My story
Who is Charles?
For over twenty years I have lived between two worlds, lines of code in the morning, a tour bus at night. Here I share my path, why I wanted to build Charles Tour, and above all who this tool is for.
By day I wrote code, designed software, and worked on systems built to handle millions of users.
By evening I climbed into a tour bus.
I have been a musician, guitar tech, bass tech, tour manager, developer, sometimes several of those at once. I have always lived that way.
Two worlds
One foot in tech. One foot on the road.
Over time I took part in around fifty tours across Europe. Like everyone in this line of work, I learned a simple truth: the music is often the easy part. Everything else is hard.
Everything else
A tour often starts months before the first show. At the beginning it fits in a few emails. Then information piles up.
One promoter sends schedules. Another changes catering. The hotel confirms ten rooms. The airline moves a flight. The driver must respect driving hours. A new document arrives. Then another. Then another.
Suddenly the volume of information becomes exponential.
- Hotels.
- Flights.
- Promoters.
- Last-minute changes.
- Miles, schedules, surprises.
Buried in the inbox
I remember that feeling perfectly. You wake at six in the morning, open your inbox, and realize that critical information sent three days ago is already buried under dozens of other messages, confirmations, newsletters, ads, bookings, forwards.
You know the information exists. You know it is somewhere. But you no longer know where. And while you search, pressure builds.
On tour, forgetting something is never trivial. A mistake can have very concrete consequences.
The wrong venue
One day, after several weeks on the road and far too little sleep, I sent our tour bus to the wrong venue. Yes, the wrong venue. The bus arrived. The gear too. Only then did I understand my mistake.
The actual venue was elsewhere and needed a crossload. We had to find a van urgently, move the equipment, and rebuild the whole day. In the moment nobody finds it funny. With hindsight it becomes a good story.
But that day reminded me of something important: even experienced professionals make mistakes when mental load becomes too heavy.
« Even seasoned pros make mistakes when mental load gets too heavy. »
The old toolkit
For years I used the same tools as everyone else: Master Tour, Excel, Google Sheets, PDFs, hundreds of emails, folders full of documents.
Honestly, they get the job done. But they were never designed to absorb the reality of a modern tour.
So one day I asked myself: why do we still spend so much time retyping information that is already in our emails? Why is the most important data scattered across ten different tools? Why does running a tour still rely so much on human memory?
Charles Tour
A tool shaped on the road
That is where the idea for Charles Tour was born.
Charles Tour is named after Charles, a tour manager I have worked with for a long time. He has exceptional field experience. At first I simply wanted to build the tool we had always dreamed of.
A tool designed by people who live tours, not software imagined in a meeting room. Built from real problems encountered on the road.
The mission
The mission has not changed: save time, reduce mental load, and let teams focus on their craft instead of admin.
My dream is simple. One day organizing a tour should feel as natural as following GPS. Information will arrive automatically in the right place. Oversights will become rare. Conflicts will be spotted before they turn into crises.
And teams will put their energy where it truly matters: making the show happen.
For you
Whether it is your first tour or your fiftieth
You did not choose this job to spend your nights retyping flights or digging up a PDF buried in your inbox.
Charles Tour is here so admin takes up less room, and your energy stays where it counts: on stage, with the crew, on the road.
- First tour
- Musician
- Technician
- Tour manager