about live tour dates

I started 'live tour dates' some years ago after having missed some gigs I really would have wanted to see. I only found out about the gigs some days later - and I started wondering, why there is not a list of all the live appearances of all my favourite bands that would remind me of all those precious tour dates.

Since there was not such a list available at that time, I took some time 'after work' and tinkered my first tour dates database over at my 'homepage' tillintallin.net.

The database grew and pretty soon it was too small for my demands and had to be redesigned. I ordered this domain name 'livetourdates.org', upgraded the database, glued together some rough first layout and finally in January 2005 everything moved to its own webspace with its very own dedicated MySQL database.

In June 2007 I launched the first real redesign. Actually I would prefer to call it a rebrush - since it still used the same structure, the same database and everything else that was already there - I just moved everything to a more 'sophisticated' layout - the engine and the database behind it was still the same.

In August 2008 i finally also redesigned the engine of the tour dates database. I gave up my previous D.I.Y.-structure and instead moved everything to Drupal - which brought greater changes and cost more time than I first expected. I had to delay the moving process - for over three months the news archive was inclomplete, and the venue-pages are still not in the desired state due to the shear amount of pages, information and links that need to be moved to the new system.. At least finally in November 2008 I saw some light at the end of the 'moving tunnel'..:]

Ah yes - maybe some more technical details for those who are into that dry stuff: some words about the structure and the engine and the database behind it: livetourdate.org runs on a combination of drupal and a bunch of handcrafted scripts..:] ..to be continued..

Of course this is not the first band directory, not the only database powered page listing tour dates - and it probably won't be the last. But over here at livetourdates I try a different approach and focus on what we think whould be in the focus: the artist/ the band/ the booking agency. Beeing a trumpet player myself I can now look back on some thirty years of stage experience - if I also count in the early years. That's basically my personal background and motivation to do things a little bit differently from other more fan-focussed platforms. I have nothing agains these other services - what would the web and the music business be without them..?! ..but I do believe in a more band-, label- and agency-centric point of view - and that's why livetourdates.org is like it is..:]

Now maybe just some words about the future plans: livetourdates will soon be transformed into an open platform for bands, booking agencies and small record labels. If you're interested in taking part in the testing process, or if you would already toda submit your tour dates to the database please let me know..

Ah - and maybe one more thing: livetourdates.org still is very much in beta - I sometimes try out new functions -live- which might sometimes resolve in malfunctions and/or might look a bit strange.. Please don't be bugged if there's still some bugs in the system..:]

And if you would like to sponsor livetourdates: the best way would be to book advertisement space and time - please feel free to get in contact so we can negotiate the details..

greetz, t..