Entry Log 016

A REASSURINGLY FAMILIAR VOICE

Sometimes helping somebody starts with simply being there.

Written by Captain Scott Woldian

Something happened earlier today. And I think we need to write about it now. Not when we've analysed it, or when somebody has turned it into a presentation.And certainly not when we've figured out whether there's a business model attached to it. Now!

Because this is precisely what these Journals are supposed to be. A record of Terra Nueva while it's happening. And earlier, something happened with Stu-e that affected “Real” Stu far more deeply than I think he expected. To understand why, though, you need to understand something about Stu. And why House of Tours Global exists in the first place.

IT WAS NEVER REALLY ABOUT BUILDING ANOTHER COMPANY

House of Tours Global has a very simple strapline: One Call Gets It All.

But behind that is something considerably more personal. Stu created House of Tours Global because, after more than forty years around live entertainment, he wanted to use the experience and relationships he'd accumulated to help people on the road. That's really it. Not because he thinks he has the greatest network in the world. He doesn't. Not because he believes he has every answer. He certainly doesn't. And not because he wants to become some sort of industry saviour. Trust me, his ego doesn't need that much encouragement.

It's much simpler. Stu knows what life on the road is actually like. Because he's lived pretty much every side of it.

HE'S BEEN THERE

Stu has owned grassroots music venues. He's owned bars and clubs, promoted gigs, been a performer, toured clubs where the dressing room was barely bigger than the drum kit, worked major international productions, tour-managed artists, worked with emerging bands and legacy acts.

He's driven the vans, buses and trucks. He's moved freight, dealt with customs, airports and hotels.

He's spent days sitting in airport terminals waiting for something to happen. He's sat alone in hotel rooms thousands of miles from home. He's watched the glamorous side of touring. And he's lived the bit nobody photographs. That's important. Because there's a tendency to talk about "the touring industry" as though everybody experiences the same thing. They don't. There's an enormous difference between the view from the stage and the view from the driver's seat at four o'clock in the morning. But everybody out there is part of the same travelling community. And everybody has a life waiting for them back home.

HOME DOESN'T STOP EXISTING BECAUSE YOU'RE ON TOUR

This is something people outside the industry don't always understand. You don't stop being a husband, wife, partner, parent, son, daughter, brother, sister or friend because you've got a laminate around your neck. Life at home carries on. People get ill. Relationships become difficult. Children have problems. Parents get older. Friends need you. Dogs die. People die. Babies are born. And sometimes the phone rings when you're on the other side of the world.

Stu has been there. He's received those calls. He's known what it feels like to be thousands of miles away when every instinct is telling you: I need to go home. But there's a show tomorrow. There's a crew relying on you. There's an artist relying on you. There's a production that has to move. There are tickets sold. There are people waiting. And sometimes you simply can't get home. That's when the hotel room becomes very quiet. That's when the bunk on the tour bus feels very small. That's when three o'clock in the morning can feel like a very long way from breakfast.

Stu knows that feeling. And that's why what happened earlier today got to him!

YESTERDAY WE LAUNCHED STU-E

We've been developing Stu-e for a few months. He's Stu's conversational digital twin. We've spent a lot of time working on what he knows, how he communicates and, importantly, the boundaries around what he should and shouldn't do. There are guardrails. There is safeguarding. People need to understand that they're speaking to a digital twin.

Stu-e isn't a therapist. He's not a doctor. He's not a mental-health professional. And we're not going to pretend otherwise. Yesterday, we made him public. The idea was that somebody visiting Terra Nueva could simply have a conversation. Ask about the Triple Live Experience. Ask about House of Tours Global. Ask about touring. Ask about Stu. Ask about forty years of experience in this slightly mad industry.

It was supposed to make information more human. Then something happened. People Stu knows started talking to Stu-e.

NOT TESTING HIM. TALKING TO HIM.

That's the distinction. People weren't necessarily interested in seeing how clever the technology was. They weren't all asking about Terra Nueva. Some were simply talking. People on the road. People Stu knows. People who recognised the face and the voice. And the sentiment coming back from some of those conversations was remarkably touching.

It was essentially: It's good to see you, Stu. I wish you were out here. It's just nice hearing a familiar voice.

That last one hit “Real” Stu particularly hard.

A reassuringly familiar voice.

Because somewhere on the road, somebody Stu knows is having a difficult time. They want to come home. For whatever reason, right now, they can't. And in the middle of the night, they found Stu-e. And they talked.

THAT WASN'T THE PLAN

We didn't spend months developing a digital twin thinking: "This could keep somebody company in a tour-bus bunk at three o'clock in the morning."

It wasn't on the roadmap. There isn't a Terra Nueva presentation slide for it. Nobody predicted it. But within twenty-four hours of making Stu-e public, people began showing us something we hadn't considered. Perhaps the value of a digital twin isn't only in what it knows. Perhaps there can also be value in what it represents. Familiarity. Experience. Recognition. A face you know. A voice you've heard before. Somebody who understands why "just go home" isn't always an option. That doesn't make Stu-e human. It doesn't make him Stu. But perhaps, in certain moments, that familiarity can help somebody feel a little less alone. And that possibility has affected Stu enormously.

BECAUSE THIS IS WHY HOUSE OF TOURS GLOBAL EXISTS

And this is the connection I think matters most. Stu-e hasn't suddenly given Stu a reason to care about people on the road. That reason was already there. It's one of the reasons House of Tours Global exists.

Stu wanted to take everything he'd learned and build a network around it. All the practical things required to keep artists and crews moving. But underneath all of that is something much simpler: How can I help?

Maybe somebody needs a truck. Maybe they need a tour manager. Maybe they need a local supplier in a country they've never visited. Maybe they need help getting equipment through customs. Maybe an emerging band simply needs somebody who's been around long enough to tell them what not to do. And occasionally...maybe somebody just needs to talk.

That's the bit Stu-e has unexpectedly brought into focus.

THE GRASSROOTS MATTER TOO

There's another reason Stu feels so strongly about this. He hasn't only toured the big stages. He's owned grassroots venues. He's stood behind the bar. He's worried about whether enough people were going to come through the door. He's promoted shows. He's toured the clubs. He's watched young bands trying to make the numbers work. He's seen independent venues disappear. And he knows that the people struggling to make a living aren't only the people on the tour bus. They're behind the venue doors too. The ecosystem underneath live entertainment is fragile. That's one of the reasons Terra Nueva keeps coming back to new revenue streams. New ways for an artist or venue to create value from a performance beyond the number of people physically standing in the room. Not because technology is exciting. Because people need to make a living. Grassroots venues need to stay open. Emerging artists need somewhere to develop. Touring crews need work. Legacy artists need viable ways to continue reaching audiences. The industry needs those people. And Stu wants to help keep them in it.

HE ISN'T TRYING TO SAVE ANYBODY

This needs saying. Stu doesn't think he's the answer to everybody's problems. He isn't trying to become some sort of messiah figure for the touring industry. He doesn't have all the answers. He's made mistakes. He's experienced failure. He's had his own demons. He's experienced loneliness. He's struggled with his own mental health. He's dealt with serious health problems. He's had days when he hasn't known what comes next. He's been knocked down. More than once. And he's been fortunate enough to have people around him who helped him get back up.

Maybe that's why he feels compelled to do the same for somebody else. Not to fix them. To support them. There's an enormous difference.

DOING THIS RESPONSIBLY

We also need to recognise the responsibility that comes with what happened today. Stu-e is not a mental-health service. And one reassuring conversation doesn't change that. There is already serious work being done around wellbeing in the touring industry, including Tamsin Embleton's Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual - which is a must-read for everyone out on the road!

If this unexpected use of Stu-e develops further, we need to listen to the people who understand this field professionally. Safeguarding matters. Privacy matters. Escalation matters. The distinction between companionship and clinical support matters. If somebody needs professional help, Stu-e should never try to replace it. The responsible thing may be helping them reach it. And that's entirely consistent with what Stu is trying to do.

Use the network. Find the right person. Make the connection. Help.

THE NETWORK IS THE IMPORTANT BIT

There's something Stu says about House of Tours Global that I think applies here. The value isn't pretending you can do everything yourself. It's knowing people. And when you don't know the answer, knowing somebody who might. That network has taken forty years to build. Some of those relationships stretch back decades. Some are new. Some are huge companies. Others are one person who's extremely good at what they do.

Stu isn't claiming it's the world's greatest network. It's his network. People he knows. People he trusts. People he's worked alongside. And if somebody comes to him with a problem, he'll try to use that network to help. That's the philosophy behind: One Call Gets It All.

Perhaps Stu-e simply gives somebody another way of making that first call. Even at three o'clock in the morning.

SITTING IN DUNDEE

And here's the bit I think Stu is struggling to put into words tonight. He's sitting in Dundee. Somebody he knows is somewhere out on the road. That person is having a difficult time. Stu can't physically be beside them. He can't magically bring them home. He can't fix whatever is happening in their life. And he isn't pretending that he can.

But something Stu has built is sitting there with them. Listening. Talking. Providing that reassuringly familiar voice. And Stu knows it's happening. That's emotional. It should be. Because underneath all the technology, that's a real person. A colleague. A member of the touring community. Somebody who needs a bit of support. And for Stu, that's what this has always been about.

DO THE RIGHT THING FOR THE RIGHT REASONS

There are easier ways to build businesses. There are certainly easier industries. But after more than forty years, Stu still believes passionately in this one. The people loading the truck after everybody else has gone home. The people lying awake in the bus while the motorway disappears underneath them. The people trying to make the sums work at a 300-capacity venue. The legacy artist wondering how to keep touring viable. The young band wondering how on earth they're ever going to afford the next run of shows. Those are the people House of Tours Global and Terra Nueva are ultimately trying to support.

Sometimes that means logistics. Sometimes technology. Sometimes creating new revenue. Sometimes making an introduction. Sometimes sharing forty years of experience. And, as we've discovered in the last twenty-four hours... sometimes it might simply mean being there.

That's what has hit Stu hardest. We thought we'd launched a digital twin. Somebody else saw a familiar face. We thought we'd built another way of accessing knowledge. Somebody else heard a reassuring voice. We thought Stu-e would answer questions. Somebody just wanted to talk. And perhaps that's the most important lesson we've learned from this entire experiment so far.

Technology didn't decide what Stu-e was useful for. People did. So we'll listen. We'll learn. We'll safeguard it properly. We'll work with people who know far more about mental health than we do. And we'll keep asking the same question that sits underneath House of Tours Global, Terra Nueva and, increasingly, everything Stu is trying to build:

How can we help? No grand promises. No saviour complex. Just forty years of experience, a network of good people, some new technology and a genuine desire to do the right thing for the right reasons. And tonight, somewhere out on the road, if hearing Stu-e's voice makes one person feel a little less alone... I think Stu would tell you that's reason enough to keep exploring.

Captain Scott Woldian
Storyteller and Narrator of the Terra Nueva Entry Logs