Weddings

[OldGit]

[quote name='coasterbass' post='310324' date='Oct 20 2008, 11:58 AM']Cheers. Its still work in progress and that's definitely something we need to improve.[/quote]

Well as you know a recommendation is by far the best thing for getting gigs. This is because the recommendation comes with all of the creedence that the recommender has in the eyes of the person looking for a band.
In the absence of that an endorsement on your website from a someone as like your prospective punter as possible is the next best thing.

Thus, if you want weddings, you have happy bride and groom quotes, if you want services functions you have a quote from a credible services event organiser, functions you have a top name organisation. If your band has played for a few big names, that makes a lot of difference.

The basic format is the same whatever: the testimonial should more or less say:
"[b]Everyone had a good time [/b]and thought [b]I[/b] was brilliant for finding such a great band. You were so [b]professional[/b] and nothing was too much trouble. We will certainly [b]recommend you[/b] to everyone we know and [b]book you again[/b] for our next wedding"
Or something like that, plus a clearly not made up name and job title "Sam Davidson, Event coordinator, John Lewis Partnership", or "Samantha and Dave, Bride and Groom", or whatever.

That will help.

Edited October 20, 2008 by OldGit

[stingrayfan]

Continuing the "you need to play Mustang Sally at a wedding" debate. So, on Sat, we tried it. Towards the end of the 2nd set.

The floor emptied and three or four people danced to it.

Then we played The Killers "Somebody Told Me" and the dancefloor filled up again and stayed full while we did The Jam, Kaiser Chiefs and Green Day etc.

Not trying to be a smart alec but Mustang was the only time in two sets that no-one really danced. In set 1, all the oldies had been busting their moves to the Kinks, The Who and Madness!

Edited October 20, 2008 by stingrayfan

[crez5150]

ARRRRGGHHH.... don't ever ever ever play it!!!!

[coasterbass]

Speaking of requests, I had a great one on saturday.
The (wedding) audience were wasted by the time we started at 8pm. First set (1hr) went down very well and we were well up for the 2nd set (10pm-midnight).
By the time we came on for the 2nd set it was carnage. We had to stop 3 times for smashed glasses to be cleared from the dancefloor and they destroyed some light fittings. There was a two-foot inflatable c*ck doing the rounds as well.

I caught sight of one woman and instantly thought 'this is bad news'. She made her way, mid-song, over the monitors, past the singer and guitarist, to me standing at the back. She fixed me with a 1000 yard stare and asked.....




















"Do you know the theme from Baywatch?"


Dear me!?!?! There's been some odd requests in my time, but that took the biscuit.

There was just time to include some posh totty dry humping the speaker stacks to 'I bet you look good on t'dancefloor' (who undoubtedly are still profoundly deaf from the experience) to round off a smashing evening.

[Merton]

Slightly OT, weirdest request we have has was MJ's "Earth Song".

At a Christmas party.



Back on topic:
I have to learn Sade's "By Your Side" and "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits for a couple of December weddings. Not standard first dance fare but better than some of the stuff we've been asked to do

[coasterbass]

[quote name='Merton' post='310604' date='Oct 20 2008, 04:52 PM']Back on topic:
I have to learn Sade's "By Your Side" and "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits for a couple of December weddings. Not standard first dance fare but better than some of the stuff we've been asked to do [/quote]


Check out the version of Romeo and Juliet by The Killers. Whilst a fan of the original, I found it worked better in a smaller band arrangement.

[Merton]

[quote name='coasterbass' post='310614' date='Oct 20 2008, 05:06 PM']Check out the version of Romeo and Juliet by The Killers. Whilst a fan of the original, I found it worked better in a smaller band arrangement.[/quote]
Cool, will do. Cheers Didn't even know they'd done a cover of it!

[crez5150]

[quote name='terryblyth' post='57951' date='Sep 9 2007, 10:02 PM']This is quite an interesting thread - I earn about 70% of my income doing this sort of gig (and I MD the band) so here's my 2p.

1. Have stacks of material (at least 60 songs), covering all bases. Then if you must plan a set, try to keep genres together rather than randomly picking songs.
2. Your competition is a DJ. They cue records up, and segue them - you need to do this live. 7 seconds delay kills a dance floor (I've timed it!)
3. Don't work off a set. Have your guy in charge 'call' the songs, and make sure he can read a dancefloor. If it's pumping out there, and your next song is Angels or somesuch, you'll kill it and have to work very hard to get them back.
4. Get your contracts etc sorted out in advance, and make sure the clients have a list of what you need that they sign.
5. Interesting what OG said about CDs for first dances. We always play them live as it tends to give the client the feeling that they've got bags of value for money. But insist on a reasonable amount of warning on what it is!
6. Make sure you've got your business cards/brochures/DVDs with you as referrals are almost always preferable to agencies.
7. Common sense really, but turn up in plenty of time so you're never rushing and getting stressed.
8. Get paid BEFORE the gig!
9. Do some shopping, and get matching outfits. It gives a much better impression.
10. Play Mustang Sally, but not in 9/8, because people fall over.[/quote]

Agree whole heartedly with the above apart from points 9 & 10......

[Bilbo]

Did a wedding once where the first dance was 'The Muppet Song'

Respect!

[endorka]

My background music jazz band were playing at a wedding recently, during the time between the service and reception. As the wedding party entered the room I counted in our usual opener, the theme from the Odd Couple. It took a couple of bars before I realised that this was perhaps not the best choice of material. Too late! Fortunately nobody seemed to notice. I love background music gigs!

The Muppet Show theme is also on our repertoire. As is "Cantina Band". Bilbo, I know I'm not going up in your estimation by stating these facts, so I'll propably just stop right now :-)

Jennifer

[OldGit]

[quote name='crez5150' post='373051' date='Jan 7 2009, 01:51 PM']Agree whole heartedly with the above apart from points 9 & 10......[/quote]

See, [b]That's[/b] why I want to come and see your band play a wedding. Mustang Sally in 9/8 must be lots of fun

[crez5150]

You know we have now had to remove the clause in our contract stating we will not play mustang sally..... we had to play it last year sometime and they paid extra for that particular song.... not sure how we got away with that one....

[Bilbo]

[quote name='endorka' post='373131' date='Jan 7 2009, 03:14 PM']The Muppet Show theme is also on our repertoire. As is "Cantina Band". Bilbo, I know I'm not going up in your estimation by stating these facts, so I'll propably just stop right now :-)[/quote]

As in Star Wars Cantina? Done it. It sucked.

[Dropzone]

We have only done one wedding. Everything went well.

My one piece of advise is if you are doing one take spare leads - at least one of each type.

Also physically check, by playing it thorough your PA, that you have the correct lead, not the one that is used in another setting to connect, laptop, iphone, MP3 player to your PA. Phoning and checking that they have the correct lead is not enough let me tell you!!!!!

I have had a bad experiance with a lead (or lack of).

[josh3184]

how did you guys find your bands and decide to do weddings etc? Thinking it might be something for me to look into a bit further down the line but have absolutely no idea how to start up!

[OldGit]

You'd probably be best joining an existing weddings and function band. That way you can see how it works from the inside rather than try too start one with no experience.
You'll need to be able to play the right stuff and with the right attitude and clothes, as in this thread, but if you can do that it's just the same as any other band - you advertise in Rehearsal rooms, music shops, websites etc.

OG

[OldGit]

[quote name='Dropzone' post='419450' date='Feb 25 2009, 05:50 PM']We have only done one wedding. Everything went well.

My one piece of advise is if you are doing one take spare leads - at least one of each type.

Also physically check, by playing it thorough your PA, that you have the correct lead, not the one that is used in another setting to connect, laptop, iphone, MP3 player to your PA. Phoning and checking that they have the correct lead is not enough let me tell you!!!!!

I have had a bad experiance with a lead (or lack of).[/quote]


Ha ha we had some stuck up oik self-important brother of the bride at a posh wedding decide he just absolutely HAD to plug his Mac into our PA to do his witty slideshow talk... Did he have a lead? er, no. Did he think to ask us beforehand so we coud provide and help? er, no. As we were "staff" we were expected to anticipate his every need and [s]wipe his bum[/s] sort him out.
We did, of course, but did he say thanks? Nope ...
Posh weddings, they are the worst...

[josh3184]

[quote name='OldGit' post='419497' date='Feb 25 2009, 06:48 PM']You'd probably be best joining an existing weddings and function band. That way you can see how it works from the inside rather than try too start one with no experience.
You'll need to be able to play the right stuff and with the right attitude and clothes, as in this thread, but if you can do that it's just the same as any other band - you advertise in Rehearsal rooms, music shops, websites etc.

OG[/quote]

Ah righty, thanks for the help! Incidentally, was reading your website- whats this jellybaby award?!?!?

[HeavyJay]

[quote name='josh3184' post='419480' date='Feb 25 2009, 06:33 PM']how did you guys find your bands and decide to do weddings etc? Thinking it might be something for me to look into a bit further down the line but have absolutely no idea how to start up![/quote]

We started learning covers to keep ourselves in check whilst looking for a singer for the originals band we did at the time, we never found one that worked out but realised we were pretty good as a three piece covers band(bass, guitar, drums with dual lead vox from the bassist and guitarist).

Did a few pub gigs at pretty cheap introductory rates to earn a few quid and get in with venues and with that we bought some more decent (reliable) gear. As we got more gigs we got more people asking if we did weddings, I was sceptical at first as I liked the casual nature of the gigs we were doing.

Wedding gigs, as outlined earlier in this thread, inherently carry more pressure that the gigs we were used to, even if you begin with the premise of "this is what we do, no swaying from this script" and the punters are fine with it. Cancellation policies suddenly become very official sounding and even if you said that you don't do no requests to the bride and groom beforehand, saying no to the bride's mother on the day of her only daughter's wedding will make you unpopular and a host of other factors (as you'll have read earlier) are to be considered. I thought this was all too much hassle and more trouble than it was worth. The other two chaps only saw the inflated price tags for the gigs and were much keener to do them.

We eventually did a wedding gig as a last minute replacement for a friend's band who pulled out a week before the date. I thought I'd give it a try because there were plenty of in-build excuses if it went badly. Fortunately for us (and the couple) it went well. We've done a few more weddings and functions since (in amongst the pub and club dates) and haven't had any mishaps as yet due to learning our own lessons from near misses and taking advice from places like this (although I'd rather eat my own face than play Mustang Sally).

Hope that helps.

[OldGit]

[quote name='josh3184' post='419510' date='Feb 25 2009, 07:01 PM']Ah righty, thanks for the help! Incidentally, was reading your website- whats this jellybaby award?!?!?[/quote]


Ha ha thought you'd read the site

As one of our USP's we have a big Bertie Basset filled with jelly babies.


We award jelly babies to audience menbers for various things like getting up to dance first, being pretty, dancing with no shoes on, being pretty, being the bride and groom, being pretty, being under 10, being pretty, being the mother of the bride or groom (or both in some places), doing demo steps and dances with the caller, being pretty, swirling your kilt .... etc

By the end of the gig I've usually given out about 2 kilos of jelly babies -and everyone has had some. Last thing I do is go around the tables schmoozing the punters and delivering the last change jelly babies .. so they all go home remembering that band that gives out jelly babies .. It's a cynical marketing ploy oh and everyone loves it.

Costs about £3 per gig and works wonders.

Jellied Reels > Jelly Babies .. geddit?

[ezbass]

Hi just want to send out a warning to any bass players who's band get a wedding at Epsom Race Course. When setting up try and set up away from the large glass areas, doubley important for any rear ported cabs. I played there last night in the corner of what turned out to be almost a glass box. Now I normally love my onstage sound from my Schroeder 1212L (not rear ported) cab and LMII. Last night I thought there was something severely wrong with it as it seemed to be building up some sort of strange low frequenecy feedback loop while I was playing. It got so bad at times that I turned it off to stop the strange noise . Let me say that I was not turned up loud at all, about 8:30 o'clock on the master with the eq mostly flat. The cause? The almost 3x2m panes of double glazing starting to vibrate sympathetically with anything below A on the E string, Eb (I use a D Tuner) being the worst! The wedding party enjoyed the gig and no one said anything untoward, but I had a most worrying time until the problem was sussed out. Anyway you have been warned, get close to a normal wall if possible and definitely watch you bass eq settings.

[JBassist]

Play 'Their' song

[iamapirate]

ahhh, I've been asked to play at a wedding service (the worship music stuff) with a drummer (Tim Cooke) and acoustic g-tarder/singer (Martin Cooper) this saturday and I'm getting paid 100 quid! Funnily enough, the first ever live performance was filling in for my cousin (Carl Stanbridge) for 'superstition' at a wedding for 1 song. I got mah bass solo!

Edited July 2, 2009 by iamapirate

[OldGit]

[quote name='iamapirate' post='530829' date='Jul 2 2009, 05:20 PM']ahhh, I've been asked to play at a wedding service (the worship music stuff) with a drummer (Tim Cooke) and acoustic g-tarder/singer (Martin Cooper) this saturday and I'm getting paid 100 quid! Funnily enough, the first ever live performance was filling in for my cousin (Carl Stanbridge) for 'superstition' at a wedding for 1 song. I got mah bass solo![/quote]

Nice ... Not Mustang Saly then, I guess
What pieces are you playing?

[iamapirate]

haha, welll I've got a list, but it's on facebook - I'll grab it when I'm at home and whack it on here.