High Noon in High Wycombe......

Although the wonders of modern technology mean that we can communicate with each other wherever we are in the world, nothing beats a bit of face - to - face brainstorming, so the Booties' production team sat down at high noon for what turned out to be an epic seven-hour meeting at the Holiday Inn, High Wycombe. Pretty much every aspect of the tour was on the agenda, so over pots of tea, some very toothsome cheese and ham toasties and a calorie-tastic hunk of cheesecake, the Rumpled Cotton Shirt of Tour Chaos met the Steam Iron of Experience, and everything got smoothed out. Actually putting the show onstage is, strangely enough, one of the easiest parts of the whole enterprise, because we've done this sort of thing for so long and because we know the band and their capabilities so well. No, what REALLY takes the time and causes the stress is all the " behind the scenes " stuff, and that's why today was so useful. When you're setting up a tour of this size you need a whole team to make it work, and that team needs to know what they're doing and where they have to be at any given time. Contrary to what some musicians think ( I'm not talking about you Overtures lads, don't worry! ) these things don't just magically happen....people like Arthur and I have to sit down and plan things such as tour budgets and cash flows, hiring vehicles, booking hotels, appointing crew, getting equipment together, calling all of the venues to get technical information from the house production crew, chasing venues who haven't sent contracts back or put up posters or sent sales figures through, filling in endless bloody risk assessment and method statement forms, getting tour insurance, organising merchandise...and that's before we've even STARTED on sorting out the drugs and hookers. The band have a lot of work to do as well....there are new songs being featured on this tour plus two whole new medley sections, so they've all got to be arranged and rehearsed, and then Den has the eye - watering task of looking at gazillions of still and moving images to compile the visual element of the show. Let me tell you, DIY punk rock it ain't ! Despite the headaches, though, you get a huge buzz from being in the middle of all this chaos and trying to turn into into something resembling order, and when the band go onstage on the first night and everything's finally happening, you get the most fantastic feeling of satisfaction. An extra thrill / pressure this time out has been our first national press advertising campaign; it's cost a lot of money but I have to tell you, when you open the Daily Mail or the Sunday Express or Mojo magazine and there's your big tour ad alongside all the other major acts like Marvello and Snouty The Dolphin
( oh, sorry...wrong mag....) it makes you feel " We've arrived " and then immediately afterwards " We're skint " A heady combination indeed... It's a real validation of the whole thing, though....we've talked about doing this big "proper" tour for so long and now here it is....it's in the Sunday Mirror, so it MUST be true ! All we have to do now is get those tickets sold....