Whenever you see newish bands that haven’t quite got to the top of the charts yet you will almost always spot a small van outside of the gig that will contain both the band and all of their equipment. How important is the van to the group?

Dogs were thrown out in the early days of touring as the van became the best friend to many groups simply because they are cheap and easy to run. The bigger bands are often seen in the gigantic tour buses for one reason, they have the money or sponorship deals to be able to do it. A lot of the smaller groups are not able to gain access to the big tour buses because sponsors are only interested in making a return from their investment.

A lot of the time the van will be provided to the band by a member of one of the families or they will chip in towards the cost. Once again is can be very difficult to buy a van outright even if there are three or more people paying for it so more often than not bands will look into van lease because it works out cheaper.

The band then have any damages or accidents covered too so they do not have to take out any extra things they do not need like the band that took out pick up truck leasing just to cover them if the worst case scenario happened.

Although cheap van leasing is likely to be the best option for your band, it is also possible to get a van to run on vegetable oil which of course will save the band on fuel costs. The only real problem with this is that you need a trailer full of the stuff to keep you going for the duration of the tour.

Filed under: Piano by Markley
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