r/TouringCrew

Hi all,

Trying to sanity-check the UK entry situation for a small band.

We’re an Amsterdam-based band doing a short UK run:

• 28 June – show in London
• 29 June – show in Bristol
• 30 June – show in Manchester
• 1 July – rest day
• 2–5 July – studio recording in Leeds
• 6 July – rest day
• 7 July – show in Newcastle
• 8 July – travel home

Details:

• 1 band member is Irish
• the other band members are Dutch
• total pay for all 4 shows is only about £300 total, so roughly £25 per person per show
• a UK promoter is handling/booked the shows
• we’ll ask the promoter for a written invitation letter with dates, venues, and payment details
• we also have a driver and sound tech coming with us, paid by us, not by the UK promoter

From what I understand so far:

• the Irish member should be fine
• the Dutch members may be able to enter with an ETA only, as visitors for permitted paid engagements, if the paperwork is in order
• how the driver/sound tech should be documented as crew

My questions:

1. For the Dutch band members, does this sound like ETA + proper invitation/supporting docs is enough, without applying for a visa in advance?
2. Has anyone here entered the UK recently for small paid gigs under this kind of setup?
3. Did you use a promoter invitation letter, and what exactly did it say?
4. How did you document crew like a driver and sound tech as touring staff?

Not looking for guesses, mainly hoping to hear from people who’ve actually done this recently or had lawyers/promoters advise on it.

Thanks in advance.

So this is my first introduction to what it’s like to have a spouse on tour. For context, he’s not in the band but he is in the crew. His schedule is pretty demanding and we have a bit of opposite hours right now and haven’t identified the most quality time to connect. So far there’s been a good amount of texting and a few phone calls, but I can tell that just small conversations here and there actually feel worse than not hearing from him til the end of the day because it all feels so insignificant. Lots of interruptions in those phone calls because people need the space he’s in or he’s needing to hop on and fix something.
This tour kind of came out of the blue and was offered to him while he has his full time job so I’m really not having a great time sorting through my feelings and all the decisions we need to make in what feels like a super short window of time.

He’s considering leaving his full time salaried job (that has health insurance) if they offer him the position so he can do the tour since he’s just on a 2 week test trial right now. The full tour is until beginning of September with about 30 tour dates (obviously not including travel days)

I currently work part time at a job that is soul sucking. We’ve talked about me finding a new job but as soon as this tour came up, it sounds more and more like I’m going have to take the full time position at this job so we can have a paycheck once the tour ends and maintain health insurance.

Financially, the tour breaks just above even with what he would make for the rest of the year at his current job. So I guess that’s okay but the job market is awful right now so I’m not too keen on the “I’ll look for freelance work / salary job once the tour is over.”

Emotionally, I’m having a hard time adjusting because of what feels like a lot of unknowns. Right now he’s on the road about 4 days out the week. We don’t have kids, just a dog. It’s not tough but it seems lonely. Please don’t be mean, I’m new at this lol. He’s traveled for work before, sometimes 2-3 weeks at a time but I guess since I knew it wasn’t a long term thing, I was more okay with it. This feels vastly different.

Technically, it’s just a 2 week trial right now. There’s nothing set but according to him, the manager has said it’s more than likely they’ll keep him on. So I’m trying to prepare.

We’ve been married for 4 years now. It feels like a lot and so little all at once. He has horrible work boundaries as it stands and I’ve been a little more lenient with it because he works mostly from home so when I get home from work, we are able to at least eat dinner or be in the same room while he works. We’ve had conversations about his boundaries needing to be better, which he’s admitted and agreed to, but as soon as we were making progress, this opportunity pops up and he just jumped.

He’s already talking about how they may need him to do tasks on his off days (after saying he would make sure we have time on his off days together) which would bring in more money but it just feels like he’s willing to let so much of our relationship go for what he’s said feels like his last chance at making “a real go” at what he does.

I project a lot of fear of being alone, lonely, and feeling left out. I don’t want to be this way, but there’s a lot of security not being provided in the moment. I knew when I married him that he was kind of always a free spirit/entrepreneur that just needs to go and run off and do a big thing sometimes, but I guess I thought that as we grew closer in our marriage, he would be, I don’t know, more concerned with how it affects us. His life already feels so much different than mine. We have friends that tour and I’ve talked to the wife on more than one occasion about the state of their relationship and it’s made me want to cry for her. They make it work but it is hard. My husband and i actually talked about not wanting that type of relationship but he seems to be having some sort of midlife career crisis that makes him feel like he needs to do this.

I don’t want him to resent me if he asks me “do you want me to go on this tour?” And I say no. But I also can’t lie.

Spouses/Partners, how do you make your life not feel like it’s at a standstill?

I appreciate any kind, insightful, and honest advice you can give. Mindsets, tips, ideas, feedback. Thank you.

1st time TM - how do you go about billing and calculating prep (especially when you of all people know how razor thin the margins are to being with?) This isn't my full time job, just helping with a one off tour. I'll be the first to admit I have a decent knowledge gap in the music field - but vise-versa have an entire career of relevant experience in an adjacent industry and bring a level or organization, production, and business knowledge that is close enough to the day-to-day responsibilities to get the job done. Venues are all midsize in the 450-950 size range.

Is it industry standard to set a flat tour fee? track and log hours? day rate? --eyeroll moment -- this first one is not about the money -- I genuinely want to expand my skillset to an adjacent industry and this gives me the opportunity to dip a toe in the water and help out friends.

Curious how salaries are configured given the long lead on prep, meetings, and constant communication

...and if the band is prowling reddit - my invoice is in the mail, pending responses to this thread. TIA.

New member here looking for advice from people who have been touring longer than I have, and maybe have dealt with similar situations.

TLDR: tour manager that doesn’t take accountability, over steps boundaries and complains about the work.

Basically, I am on the video lead / director on a smaller show, 8 people including the performer.

The TM that the artist brought on for this tour that started in September, has been horrible.

List of issues below:

First full run of shows in September (3 weeks after he was hired) he spent an hour talking to my co worker about how I was “incompetent and didn’t know anything, and he wanted to fire me”

under the guise of a “shot list meeting”. So, fake meeting to talk shit about me.

This was the first full weekend we had worked together lol.

Does not take accountability for mistakes, and is passive aggressive.

Never talks to me directly, always complains to a co-worker who won’t challenge his opinion.

Won’t put our names on the hotel reservations so he has to be there for us to check in.

He is always playing catch up to problems, not getting ahead of them.

Cherry on top, I just learned that he showed the one woman on our show an explicit NSFW photo of a guy he hooked up with the night before, while we were at a venue working…

What would you do in this situation if his contract was coming to an end, and you did not want it extended? Talk to your boss?

I don’t want to give an ultimatum but I don’t know if I can do another year of touring with this guy.

Also, I have been on this show the longest, over 2 years now.

Thank you for any advice ❤️