Billy Bibby & The Wry Smiles – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, Matt Bassy of the rock band, Billy Bibby & The Wry Smiles, gives you his tips for being on tour. You can check out the feature, after the break.

Billy Bibby & The Wry Smiles are a 4-piece based in North Wales, UK composed of Billy Bibby/lead vox, guitar; Rob Jones/lead guitar, vox; Matt Bassy/bass, vox; Mike Pearce/drums. Since their first gig together in November of 2015, the band has criss-crossed the UK every which way playing close to 100 gigs so far and is on tour throughout Spring 2017. Matt the bassist offers a few touring tips…with a British accent.

1. Get hold of “Extras”, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “I’m Alan Partridge”.
Not much to say about this, just three of the best TV shows ever made.

2. Podcasts are great.
Sitting in a van with a group of your best mates is brilliant for about the first 3 hours. After that, it starts to get a bit boring. I find that being involved with, and listening to, music all day every day is a bit taxing. Podcasts are class for making time go quicker and you can learn quite a lot of stuff whilst listening to them. I love Desert Island Discs, Lore, and the Elis James and John Robins podcasts.

3. Get a set of ear plugs.
This might sound a bit lame, but ear plugs are really fucking important. In fact, they’re now one of the most important pieces of equipment that I have. Hearing damage is irreversible, so wearing earplugs on stage is a great way to prevent hearing loss. My girlfriend is actually an audiologist and gets proper angry at me if she finds out I haven’t worn my earplugs on stage! There’s a really helpful British Tinnitus Association campaign called Plug ’em which is trying to raise awareness for hearing loss and tinnitus and that’s worth having a look at if you want to find out more about ear plugs and such. The other reason I need them is because our drummer is the loudest snorer in the world. No joking. He will keep us all up at night and they say after we will all be shattered. When this happens for a few nights in a row you start to lose a sense of reality. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP. If someone in your band snores then you will literally become dependent on earplugs.

4. Bring a football (American translation: soccer ball)
In our band we love football, so any chance we get to have a kick around we take it. I think we’re on our third football now because our manager keeps volleying it over walls and fences. After a long journey, I like to kick the footy around for about half an hour. During the day we don’t get many opportunities to move around a lot so it’s a nice way to relax and kill some time. Plus, you never know who’s watching. Jurgen Klopp once saw us playing heads and volleys and offered me a professional contract on the spot, but had to turn it down because I’m saving myself for Soccer Aid.

5. Travelodge Cheat
When the budget is tight for touring which it is for us at the moment. It’s very rare we get 2 rooms between the 5 of us. Sooo our TM books the one Family Room from Travelodge and asks for the 2 pullout beds to be made up. Obviously, all 5 of us can’t just stroll in the Travelodge as you’re only technically allowed 3 people per room. So 3 check in and the other 2 wait in the van until they get the key cards. They either throw the key out of the window and the other 2 waltz in or just tell them the room number. The only downside is that we have to sleep 3 in the double but we’re all good mates so it’s not too awkward! This really does save a lot of money and allows you to do other things with it…

Also handy in the Travelodge is a laptop loaded with good shows (As I said on #1) and an HDMI cable to hook it up to the TV. JUSTEAT (food ordering service) is also handy, and if you can’t manage all that pizza on the night then just get a hairdryer from reception and heat it up in the morning! :)

Keep up with the band on Facebook and Twitter!

(Photo credit: Trust a Fox Photography)