A Fans Guide To Being On Tour
TRAVEL
The Cuckoo in the nest.
Travel is, I would argue, the ultimate game changer. Your
favourite band is on tour, you’ve decided which gig or gigs you’d like to do,
now you have to decide how you are going to get there. Simple, right? Wrong.
Option 1. Public transport.
It doesn’t really matter if the gig is local, at the other
end of the country or on the other side of the planet for that matter. Public
transport relies on two very simply things.
Firstly, Timetables. Can you get to and from the gig? Does
public transport run late at night, most theatre or arena gigs end around 22.30
with a curfew normally around 23.00 at the latest, club gigs however can go
onto the small hours of the following morning, conversely making it very
difficult to see smaller gigs because of the venue the band are playing.
Secondly, Industrial Action. Who am I to tell Train Drivers
that £60K a year isn’t enough money to live on. Strikes, planned with public
notice or wildcat walkouts will end your tour before it has even begun. What’s
the point of a gig ticket, and or a hotel reservation, if you can’t get there?
Option 2. Private travel.
Driving to and from the gig, or driving the tour, gives you
the option of flexibility because you aren’t being held to a timetable, and it
also means you are freed from any possible industrial action. You become your
own tour manager.
The downside to driving is one, you need a car and two,
it means you have to fuel the car and then find somewhere to park the car, and
when I write park the car, the car is going to be parked for a long time, so
those car parking charges are going to escalate rapidly, unless you have a
hotel with a car park.
Option 3. Walk. You may laugh, but I’ve walked from
Birmingham to Walsall at Stupid O’ Clock in the morning on many occasions. I’ve
also walked across London a few times too thanks to strikes. Amazing the things
that you see when the world is asleep in its bed. *
Option 4. You know, there is a fourth option. Carpooling.
Doing the gig, or gigs, or tour, with your mates. One of your mates drives to
and from the gigs and you all throw in petrol money and money for parking.
Basically, making sure he or she is looked after, watered and fed. Afterall,
when you’re on the back seat of the car sleeping, they are the one who is
staying awake, making up limericks, driving you home and keeping you alive,
just to do it all again tomorrow. **
Who knew getting to a gig could be so complicated.
* I’ve also walked up Broadway in New York City, but that’s
just showing off and I’ve got photo at Stupid O’ Clock showing me as far north
as 124th St, but that’s another story for another day.
** See Bruce Dickinson blogs.
*** Footnote. There have been many times when I’ve gone to a
gig without knowing how I was going to get home only to have some kind soul
offer me a lift home in their car (or tour bus, private plane...). It is a
debt I’ve always wanted to pay back. Sometimes I’ve been able too, but mostly
I’ve failed, often because our lives have moved off in different directions,
sometimes because I’ve never seen them again (don’t accept lifts from strangers’
kids…).
It's a debt I’ve continued to carry with me and hopefully I
always will. Whenever I get the chance to give someone a lift, to or from a
gig, I do. I used to be them once. It is important to never forget.
I’ve not always had a car, but now I do.
Noggin xx
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