SHR5E018P~002 01234567 Tour Plan & Commentary Template
Tour Schedule/Planner
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Tour Schedule/Planner Commentary
Tour Pack Commentary
This tour pack and supporting commentary follows the upcoming debut UK and Ireland tour of The New Strangers. The New Strangers are an up and coming rock and indie band from South West London who moved their sound to Leeds last year and burst onto the underground scene circuiting popular grassroots venues around Leeds such as Oporto, Hyde Park Book Club and The Chemic Tavern. After amassing a growing local following in West Yorkshire, the band have decided to debut tour to promote the band and raise more awareness of their up and coming single release, ‘Red Tape’ The seven day tour has been rigorously organised to efficiently build on The New Strangers’s augmenting profile, and engage with a wider audience across the whole country and Ireland.
The venues will range in capacities between 60 and 300 people, to achieve a wide span from eclectic intimate smaller performances which also accommodate a lower demand in smaller cities, in order to match financial expectations, as well as high impact large scale shows such as the District in Liverpool. Covering 6 Cities across the UK, (see appendices figure6), the tour’s first night is in Leeds, which was chosen to accommodate the long day of travel prior driving up from London where the tour will end as this eliminates any accommodation costs as the band resides in Leeds, this also covers for Hyde Park Book Club’s lack of backline, (see figures 16 to 19), as the band will have immediate access to their full instrumental catalogue. This also ensures the band doesn’t have to pay for any parking fees or drive between the house and the venue due to their close proximity. Beginning the tour in a safe city for the band where the majority of their following resides will also ensure a well attended show which will also contribute to improving morale on a busy and chaotic week of touring. Following with York also allows the band to travel home again on the same night to save money on accommodation and also provide the band with a more comfortable first two nights of rest to start the tour off well. The route then progresses through Manchester to Liverpool before crossing the Irish Sea to Dublin where the band will play the climax of the tour at the 300 capped Grand Social. After having built momentum along the tour ticking off some of the UK’s most vibrant musical cities in Manchester and Liverpool, including a promotion boost in Liverpool,the band are expecting a social media driven surge in attention from their tour that will drive in more people buying tickets online and also at the box office. The tour ends with a homecoming show in London at The Star Shoreditch which is where the band sold out their first show in April 2025, this will be a more intimate set with a smaller stage and more restricted crowd, this will certainly improve ticket sales and set an expectation to sell out once more.
Taking place between the 28th of September and the 4th of October, the tour is strategically targeted to the fresh student audience, with student loans only recently being admitted, the market will be at its peak during the busiest season for music discovery, it is perfectly placed to miss the overcrowded festival season and christmas and early winter period where audience attendance and engagement generally tends to go down (Steiner, 2025), (See figure 20).
The band is also hiring a professional photographer as a part of boosting promotional activities during the tour. Other PR/promotional opportunities will also naturally occur such as general interactions with fans before and after shows, as well as while operating merchandising stands and taking photos e.t.c. There will also be busking during an off day in Liverpool and ongoing posting and online promotion to help the band drive more audience engagement and drive ticket sales while building a stronger connection with the fans.
Travel will be completed with a rental van, (Volkswagen Transporter) picked up and dropped off to a Sixt Garage in London nearby to the guitarist and drummer of the band’s home for easy accessibility as they will be splitting the driving between themselves and the tour manager, (see figure 3). The van will travel overseas to Dublin, this travel requires a return ferry between Holyhead and Dublin, (see figure9), as well as an ATA Carnet which acts as a temporary passport for all musical equipment with a detailed inventory record, (see appendices B). This is a legal requirement for musicians travelling between the UK Ireland and Northern Ireland, (gov.uk, .2019).
Promotion and Marketing
The purpose of a tour is to promote album sales, financial profit, putting the band in the spaces they should be playing and in venues that help promote the band and build on its fan base. For this tour, there has been an integrated marketing campaign put forward including physical and digital marketing strategies to maximise the tour’s profitability over its 7 day course. Physical posters will be distributed to venues prior to any ticket sales (see appendices C), so that the venues can post them up in high foot – traffic areas in each of their respective cities to improve brand awareness, the Poster also incorporates a QR code which will take passers by to the online ticket link. The poster includes bold colours designed to grab people’s attention away from their phones and surroundings, and includes a gig photo to drive connection between the audience and the band. Digital promotion will include a social media campaign, targeted advertisements with gig footage and direct links to the nearest New Strangers gig in the area. The band will also begin posting a much higher volume of reels and tik-tok’s to boost online engagement with the band,completing popular online trends and also mixing in a plethora of footage and audio from previous gigs acting as ‘teasers.’
During the tour there will also be a ‘media day’ where the band will gain more footage to promote the rest of the tour by busking in Liverpool’s infamous Church Street in the evening, well known for its high foot traffic and lively atmosphere, this will certainly drive up audience engagement by playing at peak times on a Saturday evening. The band will also meet with a professional photographer in the morning to do a two hour secession where the band can get more promotional sales before the big climax of the tour in Dublin.
Moreover the band will benefit from aligning these promotional opportunities with the promotion for the upcoming single release ‘Red Tape,’ and busking footage of the band playing it will be used to improve anticipation and build up a greater discourse around the band’s activity. Busking is also a great opportunity to gain free photography from the public, by having people spread footage of the band themselves without the initiative, it massively improve the bands popularity as it will be seen to be having an impact at the grassroots level, potentially driving up likeability and any possible ticket sales.
Financial Commentary
As an independent debut tour, the majority of decisions have been made around ensuring affordability and keeping spending to a budget friendly minimum. These costs account for accommodation costs (see figures 5, 6, 7) as well as the van hire and petrol costs. The financial spreadsheet accounts for 85% sales projections re[resenting a massive financial success from the tour. This aims to illustrate the tour’s viability across a multitude of audiences at different venue costs and sizes, and this highlights the importance of flexibility when budgeting, having a range of potential financial incomes and any necessary contingency planning.
Venue fees have been accounted for in the spreadsheet as well, some of which are estimated off of information from the venue packs which were acquired and comparison between venues of similar sizes.
Petrol costs are estimated at £117.97 (see figure 2), costing roughly £0.13/mile for the full 881 mile journey This cost has been rounded up to £160.00 to cover any unexpected fuel losses and also for parking fees as well as ULEZ and Congestion fees for the drive through London. £80 has also been allocated to buy snacks and keep the band at pay during long car journeys.
Tickets have been priced at £8 a show to be more affordable to a greater audience to try and boost ticket sales.
Merchandise includes T-shirts and customized lighters (see figure 13, 14 & 15). These items will also boost profitability as they are bought in bulk at £15.94 for 200 lighters sold at £3.00 each, as well as £540.00 for 200 T-shirts sold at £20 each. With an expectation of 80% merchandise sales this will yield a very high profit and massively support the costs and profitability of the tour.
Technical Logistics
There is a relatively high amount of equipment coming along the tour including a drum kit and multiple guitars and amps, however without the reliance on any digital technology, the band doesn’t have to worry about wifi access or certain types of power connections when at gigs, everything is a classic plug in and play setup, fortunately the backline of most venues being present reduces the amount of carrying the band will have to do, going for DI on the base also means that the bassist doesn’t have to worry about the quality of the backline and can have a consistent tone throughout the tour which is important for sound continuity.
Contingency Planning
Contingency planning accounts for the fact that tours cannot always run completely smoothly, delays happen, gear can be stolen, ferry’s can be cancelled e.t.c. This planning therefore makes checks in advance so that if these problems are ever brought to actuality they can be dealt with calmly and with as little effect on the whole tour.
Travel delays/ cancellations; a possible problem for the ferry crossing is any delays or cancellations, therefore both ferries have been selected with ample time between them and the flowing shows to account for any delay while still being able to load in on time. Close attention to the crew and making sure everyone has the opportunity to time themselves on tour is crucial in reducing illness on tour or any avoidable arguments, strategies like this improve general wellbeing on tour as well.
By keeping your spending to a minimum, the risk of financial overrun has also been reduced ensuring free accommodation for three of the seven nights massively reduces costs, and income can also be supplemented by offering deals on any leftover merchandise and tickets. Also adding a presale before the official ticket release may also help drive up ticket sales to increase the financial buoyancy of the tour.
Bibliography
Gov.uk (2019) How to use your ATA carnet available: online:https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-use-your-ata-carnet (Accessed: 28 April 2026).
Steiner, R. (2025) How Gen Z defies live music audience trends. Luminate Data,10 June. Available at: https://luminatedata.com/blog/how-gen-z-defies-live-music-audience-trends/ (Accessed: 28 April 2026).
