Stillia – CRAZY TOUR STORIES

In this Crazy Tour Stories segment, the indie rock band, Stillia, talk about some of their crazy moments from touring. You can check out the feature, after the break.

When we started seriously playing shows and actually trying to get to get somewhere with our music we were kindly given a Ford Transit van for free that has been our mode of transportation and second home for the past 2 years. Numerous hours have been spent on it, turning it into a mini tour bus in which there are compartments for our equipment and 4 bunk beds for when we need to get our head down. We’ve traveled hundreds of miles in this van and will continue to do so till it packs in.

We remember one gig we played at a small bar in Knutsford (Just outside Manchester, UK) and on the way down to the gig the van just decided to give up on us and the turbo went on it. We had no other way of getting to the venue so we drove through the tiny streets of Knutsford with clouds of black smoke shooting out of the exhaust. Because we didn’t want to not make it to the gig (or stop!) we continued going and cars were having to pull over because their view had completely gone from all this smoke that was gushing out of our van. The venue was at the bottom of a hill and just before we got there the van completely packed up and we had to roll it down the hill before applying the handbrake as we reached the venue doors. After the show finished we had to ring around for someone to tow us back to St Helens, it was eventful.

When it was just too cold for us to stay in the van in the winter we scraped up enough money to get us into whatever hotel we could. Most of the time we only had enough money for one room which meant two of us sneaking up after the others had checked in. with there being only one bed that meant someone was on the floor and someone was in the bath! but as long as we get a few hours kip it’s all good and back to it the next day. We had our fair share of getting thrown out of hotel rooms, we wouldn’t change anything, though, it all bring its own adventures!

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