This blog is written by Mary-Jess. British soprano, winner of the Chinese ‘X Factor’, official Downton Abbey Songstress and representative of British music in 144 countries as part of the UK Government’s GREAT Britain campaign.
The G4 tour is in full swing!
So far we’ve been to Oxford, Gravesend, Torquay, Weymouth, Crewe and now we’re parked at Dunstable ready for the concert tonight.
I love being on tour!
Here’s a few reasons why:
- You get to have a nice lie-in, mainly because you’re in such close proximity to other people on the bus that if you set an alarm it’ll wake everyone up! But also because you’ve had your dinner at 11pm and not gone to bed until 1am, and that’s an early bed time!
- You get to sing nearly everyday for really lovely audiences.
- You can talk to other music industry professionals who share and understand your experiences and feelings about the industry. Plus you get to chat about very exciting ideas of what we can all get up to next!
- You wake up in new places everyday
- It gives you lots of great ways to create content for social media, which then means you get to have lots of great conversations with your fans and supporters on social media.
‘Virtual Backstage Pass’
A good example of this last point is my ‘Virtual Backstage Pass’ concept. These are Facebook Live videos where I can show you things that you’d only normally see with an AAA pass! So I go live on Facebook, chat about the day and show you around, and then later on I edit the live content for YouTube so that I can share it with you on all my other social media channels. Here are a few examples:
Your first virtual backstage pass from the first date of the G4 tour in Oxford! Join Mary-Jess backstage as she shows you what only AAA pass holders can see!
Here's your virtual backstage pass from the second date of the G4 tour in Gravesend! Join Mary-Jess backstage as she shows you what only AAA pass holders can see!
Here's your virtual backstage pass from the fourth date of the G4 tour in Weymouth! Join Mary-Jess backstage as she shows you what only AAA pass holders can see!
What do you think? Is there anything you’d like to see or anything you’d like to know about touring? Comment below and I’ll try my best to sort it out for you, then like my Facebook page so that don't miss out on the live broadcasts!
Also, if you haven’t seen my pre-tour blog about G4 yet then you can check it out here.
Packing For Tour:
There are a couple of things I like to remember when I’m on tour, and they've all come in handy this week! The first is a pair of plastic flip-flops. These are important to me, as you never know what the showers are like at the venues. It’s not like a hotel where you get a nice fluffy white towel and a bath mat to step out on to! None of that luxury my friend! So having plastic flip-flops means that your feet stay clean in and outside of the shower. A quick dry towel is a good shout as well.
Other essentials:
- A travel mug so you can make a cup of tea on the tour bus and take it in to the venue and it’ll stay warm for longer.
- Honey! Local honey from local farms where they look after their bees! None of this 'blend of EU and non EU honey' crap. That’s not good for the bees!
- A good amount of data on your phone for social media stuff.
Big milestones!!
Talking of social media, we reached a huge milestone of 4000 likes on my Facebook page this week! So thank you to everyone who likes my page! My Twitter account is closing in on 10,000 followers, so if you haven’t yet please do go over to my Twitter page and follow me on there. Let’s see who follower number 10,000 will be!
Thank you very much for reading this blog post! As I said above if you’d like to see something or if you'd like to know something about touring and about this tour with G4, comment below and I’ll try my best to sort it out for you!
Shine on,
Mary-Jess
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