TOUR PLAN & COMMENTARY [SHR5E018P~002] 24101799

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City In Stereo is a five-piece nu-soul band based in Leeds. They formed at Leeds Conservatoire during their first year of study. All the members came from different pathways. Lauren, the lead vocalist & keyboard player, studied Actor Musicianship, Thiago, the rhythm guitarist, studied Music Production and Pop, Harry, the lead guitarist, studied Jazz, Arthur, the bassist & backing vocalist, studied Music Production, and Caleb, the drummer, studied Popular Music. For the past couple years they have been producing their own music, eventually releasing their first album at the end of their time at university. To go alongside the release, and by the demand of their audience, they decided to do a tour of 5 dates around the UK and Ireland. The band will undertake the tour alone as the tour manager is in the band. Sound engineers will be provided at all the venues swell as full backline so the band don’t need to take unnecessary amounts of equipment with them.

The tour would take place in one week in June 2026, and would contain 5 dates in 5 different cities. Those cities would be London, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and Dublin. The tour would start in London as it is the furthest away from their base in Leeds. The venue chosen is the Dublin Castle pub in Camden. This venue has a capacity of 200 people, and was well suited to the vintage style of the band. It is also very helpful that both Arthur & Lauren are originally from close to London so accommodation costs would be waived as the band could stay the night split between their family homes. A backline would also be provided, limiting the amount of equipment needed to be transported from Leeds. This would also allow us to all travel in one car, eliminating any costs of trains or multiple vehicles. Supporting the band would be Far From The City, a local indie-rock band, and ALANA, a local singer-songwriter. Both artists will make arrangements to get to the venue independently. For this show, the venue promoters recommended that we charged tickets of £15 to draw a crowd.

Next, they would do a night in their home city of Leeds on the . The venue chosen was between Hyde Park Book Club and Oporto, and Oporto was chosen due to less costs at £10 per hour (£70 for the night). As Leeds is the band’s home city, they would make their own arrangements for getting to the venue. The band will also use their own equipment for the show as it is easier for them to travel to the venue with more equipment. Supporting their home show would be local band CHAR, and singer-songwriter Emily Whitelaw. As the show would be for a home crowd, and is the most likely to sell out on the tour, the tickets will be priced at £10 on the door, £8 for advance sales.

The third date on the tour is in Manchester at Band On The Wall’s second venue, The Copper Bar. This venue has been chosen as it is a very popular venue in a city that the band aren’t massively well known in, so they will help to promote the show, and help to bring in an audience for the gig. The venue recommends a ticket price of £17 for the show, so the band will charge the same. The two support artists for the show will also be picked by the venue, and would be local so they would bring in an audience in addition. As the tour has stepped away from places that we live in, the band needs accommodation for the night, so we sourced an AirBnB in Rochdale for the whole band to stay in that also includes secure parking for a car. For this leg of the tour, the band will go in one car with a roof box, and use the backline equipment that is provided at all the venues. This helps to reduce the costs further by not hiring a van. By travelling this way it also limits the amount of time it would take to load in at each venue allowing the soundchecks to run smoother. The band will only bring the basic essentials for the shows including guitars, breakables and keyboards.

The next date on the tour is in Liverpool, specifically at District in the Baltic Triangle. This venue is the highest capacity on the tour with a capacity of 275 people standing. Just like the show in London, the band have many connections with people in Liverpool, so each band member will be staying at different people’s houses after the show for a bit of sleep before the long leg to Dublin. This again eliminates costs of accommodation, and parking. To get to Liverpool, the band will set off from Manchester at midday to make the one hour journey. Once arrived the band will have a bit of free time to explore the city before the load in time at the venue. For this venue, the load in time will be at 16:00, but soundchecks are not allowed do commence until 17:00, with the band’s soundcheck finishing at 17:30 before moving onto the main support of the night, Millie Moyler, and the opener Martha Cowan.

For the final leg of the tour, the band will head to Dublin, Ireland. To get there, the band will take the ferry from Holyhead in North Wales. The band will meet at 6am to make the 2 hour drive to Holyhead, then wait for their Stena Line ferry to Dublin that departs at 10am. Once on the boat, the band will then have some extra downtime with some more free time upon arrival in Dublin. For accommodation in Dublin, the band will be staying in a hostel in one room together. The hostel has parking provided, and is the cheapest way to stay in the city overnight. The whole band would share one dormitory for the stay. The venue is a small independent one called The Sound House, it hosts both live bands, but also club nights in the 240 capacity space. Just like in Manchester, the venue will find some local support acts for the band that would boost the band’s audience and ticket sales.

The main aim for this tour is to help boost engagement for the band’s album release. The promotion and the way the album is released play very hard into the marketing of the tour overall. The tour is taking place in mid June 2026, the album will be released the week prior to the tour starting on the 9th June. The album will get released on the 2nd June, with promotion for both the album, and the tour being announced at the same time to allow for the maximum amount of time for singles to be released, and for people to buy tickets. The band will announce the album, the tour, and release the first single on the 2nd April 2026. This will start to build momentum in the couple months before the tour, teasing small amounts of the album. The band will then release the second single on the 2nd May, one month before the album release. To go alongside this, the band will create some social media content about the tour and the album to share with friends and family to encourage them to buy tickets to the shows.

At all the venues on this tour, we are able to sell our own merchandise. The band will have custom t-shirts to sell, and stickers to hand out to anyone who paid for tickets. Giving out free stickers to any person that comes to the tour really helps with he promotion for the band, and adds an extra touch that helps to remind the audience member of their experience of watching the show the went to.

Unfortunately, when planning a tour, you can’t predict what will actually happen whilst on the tour. Many things can happen from logistics mishaps to band illness, but we need to be completely ready for when those things happen. What would happen if traffic becomes really bad? For all of the venues we are going to on this tour, we have some flexibility with timings, and with two supports at each venue, we can move soundchecks around so the local artists can soundcheck first instead of the headliner so we don’t fall behind schedule. For the Dublin stretch of this tour, in the schedule, we have left enough time to be able to catch the next ferry from Holyhead and still make it to the venue on time for the first soundcheck. Another potential pitfall is band illness or other problems that are out of our control. We obviously don’t want to deal with anyone being ill whilst on tour, but we can put things in place just in case something does go wrong. Making sure that everyone had medication with them to deal with small illnesses like colds is essential as then they can help in situations when the lines is more of an inconvenience. We can also make sure that we have breaks for everyone frequently so no-one becomes too fatigued or starts having problems with mental health. Making sure relationships between band members are kept positive is important as they’re going to be spending lots of time together for a long period of time. For bigger illnesses, we can make sure there are people ready to come and take over for any instrument if a band member has to drop out. Most of the venues on this tour require us to put a deposit down for the use of the venue that is non-refundable. If a band member has to drop out for whatever reason the band would lose its full deposit on the venue, so would therefore lose income and guarantee that the tour would have no profit. By having players that can take over for sick band members we can guarantee that we won’t lose our deposits on venues, and won’t let people who bought tickets down. If a support act drops out, we will have backups that we can call also to take over and create the full lineup. As tour managers we also will need to implement safety protocols whilst at venues, and following all the guidelines that venues set out for us. For example, all electrical equipment that we bring to a venue needs to be PAT tested for safety reasons. If we bought in an electrical item that is fault and used it in the venue, It could potentially break other bits of equipment in the venue, or can cause fires or other hazards. If something like that should happen, the band would be held liable for the loss.

Bibliography

What is a carnet? (no date) Company Name. Available at: http://atacarnet.com/what-carnet (Accessed: 26 April 2026).

storme_wg (2015) The darkside of touring, DrownedInSound. Available at: https://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4149129-the-darkside-of-touring (Accessed: 26 April 2026).