On The Road Again

STEVE ROBERTSON hit the road with the Elgin-based band Small Enclosed Area for the opening leg of their UK tour

ELGIN ROCK BAND Small Enclosed Area recently completed a tour of the UK which included their first English dates in nearly two years. I had the opportunity to travel with the band and experience the highs and lows that an unsigned band on tour goes through. This is my account of the first five days of an eleven-day tour that saw them go from Glasgow to London via Leeds and back up to Newcastle.

DAY 1: RUFUS T FIREFLYS, GLASGOW. I agreed to meet the band in Glasgow as they were leaving from Elgin and travelling via the Rothes route, while I arranged to travel via the Megabus from Inverness. Upon arrival the band and I were treated to dinner by the promoter. The gig went well and the band sold many of their CDs, then headed back to stay with some of the guys from fellow Elgin band Fickle Public, a night that was filled with many stories and jokes about the school bands the members of both bands had been involved with growing up in Elgin.

DAY 2: THE VINE, LEEDS. We set off early from Glasgow for Leeds with the band looking forward to playing there for the first time. The drive took about 3 hours and seemed to pass very quickly. We arrived at The Vine and dropped off our equipment, then went to get something to eat and have a look around Leeds. The bar staff at The Vine were good to us, and sorted us out with very cheap accommodation for the night.

It was interesting watching the band shake off the rust and get tighter and tighter as the gigs passed

The main band playing were a Southampton outfit called Get Amped, and due to them being late none of the bands were able to soundcheck, so Small Enclosed Area would have to make do with a quick line check. We had been informed that Get Amped would draw a massive crowd when offered this gig, but things seemed to go in reverse.

The local bands brought in a reasonable crowd which Small Enclosed Area were lucky to play to, but by the start of Get Amped’s set all that was left was the guys from Small Enclosed Area, the bar staff, myself and two random people from off the street. The band agreed with me that at this stage in their career when they play a place for the first time a middle slot is much safer than a headline slot.

DAY 3: THE WILMINGTON, LONDON. Again setting off early I looked forward to getting to London as I had never been and didn’t know what to expect. In my mind I presumed that London was a run down industrial nightmare and was pleasantly surprised to find that the centre of London is a really nice place. The venue was in the Angel area, which seemed almost like a village thrown into the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world.

A few record labels came to have meetings with the band, which was the main purpose in playing London. This helped take the edge of the disappointment that the gig wasn’t very well promoted and only had about half capacity of the venue.

Small Enclosed Area did actually manage to sell a CD to everyone in the venue, though, which at least let them know that the people who were in attendance liked their music. The plan was to leave London straight after the gig to avoid being held up in a traffic jam the next day, and get some rooms at a Motel by the roadside.

However after at least two hours of being told that every Travel Lodge and Holiday Inn we went to was full, we gave up and decided to rough it and sleep in the van, in which we would see one of the most amazing things ever as bassist RossP crawled into the back of a very full band and slept in what he said was total comfort on top of some very hard guitar amplifiers with only about 2 or 3 inches space between him and the roof!

DAY 4: BOULEVARD, SUNDERLAND. When we arrived in Sunderland the first thing the band did was find a swimming pool so everyone could relax and freshen up after a night of roughing it in the van. After some food we sorted out where we were going to be staying and headed to the venue in the evening. This gig in Sunderland came about after the band were let down with a promised Manchester gig, so the promoter in Newcastle had some contacts in Sunderland got them a slot at the last minute on the bill.

The night was set up with an indie vibe and amongst the crowd was former Shed Seven frontman Rick Whitaker, who was DJing down the street from the venue. Small Enclosed Area would manage to win a few fans that night and continue to sell CDs.

DAY 5: ENIGMA, NEWCASTLE. With Newcastle being only a short distance from Sunderland we spent the day doing some flyering around the city centre before going along to Enigma. We soon met up with the band who were headlining, Rachel In Nevada. They were quite possibly the nicest guys we met on the whole tour, and the trip to Newcastle was worth it just to meet these larger than life characters.

Small Enclosed Area tell me they are hoping to get Rachel In Nevada up for some gigs in Scotland and are staying in touch with them. The gig itself went well Enigma is a nice place and the band sounded loud but clear and on top form now on the fifth day of their tour.

Guitarist Marshall would survive a true test in stamina as following the early finish at 10 pm to make way for Enigma’s regular club night, he decided to drive from Newcastle to Elgin, a 7-hour journey that saw us get back just after 5 am.

This was merely the first leg of their tour as they would play around Scotland the following week, but it was interesting watching the band shake off the rust and get tighter and tighter as the gigs passed, and frontman Keith Milne’s onstage banter develop each night.

It can be hard on the road without any funding and taking your band out of the comfort zone you experience playing around your local area, but at the same time going to different places and meeting new people is a good thing, and something every band hoping to break through must experience.

© Steve Robertson, 2006