woman standing next to me, kissed her, spoke a few words and then walked away. That's all».

The boy refused to give in.

«But everyone involved in the rock music (10) _________gets paid a lot of money – there's that at least».

«Roadies get paid a pittance! When you do a really big performance — one that involves days to set up — then you end up with quite a lot of money in your pocket, for the simple reason that you work so many hours and don't really have time to spend any of it. I can't remember how much we got paid per hour, but to give you an indication of how much we earned, I did one concert at Wembley (I can't remember who was playing then) which finished late, and by the time we'd cleared up afterwards it was 4 or 5 in the morning. We walked home to south London! It must have been about 20 miles! And do you know why we walked? Because we worked out that if we'd caught a taxi, then we would have spent nearly all the money we'd earned that night! That's how well roadies get paid! »

The boy was looking a bit (11) _________.

«But it can't be all bad, surely », he said.

«Well, no, you do get to see all the concerts for free», the man replied.

«It's OK», the boy told himself. No granddad's tales were going to (12) _________him what he should or shouldn't do. He'd be a roadie if he wanted to. Or maybe he wouldn't be a roadie. Maybe he'd be a rock star instead.