ROCK / No sleep till Preston: From his seat on a borrowed couch in the back of an unpleasant hired Transit van, David Spence offered this account of a typical night in the life of a working band

THE MUSIC business is still seen as one of the most glamorous industries to be involved in. But for hundreds of bands like us, it is a different story; one of being crammed into the back of Transit vans to do thankless gigs at the other end of the country. While live music attendance continues its downward slump, many bands face exhaustion, expense and danger in their quest for recognition and success. On the night that two members of a band from Telford were killed in their transit van on the M6, we were travelling the 280 miles home to Preston after yet another London gig. Our round trip that day went like this.

9:30am: Pick up the Transit van from the hire company. It stinks of curry, for which the manager apologises, telling us its last trip was to the FA Cup Final. It costs us pounds 40 with a pounds 50 deposit.

10:00am: We load our equipment at the rehearsal studio which is four floors up. Needless to say, the lift doesn't work. There are seven of us going, so we put a couch from our drummers' house in the back, along with the amps and drums.

11:30am: We fill up with petrol ( pounds 35) and head down the M6.

1:30pm: We stop south of Birmingham for a stretch and a change of driver. The van is guzzling petrol and takes another pounds 20.

4:00pm: Arrive in Kentish Town on time, but we can't get into the venue until 5.00pm, so we go for a beer. Our manager rings five record companies to remind them that they promised to come and see us.

5:30pm: At the soundcheck, the engineer can work about half of the equipment. A comment is made about his haircut and things go downhill from there. Two other bands have to soundcheck before the doors open and we have to leave the stage with promises of the sound being 'better later'.

7:00pm: We go to get some food and meet some friends who are coming to the gig.

9:00pm: The other bands go on and the only person in the place who looks more embarrassed than they do is the sound engineer. It takes him two songs before the vocals can be heard. There are 12 people in the audience, including me.

10:30pm: We set up our equipment (which one of the other bands had borrowed) and get changed in the toilet which doubles as a dressing room. Our manager goes off to check the guest list to see who, if anybody, has turned up from the record companies.

10:40pm: On we go to find that someone has kindly changed plugs, altered effects pedals and sabotaged the leads from our guitars. One of them is un-playable. None of the on-stage monitors work, but we do the set anyway. The 30 people in the audience clap between songs, but they don't mean it. None of the record companies turned up, which is probably just as well.

11:20pm: Once off- stage, we decide to laugh instead of cry, but it was a close call. The landlord won't sell us a beer but gives us our share of the door: pounds 2.60. We load the van up and go over the road to a tapas bar for a drink and a sit down.

12:30am: After driving round London to drop friends off, we set off for home.

2:15am: Where the M1 joins the M6, we run out of petrol (the gauge had decided to break). I lose the toss and walk two miles to the telephone to have the police tell me there has been a big accident further north so it will be a while before anyone gets to us.

4:30am: Eventually the petrol arrives but the motorway is totally shut off so we have to go via Coventry. That is after we have put another pounds 30 of fuel into the van.

6:45am: Arrive back in our town, take all the gear back up the four flights of stairs and then drop everyone, including the couch, off at home. I get to bed at 8am.

9:30am: Get up to take the van back to the hire company, who refuse to refund the deposit as the van was due back at 9am. When I complain about having to fill it with pounds 90-worth of petrol, they back down and give me the deposit back.

10:00am: When I get home I hear on the news that there was a band involved in a pile up on the M6 and my exhaustion turns to nausea. We are due to play in London three times next month.