Joe Anderson / Ed Wood

Name: Joe Anderson

Band: Ed Wood (facebook.com/Ed-Wood)

Where: Devon, UK.

My first experience with a terrible promoter was a harrowing reality "slap to the face" when I went on my first ever tour last year during the Summer.

We were all excited heading out on our first date and weren't even phased that we had to pick tour buddies (Rash Decision) up from Newquay, a 5/6 hour trip in itself from Portsmouth.

Excitement turned to frustration as we realised our mini bus named "Old Faithless" couldn't top more than 50MPH and going up hill topped a brisk 20MPH. To top that off we took the wrong turning at Exeter, adding an extra hour to the journey.

Anyway to the actual show. I'll just say the venue is in a popular seaside town located in Devon. 10 hours travel time to get to this show! Still super excited and raring to play our show I noticed the first problem; there was no internet presence for the show except for us plugging the tour ourselves.

Secondly, there was one gig poster in the bar upstairs and none anywhere else.

Thirdly, the person promoting show wasn't there.

And finally, there was no local support. Just us and Rash Decision.

We ended up playing to the barman and what seemed like the town drunk at the bar. He left after one song. We all made the best of it, played our sets, did a bit of dancing and got in on some gang chants.

After the show we were guaranteed £70 (no where near covered petrol money, but we were expecting losses) and were then told no money was to be paid. After some heated conversations and excuses (we got told the promoter had cancer?!) we managed to get hold of them on the phone and get the money from behind the bar. Thanks goes to Dave from Rash Decision who must have encountered this all before on previous tours and got the money for us.

To end our lovely night we were then told 3 us couldn't stay where we were supposed to be sleeping. We had to sleep in the mini bus just off the high street on a Friday night with people fighting and puking everywhere. I was later told the place everyone stayed at was a rat infested crack den. I had opted to sleep on the bus out of generosity, so luckily I think I made the right choice.

I spent the end of the night clutching the nastiest bottle of cider I could find, laughing hysterically about the day I had endured.

Touring isn't for the faint hearted. If you're in a band be prepared to be shat on, but always remember why you're doing it and have a good sense of humour.

You get good shows too.