Tour Drivers: The unsung heroes of a music scene

Its not just bands that create a music scene, it’s the other creatives involve that make a scene thrive. It’s the photographers, graphic designers, the business heads running the label, the promoters and the music lovers. We all work together to create a thriving music scene, allowing fun to be had, memories to cherish and platform to share your art and even succeed further into a professional field. However, there is in fact a career that is vital for a thriving music scene and it’s not the most obvious! Tour driving. Without these heroes, touring bands can’t get to your town, not only are they vital for small music scenes they are also vital for big touring bands; every band has one, and every band will need one at some point. These are the people that make sure you get to your next show safely, put up with smelly band members and put up with the insufferable personalities of musicians.

In this article, I will be talking to Ryan Price from Smash Tours about why tour driving is the best (and worst) career to go into. I hope after this you will learn to love your local tour driver and understand why they are so important.

Ryan started Smash Tours in 2015, and since then he has taken bands, artists and crews around the UK and mainland Europe. From an audience, and even a band perspective, we don’t really know what goes on behind the scene of a tour driver. Sometimes, I don’t think we fully grasp how important and equally stressful their job actually is. For Ryan, its not only a source of income, but a passion of his! Ryan has been involved in the local Worcester music scene for years since he is a part of the punk legends Fights and Fires who have toured Europe many times. Here’s what me and Ryan got talking got about.

When did Smash Tours start? Why did you start doing Smash Tours?

“The ideas origins go back to October 2013 when my band Fights and fires were on tour with Boysetsfire when our van blew up in the middle of the French alps! We never planned to get ourselves a new van so I thought about buying one and renting it out to bands. Plus there wasn't really anyone else in Worcester doing it at the time. So it seems liked a good idea that I could At least give a go! So in August 2015 my business loan was approved and Smashtours started!”

Could you give a overview of the best moments while being a tour driver?

“It's fun when I get to work the bigger festivals, for me personally, as I sometimes get to rub shoulders with my hero. Especially when one of them comes up to you and compliments your T-shirt and you start a conversation! That is very cool. Apart from that, just meeting people. You'd be amazed at how bands are all the same; that goes across all genres and levels”

Lets not forget, like all jobs, things go wrong; you’re relying on a bus/van to get you from A to B. However, Its not always that simple- Here’s what has gone wrong for Ryan in the past.

“Some of the worse things have been when things go wrong. Vehicles break down. It's a fact of life. All you can do is prepare for it. But when the people you trust let you down, it becomes infuriating. Earlier this year a band had rented the van for a 3 week tour. The van wouldn't start the one morning so we called out RAC. My vehicles have RAC business cover, the top level that I could get. Guy comes out, says the battery has died. So he goes to get a battery. Seems reasonable enough. And doesn't come back- I'm on the phone to RAC, and they tell me that his phones turned off and that he's probably gone home. They didn't send out another guy until the following morning. Who switched the battery for a new one and still nothing. The band had no choice but to proceed with their tour and find another van. My van was recoverd home and my mechanic checked the whole thing. Turned out the original battery was fine, and the problem turned out to simply be a fuse. Other things that annoy me are when bands expect drivers to drive them to Swiss border in a day and then don't pay you for 12 weeks.

Could you share any funny stories while being a tour driver?

“On a lighter note, some of the funniest moments have been simple things like the first time I took a band to Germany to play a festival who'd never left the UK, and they experienced German festival level catering! They would buy beers and forget that they had a fridge full in the backstage room and so they got trashed! It was hilarious! Alot of band members are very artistic people, so some of them are just naturally funny people.”

Do you think that tour drivers are the unsung heroes of the music scene?

“Of course! Bands literally would not get to where they are going without us! We do have to put up with some crap. I've had bands fight in the back, I've had members fired, members quit a tour halfway through, I've had a gf discover who bf was cheating on her while they were in the back of the van! But ultimately, it's a very fun, very rewarding job where you get to work with amazing, open minded, talented people and I don't plan to quit any time soon.”

What advice can you give to people wanting to start a career in tour driving?

“Advice... Put in the time, always have a backup plan. And KFC buckets a free puke bucket (trust me, this has been used many times...).”

If being a witness to drama, puke, drunk Germans, travelling the world and meeting amazing, open minded people hasn’t convinced you to be a tour driver then this article was a waste. People like Ryan have a passion for music and it's his passion that is allowing other people to do their passion and even live their dreams. So for future reference, be nice to your tour driver and keep them close……they’re more important than you’ll ever know!

By Sam Hennerley