Top Tips for Booking Your Wedding or Party Band

The welcome news that all restrictions on weddings and parties are being lifted on 21st June 2021 (subject to all government conditions being met of course!) has got us in the party mood!

Our thoughts have immediately turned to party bands and entertainment and how to make sure your wedding or party is a celebration to remember.

With the wedding planning starting in earnest and the number of ‘end of lockdown’ parties set to be astronomical, we spoke to Richard Joy, Head of Performance at Full Circle to get his top tips for getting the most out of your party band.

We also hear from Full Circle’s top DJ Max, who has pulled together some floor filling tunes especially for us at Big Green Space.  Have a listen to his top 2021 playlist to get the party started this summer  https://bit.ly/2MrbVsW

Can I get more out of my party band?

Yes you can and yes you really should. With budgets being ever more stretched and with every planner on the hunt for ways to bring best value to their clients, making your entertainment appeal to the widest audience is of paramount importance. If you look at it as just an hour of dancing at 9pm the cost of a party band can sometimes seem quite high but be clever and with the right band you can have 3 or 4 ensembles for the price of one.

A lot of bands have a pianist, all will have a vocalist and some will have a saxophonist.  Imagine you have a 5 or 6 piece band….throughout the day we could use the 1 band to supply: solo pianist playing classical/crossover/pop tunes, then we can have a jazz trio (piano, sax and bass) performing standards and swing classics, over dinner we would have the singer and sax playing loungey laid back tracks whilst starting to up the tempo and then your main band all together for the dancing after dinner….

Take these separately and you would be looking at £1000’s but be clever, negotiate extra hours for minimal increases in fee and remember – players want to perform.

What about DJ Live?

Another great way, if budgets for entertainment are capped, is to utilise the DJ Live format.  This is anchored by a DJ but with musicians on top. The classic line up is DJ, Sax and Percussion. But you can add electric violin, guitar and vocals quite easily. The big plus for this type of act is the repertoire. Bands may have 60 songs that are rehearsed up and ready to play- they might even have 100 songs ready at the drop of a hat. The DJ has 5000 !!! and more………and can stream it from Spotify if he hasn’t got it there and then. When talking about utilising performers again, use your sax and DJ to play Hed Kandi, Ibiza Chill over reception, bring out the vocalist for an over dinner set and then hit them with the full band for dancing. But the fun doesn’t stop there- your DJ will play right through to 1am…you can split your musicians sets- get them playing 3 X 45min sets and spread the live music out and you can get great coverage for a very reasonable outlay.

Check out https://www.beatsboutique.net/ to see how their DJs, saxophonists and percussionists get a party jumping.

Enjoy the Music

Talking of DJs – here at Fullcircle, DJ Max says:

with lots of clients missing out on live parties for the majority of Summer we also missed out on playing some of the great tracks that got released in 2020. Here are some of our favourites we’re looking forward to giving a proper play out in 2021 and also a few guilty pleasures thrown in for good measure too!!’

Max has created us a specially curated playlist, guaranteed to get the party started and the dancefloor full until midnight  Have a listen here: https://bit.ly/2MrbVsW

Why not let us know which are your favourite floor fillers by dropping us a quick message.

The summers of 2021 and 2022 are guaranteed to see some of the best celebrations in years.  With performers itching to get back on stage and doing what they love most, we fully expect the energy coming from the stage to be mind blowing this summer!  We cannot wait to get back into those marquees, seeing packed dancefloors and people finally being able to have some fun!

Happy planning!

Louise

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