Long Distance Calling – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, bassist Jan Hoffmann, of the progressive rock band, Long Distance Calling, talks about some of their crazy moments from touring. You can check out the feature, after the break.

Well, what can I say? We are on the road since 10 years now and of course of lot crazy stuff happened over all these years.

One of my “favorite“ stories goes like this: I was driving to Münster (where the band is based) to meet up with the boys for our German tour supporting DREDG, I think this was in 2008. When I was just on the train I got a phone call from our drummer who told me that our van (that was already packed with all the gear the night before) was gone. Gone. With all our equipment in it. We then found out that one of our guitar players managed to park the van overnight half on a disabled parking space and a half on a bus stop so OF COURSE the van towed away the next morning which left us without a van or equipment or anything. So he called the company who towed away the van to release the van, this was out of town so he went there by bike. When he arrived he realized that he forgot the van keys so he had to call his girlfriend, who brought the keys using a cab. I guess this was a pretty expensive day.

On the last day of this tour, we almost didn´t make it because we came into a police control in southern Germany. Because we were a band, they, of course, searched EVERYTHING we had in the van for trucks, they even look into our pants (haha!!) and socks but didn´t find anything of course besides balls, dicks, and stinky toes. This took us several hours and we made it to the venue last minute and managed to set up our gear and did a line check within 10 minutes so we could start our set in time.

On another tour with Junius and Wolves Like Us, we had a breakdown of the nightliner during a drive through a tunnel in Munich.

One of the tires exploded in the tunnel at 5 in the morning so you can imagine how this sounded…everyone was awake immediately and of course everyone in the bus had to step out to see what happened. That exploded tire caused more damage so we had to give up this bus and wait for a replacement for our way to Vienna in Austria. There was no chance to get another nightliner available at that time so we had to check alternatives. The alternative was a regular public service vehicle. Imagine three bands with all their backline and stuff sitting in a regular public service vehicle for a 400 km ride, all tired as hell and drunk, the bus driver was having the time of his life. In the end, we made it and had a great show in Vienna but touring is always an adventure.

On our tour with Solstafir, we played in Leipzig and we had a great show and night there. When we left for the next show in Prague we realized that one of us was missing in the travel party but we had to leave to make it to Prague in time. So during the drive, we tried to call the guy (I won´t put a name here, haha) several times but his phone was off. Then after awhile he called back and said he was with a girl and slept at her place and didn´t wake up in time because he was so wasted from the after show party. So we had to wait at motorway stations somewhere in the deepest eastern-german landscape until he arrived there and our bus driver was reaaaaally pissed and of course, everyone else was laughing when this guy entered the bus again. Time flies.

Cheers
Jan

Keep up with the band on Facebook and Twitter! New album, TRIPS, out April 29th. CD & 2LP.

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