Mary Spender on touring costs

Nobody wants to sleep in a van. It's easy to say, but once you have done it, you can check that off the list of shit you don't want to ever do again. I don't think it's a right of passage. Adam Kneely did a breakdown on his tour as well, and it was just as bad, non stop issues, cancelations, covid. Heck just for me to take 6 people to Pittsburgh (5 hours away), it's a chore. Agreeing on transportation, Someone wants to smoke, lodging, when to be there, all of it is agonizing. Tour managers earn their money.
 
dpeterson said:
Nobody wants to sleep in a van. It's easy to say, but once you have done it, you can check that off the list of shit you don't want to ever do again. I don't think it's a right of passage. Adam Kneely did a breakdown on his tour as well, and it was just as bad, non stop issues, cancelations, covid. Heck just for me to take 6 people to Pittsburgh (5 hours away), it's a chore. Agreeing on transportation, Someone wants to smoke, lodging, when to be there, all of it is agonizing. Tour managers earn their money.
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Funny you say that. I always insist on driving myself when carpooling is offered. Reason given “I want to fart and smoke in my own car”.
 
I honestly think the issue is, these people (Youtubers specifically) think they have huge audiences for their music. But I don't think they do. My band (broke up this year) wasn't huge, had a pittance of a following compared to these Youtubers, but we never lost money on our tours, and we had hotels and stuff too. We didn't have support acts to pay for, because that isn't really how it is done when you're playing small cap (80-200 people say ) venues.

Totally different scale right. But that's the thing - you should be working this stuff out at a grassroots level and then scaling up. When you try to use your online following to circumvent that, you're going to end up paying through the nose for it.

IMHO.
 
Maybe Neil Peart (2112)/Ayn Rand were onto something? I sincerely hope not!
I'll be one of the first who goes into a cave and reaches down to find the old guitar to tune and play.
 
Budda said:
@Orvillain wait she was booking bigger rooms on her first run??
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I haven't watched her video but I know she rented the venues herself then sold tickets to recoup costs, taking a page from Joe Bonamossa. Definitely not going to fault her for taking that route, but a small, regular tour the way normal bands do it probably would have gone a long way in figuring some things out before she invested the money.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
These videos really impressed me with Bonamassa’s thinking and how he and his partners run the business.





I think there was a long podcast/interview with him that was even more about how and why, but I can’t remember where it was right now. Maybe it’s …

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Part 4 of that doc is really pretty striking, how they were able to really go against the whole dynamic of how tours typically get put together, to do it differently. But most artists can't do that, or most production companies, managers, etc. This all while Joe is a blues guy, not the highest profile genre these days, to put it mildly.

But they knew what they were up against, and made their choices with their eyes open, and nose to the grindstone.

I feel like Mary Spender thought she was doing that, but she was missing some of the audience connection, which is partly from all those years Joe did before this, starting really really young.

That doc is from 2013 i think. Could they have done all that now?
 
Dave Merrill said:
Part 4 of that doc is really pretty striking, how they were able to really go against the whole dynamic of how tours typically get put together, to do it differently. But most artists can't do that, or most production companies, managers, etc. This all while Joe is a blues guy, not the highest profile genre these days, to put it mildly.

But they knew what they were up against, and made their choices with their eyes open, and nose to the grindstone.

I feel like Mary Spender thought she was doing that, but she was missing some of the audience connection, which is partly from all those years Joe did before this, starting really really young.

That doc is from 2013 i think. Could they have done all that now?
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Also introduced a new concept to me, "guest guitars". Those are ones from the 50s and 60s, some illustrious, owned by other people, loaned to him just for one show.
 
Dave Merrill said:
Part 4 of that doc is really pretty striking, how they were able to really go against the whole dynamic of how tours typically get put together, to do it differently. But most artists can't do that, or most production companies, managers, etc. This all while Joe is a blues guy, not the highest profile genre these days, to put it mildly.

But they knew what they were up against, and made their choices with their eyes open, and nose to the grindstone.

I feel like Mary Spender thought she was doing that, but she was missing some of the audience connection, which is partly from all those years Joe did before this, starting really really young.

That doc is from 2013 i think. Could they have done all that now?
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I think that Bonamassa is pretty tenacious, kind of like a bulldog, and when he decided to be a guitar player as a kid he wouldn’t let go of his dream. He also had an advantage of being in a music industry family, even though they were working class, so they must have known people who knew people, which is always good.

COVID really upset the live music world too and everyone, the venues and patrons and musicians, are still trying to figure it out.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
I think that Bonamassa is pretty tenacious, kind of like a bulldog, and when he decided to be a guitar player as a kid he wouldn’t let go of his dream. He also had an advantage of being in a music industry family, even though they were working class, so they must have known people who knew people, which is always good.

COVID really upset the live music world too and everyone, the venues and patrons and musicians, are still trying to figure it out.
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Yeah, and no slouch as a player too.

Still, i was impressed by the team as a team - musician, promoter, producer - and how in sync and committed they all were. I've never heard a musician talk about a promoter as a partner before. Good match!
 
Dave Merrill said:
Or didn't really have a good grasp of what came before the parts you see on famous people's YouTube channels.
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ya know........I really don't know anymore. Once upon a time, yes undeniably it mattered. There was a laughable distinct difference between someone who paid their dues with years of touring and or recording and the 500k sub youtuber who had something to say about just about everyone/everything.

I guess so long as those folks stay home, it is all the same. People follow famous folks for doing great things. I guess youtubers are great at youtubing, but live performance you do not get a do over and is an entirely different animal both business and artistically.

Or maybe I'm just thinking out loud. At any rate, carry on.
 
RevDrucifer said:
I haven't watched her video but I know she rented the venues herself then sold tickets to recoup costs, taking a page from Joe Bonamossa. Definitely not going to fault her for taking that route, but a small, regular tour the way normal bands do it probably would have gone a long way in figuring some things out before she invested the money.
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This is pretty ballsy. I'd almost expect to lose money. But then make a few youtube videos about it and recoup the money as big as her audience is. Strange world we live in.
 
She's a Spender. Why is she complaining about costs?
Rimshot Badum Bum GIF by Studios 2016
 
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