Basschat on Tour! Tell us your stories of being on the road?

[Al Krow]

Something I've never done, but would have loved to! 

 

What about you guys? What are your stories of being on the road, the highs, the lows and the in-betweens? When did you go and how did it end? What have you got coming up?

 

Pics always welcome!

[Len_derby]

Nice one AL. I’ll get us rolling.

My time ‘on the road’ didn’t last long. I quickly realised I didn’t have the resilience and passion necessary. Bearing in mind this was the late seventies, the things that did it for me were; poor quality food at inconvenient/unhealthy times, uncomfortable travel and bad sleeping arrangements. I did about six months and then bottled-out for a career in engineering. After that I was happy to keep music as a hobby. For me, the T&Cs of music as a full-time weren’t worth it. I do admire all those who have what it takes to do it. 
Ironically, later in my career in chemical engineering I ended-up working overseas on various projects. However, I did have a company Gold Amex card and my own choice of hotels.

 

A mate of mine always says, if the life of a touring musician was promoted as a punishment Amnesty International would be all over it.

[Lozz196]

My experience of my first tour was the same Len, was early 90s for me, reinforced my thoughts that music was my hobby, something I did for fun, and didn’t want it as a job.

 

I did a few European tours with Knock Off from 2015 - 19. Aside from the fact that the tours imo were poorly organised, being centred more around which town centre we could walk around all day than being based upon making the gigging as easy as possible I didn’t find it too bad. Again the organisation of finishing a gig then driving 3hrs to the next hotel I found a bind, especially when seeing other bands drive 20mins to their hotels. Was a big factor in me leaving.

[mcnach]

Not a lot of 'touring', mostly just stints of maybe 4 days at a time travelling in a converted 17-seater minibus... and that got boring very rapidly. With not much to do, lots of waiting around, and usually free beer... I started understanding why many of the bands I followed as a kid had stories of drugs and general debauchery. Probably just to keep from going insane. 

I guess it can be more interesting when you wake up in Paris one day and Rome the next, rather than driving from Nuneaton to Kidderminster, then Folkestone, back to Coventry and run to Newcastle. Sleeping arrangements varied from Travelodge style hotels to somebody's floor/sofa or the van.

 

When the minibus beshiteth on us and broke down (several times) it added an extra layer of crap. 

 

Don't get me wrong, it was a great experience... but not one I need to repeat, unless the £££ level is an order of magnitude larger.