Any band’s super fans will tell you it’s their dream to follow their favourite artist on an entire tour. Too often though it feels exactly like that, a dream. This wasn’t the case for Biffy Clyro super fans Rob Kellas and Jake Varley of TPD TV though. The pair from Leeds saw every night on Biffy Clyro’s most recent ‘Fingers Crossed’ tour.
Not only did the pair see all six Biffy Clyro dates, everywhere from Liverpool to Cambridge, they also managed to squeeze in four dates of Don Broco’s tour before and in-between. This incredible feat formed eight separate gigs within just under a week and a half. It sounds like absolute heaven for music fans but is it achievable, just how much would this realistically cost you?
Luckily enough, Rob broke down the entire spending of the tour and included it all in a spreadsheet he was kind enough to send me. He guessed that the tour could probably be done for half of what they spent. Yet, the nights out after the show were a “killer” and the pair wanted to party across the country.
The tour comes to a total value of £3396.85
Rob estimates that everything they spent was included bar “potentially £100 – £150” of Ubers. As music fans this gives us a realistic value of how much it would cost to follow your favourite band on a six-night tour whilst going all out. This also brings up some fascinating questions.
Primarily it’s general spending on food and alcohol, that Rob mentioned, that blew up the price of the tour for them. Leading to a rough cost of just above £1500 in general for a week to go all out. At first this seems like a huge amount, but reducing the amounts of nights out or seeing a smaller band than the powerhouses that are Biffy Clyro would make this entirely possible for many music fans. Especially for a once in a lifetime celebration or when replacing a standard holiday abroad.
With such a steep price I had to ask Rob why he chose Biffy Clyro specifically? “Biffy Clyro really helped us going through the tough time of lockdown. We spent all those months soundtracked to Biffy. Both of us were counting down the days till this tour and when it got postponed, we were gutted. We wanted to do it right by the time it came around and maximise our opportunity to see the best band in the world.”
Don Broco are clearly also a special band to Jake and Rob “Broco are also one of our favourite bands who we’ve followed up the ranks from tiny venues up to arenas. It only made sense that given the couple of days off from the biffy tour that we filled them in with the guaranteed good time that is a Don Broco show”
With a response like that the pair had almost answered my next question already, would you do it again?
“I’d do it again tomorrow for twice as long”
Rob states, even comparing the tour to a trip around Europe the boys filmed for an upcoming vlog stating that it was “even more fun”.
TPD TV are music fans through and through. More than a simple YouTube channel they connect music lovers through their Facebook group the Sanpelly Squad. Comically named after the popular Spanish drink San Pellegrino. Now not all music fans form part of a YouTube channel that covers a vast number of gigs and festivals each year but I certainly feel as though we can all aim for what Rob and Jake have achieved here.
If you ever get a chance to follow an entire tour, do it! I’ve been told you wont regret it!
