The joys of flex......

So as Tuesday February 2nd and our first show at Dartford Orchard Theatre draws inexorably closer, things are finally starting to click into place ( or at least clunk a little less loudly ). We've actually decided that we're calling this an
" organic " tour, not only because it sounds kind of cool and " green " but also because it's flexible ( sometimes also known as "making it up as we go along " ) Actually there IS a slight element of truth in there; on what we might call
" normal " tours where there's a financial underwrite in place from a record company or promoter, you crack on and book stuff like all the hotels, internal flights and so on right up to the last day of the tour, sort out your transportation to the nth degree, buy all the guitar strings, drumheads and gaffa tape you'll ever need and create a nice, big fat-arsed tour itinerary for everyone which takes you hours to make and then gets no more than a cursory glance from each member of the tour party before being stuffed in their bags, never to be seen again ( a topic we'll return to in a future blog !)
As we don't have an EMI or a Harvey Goldsmith coughing up a large wedge of cash, we have to be more creative, and that means doing the best deals we can almost on a week by week basis. The downside is that it means you've got the extra butt-ache of having to book your hotels and things for future dates while you're actually on the road, but the positive aspect is that you can shape things to suit your needs as you go, and at this stage of the game that's pretty useful. Talking of "flexible" touring, we've also got something of a floating crew; Arthur, myself, Martin
" Rodders " Rodwell the lighting engineer and Rupert "Pug" Jones, our monitor engineer will be ever - present, but due to other work commitments our AV engineer's slot is being shared by two people, Clive Moore and Jonathan "Tomps" Tompkins, so we're having to work out who does what on which day and how they'll get there and back; in addition to this we've got The Overtures' father and son crew team of Nick and Steve Liddard looking after the band's instruments and THEY'LL be switching around a bit between themselves too as the tour progresses, so at least we're not going to be looking at the same faces each morning as we clamber wearily from our Travelodge pits ! Sitting here looking at the datesheet, our final show on March 28th seems a loooooooooong way away, but then last year our first show on February 2nd seemed just as distant, and suddenly it's next Tuesday, so no doubt the whole thing will have flashed past before we know it, and we'll be on to the next tour ( late August / early September, before you ask ) It's a funny old game, this music business lark....everything's based around planning things that are happening in the future, sometimes AGES in the future, so you never really seem to have much of a concept of " today ", and before you know it, " ages in the future " was last year and you think " Blimey....where did 2009 go ? " Fine when you're 20 with your whole life ahead of you, not so good when the bus pass and telegram from the Queen are lurking just over the horizon! Still, things could be much worse....I could have been born a Sunderland fan, for example.....