Warwick Arts Centre, Sunday, October 22, 2006
I am sitting on a bus traveling from Warwick Arts Centre to the Janice Long show for Radio 2. The time is 23.07 and I am in good form. It is the 15th date on tour with The Divine Comedy, which has already spanned Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium. Personnel - me, (Duke Special); Temperance society Chip Bailey, (drums and stuff!); two kick Jonny Clark, (sound) and Claire Rosenbaum, (tour manager and part-time alchemist).
We began this tour pretty much straight after a tour round Ireland with The Beautiful South so it's already been over a month on the road. The really cool things about the dates so far with TDC have been traveling on a tour bus and having a tour manager with us. Until this point we have traveled in Chip's van or my car and slept on peoples' floors, in cars, in dressing rooms and if we are lucky, three of us in one room of a Travel Lodge. This is an improvement!
For an insight into and rules pertaining to traveling on a tour bus, I recommend my good friend Ben Hales' diary on the Aqua Lung web site.
The benefits of a tour manager are plentiful. These range from locating the dressing room, knowing stage times, organizing food, directions to the next venue, coordinating with press and media for interviews and a myriad of other details, pre-planning and organisational tasks. Having a tour manager is also an improvement!
Over the next few weeks I will be logging in to describe my experiences on this road that is called rock and roll. I will try and convey some of the sights, sounds and perhaps smells we encounter along the way (yikes!). Well, until next time. Ds x
