Tour Manager & Consultant

Thirty years. Every stage.

Building the system the
industry has always needed.

Senior tour manager with 30 years on the road — from backline tech to arena and stadium scale. SIA-licensed Close Protection Officer. Architect of a bespoke ISO 9001 Quality Management System purpose-built for touring. Now consulting, building, and raising the standard.

30+ Years touring
ISO 9001 QMS
£500k Saved — Dua Lipa tour
150+ Personnel managed
SIA Close Protection Licence
US O-2 Visa Holder
First Aid at Work (HSE FAW)
GDPR Certified
Leadership & Management (CPD)
Tour Management ISO 9001 Quality Systems Arena & Stadium Touring Close Protection Licensed Budget & Finance Control Visa & Immigration Management Education & Training Modules QMS Consultancy Tour Management ISO 9001 Quality Systems Arena & Stadium Touring Close Protection Licensed Budget & Finance Control Visa & Immigration Management Education & Training Modules QMS Consultancy
James Findlay
Known professionally as Fin

I started touring when I left school at 17. Not long after, I was signed to a major label — which gave me a unique perspective on what artists actually need from the people around them on the road.

From backline tech to Performer Tour Manager of Dua Lipa's Radical Optimism World Tour, covering arenas and stadiums across 11 territories — the foundation has always been the same: calm under pressure, precise execution, and a genuine understanding of what makes a tour work.

Over the last several years I've taken everything that knowledge represents and built it into something transferable: a formal Quality Management System aligned to ISO 9001, backed by bespoke digital tools, and structured for delivery as accredited curriculum modules at colleges and universities.

The end game is raising the professional standard of the touring industry — working with management companies, educational institutions, and government bodies to establish frameworks that protect artists, crews, and productions.

01

30 Years on the Road

From club shows to stadium tours across every major territory. Every scale, every genre, every challenge.

02

ISO 9001 Quality Management

A certified QMS built specifically for touring — not adapted from another industry. Documented, repeatable, auditable.

03

SIA Close Protection

Licensed CPO with deep experience moving high-profile artists and VIP talent in complex, high-stakes environments.

04

Visa & Immigration Expertise

US O-2 visa holder. Managed global immigration workflows in-house for large-scale international touring operations.

05

Custom Technology

Purpose-built tour management software integrating budgets, crew, invoicing, day sheets and QMS compliance.

06

Education-Ready

QMS framework structured as accredited modules for music business and live events courses at FE and HE level.

Performer Tour Manager
Dua Lipa
Radical Optimism World Tour — 2024

Tour Manager for 14 dancers, 7 band members and full entourage across arenas and stadiums worldwide. Responsible for the daily movement, timing, and readiness of approximately 25 core personnel each day.

Managed all global visas and immigration entirely in-house for 150 touring personnel across 11 territories — producing a smooth, unified travel workflow while saving the production more than £500,000 in external agency fees.

Worked closely with visiting artists, VIP talent, managers and security teams — integrating them into the production with discretion and efficiency. Coordinated directly with CP teams, venue security and production to ensure safe, seamless movement from arrival to stage.

A Tour Within A Tour

Each guest artist requires their own advance, technical rider, security coordination and VIP movement plan — integrated seamlessly into an already running stadium production.

14 Guest Artists Managed
Jay Kay Charli XCX Lenny Kravitz Gwen Stefani Lionel Richie Nile Rodgers Billie Joe Armstrong Chaka Khan Leon Bridges Ben Gibbard Caetano Veloso Carlinhos Brown Fher (Maná) Dave McCabe
Scale Arenas & Stadiums
Territories 11 Global
Personnel 150 Touring
Core Daily ~25 Personnel
Saving £500,000+
Guest Artists 14 Major Acts
Visa Management In-House
Year 2024
£500k
Saved on the Radical Optimism World Tour — visas and immigration managed entirely in-house for 150 personnel across 11 territories.

A career across
the biggest names.

Dua Lipa
Performer Tour Manager
Radical Optimism World Tour — 2024
Kneecap
Tour Manager
International Touring — Current
The Vamps
Tour & Production Manager
Worldwide — 2013–2018
Busted
Tour Director
UK Arenas — 2023
Picture This
Tour Director
UK & Europe — 2023
The Kingdom Choir
Tour Manager
UK & Europe — 2019–Present
Rita Ora
Tour Manager
UK Festivals — 2018
Jax Jones
Tour Manager
UK & Europe
The Magic Numbers
Tour & Production Manager
Worldwide — Ongoing
Also Managed
Ella Eyre · Nick Mulvey · Grace Carter · Neneh Cherry · Col3trane · James McCartney · Michael Kiwanuka · The Maccabees · The Klaxons · Marina & The Diamonds · HAIM · Pop Will Eat Itself · Hell Is For Heroes

What I do.

03

Tour Auditing

Independent operational review of tour budgets, processes and structure. Identify where money is being lost, where risk is unmanaged, and where quality standards can be improved. Particularly useful for management companies scaling up.

04

Education & Training

Curriculum-ready modules for colleges and universities, built on a real-world ISO 9001 QMS framework. Designed for music business, live events and production courses — bringing genuine industry rigour into academic settings and government-backed skills programmes.

An ISO 9001 system built for touring.

ISO 9001 Quality Management
System Standard

Most tour management runs on institutional knowledge — information that lives in people's heads, gets passed down informally, and walks out the door when they do. That's not a professional standard. It's a liability.

I've built a Quality Management System specifically for the live touring industry, structured around ISO 9001 — the international gold standard used by governments, manufacturers and professional service organisations worldwide.

It's not a template adapted from another sector. It's a living framework covering every phase of a tour — from the initial advance through to post-show settlement — with defined processes, measurable outcomes, and continuous improvement built in.

This system is ready for licensing to management companies, and structured for delivery as accredited curriculum modules at FE and HE institutions. I'm also open to conversations with government bodies interested in establishing quality standards for the live music sector.

System Modules
Pre-Production & AdvancingPhase 01
Budget Control & FinancePhase 02
Crew Management & WelfarePhase 03
Supplier & Vendor RelationsPhase 04
Artist Movement & SecurityPhase 05
Day-of-Show OperationsPhase 06
Visa & Immigration ManagementPhase 07
Risk Management & CompliancePhase 08
Settlement & Post-Tour ReviewPhase 09
Continuous ImprovementOngoing

Interested in licensing this system for your management company, or delivering it as an educational programme? Get in touch.

Qualifications &
licences.

SIA
Close Protection Licence
SIA-licensed CPO. Experienced moving high-profile artists and VIP talent safely across complex, high-security environments worldwide.
VISA
US O-2 Visa Holder
Active US O-2 visa — essential for high-level US touring. Managed all global immigration in-house, including 11-territory workflows for Dua Lipa.
FAW
First Aid at Work
HSE First Aid at Work certified. Essential qualification for managing crew welfare and duty of care on large-scale touring productions.
ISO
ISO 9001 QMS
Designer and architect of a bespoke ISO 9001-aligned Quality Management System purpose-built for the live music touring industry.
CPD
Leadership & Management
CPD Certified in Leadership and Management. Ongoing professional development aligned with the consultancy and education ambitions of Fin Tours.
GDPR
GDPR Certified
Certified in data protection compliance — critical when managing crew data, contracts, immigration records and financial documentation across multiple territories.

Festival & broadcast
experience.

Festival Credits (Selection)
Glastonbury — Pyramid Stage Reading & Leeds — Main Stage Hyde Park Isle of Wight — Main Stage V Festival — Main Stage Summertime Ball Jingle Bell Ball Summersonic Rock am Ring Rock im Park Primavera Download SXSW BBC Big Weekend Great Escape Soundwave Fusion Montreux Jazz Dubai Red Fest Bahrain F1 — Main Stage
TV & Broadcast (Selection)
Jools Holland The Ellen DeGeneres Show Graham Norton Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway Good Morning America Late Night with Seth Meyers Sunday Brunch Live with Kelly and Ryan Michael McIntyre Show Soccer AM Blue Peter X Factor Britain's Got Talent Top of the Pops Lorraine Loose Women

Let's talk about
your operation.

Whether you're a manager looking to bring real structure to your touring operation, an artist or label needing experienced senior tour management, or an institution interested in curriculum development — I'd like to hear from you.

I'm also open to conversations with government bodies and industry organisations interested in establishing quality and professional standards for the live music sector.