Tour write up

So yesterday I finished my November tour. I've really enjoyed the whole experience and I thought I would write some of my thoughts and stats about the tour down here, just in case you're interested.

In total I travelled over 800 miles during the three weeks I was on tour. I played 10 gigs (11 if you count a private party) and sold 35 copies of my new album. Though I've not costed it exactly, I'm pretty sure I about broke even, which is cool for a first outing, especially as most of the gigs were unpaid.

As always, some gigs were more enjoyable than others, though I think I enjoyed all of them in their own ways. Heading into the tour I was least optimistic about the two nights that were open mic rather than booked shows, but they actually turned out to be some of the best of the tour. It helps that both Worley's in Stourport and The Market Vaults in Stafford are great venues that really try hard to support original music, and also that they have both promised me booked gigs going forward. Worley's also stream all of their gigs and open mic acts on Facebook Live, which is something I see a lot but hadn't experienced before. The video of my set there has been watched over 1100 times since then, which is crazy but really cool. I think the live streaming thing is something I definitely need to look into more in the future.

It was great to get the opportunity to play with some old friends too, and the beauty of booking your own tour through your friends is that they can come and play too! Massive thanks to Tone Tanner, Huffy, Dan Hartland, Bleeding Hearts, Dave Busby and The Pale Aliens for sorting gigs for me and playing. It's always a pleasure to see all of you play and spend some time with you. Thanks also to Roots Music, The Musician's Union and Pistol Pete Wearn for booking gigs for me too. I promise I'll come back to The Market Vaults when you're actually there to host Pete!

So to round up, I think the whole thing was a success. Yes I drove a lot (though the podcast 'I Only Listen to The Mountain Goats' has helped with that a lot), I did get woefully lost in Nottingham - huge thanks to Ben Benson from the MU for rescuing me - and I did only just break even, but as an exercise is playing to new people further afield I think it was worthwhile. After all, there are now 35 more people that have listened (I hope) to my new album, and if they tell all their friends about it then they will soon be flying out the door!

I wait patiently by the post box ;)

See you soon (like in Leicester next weekend, for a tour never really ends does it?)

Sam.

Well travelled

I'm currently sitting behind the desk at The Robin 2 for the monthly session. The standard is very high tonight, which I am of course very pleased with.

I've covered some miles over the past couple of weeks, hence the title of this blog. It started off with a trip to Huttoft, near Skegness, for seaside fest. It was a good laugh, and nice to be able to walk on the beach an hour before my set!

Almost a week later (I know, a week off! Lazy, I hear you say) I travelled to Hull to play at a wedding. This was a bit of a landmark gig for me, as it's the first booking to come directly from my wedding musician website. It went really well too, though leaving the house at 9am and arriving back at 3am the next day is a long day by anyone's standards!

The third road trip was modest in comparison, as it was 'only' to Bakewell for one of my yearly highlights, Bakewell Music Festival. The gig was great, I had a really nice audience and sold a fair few CDs. Like I said in my last post, it's not about the money, but it is a decent barometer as to how much people enjoyed what I was doing.

My next gig is at The Old Stags Head in Penn. I was booked today via Twitter. I'm pretty sure it's the first gig I've ever booked with a tweet, and I've never been there before, so I've no idea what to expect. It's going to be an adventure though, so if you are around on Friday night, come down from 9 and check it out.