When the lights come up and the first note fills a concert hall, audiences naturally focus on the performers. They see the singer, the guitarist, the drummer and the personalities commanding the stage. What they rarely see is the person behind the mixing desk making sure every instrument, microphone, monitor and speaker works together.
For more than four decades, Andy Keating was one of those people.
In his memoir, My Life In The Mix, Andy invites readers into the largely unseen world behind live music. He was never chasing the spotlight. Instead, he built a remarkable career helping other people sound their best, solving problems when things went wrong and keeping shows moving through situations that ranged from hilarious to completely chaotic.
Finding His Place Behind the Desk
Andy’s journey began in Barry, South Wales, where music surrounded him from an early age. His father was a jazz drummer, while his brothers introduced him to different styles and musicians. Around 1970 or 1971, Andy began experimenting with an old WEM mixing desk and discovered something that would shape the rest of his life: he loved making bands sound good.
It was an unexpected path for someone who left school at fifteen with no qualifications. Andy later reflected on how undiagnosed dyslexia had affected his education, but the music world gave him a place where practical ability, persistence, instinct and problem-solving mattered.
Working With the Names Audiences Knew
Andy’s career eventually placed him behind the sound desk for an extraordinary range of performers. His memoir recalls working with Ian Hunter, Martha Reeves, Bobby Vee, The Crickets, Carl Perkins, The Blues Band, Ray Davies, The Kinks, The Drifters, Junior Walker and many others.
But My Life In The Mix is interesting precisely because Andy approaches these experiences from a different angle. He was not watching from the front row. He was loading equipment, driving through the night, fixing technical problems, dealing with personalities, handling unexpected disasters and making sure the audience still got a show.
That meant learning one of the most important rules of live entertainment: whatever happens backstage, the performance has to continue.
When Problem-Solving Becomes Part of the Job
Some of the memoir’s most entertaining moments come from situations that could never have been planned. On one occasion, a generator problem threatened a Kinks concert in Cheltenham. A replacement eventually arrived from the RAF, allowing the show to go ahead.
Then there were tours involving broken vehicles, border crossings, difficult venues, bizarre riders, exhausted overnight drives and unpredictable artists. Andy became far more than a sound engineer. At different times, he was also a driver, organiser, mediator, problem-solver and friend.
The Life Behind the Music
That is what makes My Life In The Mix more than a collection of backstage stories. Andy also writes about Annie, their family, friendships, painful losses and the personal experiences unfolding while the tours continued.
Even after stepping away from his old PA business and moving to France, music refused to disappear from his life. At seventy-one, Andy was still carrying speakers, winding cables, running sound, meeting people and enjoying the work.
Andy Keating may never have been the star standing in the spotlight, but My Life In The Mix shows how often the people audiences never notice are the ones helping make the magic possible.
Discover the stories behind the sound. Get My Life In The Mix by Andy Keating today: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HF9DY9R9
