No Cigar Share Their Favourite Australian Tour Mems

After selling out shows across the UK and impressing audiences at this years BIGSOUND conference, New Zealand indie up-and-comers No Cigar have released their latest single ‘Chantilly’; a breezy, shimmering tune that boasts infectious lyrical charm and airtight performances from the band.

No Cigar have built a significant fanbase at home and abroad since forming in 2019. With 2 studio albums and an EP under their belt already, the band have been met with widespread acclaim from all corners of the industry – picking up 20m+ streams along the way. They recently visited Australia for BIGSOUND, and have today shared with us some of their experiences from their time in the country.

As we were boarding our Air NZ flight to the Gold Coast earlier this year, we could hear our new track ‘Concubine’ playing over the speakers as we approached our seats at the back of the plane. We soon discovered that a super fan, Joe, that we’d met at our Gisborne show (he was heckling us to play The Occult) was back there sitting by himself with a spare seat, which just so happened to be Willy’s allocated place on the plane. He was flabbergasted. His auntie had shouted him a trip to the Gold Coast, and there he found himself next to his favourite band’s lead singer, as ‘Concubine’ played in the background. We put him on the door for both the Gold Coast and Brisbane shows, gifting him a NO CIGAR banner made by our amazing photographer, Fran. He gave us a shout out in his thesis, and we’ve seen banners in the audience referencing Joe and The Occult popping up at our London gig. Joe is still yet to see The Occult played live. We love Joe (but not when he heckles).

Joe draped in his new NO CIGAR banner post Brisbane show

In Brisbane, we all ended up manning the merch desk after the show, meeting and greeting and signing records, as you do. One particular fan took it even further, having Willy sign his ribcage. Willy’s signature is inconsistent at the best of times, but this guy would have Willy’s late night scribble permanently etched onto his skin, passing by the local tattoo parlour on the way home. He has since messaged us, and can confirm that he does not regret his decision one iota.
No regrets

Urbnsrf session – in Melbourne we had the gift of time following our gig en route to Brisbane for Big Sound. We popped into Urbnsrf for a progressive turns session. To be fair, the boys hadn’t surfed all that much of late, so the paddle fitness was lacking. There were certainly some half arsed pop ups as a result, but a fun session nonetheless.

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Following our Melbourne set, our top-fan-turned-good-friend, Loadzy brought into the green room, an 18 year old drummer, Eden, who that day had left school two hours early, to catch the train from Wangaratta, 3.5 hours out of Melbourne. He had missed all our previous shows as he hadn’t been of age, and was hanging around the merch stall after the show. With the encouragement of Loadzy, Eden eventually plucked the courage to introduce himself and his story, having also had his band cover our tune, Black Hole for a school assessment. A special moment for him, and us alike, knowing there are those who would go to such lengths to see us perform.

Top Left to Right: CJ (producer), Arthur, Eden, Loadzy, Willy. Bottom Left to Right: Poppy, Josh and Ned

Not exactly our fondest memory, but the tour was kicked off with a cancelled flight after a 3.30am (1.30am Sydney time) wake up. We were transferred to a different airline, proceeded to miss that flight as our luggage was not released by the first airline. Proceeded to have to wait 8 hours at Auckland airport, arriving in Sydney 3 hours late to load in, with a rushed sound check to get it done before doors. A very long day and tough way to start the tour, but what is a tour if you’re not heavily sleep deprived and ever so slightly rattled to kick things off. The Sydney crowd were epic.

There were still smiles on the dials at this point as we waited for our luggage to be released. Little did we know, there was to be an 8 hour wait in store for us before boarding our flight to Sydney. Not worth the 3.30am wake up to eventually catch a 1pm flight.