Hello.. I cant believe two months have gone by since the shane Filan tour began. So it’s taken ages for me to post these pics.. Better late than never hey!?

This collection of images marks a massive milestone in my career. My first ever national support tour with a major artist – Former Westlife frontman Shane Filan. I met Shane in catering on the first day. I was too nervous to say hello and I had a mouth full of food anyway.. So I just hung back and waited until someone introduced me. He turned out to be lovely, of course! I quickly learned however that access to Shane Filan makes the crowd jealous, or pester me for introduction neither of which is helpful so I kept quiet about that in my on stage banter. 

I also got to meet my assistant Chloe, who accompanied and helped me massively all tour. 

My first dressing room turned out to be the best one of the whole tour. It had the comfiest furniture – A sofa and an arm chair and by far the best dressing table and mirror with show biz lights! And it had a little something waiting for me from George, wishing me luck. The worst of the dressing rooms was a Harry Potter style ‘converted’ disabled toilet under a staircase. Sometimes there were showers, and sometimes there was also hot water… Luna’s shower trumped them all though!  

The very first show with Shane was up in Dundee in Scotland. What a Fantastic place to begin this new phase of gigging! Caird Hall is a beautiful venue… 

And the crowd were warm and welcoming as were the team that I met that afternoon. It was a really great way to begin this tour. My assistant Chloe snapped this pic of me nervously opening the first show.  

And tour photohgrapher Tony Stott caught this close up version.

The second night of the tour was in Motherwell. For me it was the toughest show of them all.. I’m told though, that that part of the world is particularly tough on their audiences so if I made it through the whole set (or even made it out alive!?) they must have liked me!? 😳 😂 In this photo you can just see crew members Jamie, Chris and Pete preparing while I get ready to sound check. Over the course of the tour I really came to love working with these guys and wished I could take them everywhere. 

It was a full moon and so after the show I stopped to snap a pic of the Concert Hall as we left.  

As difficult as I found the audience that night, this bunch of girls, top right, really made my night. There were awesome. In fact the meet and greet part of the tours always made my night. It’s brilliant getting to meet so many people. And sign a few CD’s and t-shirts too.. 

In the background there you can see Graeme, the merch man. I valued him so much this tour and all his generous efforts to sell my albums – Thanks Graeme! x

So many of the places we played were stunning but my favourite venue of them all was Tyne Theatre in Newcastle. It’s a little beauty. Intimate and old fashioned.  This set of pics was taken there. The close up was by local reviewer Andrew Gosling. 

By the time we got to Newcastle I was well on the way to becoming a proper Shane Filan fan… As the tour rolled on the more of his show I stayed to watch. By the end I knew almost all the songs off by heart. My favourite place to watch though is from the wings with the crew but I did like to stroll around the crowd and take in the ‘Shane Love’. 

A BIG high on the tour was the fooooood. OMG! Catering was provided by Anthony Sayers and his wonderful assistant Bev. It was the best food I have ever had in my life! My mouth is watering just compiling these images for you… Every day Anthony unloaded his gear from the tour lorry, built his kitchen from scratch and then cooked us all incredible three course meals! Sooo much love and respect for these two working tirelessly behind the scenes. 

Technically we had two days off during the tour but as one of them was spent in Oxford launching the new album at SAE.. We really only had one. The tour buses went on ahead and spent the day and nights in Hull but Chloe and I decided to take the coast road and visited Whitby and Scarborough. We even went and saw the Abbey. I took a heap of photos not just on our day off but generally during the tourm, and posted them on my instagram @nikkiloymusic . You can scroll back through or search #TourLifeLoy 

One of the grandest venues was Hull City Hall. Shane’s drummer Matt gave me a mini history lesson about how the city had at one time been the rishest and most powerful cities in the UK and that’s how the buildings came to be so impressive. It was pretty epic (See instagram for more). My dressing room that day had (sneaky) access to the roof … Naughty as it was I couldn’t resist climbing up there to take in the city views. 

Here’s the hall as pictured by Chloe during soundcheck .. 

And later with the audience

The whole tour was organised and produced by the Liz Hobbs Group. Her team were AWESOME! I loved them all. I had sooo much fun with them. They really made the tour for me!  

I couldn’t fit them all in the selfie.. But they are all pictured below in the group photo. 

And of course.. It was my first tour in my campervan. Here’s a great pic of Luna with the tour buses outside Portsmouth Guildhall Theatre. I have been in her for 5 months now and have been loving every minute of it… well not the attempted break in after the Bradford show. But every other minute! 😍

This photo Chloe took is in Portsmouth. I would watch Pete, who you can see here, operating the lights. It’s like playing an instrument. He controls them in real time with all his fingers in time to the music. Fascinating.

These came everywhere, got put up in every venue! The wonderful photography of Photocillin:

The final show took place in Victoria Hall, Stoke on Trent. Another gorgeous venue. 

I was sorry to reach the end of the tour. It was over sooo fast, I felt like come the end I was only just beginning to get into the swing of it. I has such an amazing time with everyone, learnt so much. 

So thanks to everyone for and incredible experience and thanks to Shane for having me a long! 

Now, it’s nearly Christmas.. and then, then begins the preparation for the next national tour with Sam bailey! Ooooh!!

But I think first I shall give you a few Van Life updates. So, til next time… xxxxx