Aleks Grey – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the pop artist, Aleks Grey, shares one of his stories from being on the road. You can check out the story, after the break.

In 2019 I went on my first tour outside Norway. Me and my band went to Germany for two weeks. We had a great time, made some new friends, played some great venues, and we also learned a lot. The entire tour went quite smoothly – except for the first day…

We left from Oslo Airport Gardermoen early on a Wednesday. The first hick-up occurred whilst checking in. One of the guys in my band’s SAS (flight company) bonus card had expired just a few days before – which meant that we started off by paying an extra $240 to get through to security.

When boarding we thought we had a lot of space on the plane, as we were seated in A, C, D, and F. Turns out there is no B and E, so we were really crammed in. 3 of the guys in my band, myself included are over 1m 90cm. And we brought our guitars and cymbal bags on the plane. We were almost not allowed to board.

When we arrived in Germany we felt a bit of relief. «Finally, we’re here!»

About 2 minutes later I found that my luggage was lost. After spending over an hour trying to track it down, we just had to leave. Without my suitcase. And hey, my phone suddenly decided to blackout…

At this point, I was like «what it going in». It feels like I was on an episode of Punk’d.

When we arrived at the hotel, we got our room. The problem was just that we were 5 people, and there were only four beds. I ran back down to reception, and their only suggestion was to use an old couch they had stored somewhere in the back. An old grey thing, with a massive brown stain… Eventually, we figured out that there was a mistake, that I actually DID book two rooms and it was sorted out.

A little later that night my suitcase arrived and we thought, «finally – let the tour start»

The day after we got in a cab from our hotel in Dusseldorf and went to a club called Sojus7 in Monheim am Rhein. On the day of our arrival, it rained a lot, but this was a beautiful day.

We arrived at the venue, and it was so freaking cool! The people were so welcoming and professional.

Now everything went according to plan! Well..halfway through the show (which was going great, the crowd was buzzing and maybe we got a little excited) my drummer just ran off stage. He had broken one of his drumsticks, and in the process managed to cut himself pretty bad. So for 2-3 minutes, we stood on stage without a drummer, while he was wrapping his hand in toilet paper before he came running back on stage.

These things I always find to be a bit amusing. He wasn’t hurt badly, just bleeding a lot, and when we found out he was okay, we could all have a laugh about it.

The rest of the show went perfectly, with three or four encores and a great evening with the crowd and staff after the show.

The cherry on top was on our way back home. Or should I say, THE WAY back home. As mentioned it was the five of us + guitars, merchandise, and some drum equipment. We had to get a cab for the ride back to the hotel. But the only thing we got was an Opel Prius where the driver had a small extra seat in the trunk. And when we got on the highway he pushed the car up to 177 km/h. We were all so scared that we didn’t manage to say a single word.

Back at the hotel we all just collapsed in our beds and went straight to sleep.

A few eventful first days in Germany, but after these two days, it all went like a dream. And we’ve actually been back to Monheim several times after…

My most important tip is just to be positive, be humble and always look for solutions when things aren’t going according to plan. It seems like most things will work out in the end

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