{"id":5586,"date":"2017-11-29T08:16:10","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T08:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/?p=5586"},"modified":"2021-05-02T20:16:50","modified_gmt":"2021-05-02T19:16:50","slug":"tour-management-faq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/tour-management-faq\/","title":{"rendered":"TOUR MANAGEMENT FAQ"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"page-wrapper\">\n<div id=\"page\">\n<header id=\"header-wrapper\" class=\"clearfix\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div id=\"menu-wrapper\">\n<nav>\n<div class=\"region region-navigation\">\n<div id=\"block-menu-block-1\" class=\"block block-menu-block\">\n<div class=\"block-content\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div id=\"main-wrapper\" class=\"clearfix\" role=\"main\">\n<div id=\"main\" class=\"container\">\n<section id=\"node-content\">\n<div class=\"region region-content\">\n<div id=\"block-system-main\" class=\"block block-system\">\n<div class=\"block-content\">\n<article id=\"node-7785\" class=\"node-blog\" data-edit-entity-id=\"node\/7785\">\n<div class=\"node__columns\">\n<div class=\"node__columns-item\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\" data-edit-field-id=\"node\/7785\/body\/und\/full\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<div id=\"page-wrapper\">\n<div id=\"page\">\n<header id=\"header-wrapper\" class=\"clearfix\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div id=\"menu-wrapper\">\n<nav>\n<div class=\"region region-navigation\">\n<div id=\"block-menu-block-1\" class=\"block block-menu-block\">\n<div class=\"block-content\">\n<p class=\"menu-block-wrapper menu-block-1 menu-name-main-menu parent-mlid-0 menu-level-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5592\" src=\"http:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/thumb_wrinkle_1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"591\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/thumb_wrinkle_1024.jpg 591w, https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/thumb_wrinkle_1024-285x260.jpg 285w, https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/thumb_wrinkle_1024-300x274.jpg 300w, https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/thumb_wrinkle_1024-351x321.jpg 351w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 591px) 100vw, 591px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>[Andy and artist William Doyle, cleaning the bus on a North American <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sohnmusic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>SOHN<\/strong><\/a> tour, Spring of 2017, while driver John Wrinkle looks on]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The below is an interview given to the <a href=\"http:\/\/icmp.ac.uk\/blog\/9-tips-on-how-survive-your-first-tour-andy-inglis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ICMP<\/a>, coupled with various questions asked by Music Business Management students from a number of universities in 2017<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div id=\"main-wrapper\" class=\"clearfix\" role=\"main\">\n<div id=\"main\" class=\"container\">\n<section id=\"node-content\">\n<div class=\"region region-content\">\n<div id=\"block-system-main\" class=\"block block-system\">\n<div class=\"block-content\">\n<article id=\"node-7785\" class=\"node-blog\" data-edit-entity-id=\"node\/7785\">\n<div class=\"node__columns\">\n<div class=\"node__columns-item\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\" data-edit-field-id=\"node\/7785\/body\/und\/full\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p><strong><span class=\"s2\"><br \/>\nDo you tend to handpick the artists that you specifically work with?<br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"s2\">For the most part, I\u2019ve TMd artists I also manage. Getting closer to them, and meeting their promoters and label partners around the world are hugely beneficial consequences of discharging the role. Otherwise, I\u2019m asked to do it either by booking agents or artists who know me personally. I\u2019m 45; I\u2019m done taking risks on artists I don\u2019t know who\u2019re doing their first tours and want to live the rock and roll lifestyle. The rock and roll lifestyle kills people<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>How far in advance do young bands need to plan ahead of a tour? Is there an ideal run up time?<\/strong><br \/>\nAs soon as you can. If you\u2019ve got a confirmed run of dates there\u2019s plenty you can lock in; accommodation, van hire, booking time off work if you need to \u2026 certain times of year are busier than others for touring, though if you\u2019re planning to tour the East coast of the US in January, you should be fine to book a van last minute because most bands try to avoid driving in two-metre snow drifts in order to avoid dying.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When planning a tour, how can new bands work out where they should be playing? What are the\u00a0most important factors\/influencers for them in finding out where their audience are?<br \/>\n<\/strong>The most important indicator would be if you have fans saying \u201cWe live in X town and we want you to come and play\u201d. Beyond that, it moves into (hopefully educated) guesswork. Some online platforms (Spotify, Facebook) have analytics than can let you see where your fans\/listeners are based, which can help. But not all bands are created equal, and not everyone tours for the same reasons. A band with money behind them &#8211; through their own jobs, or parents, or some other investment &#8211; might decide to tour partly for fun, with less concern about the bottom-line, and another band with no backing will have to learn how to carefully plan their routing to avoid unnecessary fuel costs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How can emerging bands be best prepared to ensure they don\u2019t lose money when they head out\u00a0on the road? Or is this totally unrealistic?<br \/>\n<\/strong>It\u2019s pretty unrealistic. There aren\u2019t enough people in the world with both a disposable income and interest in supporting live music for every artist to come out of this in profit, or even to find any level of success, however each artist wants to define the word. If most artists went to a bank manager with a business plan and attempted to have a tour funded, they\u2019re be turned down, so artists need to consider how much they\u2019re prepared to lose, and for how long. Everyone has a limit, and most artists are fuelled by passion as much as finance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"image-description\"><strong>Despite all forward planning and all good intentions, what will definitely happen to any young band while out on tour?<br \/>\n<\/strong>They\u2019ll argue, get a parking ticket, book the right hotel in the right town on the wrong day, perform badly, reverse the van into a wall, pull a muscle trying to lift a heavy amp alone, get sick through a bad diet and sharing the same three enclosed spaces for 24 hours a day (vehicle, venue, hotel room). They\u2019ll also have an amazing time, get away with the parking ticket because the Italian authorities can\u2019t be bothered chasing them for 50\u20ac, do the best show of their career and eat world-class bread and cheese with the venue staff (France). There\u2019s an anecdote I use when I\u00a0lecture about touring, which references the film\u00a0<em>\u2018Contact\u2019<\/em>\u00a0with Jodie Foster. The NASA scientist gives her a capsule of cyanide before she goes to meet the aliens and tells her they\u2019ve been giving them to the astronauts since the space program began. It\u2019s not for all the things they think might happen. It\u2019s space: it\u2019s for all the things they\u00a0<em>can\u2019t\u00a0imagine<\/em>\u00a0will happen. Same goes for the road, but most bands replace the cyanide with alcohol.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"s2\">What does your day-to-day role entail?<br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"s2\">Every day will be very different. The foundation for a day on the road is that there\u2019s not much of a foundation. Or anyway, it is rarely predictable. Touring occurs in what\u2019s largely an uncontrolled, uncontrollable environment, unlike your office or lecture room which are static environments. That said, each day has a very simple 3-stage plan:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">1. Get artist to venue safely<br \/>\n<\/span><span class=\"s2\">2. Get artist on stage on time<br \/>\n<\/span><span class=\"s2\">3. Get artist to bed safely<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"s2\">What are the working conditions like on and off tour? (hours, comfort, job security, etc.)<br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"s2\">Off tour, if I\u2019m doing a pre-tour advance, I\u2019m sitting at a laptop like everyone else. Working conditions on the road are often challenging. Here\u2019s an extract from <a href=\"http:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/notes-from-the-continent-the-hopes-and-dreams-of-a-tour-manager\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one of my tour diaries, with Savages, in 2014<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>One of the many benefits of touring by van as opposed to touring by sleeper bus is that we take hotels every night, which means we can have showers every night after work if we want them, and again in the morning if we\u2019re feeling decadent, or if we shat ourselves in our sleep. This means that we\u2019re generally clean during what \u2013 for Tour Managers and crew at least \u2013 is a very dirty job. Vans are microcosms of bacteria and sickness. Injury and ill-health are never far away and this is not a vocation for the squeamish. In loud environments we shout into each other\u2019s ears, leaving trails of spittle behind, while our hearing slowly deteriorates and the long hours add weeks and months to our faces. We bruise and cut our shins on the edges of stages and pull muscles in our backs when manoeuvring bass cabinets. If someone gets a throat infection, cold or some other transmittable bug, there\u2019s a good chance we\u2019ll all get it, what with being in such close proximity to each other for 23 and a half hours a day (taking 30 minutes alone in the bathroom). When van hire companies wash their vans before you take them out, they don\u2019t disinfect the wheel or gear stick, so you\u2019re grasping the sweat, piss and faeces of every driver that\u2019s ever driven the thing. The handles of your guitar cases have been held by countless production staff, many of whom will have taken a dump and not washed their hands just before you\u2019ve arrived to load in, and after shaking hands with festival stage managers, who\u2019ve been shaking hands with every member of every band\u2019s crew since ten o\u2019clock that morning, and haven\u2019t had time to stop in front of a sink with hot water and soap the whole day and night, your own hands will be ingrained with the snot, shit and bodily fluids of a hundred people.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><strong>When artists play shows on a tour, what can they do to increase their fan base on the night itself? Alongside playing the best sets they can?<br \/>\n<\/strong>That\u2019s about the best advice. Ahead of the show: good promotion. On the night: play well. After the show: say thanks, in person and online.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How has touring\/the live music industry changed in recent years? Has it become easier\/tougher for young artists to get out there and perform?<br \/>\n<\/strong>It\u2019s hard to compare anything year on year, whether it\u2019s touring, streaming numbers, or why your knitted-hat business is doing better\/worse. The world isn\u2019t a static environment. It\u2019s never been easy for artists to tour because touring isn\u2019t easy. There were less artists years ago and less things to do with our time &#8211; the internet and the explosion of hand-held technologies have given us another \u2018world\u2019 to inhabit without leaving the house in recent years &#8211; but those same technologies have enabled artists to be more strategic, to plan better, to be better informed, and these same technologies have also led to many more people forming bands, for a number of reasons, which has crowded the market. The industry itself has certainly changed, as most businesses have to some extent. Budget airlines have made flying cheaper, the proliferation of car ownership has made driving more difficult. The number of music festivals has increased the number of slots available for new artists, the number of new bands forming has made the fight for those slots incredibly competitive. Promoters are getting better at catering to those with dietary restrictions. Free Wi-Fi is more readily available. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/booksmart.it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New tour management apps are (slowly) emerging<\/a><\/strong>. Some of the changes are demonstrably good or bad, some come down to how optimistic you are by nature.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What item of clothing\/food\/drink or anything else is indispensable when touring?<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8211; Noise-canceling headphones (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bose.com\/en_us\/products\/headphones\/noise_cancelling_headphones.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bose<\/a>)<br \/>\n&#8211; Moulded earplugs (<a href=\"https:\/\/acscustom.com\/uk\/products\/hearing-protection\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ACS<\/a>)<br \/>\n&#8211; A packet of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Sharpie-Fine-Point-Permanent-Marker\/dp\/B002LSNM68\/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1520726343&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=sharpie+black\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sharpies<\/a><br \/>\nI\u2019ll slightly alter the question in my head and say: Don\u2019t eat junk food. You\u2019ll be doing 18-20 hour days and your body needs fuel. Unless you\u2019re in your early 20s then sure, eat whatever you like. You\u2019ll be fine until you\u2019re about 27, 28. Try and avoid alcohol every day. In my experience, people who drink alcohol on the road every day tend to have &#8211; or are on their way to having &#8211; some kind of an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. It can certainly be problematic to be around it. There\u2019s nothing romantic about it, though we (as an industry) seem to think it\u2019s okay to put a bottle of whiskey and 24 cans of beer in musicians\u2019 places of work &#8211; backstage rooms &#8211; at four o\u2019clock in the afternoon. Try that in any other industry and see how fast you get sacked.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"s2\">What were your previous roles, and what experience developed and prepared you for your role as a Tour Manager?\u00a0What personality traits are best honed in advance of hitting the road?<br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong>I\u2019ve been an artist manager (still am; it\u2019s the heart of my business) venue founder\/co-owner, festival booker, label manager (multiple times), lecturer and mentor. It\u2019s been a packed 28 years. My route to TMing was &#8211; from one perspective &#8211; very direct: I like music, travelling, helping people and customer service. That\u2019s Tour Management.<br \/>\nBeing aware of your own personality and how it affects others is the most important thing. Annoying trait + 20 hour day in enclosed spaces = arguments. We\u2019ve all got quirks and idiosyncrasies that will annoy people. Be empathetic.<br \/>\nNot everyone is built for the road. Be kind to and supportive of each other. You&#8217;re all in the same boat. Everyone\u2019s cold, everyone\u2019s tired, everyone\u2019s hungry, but do your best not to just moan and complain about it. Do something about it instead. Try to address the issues and improve the working environment for everyone. And don&#8217;t slack off during load in and out. Everyone loads in and loads out, unless they\u2019re sick.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"s2\">What skills does a Tour Manager need to be successful and consistent throughout their career?<br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"s2\">Patience, diligence, diplomacy, empathy, a head for logistics, and the ability to sleep anywhere.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s1\">That said, there are plenty of Tour Managers who suck at all these things and still manage to get work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>At the beginning of your career, have you struggled getting used to a particular role or task which you did not think was going to be part of your job?<\/strong><br \/>\nAt the beginning, with no one to show me the ropes, I struggled to get used to the entire role. Sleeping on a moving bed isn\u2019t natural, nor is getting four hours sleep for days in a row, or moving your office to a new city (sometimes country) every day, where your office colleagues are different people, some of whom may not speak your language, where it\u2019s acceptable for people to drink while they\u2019re working and when you\u2019re packing up for the day someone wheels in a DJ and suddenly you\u2019re trying to do your job in the middle of a nightclub. It\u2019s a bizarre environment. The one aspect I\u2019ve never got used to &#8211; and never will &#8211; is letting people down when I make a mistake. It\u2019s going to happen, and people are generally understanding giving the situation, but I still don\u2019t find it easy to deal with. It\u2019s a character flaw I can\u2019t seem to fix.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Tour Manager covers a high number of roles and is usually involved with a large range of activities. What do you think are the most crucial in today&#8217;s industry to smoothly run a tour?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt\u2019s a tough question to answer. It\u2019s crucial to be patient, diplomatic, understanding, resilient, logical, creative\u2026 I can go on. Equally, on some tours you might get away with not being some of those things. There are three-month-long bus tours of North America and there are three-week-long tours of Singapore, Auckland and Australia. For me, the former was one of the toughest three months of my life and the latter one of the most relaxing three weeks. Further, I don\u2019t know that the modern industry presents any major challenges that didn\u2019t also exist decades ago. It could be argued that technology has made touring easier. I once planned a US tour in 1991 without the internet. I can\u2019t work out how it was possible, looking back at it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A Tour Manager&#8217;s skills are extremely varied. Do these change over time? You&#8217;ve said it\u2019s difficult to compare touring over the years, but have you noticed an evolution in the fundamental skills of a Tour Manager? Did you have to learn any new abilities to remain successful in your job over the years? <\/strong><br \/>\nI don&#8217;t think the role has changed much. Touring has become more professional though, as it\u2019s become a more financially lucrative component of an artist\u2019s career (for those playing larger venues with the capacity to generate substantial income), but for a Tour Manager that just means having to worry less about paying for a TV that&#8217;s been thrown into a swimming pool. It\u2019s important to remember that there\u2019s no barrier to entry for this job, no qualifications to achieve. Any idiot can do it, and plenty do, but how many people do you know who\u2019re actually good at their jobs, in any walk of life? We\u2019re mostly just doing the bare minimum and getting away with it. Same with Tour Managers. When people (artists and crew) abdicate all responsibility for their day-to-day care to someone else, it\u2019s pretty easy for that someone else to do the bare minimum and get away with it, hiding their mistakes. God knows I\u2019ve hidden plenty of mine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>It seems like many of the challenges of touring are related to finance, organising issues and time management. Most of these issues end up getting solved, but what are the mistakes that have seriously damaged a tour in your experience? And do you think the challenges of tour managing include securing a job in the field, career advancements, and personal financial stability? <\/strong><br \/>\nI\u2019ve never made a mistake that\u2019s seriously damaged a tour, though I suppose that depends upon your definition of \u201cseriously damaged&#8221;. I\u2019ve made plenty that have caused problems, most of which I\u2019ve been able to fix on my own without anyone else noticing. I\u2019ve made others which have seriously damaged my bank balance, like booking nine flights to Berlin, forgetting I did it and booking them again a week later. I also once flew a band into Manchester for a festival, on the wrong day. That was pretty embarrassing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p><strong>Did you ever find yourself in a position of needing a break from tour managing because of stress and poor working conditions? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, usually about five days into a tour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p><strong>What is the main thing you\u2019ve learned from your time on tour?<br \/>\n<\/strong>The damage alcohol can do, and the extent to which the industry doesn\u2019t care. Otherwise, what an utterly bizarre way of living it is, and how difficult it can be to articulate that to someone who\u2019s never done it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"_atssh\"><strong>What do you think are the best things about touring that keep you from disliking your job despite how <\/strong><strong>stressful it can get at the times?<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/div>\n<p>I get to travel the world and see fascinating places. I get to spend time at airports. I like airports. My bills are paid (no food, accommodation, mobile phone or utilities), the pay can be good, though when you work it out to hours worked it\u2019s not so good. It\u2019s exciting and challenging. I like to juggle logistics and fix problems. I like to take care of people. I suppose the last reason is what keeps me going back.<\/p>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>If you&#8217;re interested in getting inside\u00a0the intricacies, mechanics and traumas of a tour, put the kettle on and read these:<\/em><br \/>\n<em>A <a href=\"http:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/notes-from-the-continent-the-hopes-and-dreams-of-a-tour-manager\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>tour diary<\/strong><\/a> from Savages&#8217; first Mainland European tour, 2012<\/em><br \/>\n<em>A <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/the-great-north-american-a-diary-from-the-road\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tour diary<\/a><\/strong> from East India Youth&#8217;s first (and last) North American tour, 2015<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Andy and artist William Doyle, cleaning the bus on a North American SOHN tour, Spring of 2017, while driver John Wrinkle looks on] The below is an interview given to the ICMP, coupled with various questions asked by Music Business Management students from a number of universities in 2017 Do you tend to handpick the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5586"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6432,"href":"https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5586\/revisions\/6432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/5000mgmt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}