Wedding Gigs

[nobodysprefect]

Can't resist replying...

My life used to have an annual cycle of summer with lots of wedding gigs and winter with function and small-christmas gigs. January and February were usually the quiet season, and the only time of the year when I could get plastered on early Saturday nights. I think most of the wisdom has already been freely given, really. I don't know if this is true in Britain, but here wedding gigs are bread and butter for people studying for a master's in jazz at Sibelius Academy, which isn't too shabby a place. We're really quite egalitarian here!

One thing I'd like clarified is: how in the heck do you play more than one wedding per week?!! Here, it is not physically possible, despite Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. In real life, on cannot be physically present in two different wedding parties at the same time. Or are you people going to tell me that normal people get married on other days of the week than Saturday over there? It boggles the mind!

Also, you don't know how good you guys have it playing weddings. You complain for having to play a soul classic? You have to get to the place all of TWO hours before the down beat? Here, the reality is this: you will start driving at about 1 pm. It can be 11 am or 3 pm if the wedding's in your town and the actual church stuff is set late, but never 4 pm. You set up your gear so that everything's set up and you can get away from sight before the guests start arriving. Because they haven't paid to see sweating, cursing musicians schlep gear. You get to eat from the buffet unless the gig was sold by a twat with a stick with metal twine on it, and now some c**ts will abuse the wine and beer buffet and make the music go all to hell. Now you get to the first part with options: cake can be had either before the couple's walz or after it. If it's before, you play the couple's waltz - it's always, [i]always [/i] a waltz - followed by parent-child waltz, followed by FIL-bride/MIL-groom walzt. Then you play a set of traditional dance music. Waltzes, polkas, tango, jenkkas, humppas, masurkas, foxtrot, perhaps a pair JIVEs or TWISTs if you're a maverick and maybe a set of two latin (rumba, son or merengue) songs. If the cake's after the couple's walz, it's 3 walzes, the cake, then the first set of 45 minutes at some point of time before the couple leaves. You can play more, but you can't claim those minutes against your later play time.

The down beat of the first set can be at 8 pm, but it can also be at 11 pm. Whatever is the case, you're paid for being in the readiness to play and schlepping gear, not playing. So you'll try to pass the time in some sort of drafty back room with people with whom you get along, or not. Since a lot of the guys I played with were starving full-time musos, I'd play with the same line-up maybe twice each wedding season. (They'd always take a freelancing gig if it came their way, as would I - 'our band' was together for some years, and the one who couldn't make it due to previous engagement would get themselves a capable sub.)

A few more words on the music: the couples waltz would in my estimate be in 60%-80% of the time be [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IA8MBbSgc4"]Akselin ja Elinan häävalssi[/url] this youtube linky also has a rough translation. I'd like to point attention to the lines in second verse:'We'll share the poverty, sorrow and joy of together, until away we sink into oblivion.' Combine this with a slow tempo and I never could see why people chose this waltz. I much preferred [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko8KS-ZowZg&feature=related"]Maijan ja Jannen häävalssi[/url] esp. when we'd booked the female singer for the gig (we had two singers who did about half and half of our gigs) or [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Mt98Sed0A&feature=related"]Häävalssi[/url] or [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFxfPDD_k_g&feature=related"]Metsäkukkia - woodland flowers[/url]. Häävalssi is Finnish for 'Wedding Waltz.' Now, for those who are not scotsmen, this muscular pathos may seem ridiculous, but you have to understand how it relates to our national narrative and history. The VERY English habit of portraying the attitude of not taking things seriously can ease social interaction, but, you know, giving one's own culture an unquestioned universal applicability is, simply put, neither very perceptive nor cogent. And we'd all like to thought of as perceptive and cogent, no? We still live in the world of [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs7nWKYyUFU"]Scottish Borderlands[/url] in some sense.

Now, depending on the wedding, there would be one to five sets of traditional dancing music. I usually sold 'wedding waltzes plus 3 x 45minutes, would you like one set of traditional music and two sets of pop-rock-disco?' When one plays traditional dancing sort of music here, there are a few iron-clad rules. Firstly, one must set the tempo at something the elderly will be comfortable with dancing. From about [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjWK9HV8tIo&feature=related"]Kulkuri ja joutsen/Vagabond and the Swan[/url] to this [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NorgJ0zivAA"]Säkkijärven polkka[/url] or a little more. Chose this version, not the faster one by Viljo Vesterinen, as there's some imagery related to the lyrics. More specifically, the stolen Karelia. (GDDMN that revisionist history practised in Russia, backed by the state gets to me) Secondly, whatever music you perform, you must have a set of two in the same style and close in tempo. We call that set a 'pair' and we'd have specific pieces that were a pair in our repertoire. Thirdly, as regards pop music, play whatever. Make it well-known to please the peeps or less known as suits you. Don't play songs related to breaking up or killing your man / woman, though.

[OldGit]

[quote name='nobody's prefect' post='568623' date='Aug 14 2009, 08:13 AM']Can't resist replying...

My life used to have an annual cycle of summer with lots of wedding gigs and winter with function and small-christmas gigs. January and February were usually the quiet season, and the only time of the year when I could get plastered on early Saturday nights. I think most of the wisdom has already been freely given, really. I don't know if this is true in Britain, but here wedding gigs are bread and butter for people studying for a master's in jazz at Sibelius Academy, which isn't too shabby a place. We're really quite egalitarian here!

One thing I'd like clarified is: how in the heck do you play more than one wedding per week?!! Here, it is not physically possible, despite Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. In real life, on cannot be physically present in two different wedding parties at the same time. Or are you people going to tell me that normal people get married on other days of the week than Saturday over there? It boggles the mind!

Also, you don't know how good you guys have it playing weddings. You complain for having to play a soul classic? You have to get to the place all of TWO hours before the down beat? Here, the reality is this: you will start driving at about 1 pm. It can be 11 am or 3 pm if the wedding's in your town and the actual church stuff is set late, but never 4 pm. You set up your gear so that everything's set up and you can get away from sight before the guests start arriving. Because they haven't paid to see sweating, cursing musicians schlep gear. You get to eat from the buffet unless the gig was sold by a twat with a stick with metal twine on it, and now some c**ts will abuse the wine and beer buffet and make the music go all to hell. Now you get to the first part with options: cake can be had either before the couple's walz or after it. If it's before, you play the couple's waltz - it's always, [i]always [/i] a waltz - followed by parent-child waltz, followed by FIL-bride/MIL-groom walzt. Then you play a set of traditional dance music. Waltzes, polkas, tango, jenkkas, humppas, masurkas, foxtrot, perhaps a pair JIVEs or TWISTs if you're a maverick and maybe a set of two latin (rumba, son or merengue) songs. If the cake's after the couple's walz, it's 3 walzes, the cake, then the first set of 45 minutes at some point of time before the couple leaves. You can play more, but you can't claim those minutes against your later play time.

The down beat of the first set can be at 8 pm, but it can also be at 11 pm. Whatever is the case, you're paid for being in the readiness to play and schlepping gear, not playing. So you'll try to pass the time in some sort of drafty back room with people with whom you get along, or not. Since a lot of the guys I played with were starving full-time musos, I'd play with the same line-up maybe twice each wedding season. (They'd always take a freelancing gig if it came their way, as would I - 'our band' was together for some years, and the one who couldn't make it due to previous engagement would get themselves a capable sub.)

A few more words on the music: the couples waltz would in my estimate be in 60%-80% of the time be [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IA8MBbSgc4"]Akselin ja Elinan häävalssi[/url] this youtube linky also has a rough translation. I'd like to point attention to the lines in second verse:'We'll share the poverty, sorrow and joy of together, until away we sink into oblivion.' Combine this with a slow tempo and I never could see why people chose this waltz. I much preferred [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko8KS-ZowZg&feature=related"]Maijan ja Jannen häävalssi[/url] esp. when we'd booked the female singer for the gig (we had two singers who did about half and half of our gigs) or [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Mt98Sed0A&feature=related"]Häävalssi[/url] or [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFxfPDD_k_g&feature=related"]Metsäkukkia - woodland flowers[/url]. Häävalssi is Finnish for 'Wedding Waltz.' Now, for those who are not scotsmen, this muscular pathos may seem ridiculous, but you have to understand how it relates to our national narrative and history. The VERY English habit of portraying the attitude of not taking things seriously can ease social interaction, but, you know, giving one's own culture an unquestioned universal applicability is, simply put, neither very perceptive nor cogent. And we'd all like to thought of as perceptive and cogent, no? We still live in the world of [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs7nWKYyUFU"]Scottish Borderlands[/url] in some sense.

Now, depending on the wedding, there would be one to five sets of traditional dancing music. I usually sold 'wedding waltzes plus 3 x 45minutes, would you like one set of traditional music and two sets of pop-rock-disco?' When one plays traditional dancing sort of music here, there are a few iron-clad rules. Firstly, one must set the tempo at something the elderly will be comfortable with dancing. From about [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjWK9HV8tIo&feature=related"]Kulkuri ja joutsen/Vagabond and the Swan[/url] to this [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NorgJ0zivAA"]Säkkijärven polkka[/url] or a little more. Chose this version, not the faster one by Viljo Vesterinen, as there's some imagery related to the lyrics. More specifically, the stolen Karelia. (GDDMN that revisionist history practised in Russia, backed by the state gets to me) Secondly, whatever music you perform, you must have a set of two in the same style and close in tempo. We call that set a 'pair' and we'd have specific pieces that were a pair in our repertoire. Thirdly, as regards pop music, play whatever. Make it well-known to please the peeps or less known as suits you. Don't play songs related to breaking up or killing your man / woman, though.[/quote]

Waaaaah! No wonder thr suicide rate is so high! Must be musicians ...

Having said that the "humppas," dance sounds potentially promising

[crez5150]

[quote name='nobody's prefect' post='568623' date='Aug 14 2009, 08:13 AM']Can't resist replying...

My life used to have an annual cycle of summer with lots of wedding gigs and winter with function and small-christmas gigs. January and February were usually the quiet season, and the only time of the year when I could get plastered on early Saturday nights. I think most of the wisdom has already been freely given, really. I don't know if this is true in Britain, but here wedding gigs are bread and butter for people studying for a master's in jazz at Sibelius Academy, which isn't too shabby a place. We're really quite egalitarian here!

One thing I'd like clarified is: how in the heck do you play more than one wedding per week?!! Here, it is not physically possible, despite Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. In real life, on cannot be physically present in two different wedding parties at the same time. Or are you people going to tell me that normal people get married on other days of the week than Saturday over there? It boggles the mind!

Also, you don't know how good you guys have it playing weddings. You complain for having to play a soul classic? You have to get to the place all of TWO hours before the down beat? Here, the reality is this: you will start driving at about 1 pm. It can be 11 am or 3 pm if the wedding's in your town and the actual church stuff is set late, but never 4 pm. You set up your gear so that everything's set up and you can get away from sight before the guests start arriving. Because they haven't paid to see sweating, cursing musicians schlep gear. You get to eat from the buffet unless the gig was sold by a twat with a stick with metal twine on it, and now some c**ts will abuse the wine and beer buffet and make the music go all to hell. Now you get to the first part with options: cake can be had either before the couple's walz or after it. If it's before, you play the couple's waltz - it's always, [i]always [/i] a waltz - followed by parent-child waltz, followed by FIL-bride/MIL-groom walzt. Then you play a set of traditional dance music. Waltzes, polkas, tango, jenkkas, humppas, masurkas, foxtrot, perhaps a pair JIVEs or TWISTs if you're a maverick and maybe a set of two latin (rumba, son or merengue) songs. If the cake's after the couple's walz, it's 3 walzes, the cake, then the first set of 45 minutes at some point of time before the couple leaves. You can play more, but you can't claim those minutes against your later play time.

The down beat of the first set can be at 8 pm, but it can also be at 11 pm. Whatever is the case, you're paid for being in the readiness to play and schlepping gear, not playing. So you'll try to pass the time in some sort of drafty back room with people with whom you get along, or not. Since a lot of the guys I played with were starving full-time musos, I'd play with the same line-up maybe twice each wedding season. (They'd always take a freelancing gig if it came their way, as would I - 'our band' was together for some years, and the one who couldn't make it due to previous engagement would get themselves a capable sub.)

A few more words on the music: the couples waltz would in my estimate be in 60%-80% of the time be [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IA8MBbSgc4"]Akselin ja Elinan häävalssi[/url] this youtube linky also has a rough translation. I'd like to point attention to the lines in second verse:'We'll share the poverty, sorrow and joy of together, until away we sink into oblivion.' Combine this with a slow tempo and I never could see why people chose this waltz. I much preferred [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko8KS-ZowZg&feature=related"]Maijan ja Jannen häävalssi[/url] esp. when we'd booked the female singer for the gig (we had two singers who did about half and half of our gigs) or [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Mt98Sed0A&feature=related"]Häävalssi[/url] or [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFxfPDD_k_g&feature=related"]Metsäkukkia - woodland flowers[/url]. Häävalssi is Finnish for 'Wedding Waltz.' Now, for those who are not scotsmen, this muscular pathos may seem ridiculous, but you have to understand how it relates to our national narrative and history. The VERY English habit of portraying the attitude of not taking things seriously can ease social interaction, but, you know, giving one's own culture an unquestioned universal applicability is, simply put, neither very perceptive nor cogent. And we'd all like to thought of as perceptive and cogent, no? We still live in the world of [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs7nWKYyUFU"]Scottish Borderlands[/url] in some sense.

Now, depending on the wedding, there would be one to five sets of traditional dancing music. I usually sold 'wedding waltzes plus 3 x 45minutes, would you like one set of traditional music and two sets of pop-rock-disco?' When one plays traditional dancing sort of music here, there are a few iron-clad rules. Firstly, one must set the tempo at something the elderly will be comfortable with dancing. From about [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjWK9HV8tIo&feature=related"]Kulkuri ja joutsen/Vagabond and the Swan[/url] to this [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NorgJ0zivAA"]Säkkijärven polkka[/url] or a little more. Chose this version, not the faster one by Viljo Vesterinen, as there's some imagery related to the lyrics. More specifically, the stolen Karelia. (GDDMN that revisionist history practised in Russia, backed by the state gets to me) Secondly, whatever music you perform, you must have a set of two in the same style and close in tempo. We call that set a 'pair' and we'd have specific pieces that were a pair in our repertoire. Thirdly, as regards pop music, play whatever. Make it well-known to please the peeps or less known as suits you. Don't play songs related to breaking up or killing your man / woman, though.[/quote]


A very interesting read.... I think you'll find that here in the UK, the wedding gig scene is a very different affair.... has become seriously commercialised at the higher end of the market...

You'll find venues offering different rates for the hire of the venues... even free if you get married between Monday-Thursday which suits some.

Saturday weddings are traditional but as you will see if you look, any day is game. I'm playing three weddings this weekend (Fri,Sat & Sun). July and August are my busiest season for Weddings and we had over 30 of them in the bag this year which was up on last year and Next year should be just as good judging on the enquiries we have deposits for already.

I agree and disagree with some of the stuff said here but I guess it varies from band to band. The band I play with is made up of a collection of musicians some are Pro and some of us are semi-pro (depending on how you view that term.... I'm sure there's another thread here about that). I enjoy playing the wedding gigs as I get to play with some great muso's and yeah the songs may be set but we get to shred the hell out of them which makes for a great show for the audience.

Jay

[JTUK]

OldGit classic.. !!!! she wants to meet one of our drummers...

The stories I could put up about him...legendary now, but totally cringe-worthy at the time.

In the end I had to say that if his antics led to us not being paid, then there would be trouble..

Funnily enough, it never did, but I am just glad I was not the one who had to go and claim the money at the end of the gig.
Eventually, I had to leave the band because of him... altho I still see him about on a few low-key deps..

Great little player, and a nice guy....
but when he is drunk....???? which he is, A LOT..!!!

[nobodysprefect]

[quote name='OldGit' post='568695' date='Aug 14 2009, 11:50 AM']Waaaaah! No wonder thr suicide rate is so high! Must be musicians ...

Having said that the "humppas," dance sounds potentially promising [/quote]

Hah, humppa can be fun to play, even though it's such basic stuff [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkHpJ5jTdCM"]Kaksi kolpakkoa - two pints[/url] yet on the other hand, it can be horrible if it's done with all seriousness [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8VH-lqZWEs"]Arja Koriseva, lit. Arja Groaning[/url] and when it's comedy, it's [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRZlXvjbH5k"]comedy gold[/url] - this time reading the comments pays off. The band's called Old Gits, btw! And yes, dancing the humppa often precedes the doing horizontal mambo! Y'see, at public, er, 'dance floor ball' you'd get to present your leet skills and perhaps get to 'walk the girl home.' Had a relative of mom's get pregnant from her first time at a dance floor ball.

Forget about suicide rates. Our homicide rate is at about thrice the level you guys have. I'm reading a book by the leading Finnish psychiatrist of criminal mental disease and, well, for some reason people who get (homicidally) aggressive when they drink, like my mother's male relatives, were selected for among those settling on the Finnish peninsula in the last few millennia. Drunken killings account for 70% of our homicide, according to leading criminologists. The weapon is usually fists, knives, axes, bits of wood, kitchen knives, sofa legs, chairs, crowbars, whatever you have handy.

So, yeah, I've been there when one wedding guest started to groun'n'pound on the groom in the parking lot.

[OldGit]

[quote name='nobody's prefect' post='568747' date='Aug 14 2009, 10:31 AM']Hah, humppa can be fun to play,[/quote]


Sorry, I guess that pun got lost in translation humppas = humpers

+ on mid week weddings. A lot of my "stand-in on standup" bass gigs are midweeks. It's cheaper all round (though my own band charges more for midweeks 'cos of the problems of getting off work)

[largo]

[quote name='crez5150' post='567723' date='Aug 13 2009, 10:04 AM']when you say 'your songs' I presume you mean original's..... that's a no no pretty much.[/quote]

Hi Crez5150, no I didn't mean originals I meant songs the band want to play or usually play in their set. You might like the latest Metallica number, and play it in your pub set but it doesn't mean you should play it in the wedding set. I guess I was trying to say you have to "read the crowd" and alter the set accordingly.

[crez5150]

[quote name='largo' post='568849' date='Aug 14 2009, 11:49 AM']Hi Crez5150, no I didn't mean originals I meant songs the band want to play or usually play in their set. You might like the latest Metallica number, and play it in your pub set but it doesn't mean you should play it in the wedding set. I guess I was trying to say you have to "read the crowd" and alter the set accordingly.[/quote]

Absolutely..... Our standard set is about two years old now..... a mix of standards really but we chuck some new one's in as requested..... First dances are always odd..... We done an Elbow track recently which was odd for a first dance but a great track in itself.

[Rich]

[quote name='leschirons' post='568588' date='Aug 14 2009, 01:01 AM']Have you ever been in that situation where, after setting up, you stick on a really quiet background CD and "uncle Sidney" then asks you if it's going to be that loud all night?[/quote]
I had that in a social club gig once. Drummer set up his kit, sat down, hit his (unamplified) snare [i]once[/i]... and an old dear's voice from the darkness said "Ooh, it's a bit loud...".

[OldGit]

[quote name='Rich' post='568894' date='Aug 14 2009, 12:14 PM']I had that in a social club gig once. Drummer set up his kit, sat down, hit his (unamplified) snare [i]once[/i]... and an old dear's voice from the darkness said "Ooh, it's a bit loud...".
[/quote]


Yeas ago a local music shop had a 1x12 guitar combo box in the window with no amp and no speaker. It was labeled "The Social Club Special"

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='Rich' post='568894' date='Aug 14 2009, 12:14 PM']I had that in a social club gig once. Drummer set up his kit, sat down, hit his (unamplified) snare [i]once[/i]... and an old dear's voice from the darkness said "Ooh, it's a bit loud...".
[/quote]

Almost every bloody time we set up at a social club we find the oldest wingers sit the closest to the stage so they can moan like hell at the band being too loud and spoil it for the rest of the club. Thats our job LOL.

It seems like most of the club members claimed their seats just after WW1 and wont give them up no matter what happens.
Im sure some of them are just corpses tied to the chairs, just to make the numbers up.

Edited August 14, 2009 by dave_bass5

[nobodysprefect]

[quote name='OldGit' post='568902' date='Aug 14 2009, 02:20 PM']Yeas ago a local music shop had a 1x12 guitar combo box in the window with no amp and no speaker. It was labeled "The Social Club Special"[/quote]

Yep. At one wedding the guitarist turned his combo off, and the drummer played with his fingertips.

[whynot]

[quote name='Rich' post='568894' date='Aug 14 2009, 12:14 PM']I had that in a social club gig once. Drummer set up his kit, sat down, hit his (unamplified) snare [i]once[/i]... and an old dear's voice from the darkness said "Ooh, it's a bit loud...".
[/quote]
Isn't it almost always the way that the people who complain about the volumn seem to position themselves directly in front of the PA speakers.
Even those with the option to move (as in those not with dedicted seats at weddings/functions) will insist on staying where they are and complain throughout the whole evening.

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='whynot' post='568910' date='Aug 14 2009, 12:27 PM']Isn't it almost always the way that the people who complain about the volumn seem to position themselves directly in front of the PA speakers.
Even those with the option to move (as in those not with dedicted seats at weddings/functions) will insist on staying where they are and complain throughout the whole evening.[/quote]

A mate was telling me his band played a club a while ago, they hadn't been there before but got there early so they could do a good sound check etc.
They put their PA desk and amp etc on a small table just off the stage, did the sound check etc and went away for a while.
When they got back the place was still half empty but there was an old lady sitting at that table. there was hardly any room to put a drink but she sat there the whole evening. When they asked her later about it she just said "i always sit here".
The mind boggles.

I do actually like to play social clubs every now and then. It makes a [s]nice[/s] change from the weddings. No suits most of the time, not having to hang around for hours, not having to get changed in the bog or car park and a lot less pressure so we use them as rehearsals for any new songs we have to learn.
We do always go down well, even if the dance floors never get packed but i think most of these people like to listen rather than dance.

[mrcrow]

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='567202' date='Aug 12 2009, 07:38 PM']I played at a wedding last Saturday. I haven't played this kind of gig for ages. The band was a soul/funk cover outfit, and we were due on at 8pm for the first dance. After the first song we continued the set, playing to nobody, as the food was being served. The second set was OK, but it was obvious people were just waiting for the disco to come back on.
I must admit I was home before 12 with a hundred quid in my back pocket, but why do people bother with live bands at weddings?
Is it just me?[/quote]

i think they were listening...i would and do at receptions...at a concert you dont get the audience dancing and not paying attention to the performers
think of it that way
money for old rope

[OldGit]

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='568926' date='Aug 14 2009, 12:38 PM']We do always go down well, even if the dance floors never get packed but i think most of these people like to listen rather than dance.[/quote]

And sit there with their arms crossed with a look on their faces that says "go on then, f@@@kin [i]entertain[/i] us"

[lemmywinks]

[quote name='doctor_of_the_bass' post='567525' date='Aug 13 2009, 12:33 AM']............ so we had Gizz Butt (ex The Prodigy) on guitar.............

Nick[/quote]


He's ace, i remember buying his Janus Stark album when it came out, some good tunes on that

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='OldGit' post='568937' date='Aug 14 2009, 12:47 PM']And sit there with their arms crossed with a look on their faces that says "go on then, f@@@kin [i]entertain[/i] us"[/quote]

Yeah, and thats why we are there.
As long as they enjoy us it doesn't matter if they dont dance. As long as they are appreciative thats enough.

[nobodysprefect]

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='568950' date='Aug 14 2009, 03:00 PM']Yeah, and thats why we are there.
As long as they enjoy us it doesn't matter if they dont dance. As long as they are appreciative thats enough.[/quote]

Yup - I've long since given up any illusions of being an 'artist' and tried to be the best 'entertainer' I could be!

[chris_b]

Why do bands playing at weddings think they are playing to an audience? They're not, these people are wedding guests. That's a completely different thing and they need entertaining not impressing!

[Pete Academy]

[quote name='whynot' post='568910' date='Aug 14 2009, 12:27 PM']Isn't it almost always the way that the people who complain about the volumn seem to position themselves directly in front of the PA speakers.
Even those with the option to move (as in those not with dedicted seats at weddings/functions) will insist on staying where they are and complain throughout the whole evening.[/quote]

A mate of mine, who was a singer in a club band in the 80s, was playing a club where an old lady was seated right in front of a PA speaker. After each song she kept complaining the sound was too loud. My mate said to her: 'Listen, it's like sticking your head up a cow's arse and saying it stinks.'

[tonybassplayer]

An ex work colleague who was a pro drummer in the seventies ( even made new faces !! ) told me a story of the worst gig they played in a south Yorkshire wmc mid seventies. They were waiting in the wings as the con sec went up to the mic and said "we've got four lads on next for you, not my cup of tea but the commitee out voted me" he then turned to the band and said "your on" as they walked on to a packed but silent club !!

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='chris_b' post='570395' date='Aug 16 2009, 02:55 AM']Why do bands playing at weddings think they are playing to an audience? They're not, these people are wedding guests. That's a completely different thing and they need entertaining not impressing![/quote]

Yep, thats how i see it as well. Same with a disco, People dance to the music, not watch the DJ.
Then again we are the entertainment so as long as we entertain thats our job done IMO.

Saying that we had a fantastic gig on Friday and we were indeed the focal point of the night. They danced and after each song the whole dance floor would turn around and cheer us. It made a nice change to see that.

Edited August 16, 2009 by dave_bass5

[hubrad]

[quote name='OldGit' post='568458' date='Aug 13 2009, 10:04 PM']I occasionally play with a band where one member (a starvin' pro muso) takes Tupperware to take home some of the wedding food. She occasionally plays three gigs on a weekend and lives on buffet food for days [/quote]
I was just thinking that I play with the same woman (concertina?), but you and I are a couple of hundred miles apart!
Maybe our colleagues are sisters?

[crez5150]

[quote name='chris_b' post='570395' date='Aug 16 2009, 02:55 AM']Why do bands playing at weddings think they are playing to an audience? They're not, these people are wedding guests. That's a completely different thing and they need entertaining not impressing![/quote]

Your wrong..... The guests are the audience.... they want to be impressed AND entertained. That's what your booked for.... if you impress then you get more bookings from it hopefully.....

I've played three weddings this weekend, we have gained 4 more gigs for 2010/11 because we impressed the guests and one booking because we impressed the Venue manager.... you have to be able to do both!!