My first EVER tour!
Massive goal ticked off my list! Tour was an amazing experience & definitely reassured me this is what I want to spend my life doing.
DAY 1: I travelled to the first stop (Manchester) solo from Leeds (it's a yearly tradition that I go to Leeds Carnival to visit family etc & I've done so since a kid). Google Maps helped me trek over to our hotel for the night & it's a good thing I packed lightly.
I was one of the first to arrive with Ashley (my keys player) already there amongst 1 or 2 other artist. The lobby slowly became full with music equipment luggage & artist. Everyone seemed lovely & I was hoping my lack of sleep didn't come across as grouchy so I tried to over compensate with conversation.
After checking in, grabbing some food (luckily we were across the road from the Arndale), & freshening up we headed over to the venue. I opted to walk over with a few others since the 2nd car was stuck in traffic & I didn't have equipment to lug about for the show.
The Night & Day Cafe was a dope & qwerty venue. Waiting about for the show to start went by fairly quickly & the crowd was very welcoming (pretty sure this was my first time performing in Manchester).
Day 2:
I made sure I prepped everything from clothes to my suitcase for the next day as I knew it would be a long one.
I'd been contacted a few weeks beforehand asking to record a video for CBBC- encouraging young kids to be themselves when going back to school in September. Luckily the Manchester date fell in line with their recording schedule. I was picked up by a production member & brought to a disused school used for many of CBBC's shows. After hair & makeup we were brought to the front of the school yard to start shooting. Recording went pretty smooth (other than a pesky bee that kept coming for us ... yellow probably didn't help) . I got some lunch with the production team ( we ate in the school cafeteria which was a blast from the past lol) before the tour bus came & collected me. Off to Liverpool!
Was possibly the nicest hotel room of the tour! But sadly it was another quick check in, freshen up & back out to sound check.