A Tour Bus A Film Crew An Epic Trip

By Glenn Ward

The real story behind the trip that became Channel 4's "Around the world in 80 Raves" available for all electronic publication devices and platforms.

Back in the year of 1999 I came up with a television show concept that to my surprise was snapped up by none other than Channel 4 and had me traveling the US going to raves parties and just general exploring.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Glenn Ward
• Release date: Nov 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311341051

Glenn Ward

I am a Digital Marketing manager dabbling for the first time in self-publishing. I had this text knocking about on my computer and thought it might be an interesting read for a couple of people so decided to commission a copy editor to make it readable and hopefully enjoyable.More to come

Book preview

A Tour Bus

A TV Crew

An Epic Trip

The real story behind the Channel 4 series Around the world in 80 Raves

Glenn Ward

Copyright 2013

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - The Concept

Chapter 2 - Proposal

Chapter 3 - Road Trip

Chapter 4 - Take off!

Chapter 5 - Touch Down!

Chapter 6 - Miami

Chapter 7 - Daytona Beach

Chapter 8 - Myrtle Beach

Chapter 9 - Atlanta

Chapter 10 - Woodstock

Chapter 11 - New York

Chapter 12 - Niagra Falls

Chapter 13 - Detroit

Chapter 14 - Sandusky

Chapter 15 - Rose Lawn, Wisconsin

Chapter 16 - Chicago

Chapter 17 - Nashville

Chapter 18 - Memphis

Chapter 19 - Oklahoma

Chapter 20 - Albuquerque

Chapter 21 - Lake Mead & Black Rock City

Chapter 22 - Las Vegas

Chapter 23 - San Diego

Chapter 24 - San Francisco

Chapter 25 - Los Angeles

Chapter 26 - Tele Time

Chapter 1 The Concept

‘To travel is to live’ once said Hans Christian Andersen.

With the corporate clogs of ‘expectation’ now forcing my 19-year old arse along for a walk, enough was enough.

At this point (between a morning meeting and elevenses) I dared to dream.

Around the world in 80 Raves Bubble Gum Cards

When I was growing up I used to collect bubble gum cards, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cards, Dinosaur cards, garbage patch kids, the lot. During the filming for Around the World in 80 Raves we suggested we might use cards as a means of marketing the show, I always wanted to be on my own bubble gum card!

Chapter 2 Proposal

So how did Around the World in 80 Raves come about?

I suppose like most young bucks growing up, I felt destined to be a star of something in life.

Not necessarily from winning a version of Total Wipeout or releasing a No. 1 hit (although that would be cool). No, I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it but I knew that I wanted to define myself in some unique and inspiring way.

With an enigmatic sense of divinity that even Tolstoy wouldn’t have been able to grasp, I felt the unjustifiable trappings of growing up begin to grate on my youthful self.

I could envisage the total irony of it all…

Leaving college with well earned (or just through the skin of your teeth) qualifications, you feel the world is laid out before you.

At this moment in time you strike whilst the iron is hot.

The world is my oyster! you’ll yell to the clouds and all on Facebook. Before being thrown back to earth with one knock on an interviewer’s door in the city where you were born and raised.

That’s it. Game over.

The world of work has sucked you up like a Dyson.

So that’s it, the dreaded bargain you made with your parents for an awesome gap year is made.

You accept that job offer and become the underdog ‘newby’- earning a pittance in a job you hate.

This disastrous vision of my future haunted me daily.

So much so, that with a bit of determination I decided that upon finishing my A-levels I was not going to follow the corporate road to humdrum-ville.

No fricking way.

I was going to train to become a Water sports instructor.

Far from yearning to meet a kindred spirit in Free Willy or hook up with a real-life Pamela Anderson (hey a guy can dream), my real purpose was for the meal ticket out.

To leave Leicester. To live and not just exist!

Hand on heart this was a great decision. Having probably the best time in my life (unless I’m a Casanova-in-waiting) it flew by. Living away from home, making life-long mates…it was just like the old days at school. Although there was no detention and the girls were far more interesting as women.

Another pro in becoming a Water sports instructor were the raving piss ups each night.

Plus here’s the biggy…spending six, yes SIX weeks in beautiful Barbados.

Windsurfing by day and pulling by night. This was by far the best education I had ever had.

Existing this way I felt in charge of my future. I was living, seeing the world and loving every minute of it.

But as they say all good things must come to an end.

So with a thud that bruised only the way a gritty reality check does, I was back in good old Leicester.

Yes those six dreamy weeks had passed. My Water sports course was over and I had my new qualifications to hand. I should now be in Jamaica, or at least in the South of France, right?

The reality check came in an undeniable black and white bank statement. Owing £3,500 to a career development loan, £2,000 on credit card bills and £1,800 on the side to my Nan, the piggy bank of Glenn was empty.

Good old Nan leant me the money when I needed to, but couldn’t quite sell my much-loved motorbike, to pay for my course fees. Once I finally did take my lady magnet to the cleaners, I assure you I paid my lovely Nan back. But this debt settled aside, my looming bank loans made me increasingly wary of a grown-up world out there. In which bills had to be paid.

Realising that my cunning plan to escape the cogs of a 9-5, for a glamorous world of water sports had gone tits up, I soon went back to stacking the shelves I had stacked as a student.

Now stacking a few shelves for part time beer money had seemed like a fair-enough deal whilst at college.

The incentive didn’t seem so appetizing now, when I realized that it was to pay back something I already owed.

Having grown up to believe I was the lucky git who managed to get away with detentions, passing my GCSE’s with last minute revision and saving my ass from a sixth form suspension (by painting a beautiful mural in the common room), I now realised this new big bad world needed a different approach.

Yes I know all young folks need a challenge to test their humility.

But this did not feel like a fair deal.

I felt compelled (again) to escape the vacuum of a normal existence.

Yes I had done what I had always dreamed of doing.

But now was now. And I knew there was more in me.

So winter had approached by now and I was busy spending half my time emotionally draining away amongst the supermarket shelves and the rest of my time watching endless TV, in a rewarding state of duvet hibernation.

Motivated by my desire to escape this ground-hog day existence, I started making notes about all the things I, and my fellow peers loved on the Telly.

Why?

Because I loved Telly.

So incorporating this with my interest in travel and my quest for a sustainable form of contentment, my ideas were beginning to take shape.

Into what surprisingly read like a Documentary.

A sort though that would bring together travel and reality TV. Shipwrecked offered my main source of inspiration here. Although I was looking for something which hadn’t been done before.

Brainwave ideas aside, who in TV is going to listen to a19-year old Water sport instructor who has oh, an idea?

The least they would probably do is nick it.

Ideas typically conjured up by me and my mates were often laughed around the kitchen table before being left to evaporate out of the window, over a late night beer. My idea for a Documentary though remained like an elephant in the room.

My mate Joel and his girlfriend Bex were also stuck on it too.

So I wasn’t going mad.

Putting into the mix their cool thoughts, the idea began to morph from a brainstorm into a comprehensive notion. Within 2 weeks we had what looked like a bona-fide TV show proposal.

Without the nepotistic relief of industry contacts and previous experience to hand, we were the blind leading the blind. Our ignorance