Dave McWane from Big D & The Kids Table has taken the time to write out a statement explaining the reasoning behind the recent cancellation of their UK/European tour, check it out below and we hope they can get back over here soon!
“To put it simply – we just couldn’t afford to lose thousands of dollars again.
Big D is not a fortunate punk band like many of the big names we all know. I wish we were; that’d be great. The reason Big D couldn’t go to England/Europe is this…
…About 5-6 years ago Big D was in major, major debt; 5 figures worth. From vans breaking down, the replacement van breaking down, our trailer breaking down, the replacement trailer breaking down and then having to rent and buy even more replacements. I thought we were hexed. Together, we all worked really hard and brought our high 5-figure debt down to a less scary high 5-figure debt. Remember, that’s playing free for years and years. Around the fall of last year we had a tour booked in England/Europe but I got news, 7 days before leaving, that I had a large lump in my throat. Half the band said we should stay home and cancel the tour, while some of us, including myself, didn’t want to hurt our booking agent or the promoters – so we went. Seven days into that tour I found out at 3AM on my birthday that the lump in my throat was cancer around my thyroid. There was more cancer than the doctor was comfortable with so he suggested I come home. We were gutted. But we had tried to make good. That move of flying home added an 11K dept to our already high debt.
While home, I felt I had wronged people by having to go home. It bothered me. So our booking agent and I attempted to rebook the tour. I needed to fix it, because I didn’t know how much our move of leaving the tour messed with promoter’s personal income. So the tour in question began to be investigated. When booking a tour – you have to get guarantees and compare them to – plane ticket costs, van costs, renting gear, driver costs, places to sleep, gas and much more. As we gathered the guarantees from the promoters (mind you…that isn’t booking a tour, it’s investigating to see if the tour is even possible) it was economically close, so our booking agent and I kept trying. But Big D is not a fortunate punk band like many of the big names we know and even with trying our best, the tour would have made us lose thousands of dollars. Just so you know, very often Big D goes on tours where we lose money (unfortunately), but to everyone who has ever been in a band or been in large debt – we simply can’t afford it anymore. Honest.
So I believe the word ‘cancelled’ almost suggests we were pompous. When you go into a pub in hopes to by a pint and then realize you don’t have enough money to – I guess you could say you ‘cancelled’ buying a pint. But it’s more just someone’s poor unfortunate economic situation.
It just so happened that around the same time frame, Reel Big Fish offered us a tour, which will pay us an amount that we can put toward our massive bank debt. We needed that kind of news; we are so happy they reached out to us.
In closing, Big D does not look at going to England/Europe as anything but extremely lucky for us. Not many American’s can ever afford such a trip. We appreciate those who book us and appreciate those who show up to the shows more than I can express. Our listeners are some of the best people I’ve met.
If you know me then you know that I’ll keep trying. And maybe some day we can play shows there again. I hope. Our booking agent is great, all the promoters are amazing to even think of us…we are what we are, and that’s a band that tries really hard, loves music, loves the scene, and loves playing shows – but can never reach that comfort threshold of fortunate punk bands.
– David McWane”