F.A.Q. & ADVICE
Q.
You seem expensive compared to other bands I’ve heard about - why does the price vary so much from band to band?
A.
In short; we take ourselves, the job and your needs seriously. As professional musicians for any booking, we need a whole host of things that impact on the fees we charge such as:
Very expensive professional level equipment that is reliable and sounds amazing (all of which is PAT tested and insured), reliable suitable transportation to bring the equipment and people, rehearsal time to ensure the band sound good with an up to date repertoire (especially if we’re learning material specifically for your event). You are likely to find other bands who do not take themselves seriously may well cut these corners and this will result in a sub-standard performance. We price ourselves competitively for the services we offer, and our diary and testimonials reflect this.
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Q.
…But hang on, bands play at pubs, I’m sure they wont pay these fees?
A.
This is true; pubs and bars simply do not have the funds to pay bands the wage they’d need to be professionals. The professional bands still hang on to the lower paid pub/bar gigs as they offer a good opportunity for potential clients to see them play live; this working relationship between the professional musicians and the pub/bars works well… The bars know they get top quality musicians performing and keeping their clientele entertained, the band know they have a booking in the diary where potential clients can come and see them.
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Q.
I’m considering a Marquee for my event, is that an issue?
A.
This can be an issue if not properly considered/thought about though with a little bit of planning Marquee events can be lots of fun for all. As professional musicians who have performed in countless marquees we can give you a perspective you may not think about.
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Firstly access - we bring a lot of heavy equipment in heavy vehicles… we’d like to be able to get as close as possible to the stage area, otherwise our set up time will be significantly increased, as would the disruption to the event as we ferry the equipment in.
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Secondly power – If you are considering a Marquee then it is likely you’ll be powering this with generators, please mention to the generator hire company that you are intending/considering a band as you may find a shortfall here leading to the band being unable to perform and unhappy guests. If you are considering running extension power cables from a house/building, once again please make sure these are sufficient for the load you are putting on it – as a band we’d need two separate ring main feeds.
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Thirdly dressing room – Although this is not a necessity, and there is often an impracticality with it, but an area in which we can get changed out of our loading equipment clothes in to our stage clothes is very useful. Generally a room we can use before/after the performance sets just to sit in and where we can safely leave personal belongings/clothes is also very convenient and would be very much appreciated.
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Q.
Can I choose all the songs I'd like the band to play?
A.
We have learned over very many performances exactly how to fill a dance floor, 7 years worth! No event has a more varied audience than a wedding; there are guests from 8 to 80 and our job as a band is to give them all at some point something to dance to. It would be a huge mistake to insist that we only play the songs you like and want to hear. If your wedding is going well, you’ll be too busy to notice every tune the band plays – but if the floor is full most of the evening, your guests are having a great time.
We need to be flexible when choosing what songs to play and just as importantly when to play them. We need to be able to flit between styles if one section of the audience isn’t responding. In part, this expertise in reading the room is what you’re paying us for. Just because you love Megadeath or worse, Justin Bieber, doesn’t mean your guests will. By all means tell the us your favourite songs and then leave the rest to us. You’ll have a better night and so will your guests as a result.
One really valuable piece of advice is not to give the us (or any band) a long list of songs you DON’T want played.
We’ve seen an increasing number of occasions where this is happening. Some couples hate really popular songs because they’re sick of hearing them, but those songs are popular for a reason so even if you’ve heard Mustang Sally a million times (and most bands have played it twice as often as that) it almost never fails to fill the floor. Trust us as your band and get busy dancing – the best way to create a great atmosphere at your wedding is for you and your new bride/groom to get up and lead the way.
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Q.
Should I take advantage of your DJ service, or book a separate DJ?
A.
This is obviously your choice and we’re happy to work with external DJs. An external DJ can also compare the evening and make any announcements that are required being a focal point for the evening's entertainment.
Things to consider here when making that decision:
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Booking a separate DJ and Band would probably end up being much more expensive.
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The DJ will have their own equipment (amps/speakers/mixer/lighting etc), which will need to be set up alongside/in/around our band equipment – if the allocated space for the entertainment isn’t huge this could be in issue resulting in a much smaller dance floor area.
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The DJ may well end up not actually doing very much...If for example, we are booked as a band for 2x 45 minute sets (normally the second set would be a bit longer with encores) and there are other evening activities (buffet, cake cutting, bouquet throwing etc between sets), the DJ can sometimes only end up actually playing dance floor party music for an hour or less.
We run our DJ service from a dedicated booth complete with DJ lights conveniently linked in to the same PA equipment we use for the band, cutting down on the overall footprint of the entertainment area. We will have one of the band look after the music all evening and deal with requests accordingly.
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Q.
…okay, so what about me plugging an ipod in and just playing my favorite songs from that?
A.
This is not a problem, and we have the correct cables to do this. We'd advise that if you were doing this to book our DJ service as well, so using our experience/expertise we can integrate your choices in to the dance floor orientated party music that the event would need. Sharing your choices with us at least a week before the event would help us to prepare and collate the music for the event.