HW: Hawkwind Tour supporters bus?

[K Henderson]

Arin...

I think Kris (aka XXX) are on the HW: filter, so you must be certain to put
that in the subject line for them to see it.

I'm doing this seemingly-private message publicly for that very
reason....not a mistake.  Sorry for the duplication to you other folx.

Grakkl (FAA)

First, Mike's original statement, then Arin's response...

: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.

Cue Arin:

>Needless to say, but I'm all over this idea.  Having just done the
>whirlwind tour around the UK, I really must say that this is far far
>better to do with company.
>
>Might get more overseas fans to come over with this kind of setup, since
>the annoyance value of figuring out all of your own transportation isn't
>an issue.
>
>Of course, we'll all need to be decent friends, given close quarters, but
>that might be able to be worked around.
>
>Kris -- if you are reading this thread, did you arrange the tour bus
>stuff?  Can we hit you up for info?
>
>: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?
>
>Most of the random web sites, I've been coming across are "email for more
>info" (alas.)
>
>http://www.atlantic-coast.com/neoplan/
>210 per day, 1 per mile, accomodates 8 people.
>
>http://www.star-line.co.uk/
>
>A good phone book (over in the UK) might have better information...
>I'm coming up a bit sparse on web hunting.
>
>Arin
>(who has been looking on and off for this kind of info for awhile now, as
>Mike can attest ;-) )
>--
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>Arin Komins                                   akomins at uchicago.edu
>Manager of Web Systems Architecture
>University of Chicago/NSIT                      tel: (773)834-4087
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