Los Campesinos! lay bare the true cost of a 2024 North America tour — it topped £100,000

Los Campesinos! have publicised a detailed ledger from their 2024 North America run, and the headline number is blunt: more than £100,000 to play 11 shows in support of their self-released seventh album, ‘All Hell’.

The tour ledger

Frontman Gareth David framed the breakdown in a newsletter post as an attempt at transparency about the hidden, structural expenses of modern touring. He reminded readers that the band is seven people strong, that several members travel with children, and that they are self-managed, run their own label and often tour using holiday allowance from jobs outside music. “We are aware that specific ideological decisions we make impact our ability to maximise the money we earn,” he added.

The line-item totals are stark. Visa costs were upward of £5,400; flights to and from the US cost over £9,000. The tour bus and driver alone approached nearly £46,000. Tickets were set at $27.50, with 5% priced at $10 for low-income fans, and 10 of the 11 shows sold out. That ticketing picture produced $127,729.53 (£99,738.05) in sales.

Merch did the heavy lifting: the band moved £40,336.54 worth of shirts and records, which left them with an overall profit of £38,246.64. But that profit wasn’t divvied up among the players. As David explains, much of the outgoings had already been paid ahead of time, so the money is being reinvested into future projects and tours rather than distributed to members.

“A band needs to have access to capital long before the tour (or album recording, or anything else) is going to take place in order to be able to afford to embark on it in the first place,”

“And who has access to capital? Major label acts that still choose to rip their fans off with exorbitant ticket pricing, and rich kid bands that can always return home to their parents.”

The post reads less like a complaint than a ledger with a political edge: the figures underline David’s wider point about inequality in music. Touring, even for an established indie act with a committed audience and solid merch sales, requires upfront cash that many artists simply do not have.

Los Campesinos! have not been shy about detailing the economics of being a working band. In 2025 they outlined the “financial restrictions” of touring and noted a notable “loss” from a one-off Dublin gig. They were blunt about class: “Without the backing/protection of wealthy family (and it’s clear to see that UK guitar/pop music is overrun by the middle class and private school rich kids), or being sold a dream by an albatross of a recording advance/management company, what hope does anyone have?”

They also published their streaming returns for the first year of ‘All Hell’: £31,940.29 from 9,300,864 streamings. Because Los Campesinos! are self-managed and operate their own label, that sum flows straight to Los Campesinos! Ltd, they note. “However, we are in a minority, and most bands will only see money if there is any left over after record labels and management have taken their cuts.”

For fans and fellow musicians, the takeaway is immediate. A sold-out small-club run and strong merch numbers can still leave an act scraping for working capital. The figures here make that reality feel less like an anecdote and more like an accounting lesson — one that many bands, and many audiences, might find uncomfortable but necessary.

There’s a clear payoff to the band’s candour: it reframes conversations about ticket prices, equitable access, and what a sustainable indie career actually looks like in 2024 and beyond. It also reminds fans that the bright, sweaty rooms where bands connect with audiences come with a complex, expensive infrastructure behind them.