We are told that flying is one of the safest ways to travel, yet since 2001 many people have taken to the roads, preferring to travel by car and bus instead. However, for most musicians at touring level, the only way to travel is by bus or van, until that paycheck comes in and a private jet is ordered!

 At the end of 2009 there were two newsworthy crashes involving tour buses; Miley Cyrus and Weezer. Whilst the artists weren’t seriously injured, there were fatalities. So, are tour buses any safer now than back in the day of Cliff Burton?

Metallica’s tour bus   Probably the most famous, or well known tour bus crash fatality is the aforementioned Cliff Burton of Metallica. On September 27^th 1986 their tour bus skidded off the road and Cliff was thrown out of the window and under the bus, which fell on top of him.  Two years earlier on 11^th December 1984, Eurovision favourites Bucks Fizz were travelling back from a show in Newcastle when their bus collided with roadworks and crashed. All members were seriously injured. Buck's Fizz tour bus

More recently we’ve had The Roots involved in a crash in 2008. They crashed with another van and ended up doing a 360 on the highway. Luckily nobody was seriously injured.

The Roots’ tour bus

At the end of 2009 there was a spate of accidents where a bus carrying Britney Spears’ equipment flipped off the road in high winds, Miley Cyrus’ bus overturned on a main road (neither artists were travelling on the buses at the time) and Weezer cancelled their tour after their bus skidded off an icy New York road. Sadly there was one fatality on the Miley Cyrus bus.                                       

There was another tragic crash in 2007 that took two lives, which may make you think about what you name your band and who you take on tour.  The Red Shore were on tour with All Shall Perish in Australia on the Christmas Carnage tour when their bus veered off the road. Would you believe, All Shall Perish were not involved in the crash.

However, it seems buses and planes go hand in hand with famous musician fatalities. In 1959 Buddy Holly embarked on a three week tour with Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson. Due to a faulty tour bus, they chartered a private plane to take them to their next show. Soon after taking off, the plane crashed. Randy Rhoads,  guitarist for Ozzy Osboure, was talked into taking a ride on a light aircraft when their bus stopped on an airstrip in Florida. The pilot flew too close to the bus, trying to wake up sleeping members of the band on the bus, and crashed into the bus, killing Randy.

On a less tragic, yet equally dangerous note. Florence and the Machine lost all their equipment when the trailer which their tour bus was towing, caught fire on the motorway. No one was injured yet they lost all the gear and merchandise for the tour.

So please be careful on the roads out there…..make sure you use a reputable company, that you're driver sticks to his designated hours and that you are all insured.

Developers are taking a more professional view when it comes to producing apps for the iPhone. Moving on from the “impress your mates in the pub by playing guitar on your phone” apps to more useful tools such as remotely controlling control surface from your phone. A few examples of some useful apps are below.

ProRemote

The World’s first professional touch sensitive control surface that fits in the palm of your hand providing users with 32 channels of remote control with real-time color metering and 40mm touch sensitive virtual faders. Up to 8 faders can be controlled simultaneously.

Check out these red quilted Kustom speakers on current episode of Glee on the telly, just like the New York Dolls had in the70s....

Well done to LairyClaire for winning our competition mainly due to the fact that she's resurrected Dodgy!  We liked the eclectic mix although we were torn on the Noisettes - we love them and Shingai is one of the nicest performers that we have come across, but they have toured an awful lot of late.

Obviously there is no right or wrong answer but we think we would have gone with a "Lillith Fair" vibe, nicked from the americans where a group of female folky performers tour together. There are some really good female performers around. Rule of thumb is to spend 50-60 percent of your receipts on talent (and don't forget to deduct the VAT) so we would go with a selection of the following:- Imogen Heap, Amy McDonald, Paloma Faith, Ellie Goulding, Marina and the Diamonds and Beth Jeans Horton so there is a mix of established, upcoming and new (with accordant price tags) but with an overall folky/theatrical theme.

LairyClaire gets tickets to see one of our suggested headliners, Imogen Heap at Shepherds Bush next week plus other goodies as her prize.

To see full competition details and Lady Claire's answers click here

More competitions to follow.

“ An inspirational picture for all you young sound engineers out there, Bill Hanley mixing Woodstock in 1969. From all accounts it sounded good too!'