Organising A Mini-tour

[lewie]

I`m organising a tour of northern england for my 3 piece band, we`re travelling for 6 days in febuary, I`m sending promotional material to about 50 venues in the hope that we can fill 3 or 4 of those nights, does anyone have any advice for organising the tour?

 

Lewie

[defense]

I booked a 2 week tour in the States this summer (with 2 days off.) From what I've learned it just takes a lot of work. Keep at it.

[zookie]

It's a huge help if you have someone in that area who can do some research work for you.

 

This last summer, I basically went on a family trip in the midwest US and paid for the trip by gigging a couple of nights. Had a friend out there who looked up possible venues, made some calls for me, and followed up with bookers.

 

The stipulation I had was the venue should have their own sound system. I had two very good and very personally and financially rewarding gigs out of it. Had I thought more about it and rented my own PA gear, I would have had quite a few more gigs available.

 

If you don't have the luxury of someone in that area, you'll just have to follow up with all the venues to which you sent material. You'll have to work out the logisitics (don't double-book, only pack gear you'll know you'll need).

[lewie]

thanks for the advice guys, i appreciate that.

[sideswipedv]

you'll have to let us know how all that works out, weve been talking about doing that this summer for two weeks. We are thinking about starting somewhere around Virginia beach and working our way back home (Myrtle Beach). It seems that the biggest obstacle will be getting everyones schedules coordinated but who knows. At this point its just talk. Would be very cool though.

 

Oh wait did i just read your header right?? Are you from Scotland?? Thats very different from what we are talking about we will be within 500 miles of home the whole time.

[geekgurl]

Originally posted by zookie It's a huge help if you have someone in that area who can do some research work for you. This last summer, I basically went on a family trip in the midwest US and paid for the trip by gigging a couple of nights. Had a friend out there who looked up possible venues, made some calls for me, and followed up with bookers. The stipulation I had was the venue should have their own sound system. I had two very good and very personally and financially rewarding gigs out of it. Had I thought more about it and rented my own PA gear, I would have had quite a few more gigs available. If you don't have the luxury of someone in that area, you'll just have to follow up with all the venues to which you sent material. You'll have to work out the logisitics (don't double-book, only pack gear you'll know you'll need).

 

Zookie, it may be helpful to know (at least I am interested in knowing):

 

- were you a solo act, or did you have other musicians play with you? If the latter, did band members travel with you, or did you hire them at the out-of-town location? And did you pay them?

 

- what kind of music and venue did you play?

 

Thanks!

[zookie]

Originally posted by geekgurl Zookie, it may be helpful to know (at least I am interested in knowing): - were you a solo act, or did you have other musicians play with you? If the latter, did band members travel with you, or did you hire them at the out-of-town location? And did you pay them? - what kind of music and venue did you play? Thanks!

 

My wife and I perform as a duo, playing American, Canadian and British Isles folk songs.

 

We booked gigs at pub/restaurant-type places. We were travelling to visit Cincinatti, Ohio, where my wife was raised, so we were able to market the gigs as a local-girl-returns-home and the local paper ran a feature which helped out on attendance.

 

As I said, we would have had many more venues available to us had we thought to rent a PA system for the week in that area. We travelled with just instruments and drove out.

 

I imagine the style of music I play is pretty different from most of the forumites, so I appreciate all this would have been much more difficult with a drum kit, light show and the rest.

 

When we announced our intention in our local circle of musician friends, people wracked their brains to come up with venue ideas for the Cincy area. One of my wife's childhood friends who lived in the area took on the job of calling around and peddling our press kit. A number of venues were also curious about these weirdos from 'back East' who were 'on tour'. I think the novelty helped us out. Both venues expressed interest in having us back as soon as possible, and that's about as good as it gets.