Hawkwind Tour supporters bus?

[M Holmes]

OK, new topic for the party animals out there...

Back during the last tour I was chatting to Arin and idly speculating
about a better system for following a tour than booking hotel rooms and
trains planes and automobiles. Not only is it expensive, but it takes up
more time to travel, find a hotel, find the gig and the bar and so on
than it does to spend time enjoying the tour.

Bands and roadies get around this by hiring a tour bus and driver. So we
thought, what would the economics be of hiring another tour bus
(presumably there are idle tour buses to match idle bands at any given
time?) to accomodate fans travelling around parts of the tour. Clearly
there's a certain cost per day of hire of the vehicle, running costs,
and to pay a driver. However, a number of people would fit in. It'd be
less comfortable than most hotel rooms. On the other hand, it'd be a
case of sleeping through the travel to the next gig and saving on those
travel costs. The community spirit (or beer) would make up somewhat for
the discomfort. It'd essentially be a rolling party.

So the questions are really of interest and economics. Would enough
people book enough bunks on enough nights to make the costs (including
some empty bunks on some night) work out.

Sp does anyone have any idea of costs per day to run a bus? How many
people could be accomodated? Can anyone get numbers from the band? How
many people here would be interested in principle if the economics
matched or were cheaper than normal hotel or travel costs?

Mike "Furthur" Holmes