Venue moan

[T-Bay]

Playing a mates wedding tomorrow, plan was to set up in the morning, come home then go back in the evening. Our fee being a free bar and taxi home. All was good until this morning when we are told that we can no longer set up in the morning and will now only have 30 minutes set up time (it takes our guitarist longer than that to twiddle his knobs). We don’t do weddings so half the set up is unfamiliar anyway and having the whole morning this wasn’t stressful as there was plenty of time to get everything spot on. 

The moan is that all this was agreed months ago with the venue and there was no mention of it being an issue, it’s only become an issue today for some reason. For obvious reasons I don’t want to cause any hassle for the bride and groom as they have enough to worry about but what was due to be a fun evening playing to friends is now a potential pain in the backside and very stressful. Been waiting an hour for a call back just to confirm if we can drop some stuff off in the morning or not. 

[Davo-London]

You are wise not to involve the bride and groom.  you could turn up an hour    early and lean on the venue organisers to set-up earlier.  It may be that the room is in use prior to the gig, in which case there are few options.

Get the guitarist to practice setting up at home!  It's the drummer I feel sorry for.

Peace

Davo

[dmccombe7]

30min set up is cutting it very fine. Takes us 30mins to unload our gear into a venue. 

[T-Bay]

9 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

30min set up is cutting it very fine. Takes us 30mins to unload our gear into a venue. 

Indeed! And there is a dj to work around as well. My guess is that we will end up sound checking while the guests are arriving for the evening which is less than ideal, or even adjusting in the fly as the set goes on. One positive for that is another friend is a superb musician and is happy to act as our sound engineer for the night which will help a lot (and the desk we are using is his old desk so he knows it well).

Edited October 29, 2019 by T-Bay

[dmccombe7]

1 minute ago, T-Bay said:

Indeed! And there is a do to work around as well. My guess is that we will end up sound checking while the guests are arriving for the evening which is less than ideal, or even adjusting in the fly as the set goes on. One positive for that is another friend is a superb musician and is happy to act as our sound engineer for the night which will help a lot (and the desk we are using is his old desk so he knows it well).

I guess it means no faffing around chatting when you arrive. Becomes very much like a job rather than a relaxed gig as you had hoped plus you probably have to drive home now.

Dave

[T-Bay]

10 minutes ago, Davo-London said:

You are wise not to involve the bride and groom.  you could turn up an hour    early and lean on the venue organisers to set-up earlier.  It may be that the room is in use prior to the gig, in which case there are few options.

Get the guitarist to practice setting up at home!  It's the drummer I feel sorry for.

Peace

Davo

We have already planned that, even if our kit is piled up ready by the door it will help a bit. Our drummer is very efficient so hopefully he will be ok.

I think we will have earned the free bar by the end of the set!

[T-Bay]

Just now, dmccombe7 said:

I guess it means no faffing around chatting when you arrive. Becomes very much like a job rather than a relaxed gig as you had hoped plus you probably have to drive home now.

Dave

Yup very much so, luckily I have a lift there and taxi for myself and kit home but the first hour will be stressful. It’s just annoying as if we had known this from the off we would have planned accordingly, it’s the last minute change that is the problem. Still no reply from the venue after an hour and a half which I think is pretty poor. 

[T-Bay]

Just called them again, they were ‘just about to call me’, another different variant to what they told the bride this morning, which is different to what they told me today and different to what was agreed when the venue was booked but there you go. I have managed to get an extra 15 minutes though which will help a lot.

[la bam]

I do Weddings and events for a living.

Firstly, if you dont hold your ground, venues will take the proverbial as shown here. If you throw a ' sorry we are all organised now, and its impossible to set up in the evening's youd be amazed at how quickly they can reconsider.

That aside, tips for getting done in that time scale are:

1. Have all your equipment un cased and ready.

2. Make clear straight away when you go in the room that the priority is that the staff clear the area you need first (or be prepared to wait 50 minutes whilst they amble about working it out...).

3. Be very friendly with the dj when you meet him, be courteous and work together, it's easier for everyone then.

4. Try to stop guests coming back in the room when they start to wander around and filter back in. Once 2 or 3 come in, they'll all follow and you'll have a room full in 10 minutes.

5. Only play music and let the dj play music when you are 100% ready. When guests hear music for over 2 minutes and the lights are down, you'll attract everyone in.

6. Remember it's not the end of the world if you struggle for time. Do what you can do in the time scales and be confident knowing you couldn't do more.

7. Enjoy it.

[Bassfinger]

I agree with La Bam's first paragraph above.  Hold your ground and tell the venue that they can explain to the happy couple why the love music they'd organised won't be there.  My guess is they'll retreat right quick.

[T-Bay]

Thanks for the advice guys, we are more used to playing pubs and this sort of ‘fun’ has never happened for obvious reasons. It appears they have said yes to everything to the bride and then been Richards when contacted directly. We have come to a crap arrangement but better than it was. It makes it trickier being a mate as the last thing we want to do is to cast any sort of cloud over the day. We plan to go in tomorrow and just have a blast.

[T-Bay]

* d I c k s not Richards 🤣

 

[T-Bay]

And we aren’t the usual sort of wedding band so we plan to shake the place up a bit!

[skidder652003]

Done only 2 weddings, one for the guitarists sister which was a bit of a disaster as no one danced! (we're a loud rock band and granny didn't like it ( what a surprise), got bought not a single drink, in fact I bought the happy couple and entourage a round! 

Second wedding much much better, got properly paid and put up at a cool venue in cornwall, fed and watered to excess, people dancing up all night icnluding on the stage, fabulous, so you never know. The one thing I will say is it amazes me how the bride and groom sometimes only choose a band based on what they like rather than thinking of all the other guests.

Edited October 30, 2019 by skidder652003

[Stofferson]

I Feel your pain, The pub covers band i am in are certainly not a wedding band either, but played our (originals bands) drummers Wedding the other week.

Venue was sound didn't hear a hoot from them, The Wedding planner on the other hand, couldn't run a bath.

Luckily the stage area was a marquee out back which wasn't being used until our party was in there, so we quickly chucked everything in there, set it up got changed and cracked on.

Good luck though dude, even 45 mins to get it all sorted is a killer! Hope it goes well

 

[T-Bay]

47 minutes ago, skidder652003 said:

Done only 2 weddings, one for the guitarists sister which was a bit of a disaster as no one danced! (we're a loud rock band and granny didn't like it ( what a surprise), got bought not a single drink, in fact I bought the happy couple and entourage a round! 

Second wedding much much better, got properly paid and put up at a cool venue in cornwall, fed and watered to excess, people dancing up all night icnluding on the stage, fabulous, so you never know. The one thing I will say is it amazes me how the bride and groom sometimes only choose a band based on what they like rather than thinking of all the other guests.

We are there as the bride is one of my best mates rather than on music choice, luckily a lot of the guests know us well so they will know what we do. We have toned down the set a fair bit, taking out the pearl Jam, Nirvana, Cult etc and chucked in some Darkness, kinks, T-Rex and plan to start with a cheesy version of Marry You, but there are still some heavy ones in there. Hopefully we will have something for everyone. Time will tell! There is also a DJ as we are only playing for a couple of hours so the pop crew can get their fix then.

[dmccombe7]

All the very best and let us know how it went.

 

[T-Bay]

Thanks, will do!

[Monkey Steve]

only ever done a couple of weddings, both with my old punk covers band (and both because the grooms loved old school punk)

While they were both excellent as far as playing the gig went, one was much better organised than the other.  For the good one, we got there very early and set up while the guests were at the wedding. We could sit around drinking while everybody ate, and started playing bang on time.  It was for a mate of mine and I'd gone to the venue with him a couple of weeks beforehand, and gone through all the arrangements with the venue manager, planned how we'd get in and out, where we'd set up, etc, and importantly the timing.

For the bad one, meal and reception in the same big room, so assuming that we could just get in an hour before kick off meant that everybody is in there eating as we're setting up and making noise.  I hadn't booked it, and our singer (who had) assumed that the bride (who was booking us) had thought through the arrangements and would have taken everything into account, when in fact she assumed that we would have thought it all through and would tell her how best to do everything.

Setting up and soundchecking while the wedding guests (of varying ages and varying levels of interest in punk rock) are eating is a vastly different experience to soundchecking in a pub...

Edited October 30, 2019 by Monkey Steve

[T-Bay]

2 hours ago, Monkey Steve said:

only ever done a couple of weddings, both with my old punk covers band (and both because the grooms loved old school punk)

While they were both excellent as far as playing the gig went, one was much better organised than the other.  For the good one, we got there very early and set up while the guests were at the wedding. We could sit around drinking while everybody ate, and started playing bang on time.  It was for a mate of mine and I'd gone to the venue with him a couple of weeks beforehand, and gone through all the arrangements with the venue manager, planned how we'd get in and out, where we'd set up, etc, and importantly the timing.

For the bad one, meal and reception in the same big room, so assuming that we could just get in an hour before kick off meant that everybody is in there eating as we're setting up and making noise.  I hadn't booked it, and our singer (who had) assumed that the bride (who was booking us) had thought through the arrangements and would have taken everything into account, when in fact she assumed that we would have thought it all through and would tell her how best to do everything.

Setting up and soundchecking while the wedding guests (of varying ages and varying levels of interest in punk rock) are eating is a vastly different experience to soundchecking in a pub...

We could be soundchecking during the speeches! Could be the best wedding speeches ever.

[T-Bay]

We have built in time for pink torpedo ups, DJ is on 7-9pm and 11pm on so hopefully the problems will eat into his time.

[uk_lefty]

23 hours ago, T-Bay said:

We are there as the bride is one of my best mates rather than on music choice, luckily a lot of the guests know us well so they will know what we do. We have toned down the set a fair bit, taking out the pearl Jam, Nirvana, Cult etc and chucked in some Darkness, kinks, T-Rex and plan to start with a cheesy version of Marry You, but there are still some heavy ones in there. Hopefully we will have something for everyone. Time will tell! There is also a DJ as we are only playing for a couple of hours so the pop crew can get their fix then.

Last wedding I played there was a guy shouting "Rammstein!!! Disturbed!!!" which tickled the singer and I, so you never know!! We stuck to our usual not that heavy set though and he seemed happy enough that we knew who he was talking about. 

[T-Bay]

2 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

How did it go @T-Bay?

We had a great night in terms of our playing and the guests, we sounded great according to all the people who came and spoke to us after and probably 90% of the people there were up and on the dance floor at the end with good numbers throughout. All the new songs went down well, Sit Down was crazy popular (one I thought would empty the dance floor). When we finished out second set around 11pm everyone seemed to head home and we were on our own with the bride and groom by 11.30pm which was a bit weird.

The organisation however was an utter shambles. We arrived at 6 but weren’t allowed to start setting up until gone 7pm. We had to set up in front of the DJ (Who was brilliant thankfully). We dug our heels in and took an hour to set up, we also decided to sod their PA system and just run how we normally do and just put vocals through their system. The chap running it was friendly but no one seemed to have an idea of how it should work, one of the women there was awful and tried to say she didn’t know there was a band on despite speaking to me the day before! This all made it very stressful indeed but we played well, the bride and groom loved it so a success despite the venues best efforts!

[T-Bay]

And forgot to mention this classic- the reason we couldn’t set up in the morning was that registrar wouldn’t allow it. Really? They are powerful enough to stop a wedding because someone has put a drum kit at the other end of the room apparently. I nearly burst out laughing at that one.

[Monkey Steve]

hmmm...I knew there were conditions around the venue, but nothing about music:

https://www.gov.uk/approval-of-premises-for-civil-marriage-or-civil-partnership

Possibly bands fail under "seemly and dignified"

possibly just your band...🤣