HW: Re: U.S. Tour, VENUES (Dallas)

[Keith A Henderson]

Damon responds...

>>> we actually collaborated on a convenient route
>>> (that would get the band to each of our respective backyards, of
>>> course), the band might be able to hit less standard stops more
>>> easily???
>>
>> Yeah, great, is anyone here an expert in GIS??
>>
> What would you need GIS for? (What is GIS?) All you need is a decent U.S.
> road map.  We could collaborate on a decent route easily.  I (or someone)
> could come up with a partially suitable route, then the rest of us can
> look at our road maps and see what major cities we missed.

GIS stands for Geographical Information Systems, which is a computer-based
'science' used most often for city planning, zoning, public utilities, etc. but
also for certain natural resource/environmental monitoring.  It combines
computer-based cartography/geodetics with 'attribute' data (like demographics,
population density, land use/land cover) in order to do things like decide
where to put a new highway, or build a new shopping mall.  My comment about
using this to plan out a successful Hawkwind tour was sort of tongue-in-cheek,
but I'm sure that it really could be helpful if you knew what specific things
to plan for.  Like, you could plan a route that would be cheapest based not
just on mileage, but also on hotel fees, tolls, gas prices, rental vehicles,
border crossings, if you could parameterize each of these things correctly.

The real problem is, however, that even after you decide on the general route,
then you have to actually get the gigs booked on the days you've chosen to be
in that neighborhood.  But then, the club of choice may not be able to book you
then, and say, well could you be here on such-and-such day (a week later)?, and
then the schedule is either screwed, or you try the next best club, or you skip
the city.  This certainly happens more times than not, and if HW was a definite
must-have for promoters, then they could perhaps get more shows when *they*
wanted, but I'm afraid that's probably not the case at all (except maybe for a
few select cities).  And there's the Friday/Saturday night issue as well, as
I'm sure promoters/bands are always conscious of the attendence being generally
higher on these days.  I think you'd want to be in the largest markets on
weekends.

> Students in
> each area could put up flyers in their respective campuses, we could
> contact various radio stations and city publications (The Met and The
> Dallas Observer are the two here... don't think the Morning News would be
> interested) for P.R.... I think those free weekly mags like the Met and
> Observer are the only ones who will actually pay attention, if that.  But
> it's worth a try.

Well, we're into a Catch 22 here, as no press would come about *until* there
was something happening, and nothing would happen until the promoters saw there
was going to be some public interest in having a more obscure artist perform in
their city.  Of course, there might be the odd HW-fan in the media some places,
presumably at one of those free entertainment guides, that could be a real
help.  And you wouldn't find them unless you tried.  So it couldn't hurt.

All in all, I think our biggest contribution might just be in the local
hospitality offer, as was done by Mike Coleman.  We have list members in a lot
of the cities they might play at, and if we could arrange free accomodations
and meals for the band, it would not only help them cut costs, but also give
them a more warm, fuzzy feeling about making the effort to tour here.  And
they'd be in more contact with the fans, literally.  If they were to come to
Columubs, for instance, there would be no way I could house anybody in my
miniscule apt., but I would be willing to bug my more affluent colleagues with
'detached' houses to consider lending me their humble abodes for such a unique
event.  They (HW) probably  wouldn't be interested in my cooking, but I'm sure
I could arrange something if the opportunity arose.

Keith H. (FAA)