I'm with the band

Curious to find out what life on tour with a band is really like, Phillip Thomas describes his job:

“I’m the tour tech for most big one-off shows and almost all tours with the band Chasing Cadence. I say “tour tech” but it essentially is a fancy way of saying I’m the one and only member of the CC entourage. I help set their equipment up before a set, I fix problems that go wrong during the set, and I help them pack down and load up after the set. Most of the time the band are happy to deal with their own equipment however, leaving me to float around and help with whatever needs prioritizing. It’s a pretty fun job to do, and I enjoy being able to travel across the UK with them.”

The typical first day of tour starts off at Rob (rhythm guitar) and Dan’s (bassist) house. People sleep over from the night before so the early morning wakeup call is more bearable. Sometimes, the band and crew get the short straw and have the first date in Wales or Scotland. Despite this, tour starts off with drinks and xbox. The van is loaded with equipment and the journey begins.

When describing the typical tour venue, Thomas said:

“The venues are typically small, maybe ranging between 100-1000 capacity. As expected from smaller venues the sound is usually shocking, as most of the time the “sound engineer” is some average bloke who’s volunteering to do the gig for cash in hand pocket money. We don’t bring our own sound engineer though, as that would require an extra seat in the van and I’d be pissed if I’m getting cut from the team.” 

Another common feature with smaller venues is that crowd draw is typically very low. 

Most bands would be disheartened by this but the Cadence lads just think of it as a free practice. Thomas added: “I don’t think of it as such, especially since they probably just paid £70 in petrol to get to the damn venue. Oh well, optimists right?” 

Talking about the struggles of life on the road, a harsh reality check is always in store.

The tours Cadence have played in the last two years and have found more groups to be unhelpful. Sure, the tour exposure may be beneficial for smaller bands, but they don’t have materials or experience for the bigger bands on their roster. Typically their tours are five or six nights long, and each band on the tour has one home town show. With four bands on each tour, that leaves two nights without a home town show. Chances are each band are gonna be fairly small in the grand scheme of things, which means those shows will be the worst of the tour due to small crowd draw. It’s unavoidable unfortunately. 

The whole tour is about money conservation. Each band member will use their own funds to pay for food and drinks during, but petrol and hotels come from the band budget. Typically on these tours, band budget isn’t huge. These boys aren’t signed by a label, and as such don’t get lump sums to cover expenses. During tours, Cadence have to rely on merch sales from each venue to help cover the cost of expenses. In some occasions, they could find themselves stuck in a city unless they make £X on merch sales. Otherwise, the petrol to get to the next venue is unaffordable. 

Discussing about the lack of personal space when on the road, Thomas said:

“During the tour there’s usually a lot of drama. The Cadence boys try and keep their heads above it and stay professional, and so far with my time with them I’ve only seen some very minor disagreements between them. 

The tours Cadence have played in the last two years and have found more groups to be unhelpful. Sure, the tour exposure may be beneficial for smaller bands, but they don’t have materials or experience for the bigger bands on their roster. Typically their tours are five or six nights long, and each band on the tour has one home town show. With four bands on each tour, that leaves two nights without a home town show. Chances are each band are gonna be fairly small in the grand scheme of things, which means those shows will be the worst of the tour due to small crowd draw. It’s unavoidable unfortunately. 

The whole tour is about money conservation. Each band member will use their own funds to pay for food and drinks during, but petrol and hotels come from the band budget. Typically on these tours, band budget isn’t huge. These boys aren’t signed by a label, and as such don’t get lump sums to cover expenses. During tours, Cadence have to rely on merch sales from each venue to help cover the cost of expenses. In some occasions, they could find themselves stuck in a city unless they make £X on merch sales. Otherwise, the petrol to get to the next venue is unaffordable. 

Discussing about the lack of personal space when on the road, Thomas said:

“During the tour there’s usually a lot of drama. The Cadence boys try and keep their heads above it and stay professional, and so far with my time with them I’ve only seen some very minor disagreements between them. 

of it in a carpark in Harlow.” 

To summarise his experience, Thomas said:

“All in all, tour is great. You make loads of new friends in the bands that support, a lot of whom I still keep in contact with. There’s messy nights and stressful days, but at the end of it everyone walks away saying “this tour was fucking amazing”.

After speaking to Phil Thomas I’ve learned that touring, as easy as it may seem, consists of blood, sweat and literal tears. I walked away from this interview with a new insight to the working of a tour and the immense efforts that go with it.  

Enter Shikari - 'The Mindsweep has swept the world'

I have been totally unashamed to tell anyone that Enter Shikari are the best band to see live. With extravagant and far from minimalist stage productions, they deserve to be top of the bucket list. Their 12 month anniversary of their ‘Mindsweep’ Tour in 2015 the Hertfordshire band toured once again and did not disappoint. With guest support acts like Arcane Roots, The Wonder Years and newly reformed The King Blues. The manifest took place int he one and only Alexandra palace, North London, where theres an almost theatrical feel to the venue. 

It’s difficult to categorise Enter Shikari, they don't fit into your stereotypical genres, if they had to be described they be the love child of political-punk and synth-bass. They ooze sheer rebelliousness, anger and energy. Its also difficult to conjure up compatible support acts, however for this particular set of shows they have produced a ‘fantastic 4’-esque team of bands. 

The first of the fantastic 4 was Arcane Roots. The UK has produced some amazing melodic rock bands over the years, and with Arcane roots we have witnessed another. The monstrous bass and drums often dip their music into more thunderous territory yet the contrasting, twinkling sounds of their guitar and atmospheric vocals give the songs a life of their own. The band combine math-rock and alt-rock riffs and beats but have a more post-hardcore energy on stage making them mesmerising to watch. Andrew’s unorthodox vocal range, screeching out ‘AND DON’T YOU CRAWL’ while trying to move his fingers at phenomenal speeds shows just how musically talented he is. ‘Belief’ being one of the many songs that has been injected with poignant lyrics and contrasting heavy melodies layered on top. Arcane roots played a breath taking gig, including songs from both ‘Blood & Chemistry’ and ‘Left Fire’.

'Resolve', 'You Are' and 'Triptych' were by far the most exciting to watch live. Spidery guitar solos that literally brought Andrew to his knees in the middle of the stage and mosh pits forming like human whirlpools in front of him. It was something else seeing these guys play a 7,400 capacity venue when they started off play 50-100capacity venue only a matter of months ago. 

The second of the musical heroes were newly rebirthed London band, The King Blues. After the controversy on social media as their new album released showed a photo of David Cameron being beheaded, the boys are back with a bang. They show their excitement and happiness of being on stage by playing that on song we all know, “I Got Love”. As Jonny ‘Itch’ Fox darts left and right across the stage the crowd are jumping and singing in unison. Theres a buzz i the room as The King Blues depart off stage and the lights dim. everyone know exactly what expect from he remainder of the show. Floods of people leave the body of the crowd to run off and grab over priced beer, nip to the loo or find missing friends before the  third of the four bands. 

Third in line were Philadelphia sextet, The Wonder Years. If you're the generic pop punk fan you'd know these american lot very well. Dan ‘Soupey’ Campbell was of with such confidence and power, the roar of the crowd causes the smiles to crack on his face. Its clear the impact he causes on fans gives him pride. They play with three guitarists and synchronised onstage smoke explosions. The band open with their most recent released song “Cardinals”, creates a swelling sprawl of human currents through the room, dark blue lights and faint pink flashes create an omniscient atmosphere in the room. There the odd crowd surfer floating around, on the rare occasion a half finished pint of beer will fly past your head and drench you in sticky Fosters. 

The Wonder Years finish up their far from calm set and exit stage to make room for the main event. 

Standard procedure, lights dim, crowd calms and the fine buzz is in the air. Everyone who's seen Enter Shikari will know that their stage productions are made to take you on an adventure. This one did not fail. Anticipation weakens as Rou Reynolds ran on stage and the rest of the band followed, lasers bouncing off the wall and brightly lit up screens stand tall on stage. Nothing about the band’s sound is comfortable or easy – unlike the furry-collared coat Rou Reynolds started the show wearing – and ‘Sorry You’re Not A Winner’ shocked the senses further with an accompanying switch between frantic pink and blue strobe lights and total darkness. The screens behind the band show a slow moving slide show of ‘mans evolution’ and cosmic landscapes. After an appreciative speech about the success of ‘The Mindsweep’ and a lecture on music popularity Shikari pull out the ‘Radiation’ card. Neon green lasers fly around the room and the crowd move as one in a huge bouncing motion. The mixture of the set list was surprising, considering there were song on there they haven't played live in years. ‘The Jester’ was a signature song of the evening, causing buzzing exhilaration in the crowd and swarms of mosh pits forming. Moving onto ‘Dear Future Historians…’ Rou advances to a podium in the centre of the crowd, sat behind a white patent piano. As an extra treat to the crowd a piano version of ‘Juggernauts’ was preformed, with added confetti cannons and glitter. Followed by a mother popular song, ‘Arguing With Thermometers’ and a version of ‘Ghandi Mate, Ghandi’ that had the man himself appearing in cartoon form to ask “what would Robbie Williams do?” The answer? Sing ‘Angels’, of course, so a little bit of 90s pop found its way in to the setlist. ‘Mothership’ added some serious nostalgia to the show, probably a tribute to their loyal and avoid fans. 

An encore of ‘Redshift, ‘Anaesthetist’ and ‘The Appeal & The Mindsweep II’ cemented this show as the best of its kind. Enter Shikari, in a venue overlooking the London skyline, dominated the city and changed the British alternative music scene forever in a show that was gutsy, lively, fun, poignant, political and astounding. With a headliner slot at Hevy Festival this summer, what comes after that? Wembley, maybe? Let’s hope so – there isn’t a band that deserves it more.

The venue starts to clear as tired and sweaty looking fans leave this picturesque location, the city lights of central London laminate the sky and twinkle. People leave to rest their giggled out legs, yet another successful show for Enter Shikari.