Next week UK rock outfit Milestones take to the road with WSTR for a series of shows in support of their debut EP Equal Measures. We caught up with vocalist Matt Clarke to find out his touring essentials, outrageous moments and more.
Favourite thing about touring:
I think it depends on each tour. When we’ve never been to the city it’s quite often the idea of going to a new place and playing in front of new people. When we’ve been to a city before, it usually shows through how many people are singing back, so they are always fun as well. The best shows are the one’s when we’ve never been to a city or rarely play, and a load of people are singing along!
Least favourite thing about touring:
I’d say probably when shows have poor turnouts. The drives can be hard, the food can be bad and the sleep is the worst thing of all, so when you’re literally putting your body, mind and soul into everything day after day, to turn up to a show and have close to no one there can be demoralising! But we often challenge ourselves in these circumstances and I think we make the most of bad situations!
Five essentials for the road:
– Fruit
– Internet
– A bin in the van
– Spotify
– A designated “voice of reason” each day
Your favourite way to pass the time:
I use my time to write demos, send emails, book tours and just chat with people. I’ve found a love for a load of new music including K-Pop haha! There’s a lot of time but not much to do so you’ve just got to let each other decide what’s playing/what’s going on and quite often you end up liking what someone else feels like doing!
“The Most”
Memorable moment:
I’d say travelling to Eindhoven. The drive sucked and we originally hoped to have a couple other shows but we wanted to still play so we drove there just for 1 show, and back, just after coming off 2 long UK tours and being in the studio.. It was kind of weird but there were loads of kids singing back to us and a load others who loved us even though they’d never heard of us. We gained a lot of fans that day and had a lot of fun.
Hilarious moment:
Hm, this one time in Leeds we walked around the city centre and there was a Ribena mini-golf promotional pop up stand. We had a go and Drew got a little excited and decided to full-swing it and it hit the rep…that was hilarious (but only because she laughed too!)
Embarrassing moment:
We once had a dildo thrown at us on stage when 2 people turned up…most of the support band’s members had left too!
Outrageous moment:
I superglued my hand to Crilly’s (Ashes To Angels) pubes once. That was fun, I have hairier hands now.
Drunken moment:
There are a few of these but it’s a case of either “we can’t remember”, “you had to be there” or “we can show you via video better than we can tell you”
Rewarding moment:
I’d say airplay on BBC Radio 1 was my favourite thing ever!
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Milestones head out on tour later this month with WSTR, catch them at one of the following dates:
October
Mon 24th – DUNDEE – Buskers
Tue 25th – EDINBURGH – Opium
Wed 26th – YORK – Fibbers
Thu 27th – SHEFFIELD – O2 Academy 2
Sat 29th – STOKE – Underground
Mon 31st – LIVERPOOL – O2 Academy 2
November
Tue 1st – LEICESTER – Scholar
Wed 2nd – LONDON – The Assembly
Thu 3rd – CARDIFF – Clwn Ifor Bach
Fri 4th – PLYMOUTH – Underground
Sat 5th – BOURNEMOUTH – Anvil
