This student opted to add a separate PDF for each of the nine nights of their tour.

Logistics

Tour Personnel: [Lead vocalist] (lead vox), [Bass and Backing Vocals (Bass and BVs), [Keyboard player] (Keys), [Drummer] (Drums), [Guitarist] (Guitar), [Guitarist] (Guitar), Tour Manager, Driver (Glasgow onwards)

I chose to book this tour during April as it fits within the ‘tour window’ set out by midnightmango.com (Bartlett, 2021), which suggests avoiding summertime so as to not clash with festivals, and December/January so as to not clash with the Christmas period. The tour begins on 8^th April 2024 in Ireland at Soundhouse, Dublin. This show is followed by a rest period that is necessary due to travel arrangements (discussed in detail later) before it sets back off from Glasgow and tours the UK north to south. The final stop is Paris, the band’s debut mainland European show, for which ticket sales are projected to rise following the hype created by the busier UK shows. A similar logic is applied where I have placed the two hometown shows (Leeds and Manchester) early on in the tour, though bands often choose to place them at the end. It made sense geographically to have these shows early in the tour, and the ticket sales of the remaining shows will also benefit from the buzz and excitement created by the livelier gigs.

The balance before any outgoings is made up of £5000 funding from Help Musicians’ ‘Touring and Live’ support – awarded to musicians to help towards ‘taking your performance to the stage and bringing it on tour’ (helpmusicians.org.uk) – and £3000 which we will raise from crowdfunding as follows:

• £5 donation gets a signed setlist from one of our shows on the tour
• £20 donation gets a meet and greet with [band member] and all band members before the show
• £50 donation allows you to come and sit in on a 2hr rehearsal or writing session with the band where you can ask any questions you may have about the industry/our process

For the Dublin show only, the band will travel in [band member]’s car as they will not need kit and it is cheaper to take the car on the ferry than a van. This means they can only take 7 people; therefore, the TM will drive, and there is no need to hire a driver for that day. [band member] will play a 30-minute support slot, arranged via a gig swap with EXYU, a Dublin based band with a similar sound and audience demographic to [band member]. They will then support [band member] at King Tut’s, Glasgow the following week. This support slot will be extremely useful in showcasing [band member] in front of a new audience and will be their first performance out of mainland Britain. However, this means the show is only taking in £100 and the ferry costs £271. I have therefore made the decision not to spend money on a hotel for the 8^th April, and instead the band will travel back on the ferry to Holyhead at 02:15 on 9^th April, and drive back to Leeds. The TM can sleep both on the ferry each way and during the show so should be rested enough to drive, plus [band member] and [band member] both have driving licenses and will be insured on the vehicle for the 24 hour period (this will cost roughly £100 each), so if necessary, all 3 drivers can take turns sleeping and driving. Though we will lose £371 on the show itself, it is an investment into growing [band member] fanbase, and ultimately, we will not lose money at the end of the tour.

For the rest of the tour, I will hire a 9-seater splitter van from VansForBands, this rental was quoted to me at £3183 (VansForBands, 2023) which includes delivery, pickup and gear pre-loaded into the back of the van. I will hire a driver on a day rate of £180, as suggested by VansForBands on their Facebook page. I will pay The Gig Cartel £1000 to design a small campaign which will promote the whole tour via physical means, eg. flyers and posters. We will handle our own social media, but the promoters will work with the venues to ensure that they are also promoting the event to the best of their ability to get a sizeable turnout and ultimately the most successful show possible for all parties.

The tour manager day rate for this tour is £250 – £200 standard day rate + £50 per day for manning the merchandise stand. I will hire a photographer in each city at a rate of £50 per show, based on how much our Leeds photographer [Photographer] (sln.photographic) would charge for a gig of this size. Each member of the touring crew will receive £15 per day in Per Diems (converted to euros for Paris and Dublin) and they will be allocated £30 per day for 3 meals.

Cashflow Spreadsheet

Promotion and Marketing

I will agree a £1000 promotion and marketing campaign with UK-wide promoter The Gig Cartel. This will consist of printing posters and flyers for each venue, and putting up billboards in the towns and cities that the tour will visit. In addition, the band will take charge of their own social media and run a much more personal campaign from their phones. They will post backstage footage and rehearsal clips on Instagram stories, photos of them at landmarks and tag the towns/cities while on the tour and join in with viral challenges on TikTok. They can also tailor their content to their potential audience. For example, [band member]’s music is similar to that of Maisie Peters, Taylor Swift and Fiona Apple who already have a huge overlap of fanbases on TikTok and videos. TikTok user Izzy Mahoubi posted a TikTok featuring her song with the text ‘If you like Maisie Peters, Fiona Apple, [Taylor] Swift and Maggie Rogers and if ur looking for a smaller artist to gatekeep look no further! I’m Izzy Mahoubi and this is my song about a guy in a band who broke my heart if u use this sound/save this video I will give u free concert tickets for the rest of my life’ (2023). Many independent artists are now utilising TikTok in this way to promote directly to their target audiences. [band member] could do something like this on TikTok and use the tag feature to reach audiences of specific artists that would likely be interested in her music. Another option for more directed content would be some short, acoustic covers of such artists’ songs so that fans are listening to a song they already know and love as well as being exposed to [band member] for the first time. As well as this, taking part in viral challenges and making relaxed, candid TikToks just for fun will allow the band’s personality to shine through, giving fans a feeling of friendliness and rapport with their favourite artists, encouraging them to support these people as they feel closer to them. The tour consists largely of big student cities (Manchester, Leeds, Cadiff, Exeter, Birmingham), which was intentional to reach the maximum possible number of [band member]’s target audience. While in these areas, the band will be heading straight for the target audience by giving interviews on student led radio stations such as Leeds Student Radio, XpressFM, Shock Radio and more as outlined in the tour plan.

Licensing and Merchandising

‘UK Nationals do not need a visa or residency permit to live, work or study in Ireland’ (GOV.UK, 2023). UK citizens also do not need a visa when visiting or working in France for less than 90 days. As we will be working below the 10,000 euros reporting threshold for foreign sales in both France and Ireland, we will be able to trade and sell merch without reporting our income. UK nationals and Irish citizens are able to work freely in most parts of each other’s countries. To run the merchandise stand at our Paris show, we must apply for permission to operate as a Non-food Retailer (GauchetEnterprises.FR) and create an official business procedure by registering with the Trade and Corporate Register.

For the merchandise to be sold legally in France, all products must ‘meet the EU requirements to protect human and animal health, the environment and consumers rights’. According to EU regulations, the price must be visible to consumers as they stand at the stall. In 2017, the European Commission published a report on the Operational Restrictions in the Retail Sector, detailing regulations that must be followed in order to trade goods in any EU country eg. prices of products must be clearly marked and visible to customers around the merchandise table.

[Band] will sell 3 products on the merch stand for this tour: T-Shirts will be sold at £15 per unit, Tote bags will be sold at £10 per unit and badges will be sold at £3 per unit. Not only does this give the audience a choice of products, but it also becomes accessible for a range of budgets so that fans who want to support the band, can do so at any level they are able to. The same idea has been implemented into the crowdfunding incentives. I based my product prices and sales projections on my primary research from Morgan Thomas, responsible for buying and selling merchandise for Alternative Rock band, Òmoia. In their email, they said ‘at headline shows we sell 10+ and under 10 for non-headliners’. At present Òmoia are playing 100 capacity venues, so I roughly doubled the sales projections since the [band] tour will consist largely of 200 capacity venues. I anticipated less sales at the Dublin support show and more sales at the Leeds and Manchester hometown shows. Òmoia also sell their T-shirts at £15, and Morgan Thomas said ‘we did start selling them at £10 then found we weren’t making enough profit to go back into the next shirts’.

Risks and Potential Pitfalls

The health and wellbeing of all touring crew is the number one priority at all times. 2 members of the touring party have chronic conditions that are self-managed. [band member]’s diabetes is controlled by an insulin pen that he uses with meals. [band member]’s asthma is severe but largely controlled with both preventative and reliever inhalers. Both [band member] and [band member] will request extra medication from their pharmacy, which should be supplied under the circumstances, and spares of insulin pens and inhalers will be kept in a sealed box in the tour van at all times. Both [band member] and [band member] must have medication in the venue at all times either in a designated dressing room or in a bag just offstage in case of emergencies. All crew must declare their allergies and any medical conditions or concerns to the Tour Manager in advance of the tour via the completion of a medical questionnaire.

If for any reason the touring crew are unable to stay at [band member] parents’ house for the night of the Manchester gig, her sister will be able to house them in her home, a 10-minute drive from [band member]’s parents’ address. Per Diems will be given out daily and not in a lump sum, to avoid the temptation to misuse them. The touring crew will be encouraged to eat a balanced diet on tour for the benefit of their mental and physical wellbeing. Sickness and general wear and tear may well be unavoidable while on tour, but precautions can be taken to ensure that performances are largely unaffected. Both [band member] and [band member] will be responsible for warming up correctly, drinking plenty of fluids and cooling down after a show to avoid vocal fatigue. If someone on tour is unwell, they will be encouraged to rest in their hotel room (missing promotional engagements will be considered on a case-by-case basis) to avoid exhaustion and to prevent passing it onto the rest of the touring crew. Hiring a van means that this tour is not hugely reliant on public transport, which does help to avoid some delays, but traffic is always possible. All of the travel times detailed in the tour schedule have left at least an hour for potential delays, and more on longer journeys. Tour crew will be encouraged to talk openly about their mental health while on the road and support each other through what will be a challenging experience at times.

Bibiography

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Evidence and Appendices

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