Quick tip 147 Touring tips 4.

When I started to book our first long tour with Sliotar, I was hungry for the gigs, and didn’t mind the long drives. But as soon as we hit the road, I realised the error in my planning. Scheduling will be the decider between a great show or a mediocre show. I know there are bands who do crazy drives to get to the next show, and I have seen these bands in action. I can tell you no one is going to perform their best show ever after eight-hour drive.

As soon as we got back from that first tour, we restructured our touring. Now we never do more than four-hour drive on a day of a show. If we have a long drive, we break it down to smaller drives. If you do ten shows night after night, and travel everyday, your show will start to deteriorate. If you disagree with me, that’s fine, go ahead and compromise your shows. But if you have any sense, schedule your drives sensibly. I have booked successful (and safe) tours for Sliotar for the past ten years, I have fair idea what I am talking about.

Also there are strict rules about tour bus drivers taking breaks, and even though these days we drive with a van, not tour bus, we follow these rules. The detailed rules can be found HERE. But our simplified rule is, every two hours, we take a break for minimum fifteen minutes, stretch legs, visit toilet, buy a snack, water or coffee. If the drive is longer, the second break is bit longer. You end up spending long hours on the road and the likelihood of you ending up in an accident grows with every kilometre. So it is only sensible to play it safe.

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get EIGHT of his songs for free go HERE