- Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
TOK on stage at the Smirnoff Experience 'Party With The Stars'show, held at the Palisadoes Go-Kart Track on Friday December 23, 2005.

Teino Evans, Staff Reporter

Unlike those performers who travel overseas for a couple shows or club performances, some artistes will explain that a tour is really much more than that.

Voicemail's Kevin says, "When some people seh dem guh pon tour dem guh pon a two show or guh two places, like dem wi guh perform two places in New York and do a one show in Miami, but to we that is not a tour. Like we, when wi guh like all Japan, wi guh like seven, eight cities, a tour dat. Man like Beenie Man, Elephant Man, Sean Paul, Yellowman, dem man deh gone all a two month, two, three weeks, doing back-to-back shows, all 10, 15 shows, that is a tour".

Back-to-back tours

In relating one of Voicemail's recent tours in Japan, Kevin says, "It was two weeks and we performed across seven cities. The shows were all back-to-back and sometimes wi manage to get in some promotions in between, but more time a jus a one day rest wi get".

Kevin says contrary to what many believe, "The funny thing about tours is that although artistes get fi travel the world, you don't really get a chance to go anywhere yuh guh, because wi always on the move an when you do get some time fi yuhself yuh jus waan sleep an mek yuh body recuperate fi di next show".

The group was scheduled to leave the island in late July for New York to do their album release party, then from there on to places like Connecticut, Detroit and Washington D.C. doing album promotions, interviews and some in-store appearances to sign autographs.

"There is another tour lining up for Japan for the end of August or September; dem a line up a U.S. tour as well. The Japan one should be extended this time, but wi not really sure how long the U.S. tour will be because we still finalising some shows," Kevin said.

T.O.K's Flexx says when on tour, proper rest is a luxury they cannot afford and especially when album promotions are involved, the schedule is always hectic.

Driving day

"More time the only time wi get fi rest is on wi day off and that a not even day off, a wi driving day dat weh wi really haffi drive from one country to another and that drive would a end up like all 15 hours. We did a Europe tour once (Portugal, Italy, Germany, Holland, Spain, Luxemburg) and one of the nights we had two shows in France on the same night. After performing we drove to the airport and left for a show in Miami for Power 96 and then wi fly back to Europe to finish off the European tour," Flexx said.

Flexx says T.O.K. has made a conscious effort to have shorter tours, saying, "At first we use to gone for a longer time, like all three, four weeks at a time, but wi try to keep it at two weeks because wi want to maintain a presence on the local market as well."

In any case, whether artistes tour for two weeks or two months, the general consensus is that it is indeed a hectic period and performers have to ensure that they are equal to the task.

Ray Alexander, who is a publicist and booking agent for artistes like CeCile and Macka Diamond, says "Touring is one of the hardest things an artiste has to do".

"It's very rough. Sometimes some tours work out and others fall apart. It can be irritating, artistes can't get along with artistes and promoters back out. It's very hackling sometimes. Macka did a three-week tour of the U.S. and it was bare driving, from one corner of the U.S. to the next and she ended up doing five to six shows per week," Alexander said.

Ppromotions

According to Alexander, going on tour does not mean you are making money but, in fact, "Some artistes do tours to promote themselves and some artistes do tours promoting their album, and normally when you do a one show for a promoter an get US$8,000. When you do a tour you would get the same, but that is weekly. You don't make money from tours. Is mainly promotion and if it goes well, the returns will come in the form of album sales and call-backs for shows and that is when the artistes can charge the real money".

"I give nuff respect to like Sean Paul and Shaggy who do a lot of tours for little or no money just to promote even a single and now it's paying off big time," Alexander said.