I wonder how many tours GBS has done? By ‘tour’, I mean a block of gigs where we left home and drove from city to city in a car, van, or bus and did a bunch of our own gigs in pubs, clubs, or theatres.
I do not mean weekend summer festival appearances or one-off corporate gigs. I am curious as this most recent tour finished in West Hampton Beach NY, as to how many times myself and Sean and Bob, and a varied cast of others have enjoyed, or just survived a band tour.
It’s a cool vibe on the bus after the last gig of a tour. It is usually not a party type atmosphere as we normally have a long drive to an airport and everyone has organizing and packing to do. Often, there’s a handshake or two, especially for the crew, who work so hard to make the shows look and sound as good as possible. Their day is much more laborious than ours, and if we want some time off after a three week run, they need it.
If we call a tour a run of five consecutive dates or more, I wonder how many we have done. I recall our first real Newfoundland tour when we played Stephenville, Corner Brook, Grand Falls, Gander, Clarenville, Marystown and Carbonear, I believe, before returning home to St. John’s. We had no crew, so it was just the four of us, carrying our instruments, and a PA System in two compact hatchbacks; Sean’s Ford Festival, and Darrell’s Honda Civic, I think. (The wipers broke in one of those cars, and remained dysfunctional for the whole run; no worries, it does not rain that much in Newfoundland.) There were festivals before that and a weekend trip to Corner Brook or Gander, but that was our first real GBS tour and that would have been in the fall of 1993, if memory serves correctly. (And it often does not)
It is reasonable to estimate that we have done three to five Canadian Tour Legs for each of the CD’s. It is also reasonable to assume the same for the US for the last seven CD’s. Likewise, we toured Germany and Denmark on four or five CD’s. You add on a few opening tours for Blue Rodeo in Canada, a couple with the Oysterband in Europe, and Runrig in the UK, and the number of complete tours really adds up.
Is it possible that we’ve done just below or above 200 tours? Jaysus. Have I gone on tour, not gigs mind you, not weekends here and there or fly-in corporate dates or summer festivals, on tour over 200 times? That is a staggering number to me. In my teenage years as a member of Uncle Ronnie’s band doing dances and weddings up and down the Southern Shore, or as a University student playing solo gigs in the pubs of St. John’s, I literally fantasized about touring in a real band. A real band with records and fans who would buy tickets in advance to your shows. A real band with a crew of dudes who would set the gear up and tune your guitars for the next song on the set list. Jaysus, a real band with a set list!
And now I sit not long after my 40th Birthday, and I literally can’t count how many tours I’ve done. How lucky am I? How many people get to do what they really want once in their lives? Very few, I imagine. Even fewer are those who get to do it time and time again.
Brilliant.
Cheers to Johnny, the newest dude on the GBS Bus. He was the audio technician on the most recent tour, and I hope for many more to come. He is quite a talent despite being only 9 or 10 years old, compared to the rest of us.
Special thanks to the gent in Tarrytown with the endless supply of Margaritas.
Curses on the gent in Tarrytown with the endless supply of Margaritas.
We debuted a few new tunes and hope to have a few more up and ready by the time we reconvene in San Diego in a few weeks.
Many thanks to the kind folks who made this recent run grand fun on stage and off. As I said, I’m not sure how many tours have passed. Let’s just hope there’s at least as many more to come.
The plane is slowing down and descending. We’ll soon enjoy the charms of our sweethearts and our friends.
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving.
Cheers,
Alan