I remember vividly attending a music conference and listening to a talk on how nearly impossible it is for emerging bands to tour. Nearly impossible, sure, but also completely possible. Over the past seven years I have created a list of music venues and contacts across the country and into Europe, simply by looking for music venues on Google Maps and finding their contact details on websites and Facebook-pages. I’ve divided them into a few categories including music cafes, for acoustic and mellow acts, venues, and rock venues, add a bunch of promoters I’ve found on social media through searches and connections, and you’ve got the start of a tour, almost.
When an artist reaches out to me about a tour I first check what cities they’ve got a crowd in already, friends, family, uni mates, colleagues, and what cities they’d like to play in or where they know bands they’d like to share a line-up with. I then check when they’re available for shows or a tour, and start to draw the route that has them drive the least amount of miles inbetween shows. With that I start reaching out to venues and promoters, as well as bands that might be able to help out, including proposed dates, the bands background info and the reason they’re touring. These days responses come rather quickly but it can take a good few weeks to get a response even after chasing.
Some venues charge a fee, sometimes they only charge for a sound engineer, and sporadically they pay a fixed fee for a set. Although the risk at times ends up with the artist, this also means you have full control over the line-up, your timings, your costs and your income and you increase your chances to get booked by a promoter as you now know the risk they take when booking you. Abnorm hired a van from a local to travel the country in and made sure not to bring too much equipment but have everything they needed to put on a good show.
We booked our accommodation through Booking.com, on which I have acquired Genuis Level 3 through using it regularly, which got us about 15% discount per house we stayed in. We all mostly had our own rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens to cook in if needed or when there was time. We sold our own tickets, split the income with the local supports and made money on merchandise. Through Abbie’s job we received some money to put towards petrol, keeping the financial costs at a great low, and this was only their first one!
Some things I would have done differently is get some physical promo material printed to spread through the cities when we arrived early, and ask local friends to help us promote the shows as well through posters and flyers. I’d get another band member to share driving duties with wor Abbie who drove like a champ but I’d stick with Booking.com and hiring a van! I’ll still always only book support bands through recommendations and try to see them live myself first.
Despite it being a knackering experience, being on tour is something I would do over and over again and an experience I would never have wanted to miss out on, fancy doing it yourself or looking for some help? Don’t hesitate to get in touch!
LLIVELY Music 