Lucy Rose's South American Adventure: Chile

It took about an hour to get out of the airport as they had to hand search all of our bags on exit. Eventually we walked out ready to meet our new host but we found no-one waiting. It was the dreaded feeling that I knew would happen at some point. The person on the end of the e-mails that I had flown so far to meet, wasn’t there.

We tried the pay phone which was broken but luckily the lady behind the information desk let us use her phone and contact Daniela, who was actually just in the car park waiting with her mum. Panic over!

Soon we were back at Daniela’s home and her mum Laura welcomed us so warmly. We were staying in her son's room as he was studying in Santiago. That evening I met Juan, Daniela’s father who had been working at the mines all week but had come straight from work to my gig. Again there was no sound engineer at the venue but I’m really getting the hang of it now so did my own sound. The gig was so much fun but unfortunately it wasn’t free entry which I only found out about just before the show. I'm not sure if there are many venues in Antofagasta so Daniela did a great job finding me somewhere to play and I was again amazed at the amount of people who turned up and knew the words to my songs.

For the next two days we were shown all the sights of Antofagasta; the city, La Ported (the arch in the sea), the hand in the desert and, on the last day Juan drove us into the Atacama desert to an abandoned town called Chacabuco.

I soon realised how little I knew about Chile and its history through the Pinochet regime - a hard and terrible time which only ended around a quarter of a century years ago. Chacabuco used to be a nitrate town but became a concentration camp during the Pinochet regime in 1973. We spent all day exploring the deserted town - we were the only people there - and our entry was a packet of cigarettes and some beers for the one man who lives there. To this day, it remains surrounded by approximately 98 landmines, left by the Chilean military when Chacabuco was used as a prison camp.

Daniela and her father Juan taught us so much while we were there. Juan works at the Copper mines about two to three hours from Antofagasta and stays there all week and comes back at the weekend. I had no idea that Chile’s main export is copper and the mines are hugely important to the economy.

The best thing I learnt here in Antofagasta was about the Chilean people. I’ve never meet such caring people. They looked after us, fed us, washed our clothes, came and supported me at my gig and paid for everything.

After a tearful goodbye to Daniela and her parents we left on a 13-hour overnight bus to La Serena. I curled up into my seat and slept most of the way, except at 4am I woke to find a man holding the other end of my blanket gently pulling it off me to take it for himself. Of course I grabbed it and won the battle and he scuttled off to the back of the bus but it was an strange moment.

Blurry -eyed we pulled into La Serena where six people were waiting for us and had been waiting for two hours (our bus was late). First of all we met Maka, the girl who first contacted me about coming to La Serena and has been tweeting me for years, and her sister Camilla. There was also Constanza (Connie) and her father Pablo who were hosting Will and me for the next three days. Finally there was Andrea and Nicolás who were the owners of Lighthouse Coffee , the venue I was playing. All of them were so excited and so welcoming and immediately I felt at ease with them all.

Connie and her father took us home where we met our mother for the next three days- Erica. She had prepared a huge breakfast and spent all thr time constantly worrying about me and wanting me to rest. She was just amazing. We spent the whole day at Lighthouse Coffee, having lunch with everyone and learning more about each other.

I should say now that Lighthouse Coffee isn’t a music venue, in fact as far as I know there’s only one or two music venues in La Serena and both are for huge stadium crowds so it’s hard for anyone to come play music here. But Andrea and Nicolas rented in a sound system for my two gigs with them, they covered the costs and they allowed the gig to be free entry like I wanted.

I couldn’t understand why they were doing all this for me, I probably annoyed them asking them why so many times. They went to so much effort to make our experience in La Serena special. They filmed the whole of the first show, printed out tickets which had been given out in advance, put lights up and even put in little lamps to add atmosphere. Both gigs with them were a dream. They went so smoothly and I got to meet everyone who came in - it was such a lovely place. Even the mayor’s wife came to the show.

I met every single person who came to both shows and it meant so much.I have no label in Chile, no press, no radio, nothing, so I was intrigued as to how people knew my music. Some from YouTube, some from a Japanese anime where "Shiver" is the opening song and some from my time singing with Bombay Bicycle Club. But mostly it was just by chance. They were searching for new music online and one of my videos popped up and they clicked on it and that was it. Now I was in Chile meeting them saying thank you for all the support just because two girls, Maka and Connie (who had never met before) had asked me to come to La Serena and organised a show.

I really want other people reading this who want me to come visit their country to know. If you can book me a free entry gig in your town and will have me to stay then I will cover my travel costs and come see you. It’s important to me to not just be playing shows because I’m getting paid but because I love playing music and meeting new people.

We spent our last day together exploring the Elqui Valley which was beautiful and we had lunch at a lovely restaurant where Mistral Pisco is made and where Connie works all summer.

Maka and Connie were two of the most generous, caring, kind girls I’ve ever met, neither have ever left Chile. Connie hasn’t been on a plane yet but is finishing her nursing degree and is planning to save money to come stay with us in London so we can repay the favour. But during our whole time with them, they never let us pay for anything: we tried so hard but they refused. This was so overwhelming for me: three days ago these girls were strangers to me and I was a stranger to them, yet they took such great care of us for our entire stay.

It makes me pretty upset now even thinking about saying goodbye to them because the truth is, I’m not sure when I will see them again. I hope more than anything I do but it won’t be for years. It was an emotional goodbye for everyone. Will and I really connected with this family and they all came to the bus station at midnight to help us get our seats and to say goodbye.

We were met by Juan at Santiago bus station at 6am after 6 painful hours trying to sleep through a chorus of snoring. Juan emailed me around six months ago asking me to come to Santiago and made friends with a girl called Constanza who had started a fan page on Facebook called 'Lucy Rose en Chile'. Together they sorted out my accommodation and booked me a show. Along this journey I’m realising how much I’m asking my fans to do by organising a show. It sounds simple, just book me a show at a venue and I’ll turn up and play but it isn’t that easy, especially as my only condition was that the gig had to be free entry (this puts off most venues).

I found out that in Santiago the venue I was meant to play took advantage of this situation. They knew that Connie didn’t know how things worked when booking a gig. The manager promised ‘free entry’ but said that each person had to pay 6000 pesos on the door but in return would get two drinks. I’m completely fine playing music for free for this tour, I don’t want to make money, this isn’t what this experience is about and I’m happy for the venue to take all the bar money in exchange for allowing the event to be free entry but I’m not willing for a venue to charge entry and take all the profits while I get paid nothing. I tried to express this to the manager at the venue but he wouldn’t budge and I realised that this wasn’t the right match for this tour.

On top of all this, the weather was terrible. I had bus tickets to Mendoza the morning after the show but it looked like the border would be closed by then. I didn't know whether to leave Santiago the night before the gig to get to Mendoza or get stuck in Santiago for a week until the snow had stopped.

For those who like me have no idea, the bus from Santiago to Mendoza (in Argentina) crosses the Andes and border control is roughly 3200 metres high. I felt I had to get the bus the same day I had arrived to make it before the borders closed which meant not playing the gig in Santiago. So that evening at 5pm I tweeted that if anyone wants to come to see me play music tonight, I’ll be playing at my host Juan’s house (his parents are the coolest) - and of course it’s free entry. I gave the address to the first 30 people to reply and that evening I played a small intimate show in Juan’s garden and told everyone my travel predicament.

During the gig, the news came, the border had been closed and would remain closed for 6 days. My heart sank. The day I arrived to Santiago was the first day of rain this year. The good news was that it meant I would be able to play the show in Santiago the next day. The bad news was I no longer had a venue to play in. But in the garden I suddenly had a little army of people all chatting, heads together trying to think of somewhere I could play. The next morning I had so many options of venues that would allow me to play free entry. Everyone from the night before had been calling venues and sorting everything out.

I chose Club Chocolate who had been first to respond and the gig was on. I spent the morning tweeting and telling people where I would be playing as I knew they were travelling from different places to see me play. I even met one man who had flown from Bolivia for the show.

My next problem was how to get to Mendoza for the next gig. I only had one option and I didn’t like it. Instead of a direct 30-minute flight to Mendoza, the only flights available took 7 hours with a change at Buenos Aires. So flying two hours in the wrong direction just to turn around and come back and on top of that the flights were extortionate. I hadn’t budgeted for something like this to happen but I had to get to Mendoza for the gig. However, the owner of the winery I was playing in Mendoza contacted me saying he would pay towards my plane tickets. I couldn’t believe it: he was putting on a free entry show for me in his winery, he’d rented in a sound system and was now going to help me with my flight costs just cause he loves my music?! I booked the flights and headed to Club Chocolate for the show in Santiago. Juan and Connie thought maybe 40 people would show up but to all of our surprise, around 400 people were queuing to get into the venue when we arrived for soundcheck.

After being told repeatedly that no-one knew my music in Chile - and struggling to get booked for a gig - it was amazing that this happened. It wasn't just about the number of people who came but who came. The gig was silent from start to finish while I was playing, the crowd were so respectful but so enthusiastic throughout. After the show I received so many letters and gifts that people had made and heard so many stories of how people had found my music, why they connected to it and who each song reminded them of. Somehow my little songs I wrote in my bedroom have found their way into the lives of a few people in Chile and they have meaning. This is the best gift I could receive.

Meeting these wonderful people and staying with these incredible families in Chile has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I can’t recommend this more to any other artists who are wanting to come play shows in South America. Do this! Meet your fans and their families. They are lovely, caring, kind, wonderful people and will treat you a million times better than any promoter. These strangers are now friends and have filled my heart and soul with so much good, which I will never forget.