Anna Howell

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Tour Schedule/Planner

Tour Schedule/Planner Commentary

For my tour plan, I am using my close friends’ band “Cab Driver”. They are a quickly emerging indie/alt-rock Leeds based band who I work closely with in other areas of my study. They have recently secured multiple opening slots for slightly larger bands across Leeds, at venues such as The Wardrobe, Hyde Park Book Club and Lending Room. They are currently planning the release of their first single “Insincere”, so I believe that now is a really good time in their career to start playing in other cities. 

I have decided to look at smaller venues as the goal of this tour is to grow their audience, and it is much more manageable to fill smaller rooms when their audience is still emerging, but their Leeds date will be larger. As Cab Driver’s music fits really well into the UK indie festival scene, I have also decided to plan some of the dates to align with when people will be in certain areas for festivals, in the summer. This is a great time of year to tour as people are travelling regularly in the summer for music events, and festivals bring in hundreds of music lovers to the area. As a student band, it is also a great time as students have often gone back to their home towns and therefore have much more money and free-time to spend on attending and travelling to gigs. A UK music report in 2024 showed that the live sector increased its worth by 10 billion pounds due to an increase in in concert and festival attendance in the summer (Musicians Union, 2025).  

These locations for the tour are as follows: 

Dublin – 5^th June (following Forbidden Fruit Festival) 

Liverpool – 12^th June 

Manchester – 17^th June (just before Parklife Festival) 

A longer break here provides an opportunity to go back to Leeds before the next date. 

Birmingham – 5^th July 

Bristol – 10^th July (before Harbour Festival) 

London – 13^th July (following the end of BST Hyde Park series) 

Leeds – 20^th July (between Roundhay Festival and Reading & Leeds Festival) 

I have included a tour poster (appendix 1) and a visualiser of this route (appendix 2).  

This route is the most economical way of doing it as it eliminates having to go back on itself and also grows momentum as it goes along to build up to returning home to the larger Leeds show at the end. Although the tour spans quite a long time, it aligns with the summer break from university as Cab Driver are a second year Leeds Conservatoire band. It also allows plenty of time for travel and free/down time in each city.  

Alongside the gigs, I will be using the extra time on tour for press opportunities. These include interviews, merch pop-ups, and record store appearances. There would also be an increased social media presence from the band during the tour period.  

For the Dublin date, I will need an ATA carnet to transport the musical equipment by ferry (appendix 3). 

There are options for cheap accommodation throughout the tour, such as friends and family in the areas, and the travel can be covered by 3 out of 5 members being able to drive to each venue and drive equipment between them. Close friend of the band, Max Morton, is willing to join the tour at a reduced rate of £700 for the whole tour (appendix 4). 

Support acts for each show would be selected from the local music universities in each city, as a way to support other student bands. These include institutions such as BIMM Dublin, LIPA, RNCM and ICMP. The assistance from the support bands in each city would also play a big role in the marketing campaign, as they will already have their own audience in the city that Cab Driver has not yet tapped. By using student bands, they will be able to bring in a large student community from each respective city. 

For choosing venues, I researched grassroots venues for upcoming artists. For Dublin, I decided to use the upstairs stage of Whelan’s for an “intimate and unforgettable gig experience” (BIMM university, 2019). This venue has a capacity of 120 which is perfect for Cab Driver. For Liverpool, I have chosen to hire Quarry, which is a 200 capacity venue. Manchester would be Band On The Wall, which is a larger capacity venue at 500 people. The reason this one would be larger is because Manchester is closely linked to Leeds in terms of the band’s audience and network. I have also been able to access the venue pack which assists planning greatly. The goal for the Manchester date would not be to sell it out, as the hire fee is quite low for the size. It would more be an opportunity for audience growth and development. A larger support band would also be beneficial to boost ticket sales here, such as RNCM band “XL Poncho”.  

Birmingham’s venue is the Sunflower Lounge (120 capacity), which I was able to access the venue pack for. Bristol’s is The Louisiana (140 capacity), and London is Piano Smithfield (100 capacity). For the final show in Leeds, I have opted for the largest venue in the tour to be Leeds Irish centre (800 capacity). By the time this show comes around, Cab Driver will have grown their audience so much that their home show will be the most popular by far. 

For the venues I could not access venue packs for, I reached out via a contact form to request a quote for hiring costs (appendix 5). 

In order to maximise ticket sales and audience growth, the marketing and promotion plan for this tour is crucial. The best way is to directly connect to fans, as “artist-fan relationships are one of the most important assets of an artist” according to SoundCharts (Dmitry Pastukhov, 2019). This can be done by creating a fan presale via a platform such as bandsintown. Not only would this mean that the event is promoted on a popular platform such as bandsintown where music fans are likely to come across the event, and fans would feel connected to the artist by an exclusive presale.  

The rest of the marketing and promotion would mostly be done digitally, due to the demographic of potential attendees being predominantly music students between the ages of 18-25, who enjoy indie/alt rock music. This demographic typically spends much more time on social media than consuming physical media, therefore this is a much better use of money. 

This digital marketing would also be elevated by the previously mentioned elevated social media presence. This campaign looks like behind the scenes content to drive the fan’s perceived connection to the artist by feeling included in the running of the tour. It would also include clips from the live shows for each city. Targeted geographical ads would be implemented to reach each city, and using the festivals that are running alongside the gigs are a direct way of doing this. For example, posts that directly target attendees of those festivals. 

The physical marketing would just be posters being put up in core student areas of each city. This is relatively low cost but still effective as it reaches explicitly the target audience. The merchandise for this tour would be available digitally on the lead up to the tour, but I expect most of its revenue to come from sales at the live shows. The merchandise would feature the Cab Driver logo which I had designed for free by a student graphic designer (appendix 6), to create trendy and fashionable clothing that still advertises the band while being wearable day to day. To mitigate legal issues, unfortunately it would be very cost ineffective to sell merchandise at the Dublin show, as it would have to be declared at the border. Although this would mean a missed area of revenue, the band would direct fans to the online merchandise site instead to drive digital sales.  

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Cash Flow

Financial Commentary

As Cab Driver and the supporting bands are student bands, this tour is on a shoestring budget, as seen on the spreadsheet.  

For most of the venues, I have not been able to access the accurate cost of venue hire, as I unfortunately did not hear back from my quote requests. Because of this, I have predicted some of these based on the costs of similar sized venues in similar areas. On top of this, some venues include PRS charges within the hiring fee, but I will be assuming that this is not the case. I have budgeted £16 per night for this based on the tariffs on the PRS website. 

Transport costs include petrol fees and flight prices for the Dublin date. I have calculated petrol at 16p per mile (according to estimations from Nimble Fins, 2026). According to the mileage on my route plan (appendix 7), this will average at a cost of £252.48 for 3 cars, which I have rounded up to £300 for miscellaneous journeys along the tour. For the return flights plus equipment, I have calculated a total estimation of £1300 in total.  

Marketing costs include £500 for targeted Instagram ads, and a printing budget of £40 as posters can be cheaply printed using university services. 

Merchandise will be just T-shirts, priced at £15 each. The predicted cost for these is £2.79 per shirt if we have over 300 units (appendix 8). We aim to sell 50 shirts at each event, meaning we would need 350 units, costing £976.50, but generating a profit of £4273.50. 

Accommodation is covered by staying with friends and family for free for all the dates except Dublin. For the Dublin show, budget hotels will be booked at a predicted cost of £80 per night per room at EasyHotel. Three rooms would be needed for all five members of the team (band and photographer), so the cost is £480 for two nights.   

In accordance with the government website, per diems should be at least £25 per day. Allowing two days per show day, the cost of per diems will be £250 for each date per person, amounting to £1750 in total.  

Most of the equipment is already owned by the band, but other equipment can be hired for free from Leeds Conservatoire. The insurance cost for this is £74.99 according to AMPband (appendix 9). 

There is also the previously mentioned costs of the photographer and carnet.

Finally, the contingency pot will be £1000 for any unexpected costs. 

Tickets will be sold at an average of £10 each, with a slightly increased cost of £12 for the Dublin show. This is a budget friendly cost for student attendees, while still generating a good income.

If 80% of tickets are sold at each night and 350 t-shirts are sold, the tour would have a profit of £7343.

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Technical & Logistics

Stage Plot

Channel List

Input	Instrument	Mic/DI	Musician	Venue or musician provided
1	Kick drum	Audix D6 mic	Matt	Venue
2	Drum overhead 1	AKG C414 mic	Matt	Venue
3	Drum overhead 2	AKG C414 mic	Matt	Venue
4	Snare	Shure SM57 mic	Matt	Venue
5	Tom 1	Sennheiser e604 mic	Matt	Venue
6	Tom 2	Sennheiser e604 mic	Matt	Venue
7	Tom 3	Sennheiser e604 mic	Matt	Venue
8	Hi-hat	Shure SM81 mic	Matt	Venue
9	Lead vocal	Shure SM58	Ben	Musician
10	Backing vocal 1	Shure SM58	Charlie	Musician
11	Backing vocal 2	Shure SM58	Ollie	Musician
12	Guitar 1	Shure SM57	Ben	Venue
13	Guitar 2	Shure SM57	Ollie	Venue
14	Bass	DI	Charlie	Musician

Logistics

The technical logistics of the tour require the use of the following equipment: 

3x amps 

3x vocal mics 

4x in ear monitors and system 

DI box 

3x pedal boards  

2x electric guitars 

1x bass 

1x acoustic guitar 

1x Cymbal set 

1x Extension lead 

Guitar leads 

1x USB for background set image 

The band would use the venue provided mics for the drum kit and amps, and the venue’s own sound engineer. 

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Projections

There are many issues that the band may face along this tour, however I have tried to mitigate these as much as possible. Although there is a £1000 budget for this, sometimes the issues are not financial and still must be considered. 

Band illness/exhaustion 

The tour spans a long amount of time so that there is multiple breaks between shows. A minimum of two nights will be spent in each city to ensure that the band is well rested. Due to the space between tour dates, shows can be rescheduled if necessary. 

Equipment loss or damage 

All of the friends and family that are supplying accommodation for the tour are musicians, meaning spare equipment will be readily available at all locations except Dublin. As Dublin is the first show on the tour, it is unlikely that we will face these issues so early in the run. All of the instruments and equipment are also insured.  

Travel delays 

The length of the tour means that there is plenty of time to travel to each city. The cars are also insured with breakdown cover.  

Financial insecurity 

In the event of running at a loss, each band member has a student bank account with a free overdraft of £500 per person. This should be rectified once ticket and merch profits come in, however it acts as a layer of security should this happen while touring. 

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Bibliography

BIMM (2019). Dublin’s Must-See Music Venues. [online] BIMM University Blog. Available at: https://blog.bimm.co.uk/dublins-must-see-music-venues [Accessed 17 Mar. 2026].

Dmitry Pastukhov (2019). The Mechanics of Touring: How the Live Music Industry Works. [online] Soundcharts. Available at: https://soundcharts.com/en/blog/mechanics-of-touring [Accessed 17 Mar. 2026].

gov.uk (n.d.). Travel and subsistence costs. [online] GOV.UK. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/marine-licensing-fees/travel-and-subsistence-costs [Accessed 17 Apr. 2026].

Musician’s Union (2025). UK Live Sector Received £10 Billion Boost from Record-Breaking Tourism in 2024. [online] Musiciansunion.org.uk. Available at: https://musiciansunion.org.uk/news/uk-live-sector-received-%C2%A310%E2%80%AFbillion-boost-from-record-breaking-tourism-in-2024 [Accessed 12 Mar. 2026].

www.prsformusic.com. (n.d.). View all tariffs. [online] Available at: https://www.prsformusic.com/licences/playing-music-at-work/all-music-at-work-tariffs [Accessed 17 Mar. 2026].

Supporting Documents/ Appendices

Appendix 1- Tour poster

Appendix 2- Tour route

Appendix 3 – Carnet

Appendix 4 – Photographer enquiry

Appendix 5- Quote request

Appendix 6 – logo

Appendix 7- Petrol cost

Appendix 8- Merch cost

Appendix 9- Insurance