You'll notice two new pages on the website - Tours 2.0 and Wishbone History. These are both interactive ways of viewing information.
The tours page initially just shows you upcoming gigs. If you type in your address (postcode for the UK) in the box in the top left then extra information will be added to the gigs list - you'll be able to see distance from you and driving directions to each gig!
You can click on the header any of the columns to sort by that field, so if you click to sort by distance from you you'll immediately see the gigs in order of distance. Handy huh? If you click on the distance it'll pop up a new window with Google Maps driving directions!
Clicking on a venue name will show you more details about that gig. Some gigs will have links to ticket web for buying your tickets online.
If you want to view the gigs on a map click 'View On Map'.
Basically, anything that's underlined in red is clickable and will show you more information of some sort or other.
The columns on the left are for filtering information. When you first arrive on the page the gigs are filtered to Upcoming Gigs. If you click 'Past Gigs' then you'll see the gig archive (click 'Show All gigs' in the top left if you want the full set back to 2002 - though it may slow performance a bit)
You can narrow down by tour, country, city, venue, year.
In map view the distance slider narrows gigs down by distance from you (up to 200 miles)
The search field above the filters on the left is the coolest thing. Just start typing the name of a venue, country, date, year, etc. and date will be narrowed down by what you type.
Finally, for all archived gigs there is an associated gallery which pulls photos from the new Official Wishbone Ash Group on Flickr. Above each gallery are Flickr tags in bold type. For example, if you click 'Past Gigs' on the left to show archived gigs, then click on 'The Brook' on the timeline you'll see a gallery with Flickr tags : 23Apr2009 t_40th
If you copy and paste those as tags for your Flickr image it will show up in that gallery. I'm hoping this will be the way you'll share your photos in the future. It means they'll all be in the same place and searchable by tour or gig. Simon Atkinson will be able to help you with the ins and outs of the Flickr group and at some point I'll try and do a quick video to demonstrate it. It's pretty simple.
Play around with it and I'm sure you'll have some fun.
So much for keeping it short. I haven't even touched on the History page yet. In short, it works in the same way. Click things which are underlined in red. Use the filters on the left to filter the data. Click Map View to show things on the map. Use the search facility for everything!
A quick example:
You want to know which live albums Throw Down the Sword is on....
1. Click 'Live' under Album Type in the filters on the left.
2. Start typing 'Throw Down the Sword'
You'll see the albums in the main view, the timeline will show you when they were recorded, the map view will show you where they were recorded.
Clicking on an album name will show you the track listing and album info.
Clicking on a track name will bring up lyrics in the top left (and also tell you which other albums that track is on)
There's also a link for searching YouTube for that track, and if it's available on iTunes there's a link for that. What more could you ask for?
You get the picture.... there are lyrics, album info, and band member in here. If at any point you want to reset your filters just click Reset All Filters just below the timeline on the left.
Oh, and when albums and musicians are all displayed on the timeline some things will be hidden. You can make the timeline wider by dragging the little arrow in the middle of it at the bottom.
There are still a few little bugs to sort out but it should basically be working. Have fun and report any bugs on the forum.
Joe
