his has been a tough year for musicians, but it has been even harder on their road crews. The guitar wranglers, tech magicians and flightcase-luggers who make gigs happen have seen tours of all sizes delayed or even totally cancelled. Earlier this year, the global mega-promoter Live Nation launched a relief fund to offer financial aid to backstage staff, supported by big-ticket acts such as Lady Gaga and Billy Joel. But with the entire live music ecosystem in limbo, help is urgently needed at a grassroots level. Idlewild guitarist Rod Jones, who also runs the Post Electric recording studio in Edinburgh, felt compelled to act. “I was looking at Facebook for the first time in ages and saw all these posts from people who I’d worked with talking about how utterly screwed they were,” he says. “Their entire livelihood had gone and I just thought: ‘Well, what can we do?’” Jones cooked up the concept for a sort of bootleg benefit record: a compilation album where roadies would cover songs by the bands they worked for but with the original singers on vocals. “So we made a few phone calls and within a day we had four or five bands on board,” says Jones. “I liked the idea of it being a bit cheeky. The road crew are so important to the shows and they are often very talented musicians, so why not record them?” The 13 acts who signed up for the Whole Lotta Roadies project represent a venerable cross-section of Scottish indie, from 1970s punk survivors the Rezillos to recent radio-conquering upstarts Twin Atlantic. Even bands with their own imminent album releases to promote – such as Arab Strap and Belle and Sebastian – got involved. The initial recording sessions took place over two weeks at Jones’s studio, with safety measures in place, and an early donation from the Scottish promoter Regular Music meant the players were paid for their time. “It wasn’t exactly a Kanye session fee but it still felt important,” says Jones. Many of the singers recorded their parts remotely but some made it into the studio. “The Proclaimers were in and they were just consummate professionals,” Jones says. “And Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai came and sang, which felt quite special.” All the money raised from digital album and merchandise sales will go into a hardship fund to be distributed in grant form by a panel of road crew. “We’re not going to fix the problem but hopefully this will help, and also just raise awareness.”