Many of my articles have focused on the behind-the-scenes work required for promoting your band. This article is going to look at the "big ticket" promotional item - Touring. Entire books have been dedicated to setting up, booking and going on tour so instead I will cut a wide swath, touching on some of the activities, tips and hints for getting out on the road.
If your band has been successful in local clubs, then you might want to consider building your audience by enlarging the geographical area in which your band performs. This is a serious step and calls for a major band meeting. There are several aspects of touring that your band needs to consider.
The first is answering the question "should you go on tour?" Your band needs to be aware that going out on tour is a costly proposition and you need to make sure that you have a really good reason to hit the open road. The best reason is the most obvious one - touring to support a new CD. Let's say you have a CD that is currently in production so you're all nodding "okay" to the idea of touring.
The next step is to make sure that everyone is on board with the idea of "going on tour" and what that might actually mean (i.e., where would you go, how many days, how many gigs, how you would travel, when would be a good time to travel, etc.). Make your first band meeting an open "brainstorming" session just to get a sense of how your band mates feel about the concept of touring. Bring a copy of the band calendar so you'll know all your current professional commitments. Start penciling each band member's personal commitments that cannot be re-scheduled. You'll begin to see how feasible (and how complicated) planning a tour is. After your first discussions, don't rush out and buy a van! This is only the first step in a long process.
Give the entire band time to think about what touring really means - living on a tight budget, stuck in a vehicle with the rest of the band for long stretches, etc. Just look at the myriad of small problems that you run into doing local gigs and then multiply them by 1000. Although it is cliché, I can't stress this enough - touring can either bring a band together or cause them to break up.
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