Ok Tour Ok: part 3: EUROPE

**** all monetary figures have been standardized to the euro in this section of the report.

INTRODUCTION

We left North America for Europe in late August and headed to Sweden to begin the third and final segment of the Community Over Capitalism Tour. We flew solo on this endevour and were travelling as a 2-peice band. We didn't bring any gear over. We just had a change of clothes and some records. We decided to not make t-shirts so that we didn't have to cart around screen printing supplies. We were able to borrow a guitar for the journey and get our amps, mics, stands, drums and breakables set up in advance by the venues and promoters. We bought a car in sweden. a very cheap car.

QUICK STATS

bands on tour: 1
days on tour: 84

number of shows played: 32
number of countries visited: 14

income: €3545 (€981 from ok vancouver ok records and €2624 from door deals)

This means we make on average €110.78/ show

TRANSPORT

litres of gas purchased: 716.76

Euros spent on gas: €1119.07

average price of gas: 1.56 €/L

EXPENSES

Gas: €1119.07
Highway tolls: €331.70

Ferries: €243

Trains and Buses: €610.15

Taxis and Metros:€108.2

Car, insurance, taxes and repairs: €1245
Lodging: €272

Total: €3929.12

INCOME

income: €3545 (€981 from ok vancouver ok records and €2624 from door deals)

This is ok vancouver ok's 5th european tour. We visited some of the same cities again but our adventurous side could not be tamed and we also chose to stray from previous paths and try new countries and cities this time around. It is important to note that we agreed on terms of payment before every show on the european part of our tour. and that the below data set just looks at the money that was exchanged and does not include all of the dinners, breakfasts, snacks, sightseeing, accommodations, drinks, gifts and great times that we also received as part of our guarantees.

set one describes how we booked the show a. through friends who are most likely musicians themselves but do not actively book shows for bands. b. a contact that is a booker or promoter that we have previously worked with. c. contacts that we have never met with or worked with before and d. promoters that had heard we were coming and they asked if we would be willing to visit their town and have them set us up a show.

Set two describes the type of venue that we played at. a. squats (places that are run illegally or legally) b. legal venues, cafes, record stores, galleries or other non-liquor primary establishments c. houses and apartments or d. bars, music clubs or restaurants where alcohol is served legally and abundantly.

set1: WHO BOOKED THE SHOW

a. friend €816 / 9 shows = €90.6/show
b. contact previously worked with €1239 / 6 shows = €206.5/show
c. new contact €852 / 10 shows = €85.2/show
d. asked to play a show €638 / 7 shows = €91/show

set2: WHAT TYPE OF SHOW IT WAS

a. Squat €383 / 4 shows = €95.75/show

b. Venue, Cafe, Store or other non-liquor primary establishment €1154 / 12 shows = €96.1/show

c. House €228 / 3 = €76/show

d. Bar €1780 / 13= €136.9/show

The above data sets make it abundantly clear that working with a contact time and again proves to be a very financially profitable endeavour. Some of our highest paying shows and best attended shows were booked by promoters who we now consider friends in towns and venues that ok vancouver ok has played at 5+times. This makes sense because the size of your draw is going to impact how many people pay at the door as well as how many people are interested and willing to buy your records.

Once again, like in canada, the shows at liquor primary establishments tended to be more profitable than alternative spaces. We believe that this may be cultural. The laws around what age you can attend shows and drink alcohol change place to place and are much more lenient than in the USA. This makes the all-ages movement slightly more stagnant and the need for alternative spaces to be perceived as lower.

Best Nights:

1.Bar3000 Zurich SWITZERLAND €292 (€240 from door, €52 from merch sales) previous contact, bar

2.El Chico, Bordeaux FRANCE €240 (€200 from the door, €40 from merch sales) previous contact, bar

3.Sturmglocke, Hannover GERMANY €231 (€135 from the door, €96 from merch sales) previous contact, Venue

Worst Nights:

1. Culture Exchange, Novi Sad SERBIA €10 (€10 from the door, no merch sales) new contact, cafe

2. Kawiarnia Naukowa, Krakow POLAND €30 (€25 from the door, €5 from merch) asked to play, bar

3. Larry's Corner, Stockholm SWEDEN €41 (€13 from door and €28 from merch) new contact, record store

*** this excludes the 3 shows that we played benefits or private shows that were for no pay. those three shows have been included in our above data sets, lowering the average pay in the 'friend' column.

At first glance, our best nights and worst nights financially seemed to align somewhat with the income of the country that were playing in (with the exception of sweden) but it is important to note that as well as being financially unsuccessful the 3 'worst shows' also were the only 3 shows that broke our previously agreed to contacts (i.e. no food, no place to sleep, the division of money was not as agreed...) and some of our lowest attended shows. We also only booked with 2 of our 32 shows USA born contacts and they are both represented in the 'worst nights' . . . interesting!

And as you can see our 3 highest paying shows (in fact our 5 highest paying shows) were booked with contacts we had previously worked with. A clear relationship.

CONCLUSION

We are quite pleased with the financial outcome of our european tour. On paper it shows a loss of €384.12 (expenses of €3929.12- income of €3545) which is our highest recorded loss of our 3 part tour. However, I was able to much more accurately represent our finances in this round. Unlike the data from our North American tour we have included the exact cost of transportation, even the purchasing of the car and insurance and taxes. We also included the cost of all of our lodging. the only expense not reported was food costs, but they were negligible seeing as we were provided food and meals free of cost almost all of the time, and the cost of our flights.