Customer Reviews
Touring for Dummies 
2007-11-16
This book is all straight talking from the hip, chock full of useful advice and ideas, and most importantly what NOT to do! Backed up by years of experience and contributions from people all over the industry. If you only buy one book on the subject, this is the one to have.
MUST HAVE! 2007-11-14
This book is a must-have for anyone involved in the touring aspects of the music industry. It contains real-life stories and anecdotes from people who have lived on the road and have had the moments that the writers of "Spinal Tap" never even thought of. It covers EVERY aspect of touring, from contracts, schedules, transportation and riders, to groupies and maintaining health. The humorous and "real" tone of the book helps to make this an easy and informative read. This book should be shoved into every tour bus bunk and in every cargo van. This book is huge...the size of a textbook, and worth double what it costs. In fact, as a music business major, I've learned more from this inexpensive book than the hundreds of dollars worth of textbooks that I've bought for classes. If you're a musician, roadie or manager, this book is NECESSARY.
Your new music industry bible. 2007-10-29
Musicians, Promoters, Roadies, Club Owners, Merch Teamers, Street Teamers, Tour Managers, Band Managers, Production Managers and everyone else that ever thought about having anything to do in the performance music circuit....
... meet your holy grail.
This book is AWESOME! It is an extremely thorough overview of the gears that make up the live music and touring scene. Its not all polished up and proper - but thats what I love about it. The language and narration are real with sometimes crude or cleche phrases that are direct to the point but proficient in painting a picture.
Most of all, it is evident that the information provided is backed up by tried and true experience of a rainbow of contributors organized in a way THAT MAKES SENSE. I wish all industry books were written this way. All too often I pick up a book that some random guy wrote from his basement providing tunnel vision prospective with a 2+2=4 attitude.
Arithmetic is great and common logic is important but its the experience that lies between the text that reference books fail to capture. Not this one.
Perhaps you are trying to research a specific part of the industry such as a musician's prospective or a promoter and happened to stumble upon this. GET IT ANYWAY. To understand your gear's specific role, you have to understand the entire machine and there is probably some information in here to help you.
I am an Audio Engineer. Before that I was a performing musician. I have managed a technical team on the road and now I am researching perhaps opening a music venue. Although I could have just skimmed through this book to find the information that pertains to me, I find I am glued to every page with thoughts like, "huh, why didn't I think of that?"
You get my point. Buy it and pass it along.
Get it right. Get Tour:Smart 2007-10-13
Mr. Atkins is one of the few who have the right to put out a book like this. It has everything to do with touring, getting a band together, the cost, the sacrifice, hidden cost, and things you would NEVER think about thinking. Sure enough as I'm writing this, you can be sure that if you're not willing to do 99.9% of what Mr. Atkins suggest, you have that same chance of failure within a year. I've seen first hand how it is when Pigface rolls into town and it's not like any other band.
It's worth at least the price of admission to get this info. Get it right. Get Tour:Smart
gregZ
no, this was not a solicited review from any label. It's what I've seen from successful bands and one album, if their lucky, bands.
A Must Have for Wanna-Be Rawk Stars! 2007-08-26
The most interesting and least expensive text book that you'll ever have to buy, Atkins hits on the most important yet most over looked aspects of touring. It's great that your band is the best thing since squeezy cheese, But...
Are you touring at the right time and in the right place? Are you putting too much faith in promoters? Do you know the best route to where you are going and how much its going to cost to get there BEFORE you leave?
Find out, and for god's sake.. Tour Smart!
If you're in a band, you need this book! 2008-02-29
This book has so much useful information in it, compiled by people with years and years of experience, an incredible opportunity to learn things about touring and being successful in the music industry that they, no doubt, had to learn the hard way. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that's in a band or even just bought an instrument and plans on taking it seriously. The fact that it was written by artists I know about and are favorites of mine makes it even more credible. Martin Atkins is nothing short of brilliant and the world owes him thanks for putting this book together!
Rock Star Ambition-Read This First! 2008-02-05
I purchased this to review then hand over to my son and his band who
have toured relentlessly for the last 6 years. They have been through
3 record label deals that would make even the strong bands quit and go
back to a 9 to 5. Their lives are written in Marty's pages-but Marty
gives hope. Follow the do's & don't's like those who give advise here.
If you think you can work around the proven methods of earning a living
as a touring musician you will surely learn the hard way and have plenty
of debt to prove it. There is a lot of info here and some great ideas to
keep you earning money. Thanks, Marty for your insight because you lived
it and the fine contributions from others in the industry. This is a manual to consistantly refer to as you journey through the adventurous
career of entertaining the fickle public.
Probably great if your band is already big. 
2008-01-23
Man, I wanted to like this book, but I was really disappointed.
I'm in a bad that tours the country about twice a year, and has for the last few years, and I'd hoped this book would have some good advice. However, this book is aimed at bands who already play to a few hundred people a night, rather than for someone at my level. Also, it doesn't give you much advice on doing things without a big team behind you: for example, it tells you that you could book a tour without a booking agent, but doesn't give you much advice on how to actually do that.
I also felt like this book was aimed at men, and assumed that the audience it was speaking to was male (lots of sections seemed uneccesarily gendered) and HATED HATED HATED a lot of the sections about being a woman on tour. Ugh. The advice was things like "Don't pack too much makeup" and "Don't lose your keys." Srsly?
I've been booking tours and in touring bands for about 5 years now, and I felt like this was an interesting read for a peek into the life of a big band on tour, but was pretty irrelevant to a small band, and kind of insulting to female musicians.
Absolute must for EVERY band 2007-12-12
This book is a monster--big thick tome of information. Every band who is seriously considering leaving the garage MUST read this book. Atkins is a fantastic writer and he is able to make the boring business side of this industry entertaining. In addition to his insight, there are many testimonials from other touring artists, managers, booking agents, merch guys/gals, etc. from everything to getting laid to getting paid. The horror stories alone are worth the price of the book. Consider TOUR:SMART to be the owner's manual to being in a band that plays shows. And as always, if what you're doing isn't working, RTFM!
The best book I have read on the music business. EVER. 2007-12-03
Now I know why the failure rate is so high with bands. This book doesn't sugar coat anything. Finally, a music business book that doesn't have the "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough,.." self help mentality. All the ugly realities exposed!
It's a major reality check for anyone that wants to become a full time musician.
