Band at the Reception: How much did you pay?

wanchai_2

Our band (6 people) are charging £700 and they are absolutely amazing!!!! They're not a 'wedding' band. We absolutely love them.

I think that's a bargain for 6 people playing for 2.5 hours tbh.

Olokia

My band is costing us £500 for 2x45 minutes. We are not having that many people in the evening so couldn't justify spending £1000+ on a band even though some were really really good.

The band has 5 members, one drummer, two guitarists, one singer and one brass instrument player and they will learn one song if we want one they don't know.

donnap83

vax2002 wrote: »

I think I would cringe and cringe again at a "Blues brothers tribute"

You really are quite rude, aren't you?

You'd be the guest from hell.

Zimm190

Idiophreak wrote: »

Ours did 3 sets of 45 minutes, 4 piece band - something like £1200 cost...and worth every penny, really rocked the place. BTW, Zimm, your band sounds awesome - do you have a link?

Absolutely, this is their website:

http://www.bennylee.co.uk/home.htm

If you go to the "Clips and Playlist" page you can hear a clip of their Jungle Book song (I actually wanted this as our first dance!). We booked them through an agency and there are more clips on the agency's site:

http://www.themorrisagency.co.uk/band-hire/profile/tma177/

Their version of Destiny's Child's Survivor is briliiant! And halfway through Singing in the Rain they start singing Rhianna's Umbrella. T-Rex's Get It On is also great.

I definitely didnt want a DJ or run-of-the-mill wedding band just doing covers. OH and I both love the sound of swing but don't actually know that much about it so this band are perfect for us. They do all the swing classics but then can "swing" any song you want! Which is great, because we're more David Bowie, The Smiths, James type people than pop music.

We're looking forward to people's faces when they realise what songs they're actually singing. And we'll be able to bust out our newly acquired swing-dancing skills to anything they play!

lizd87

lizd87 wrote: »

I'm having a ceilidh at my wedding and did quite a lot of 'shopping around' for a band. The one i've booked is £700 all inc. Quotes I got ranged from £450-1000+

Also, I know the band I've booked are willing to travel all over the country and they seem extremely good from the videos and sound clips on their website. If you're interested, PM me and I'll send you the details.

wiggychick

We paid £1,200 for a 5 piece band in 2010. I'd done some research that said for a really good band you should be looking to pay around £200 per person, so I didn't feel it was too far off the mark. And ours were REALLY good. There wasn't a single song with an empty dance floor. Everything from Barry White and Nina Simone to the theme from Spiderman.
We'd first heard some of them in a restaurant on an early date and thought it would be sweet to see if they did weddings. When I looked them up I realised that I'd heard them only a few nights before doing a fantastic tribute to Ray Charles at Manchester Jazz festival, where they had somehow managed to get the whole of St Annes Sq to "shake a tail feather"
They were one of the highlights of our day and meant that our guests had a fantastic night too. I couldn't recommend them highly enough.
If anyone is interested, Google Jeremy Sassoon or The Jazz Prescription you should find them.

Whoever you book - make sure that you see them in action first, not just a demo tape. I remember going to one wedding where the DJ was very good but interspersed every record with adverts for his own company. Very annoying!

Hope you find what you need xx

RainbowDrops

We paid £1000 for a 4 piece band that did 2.5hrs of music.
Worth.
Every.
Penny.

talulahbeige_2

We had a 50's rock'n'roll band, they cost us £1500 but were more than worth it. (2 x 1hr set)
We chose them because they were a different from the usual wedding band cheese and most people enjoy music from that era, they went down really really well.

Recommended - The flames

wanchai_2

wiggychick wrote: »

We paid £1,200 for a 5 piece band in 2010. I'd done some research that said for a really good band you should be looking to pay around £200 per person, so I didn't feel it was too far off the mark. And ours were REALLY good. There wasn't a single song with an empty dance floor. Everything from Barry White and Nina Simone to the theme from Spiderman.
We'd first heard some of them in a restaurant on an early date and thought it would be sweet to see if they did weddings. When I looked them up I realised that I'd heard them only a few nights before doing a fantastic tribute to Ray Charles at Manchester Jazz festival, where they had somehow managed to get the whole of St Annes Sq to "shake a tail feather"
They were one of the highlights of our day and meant that our guests had a fantastic night too. I couldn't recommend them highly enough.
If anyone is interested, Google Jeremy Sassoon or The Jazz Prescription you should find them.

Whoever you book - make sure that you see them in action first, not just a demo tape. I remember going to one wedding where the DJ was very good but interspersed every record with adverts for his own company. Very annoying!

Hope you find what you need xx

OMG :eek::eek::eek:

vax2002

The difference between a wedding band and a pub band is organisation, quite often pub band musicians have musical abilities far above the function band musicians but what they lack is organisation skills and attitude.
This is what you get by paying the £1000 + prices, you know that act may have more cheese than the deli counter at Tescos but you also know they will turn up and perform unlike the pub band where someone usually has a massive ego problem and can not be bothered to learn the stuff properly or even put on a smart set of clothes.
with any trade people find their own level in life and those with organisational skills always get the highest price as they know how to tap the demand stream.
musical ability often comes quite well down the list, with many using pre-recorded backing.