A few words I wrote about my friend Graham
“What exactly is a tour manager? Well, traditionally it’s a person who looks after the logistics of being a band on the road. They touch base with all the venues and promoters and engineers weeks ahead of the shows and they make all the necessary arrangements to make sure those shows are amazing. They organise and calculate every journey, book every flight, hire every rental, check every distance, every arrival time, every sound check, sort every hotel, every early check in, every late check out, pay every toll, every fine, check every set length, place every merch order, organise every repair, find every lost bag, replace every broken wind screen, calm every upset band member, diffuse every back stage fight, moderate every back stage party. They manage, juggle and spin all these plates and many, many more all at once and silently keep the whole thing well oiled and running smoothly, and if they do their job well you don’t even notice they’re doing it, sounds like a lot of work right? Well, like we said this is the traditional role of what a tour manager does, but for the tour manager that has looked after ASIWYFA for the past 6 years, whom many of you will have seen in the shadows of our shows, all this stuff is only the tip of the iceberg. Graham Smith has been part of our story from the very first European tour the band ever did, he has gone from a guy we asked to take some photographs of the band, to our merch seller, to our tour manager, to our best friend and a lynch pin in the very inner workings of our band. He has shared every monumental high and every shattering low with us for the past 6 years, he saw us play tours to no one and sleep upright in rickety vans and he lit our way to stage in the Olympia Theatre this year. He’s been the first face we’ve seen after every show to say well played and give us a hug, he invested a constant and dependable stream of passion into our band and we are forever grateful. And so it’s with a sad heart, a life time of memories, a thousand wonderful photographs and a standing ovation we say Sláinte to our comrade as he moves into a new chapter of his life. To our friend graham, we salute you. The Rook is always with us. All our love.”