Toyota dealer buys their tour van to rent out to touring musos in crowd-funding campaign
Melbourne rock outfit Calling All Cars are on the cusp of relocation to the UK as their crowd-funding campaign to do so is agonisingly close to reaching completion this afternoon.
The band – whose latest album Raise The People is released tomorrow – are sitting at 99 percent on their campaign at time of writing. Offering a range of incentives for their goal, their situation received a major boost overnight when it was confirmed that their tour van and the gear inside it (drums, backline) had been purchased for a $20,000 donation.
The buyer has emerged as Adam Dove, who is a fan of the band and Dealer Principal at Toyota's Seymour dealership. Dove intends to rent out the van and equipment to touring musicians.
"I'd already pledged a CD & T-shirt to the Calling All Cars Pledge campaign,” Dove said today, “but when I saw they were selling their tour van, I remembered a conversation I had years ago with Dan [Sanders] from Gyroscope who, when I told him I worked at Seymour Toyota, said that Taragos are the best tour van ever.
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“So I thought this might be a great way to engage with the music community, and also an opportunity to support Calling All Cars, and hopefully many more bands to come. We'll be renting out the van to musicians who are hitting the road so it stays within the music world.”
In what is now one of the most notable crowdfunding campaigns in Australian music, Levi's also came on board to donate prize packs to the cause.
The Australian General Manager of Pledge Music, Scot Crawford, described the Toyota contribution as “an amazing event”.
“We couldn't be happier for them and it's great that a medium like Pledge can make these things happen,” he said.
The three-piece now intend to relocate to the UK following their Australian commitments around tomorrow's release of Raise The People, through Cooking Vinyl. The record label will also release the record in the UK and Europe, likely in the third quarter of 2014.
We've got one day left on our album stream of Raise The People, so listen here. Dates for their upcoming tour are below.