Hello everyone, i come to you in my time of need!

Me and my band Weirdonia are planning a 6-8 stop tour going from Windsor Ontario to Montreal Quebec. Since we're a two piece we're gonna haul along 3 or 4 friends to just be roadies and make everything easier.

But since this is our first tour, I'm kind of shooting in the dark at what to do, I mean i've been contacting random venues and booking agencies from different areas, but I feel like I don't really know what I'm doing.

Any tips/helpful ideas for us? Expectations? Let us know what you think!

Oh yeah we already know the whole "don't expect to make money" thing, that's why we be savin' up the simoleans.

Thanks!

-CAM

Well we've got onto a few colleges already, and if all goes well we're gonna be playing on Whatwave Dave's show next month (hell yeah!)

One thing we wanted to do which i've seen some bands do, is sell cassettes. definitely a cool novelty, and I just love cassettes anyway.

In my experience, vinyl and T-Shirts go over better than CDs but some kind of swag is critical. 

If you don't have a legit release, make some CDRs of a practice even.  Put those in a paper sleeve with some quick and easy contact info, then encourage / stress everyone to take one maybe a couple of times.  Have a tip bucket next to it and ask people to give what they think is right to help you out.  I've seen this work.

Maybe it won't help you make a profit on the tour but it may help you break even and it will help promote you.

I never thought of this until right now but you might do some research and try contacting a community or college radio station that has a show with a like minded DJ.  Podcasters, too, I guess.

My band, Bunt, do Japan every year and go around Australia fairly regularly. If you have any questions, just write to turbonun@gmail.com and I'll try to answer them.

- Chuckles.

My perspective of this is, that i always like to have bands, with which i work on an event, who know as much as possible what they are doing. Just wanna tell what i realy expect that should work, when i start a concert and the bands arrive:

- their equipment works

- they look at me (the mixer) while soundchecking and please just do what i tell em, no bored playing around

- they are not too drunk the hole time because a tour is longer than one night

- they do some advertising before the gig on their own

- they are nice guys/gals who do not expect they are superstars

- when they stay at my home they can feel free, but have to leave the place clean and think about my neighbours

- try to get a local band as support, that works best for catching people

- play a good song at last and before that tell the people you got some merchandise stuff, cds...whatever and where they find you after the gig

Have fun and don't mind if something goes wrong, just keep on :) But i think you know what you are doing, because your music does not sound like you are bloody beginners. Nice!

here's a suggestion...

We'd definitely be down for that in August if you need a lot of heads up time!
Maybe do a two night thing where we just pop in at whatwave on thursday, play grooves, then the next day we hit up brennan's.

Very cool ideas, thanks dave!
whatwave dave said:

If you're willing to make the drive to London, you can always do an instore at Grooves Records...doesn't pay, but it's fun AND you get staff discount on anything you buy at Grooves while you're there. Plus if you have any merch to sell, Grooves doesn't take a percentage off the top.

 

And Brennan's Beer Bistro is right next door, so you can work out an all ages gig there for the same day...you get the door at this place. Plus you have to do all of your own promo and have a door person.

 

And if you're down on a thursday eve, we can probably work something out to get you live on Radio What Wave...need lots of advance warning to work this out.

 

If you're willing to make the drive to London, you can always do an instore at Grooves Records...doesn't pay, but it's fun AND you get staff discount on anything you buy at Grooves while you're there. Plus if you have any merch to sell, Grooves doesn't take a percentage off the top.

And Brennan's Beer Bistro is right next door, so you can work out an all ages gig there for the same day...you get the door at this place. Plus you have to do all of your own promo and have a door person.

And if you're down on a thursday eve, we can probably work something out to get you live on Radio What Wave...need lots of advance warning to work this out.

As far as Canada goes I was just looking for anyone from any country's experiences and what tips or suggestions they'd have!
And i'll definitely do that for next time.

Thanks!

Great topic but ya should have posted it in the Bands And Musicians Group. Also use your local regional group; Canada. You'll be able to tap into a ton of local knowledge in that group. I won't close this discussion since there's a couple of replies but next time remember to use the appropriate groups for this sorta thing.

Good luck with your tour!

That could be cool, but my friends and I have been hankering to road trip for quite a while now, and this would be the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

It'd be kind of like a vacation and a tour at the same time.

But I do see what you're saying with the whole making connections thing, maybe that's something a first tour can do, you know?

But I'm new to this so I don't even know.

Book your own gigs.  Also, try to hook up with another band and play together.  Also instead touring all the way to Montreal.  Try a few locals closer to home ie: Hamilton, London, K-W.  Work your way up to a longer tour.  Once you make the connections with the venues and they know ya it will be easier to book a larger tour.  I might even suggest that when the time comes, that you start the tour in Montreal and work your way home.