A Day In The Life Of The Supertones ...A Rock And Pop Function Band For Hire!

Getting up and getting ready to leave

At 9.00 am (okay, slight exaggeration) its wake up, mocha-grande, and straight into the office to dot the I’s and cross the T’s. This T-crossing involves checking and printing tonight’s set, going on Facebook, firing up AA traffic report, going on Facebook, arranging pick up plans with the guys, and for tonight’s show in London, buying the rip-off charge (aka congestion charge). After that, it’s off to the dry cleaners to pick up the stage clothes. Tonight is a young crowd, so we’re dressing edgy!

Meet up / Load van

Our kit is starting to exceed our van space, so a game of real life Tetris is a must. Rory seems to be the don at this, so he gets to wait at the van doors, while us labourers haul the gear from lock-up to load up. We always leave a bit early for gigs to keep our 100% “never-been-late” record in tact.

Travel / Navigation

Gone are the days of Rory wrestling with gigantic maps in the passenger seat. We use the trusty iPhone sat nav. It isn’t always so trusty, so we have Glen’s old-school sat nav as a back-up.

Eating on the road/service station living

Usually we will only settle for Michelin star restaurants on the road, but they can be quite hard to find on motorways. As a substitute, we eat at Little Chef for roughly the same price.

Arrival at venue/liaising with venue staff

Upon arrival we check-in with reception and on this occasion are issued with a VIP pass. (Okay, so it’s an access pass, but VIP sounds a lot better.)

On a serious note, we discuss with the venue how, when and where to set-up and alter our schedule to fit with any delays in speeches etc.

Today we are at The Globe Theatre in London, and it looks amazing!

Set up and sound check

Its game-face time, and all of the banter goes out of the window at this point. We set up our extensive 3400w PA and our lighting rig in approx 45mins.

That leaves 15mins for a bit of “one two, one two”. We always sound check on the same songs so that we can judge the room acoustics and EQ in some changes to get it sounding polished.

Sound check completed and we are ready to rock! We mute our desk, and put on a bit of soothing arrival music.

Dressing room/waiting around

During this time we usually grab a bite, tell rubbish jokes to each other, perform embarrassing vocal warm-ups and discuss new song ideas. Occasionally, we practice our harmonies, but we keep getting caught by venue staff who find it hilarious. On this occasion, we are treated with a fabulous 3 course meal. We wash it down with a straight Red Bull on the rocks!

First performance

It’s that time that we have all been waiting for, and despite playing hundreds of shows, we still look forward to every one. We usually roll out the first dance, and strategically follow with some classic rock tracks to keep people up and dancing.

This being a university party, we hit them hard with “Somebody Told Me” as an opener. They loved it!

Buffet/break

During our break, we stock pile on water ready for the second set. We grabaseat somewhere and take a breather. We are usually approached by audience members, who we encourage to join us and have a chat.

Second performance

The second performance is when we turn up the heat. This is a university ball and with that in mind we target the younger audience members with some up tempo gems from the likes of The Killers, The Fratellis, Arctic Monkeys and Bon Jovi.

It goes down a storm, and the crowd chant for more after our last song. We all look at each other, and nod the “triple encore” signal. It rocks!

Chatting to guests after the show

We always carry our business cards, and have a little wager amongst ourselves on how many we will hand out at the end of the show. I picked 6 this week, but Maas won the wager with 8. I’m sure he rigged it!

Packing down

Packing down isn’t great fun, but we are usually in conversation with a few audience members as we pack down, so it isn’t as grueling as it might be. We change back into our “street” clothes before we pack down. Our shows are quite high intensity, so we need to get out of our stage clothes pronto. We pack down neatly to make it easier when we unload for tomorrows show in Oxford.

Drive home

Driving home can be a drag sometimes, but it feels good knowing you’re on your way home after a good solid gig. Our goal is to leave clients feeling 100% happy with their choice in booking us, and knowing that we achieved that makes the drive home all the easier.