Further Down The Road: Travelling Ontario

Good day!

How are you?

Ah, that's great.

What have I been up to?

Well let see...

I'm on a two day break from the Ontario Tour I'm on with Bob Charters.

We've played Barrie, Brantford, Ottawa, and Bracebridge. If only Ottawa started with a B.

THe tour was to have 3 acts but we the third act dropped out last minute so Bob and I just altered the show a bit.

We each play a set of our originals then the third we jam together and play some covers.

Usually by the end everyone is drunk and just want to her stuff they know anyways.

Barrie was a good turn out.

Brantford was nothing crazy plus some guy tried to get me to take my shirt off.

No Gord, No. just buy my CD. Which he did.

Gord stopped me on the way to the bar.

He gave me compliments on my music which I thanked him for.

Then he talked about my physique.

"you must work out." says Gord touching my arm.

"A bit." I respond

I think this guy I can get to buy a CD.

after the last set I come by with CD's and he is willing to buy one. He asks me about the T-shirts.

"Any of them make me look like you?"

"Sure!" I said, "What size are you Large or Medium?"

Gord is somewhere around 45, kinda old lookin 45, too.

But Gord says "Really I'd rather see you with your shirt off."

"Sorry Gord shirts stay on."

"But you can buy this one and take it on and off your self."

Gord didn't buy a shirt that day.

And Sure the thought did cross my mind, If I take off my shirt for a second, he's going to buy a shirt.

But I stand on the moral high ground of staying clothed while making (or not making) sales.

Ottawa was pretty dead. 3 floors to this bar, and they put us on the one that did not have a bar, thus had no people.

Great move.

Bracebridge was packed... but paid us the least.

This tour is very educational. I'm learning what to do and not to do, by doing the exact opposite. But I am learning.

Posters if you want to have your poster up in a bar. DO NOT email it to them. They will not print it off. Mail an actual copy to the bar or bring your own and put it up your self.

Also some places won't post your show on there websites (facebook, myspace etc) you've got to do it your self.

I thought the bars would help out at their end to promote the show. Turns out, many do not.

When we showed up to Brantford, there was no poster plus they had some other band written on the chalkboard instead of An evening With Lovers & Thieves Tour. Ah Well.

Also Being unknown people do not come to your merch area, no matter how much you talk about it during the sets.

It's almost like the one part of the bar people won't come around to.

So the best thing to do is grab some CD's and walk up to the groups of people and ask.

Sure I get those uncomfortable looks and excuses "Uh I don't know if I can afford it."

I understand no one really wants to buy CD's. But if I can guilt them into it, I've done a good job.

I've also learned that I need to demand more money. Many bars when booking this tour, either agreed to my price which was probably cheaper than what they usually charge, or came back at me with a lower price, because they don't pay much at all. Which I accepted because I just think of the experience more than the money for the moment. But I can definitely say that next tour I will not be pushing for more be it a larger bar tab, more cash, or a place to stay.

Finding a place to stay is hard when you do not want to pay for a hotel.

We are relying on friends or people to take us in, which hasn't been lucky for us. at our Ottawa gig we had very few people come through the bar and no chance of some one letting us crash so we hopped in the car and drove towards the next city we made it about an hour and pulled over on a side road and tried to sleep.

The seats would not go back so we sat upright twisting back and forth getting colder and colder.

Not the best experience.

We've got two more shows left one in Ottawa again at The Rainbow and in Collingwood at The Huron Club.

Shortly after that I will fly over to the UK and play some shows and travel around.

Again I'm not going to be getting much compensation from the venues, some drink something to eat. I'm relying on finding generous people with couches and selling CD's and T-shirts to be able to survive my 2 and a half weeks.

I've got a little bit of wiggle room on a credit card so worst comes to worst I'll get some room in Bristol or Edinburgh.

When I get back It's going to be day time work mode. I'll have to supply teach as much as I can to start paying off bills. What a horrible thought. Horrible indeed. But at least I have a Art Gallery showing in November. With Luck I will make some sales from my artwork.

here's a little sample of some art in the gallery.