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Interesting article about the effects of touring...


Teebs
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Interesting - particularly the line

Especially since the audience who attends shows by older stars has the deepest pockets, raising profits for everyone. “It’s a demographic that has some of the highest per capita income,” Brooks says. “If the rockers are ageing out, their customers are leaving the marketplace.”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/02/music-rock-concerts-musicians-touring

:/

 

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37 minutes ago, Teebs said:

Interesting - particularly the line

Especially since the audience who attends shows by older stars has the deepest pockets, raising profits for everyone. “It’s a demographic that has some of the highest per capita income,” Brooks says. “If the rockers are ageing out, their customers are leaving the marketplace.”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/02/music-rock-concerts-musicians-touring

:/

 

tell that to the 'Stones!

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Im done in the next day after a night at the Dog and Duck!

It all sounds so sexy when you're in your 20's but I can't think of anything worse slogging your tired old carcass from flight to flight and hotel to hotel for months on end.

Edited by skidder652003
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I'm pretty sure that at those levels of touring where the only thing you have to drag is your tired carcass from top hotel to top hotel, are flown to the city of the gig (yes, this happens.  I was lucky enough to meet members of AC/DC at Manchester on their Rock or Bust tour, and during the course of the conversation I found out that the band were actually staying in London and flew into Manchester in their private Airbus) then driven to the venue, where you don't even sound check, and then return journey after the show/meet and greets etc.  Surely this it's a hell of a lot easier than Joe Average's gigging experience of loading the gear into a van, driving to the venue, unpacking and setting it up, playing the gig, putting it all back into the van, driving 90 mins home then unloading it all, only to be knackered all-day Sunday before going to work on  Monday morning.

 

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4 hours ago, DaytonaRik said:

I'm pretty sure that at those levels of touring where the only thing you have to drag is your tired carcass from top hotel to top hotel, are flown to the city of the gig (yes, this happens.  I was lucky enough to meet members of AC/DC at Manchester on their Rock or Bust tour, and during the course of the conversation I found out that the band were actually staying in London and flew into Manchester in their private Airbus) then driven to the venue, where you don't even sound check, and then return journey after the show/meet and greets etc.  Surely this it's a hell of a lot easier than Joe Average's gigging experience of loading the gear into a van, driving to the venue, unpacking and setting it up, playing the gig, putting it all back into the van, driving 90 mins home then unloading it all, only to be knackered all-day Sunday before going to work on  Monday morning.

 

You have described my gigging life, and not the ac/dc bit

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On 04/03/2020 at 08:45, DaytonaRik said:

...loading the gear into a van, driving to the venue, unpacking and setting it up, playing the gig, putting it all back into the van, driving 90 mins home then unloading it all, only to be knackered all-day Sunday before going to work on  Monday morning.

 

This is why I’m not missing my current enforced hiatus from gigging, even though I thought I would. 
 

The likes of Clapton, Seger etc are not going to starve if they don’t tour anymore. I  sympathise though with the ageing low to mid level artists who still need to pay the rent. For them it really is tour or bust. Or get a job at B&Q. 

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Interesting article. I love touring but even at my level of a few weeks a year, I wonder about the health impact. Invariably I am drinking far too much each night, never going to bed before 3am and still managing to lose weight, despite drinking to excess. I like to think if I was full time I would calm down on the drinking and late nights but I can see how it gets to be so insular and potentially damaging. Three weeks on the road around Europe and we were definitely guilty of more than a few Spinal Tap-isms "Thank you Spain" being said to a puzzled Italian audience was one particular highlight. Or lowlight. I'm pleased I'm normally health conscious and don't take any illegal drugs. Musicians seem to be increasingly that way these days. Certainly older musicians at my level.  

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i've just posted this in the 'Jazz' thread, but relevant here:

Marshall Allen is still gigging and touring the world, leading the Sun Ra Arkestra.

He's 95 years old.

I missed last years gigs, but hope to get to Subterania in that London on 9th May.

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The closest I’ve come to touring is the odd double-header where we’ve stayed in a Travel Tavern in between rather than coming home the same night as would normally happen. These have generally been relaxed affairs involving seeking out shops selling musical instruments, used kit, or CDs, and eating chips at the beach.

It’s the late nights driving home from remote venues that take their toll on me. And trying to get other band members’ big/heavy kit past drunken eejits in pub doorways...

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9 minutes ago, JapanAxe said:

snip ***  And trying to get other band members’ big/heavy kit past drunken eejits in pub doorways...

... over broken glass and past the occasional fight.

Yup, I've played some quality gigs!

Edited by MacDaddy
grammer geek
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On 04/03/2020 at 08:45, DaytonaRik said:

I'm pretty sure that at those levels of touring where the only thing you have to drag is your tired carcass from top hotel to top hotel, are flown to the city of the gig (yes, this happens.  I was lucky enough to meet members of AC/DC at Manchester on their Rock or Bust tour, and during the course of the conversation I found out that the band were actually staying in London and flew into Manchester in their private Airbus) then driven to the venue, where you don't even sound check, and then return journey after the show/meet and greets etc.  Surely this it's a hell of a lot easier than Joe Average's gigging experience of loading the gear into a van, driving to the venue, unpacking and setting it up, playing the gig, putting it all back into the van, driving 90 mins home then unloading it all, only to be knackered all-day Sunday before going to work on  Monday morning.

 

I was in fact on one of the tours mentioned in that article and will happily say that while a lot easier it's still draining and not as plush as you might think. A lot of late night travel involved even at the top end; I particularly remember a 2am ferry from Dublin to Holyhead where the passenger list consisted of twenty top-flight LA session musicians trying to bed down in the cafeteria, a hundred exhausted and whizzed-off road crew trying to find the bar, and ten bemused tourists wondering where the circus had come from! 

We were only on it for two months, but the core crew had been on the road for the best part of two years. In those circumstances your career lives or dies on your reputation for being low drama and reliable - you're living with the same people day in and out in a high stress environment so even comparatively small quirks wear out their welcome extremely quickly.

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On 04/03/2020 at 08:45, DaytonaRik said:

Surely this it's a hell of a lot easier than Joe Average's gigging experience of loading the gear into a van, driving to the venue, unpacking and setting it up, playing the gig, putting it all back into the van, driving 90 mins home then unloading it all, only to be knackered all-day Sunday before going to work on  Monday morning.

 

The above details why I left my band, though the journeys for us were more like 3 or 4 hours in most cases. Add in European gigs, be they flying or van/ferry gigs and it’s very easy to become very tired when trying to fit it all around a full time job.

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