The Tour Book

imageAs we’re on a break day, instead of a concert, here’s a lovely little piece of tour memorabilia.

It came via a bit of luck and was a total coincidence. John Birch has a copy of the same basic book which belonged to the tour manager, and which has annotations and other fascinating information, and he very kindly sent me a copy of bits of that as background for this series of posts. The hotel names the band stayed in for example, and the total attendance. And I very gratefully accepted that and thought it was a one off item.

But then by a total fluke last week, when searching for something else entirely, I discovered another copy on sale. It turns out that these books were produced for the road crew and tour entourage to provide itinerary information, and they do turn up every now and then on memorabilia sites. It’s very nice to have, and all the more so because I’m bathing in 2000 Tour soup at the moment.

It’s tiny: about the size of a cassette box. But packed with background detail.

The inside cover with tour dates. Note the three initial dates in Newcastle, at the Playhouse. These were rehearsals.
The inside cover with tour dates. Note the three initial dates in Newcastle, at the Playhouse. These were rehearsals. The notes on the inside cover seem to indicate a missing day’s pay?
Introduction and hotel warnings from Harry, the tour manager
Introduction and hotel warnings from Harry, the tour manager. “PD” is “per diem” or daily allowance for expenses.
Each page has venue details, hotels information, phone numbers and timings. There's a clue here for the attendance competition too.
Each page has venue details, hotels information, phone numbers and timings. There’s a clue here for the attendance competition too.

One thought

  1. oh so sweet to see this. As a lifelong fan, flying to Dublin from NYC and seeing Paddy at the Olympia was a dream come true. Never, ever thought it would happen, but there it was. How is it 15 years ago?

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