OldGit

[quote name='lukeward2004' post='58628' date='Sep 11 2007, 11:08 AM']Im going to Pin this thread as it is a great thread for anyone looking to breakout into the wedding circuit. ALl of the above is fantastic information, and my new functions band will be taking note of this thread to help sharpen ourselves up! We have our first corporate gig at a works do at the end of the month, and although its a shade different to your usual wedding gig, we still need to put on a good show, so here is our current setlist: Set One: Brand New Heavies - Never Stop Jamiroquai - Runaway George Benson - Turn your Love Around Wild Cherry - Play that Funky Music Jamiroquai - High Times Luther Vandross - Never Too Much Modjo - Lady (Hear me Tonight) The Doobie Brothers - Long Train Running Set Two: Prince - Get on the Boat Jamiroquai - Too Young To Die Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground The Commodores - Brick House Jill Scott - Golden Stevie Wonder - Superstitious Amp Fiddler - I believe In You Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster Obviously we will be looking to learn a number of other tracks to accomodate for weddings and similar events, and we are looking to promote ourselves as a funk outfit, rather than anything else - im thinking we should probably pull in some old school Motown and Soul, alongside a bit of disco for fun.[/quote] Ok a few comments about stuff relevant to this as it's getting pinned. I strongly recommend the two name approach for a band that plays two types of gigs - one name for the band that plays pubs and is building a following and another name (same band) for the band that plays weddings and corporates. This is cos the markets are different and are best served by separate attitudes and approaches to almost all of it. Marketing a wedding/function band is totally different to a pub or originals band. Totally different market and a totally different approach. If you are planning a lot of wedding and function work the better known your stuff the better you will go down. In the above set you might find it works better to truncate Superstition.. Fabbo tune, outstanding epoch making record but ... in general audiences get bored by verse two .. I've watched this happened a lot of times. The stat brings a huge whoop of recognition followed by a floor full of people but they start glazing over pretty fast so ... do two verses and the middle bit and then morph it into something else like Play that Funky Music and it will work a lot better... OG

[quote name='lukeward2004' post='58615' date='Sep 11 2007, 10:40 AM']Flea from RHCP was in the Back to the Future films...[/quote] Yeah and he was Donnie the wild boy in the kids cartoon series called The Wild Thornburys too. However that's the wrong way round as he's better known as a bass player than actor

[quote name='MB1' post='58543' date='Sep 11 2007, 01:30 AM'][quote name='Shaggy' post='31074' date='Jul 13 2007, 08:07 AM'][/quote] Jonathan Ross was banging on until fairly recently about learning bass, but I guess he's given up! MB1. Afraid so, gave up after trying to buy a wickenbacker in sound control apparently, wibble,wibble ,wibbly! [/quote] Yeah The Sound Control Experience makes me want to give up sometimes ....

"Anyhoo, turns out the Mac crashed" Yeah sure ... haha I believed you up to that point

[quote name='Merton' post='58458' date='Sep 10 2007, 10:03 PM']We normally provide full band and DJ sets but this particular couple had a friend who is DJ so they got him to DJ. His PA was smaller than our monitors.[/quote] That's a great story We did one recently where the DJ had a huge amount of gear and two young humpers to drag it all in and plug it all together ... our whole PA, backline and drum kit was the size of one of his monitors ... all for about 30 mins of the Grease megamix at the end of the night

[quote name='chris_b' post='58396' date='Sep 10 2007, 07:24 PM']I'm sorry...... but that's a step too far!!!![/quote] Yeah it's from the "Advanced Wedding Band" manual

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='58340' date='Sep 10 2007, 05:50 PM']We had no choice but to try that last year when our vocalist rang (as we were finishing setting up) to say he couldn't make it. What a hoot it was! We invited punters to sing the ones that we couldn't manage... in hindsight even us struggling to hit 'some' of the notes would have been preferable to someone struggling to hit 'any' of the notes. Lesson learned was never believe people when they say that they can sing or they used to be in a band, p*ssed people and their friends lie a lot! Actually this isn't so off topic as you'll probably have some plonker goaded by his/her mates to get up with you... your call on whether it turns into a farce or a right laugh![/quote] We have a big fat karaoke book with us and an open invitation for anyone to get up an play if they want to .. works a treat .. Rich from this very forum got up a while back, bassed Mustang Sally for me so I could show off on sax for a few bars We find it works a treat, some people really can do it but they are not usually used to playing with a live band .. a drummer 2 feet from your back is a decidedly weird experience for some karaoke specialists... oh and Karaoke machines that don't look to them for cues

[quote name='funkysimon' post='58171' date='Sep 10 2007, 01:02 PM']Don't worry about having a huge set list if you haven't agreed a huge fee; I'd say it's only the pro and semi-pro bands who should be able to play every number one single from 1967 onward on request. As long as you politely explain that the request isn't one you've rehearsed people are usually ok.[/quote] Another idea I collected down the years was the "jukebox" You put cards on their tables to request the tunes you do and to dedicate them to someone in the room .. They have a look through your list and choose one ... Then when you play it you can say hey ythis is for jeff from Sarah with teh special message " I'm so glad I got a pre-nuptual agreement after catching you in the bogs snogging with Jenny" Thangyouverrymuch! 1-2-3-4

[quote name='presoulnation' post='58094' date='Sep 10 2007, 11:19 AM']I just realised I used the word "wicked" twice in the same sentence. That is far from wicked.[/quote] Does the meaning differ if it has a capital letter?

[quote name='Mike' post='58000' date='Sep 10 2007, 07:27 AM']Yeah, Grandad, it's wack, innit? [/quote] Oh you youngsters!

[quote name='paul, the' post='57993' date='Sep 10 2007, 05:22 AM']Dear Lord. I'm 18 and male and that's probably my ideal realistic set list as a guest at a wedding. Bar waterloo. "It's raining men! Hallelujah![/quote] Ha ha yeah I heard a wedding Dj on the radio once he said if the ladies was busy and queuing and his girlfriend needed to go he just played Dancing Queen and the queue would all head for the dance floor ... Also there's a whole "website of the day" discussion about the best Wedding Disco tracks here [url="http://www.websiteoftheday.info/2004/11/name_artist_chi.html"]http://www.websiteoftheday.info/2004/11/name_artist_chi.html[/url] It's not a live band set list as such but if you do this stuff it's a good list.

[quote name='terryblyth' post='57951' date='Sep 9 2007, 11:02 PM']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![/quote] We do it because we can't do it justice - my band that plays weddings is not a covers band as such and so learning Lady In Red is a bridge (and several verses) too far for us. Also I've heard bands absolutely massecre a couple's really important special tune and they don't want that at their wedding reception. We always try to remember tha this is a very important day for them, not just this weekend's gig. You only get married a few times in life so it is nice if as much as possible goes right and Roberta Flack does "The first time ever I saw your face" a hell of a lot better than I'll ever do it. (An I love listening to the bowed bass on that through our PA) However if you do a terrible version of their tune they will hate you on the nigt but probably laff about it for many a year afterwards .. I'd not risk it 'cos I want referrals ....

[quote name='WalMan' post='57740' date='Sep 9 2007, 02:44 PM']I think you need to be signed up for a course and get a tutor to sign off on it, so it may require a relevant course as well. Son is starting a sound production course having finished the guitar course at BIMM and is looking at things like Logic Pro & Pro Tools to put on the Mac once he knows what they will be using on the course. We had been thinking of some of the fleabay offers for this but GAK Education dept is at least as good as the Bay so it seems easier and in many ways to go there to get definite legit copies[/quote] Ah yes I used to sing people's Microsoft software applications on the student deal they did. That sounds very interesting, thanks ....

[quote name='WalMan' post='57599' date='Sep 9 2007, 12:53 AM']PM'd I'm sure it's not top secret but not wishing to upset anyone I'll do it that way. Or thinking about it try somewhere between their web price and their education department price. Of course I suppose what I [u][i]should[/i][/u] have done is get #2 son to buy it at the education department price when he gets signed up on his sound production course next week [/quote] Whats the deal with GAK education prices? Any idea what they need .. I may or may not still have an undated Uni card from a previous life as a lecturer .. gets me into gigs cheap ...

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='57613' date='Sep 9 2007, 04:08 AM']Has anyone mentioned Martin Clunes? Star of Men Behaving Badly, but played bass in the quality one-off drama [u]Hunting Venus [/u]as part of former New Romantic Band [i]The Venus Hunters[/i] who ended up playing a special one off, on the late show with Jools.[/quote] Ha ha I thought that said "hunting venues"

[quote name='Rich' post='53858' date='Sep 1 2007, 03:33 PM']OK, some more info courtesy of the seller: [i]"The Overwater basses and guitars were made about 20 years ago for school use only. How or why they had the commission from ILEA and others I don't know. The instruments were made of mahogany - looking at the edges of the cracked headstock proved that. The instruments were appointed with EMG Select pups. You can imagine it was quite a thrill to see those instruments when they arrived in school - they were quite different to the Westones and Japanese jazz copies of the time. "The reason they were damaged was not the fault of fledgling bassists and guitarists. It was lax supervision in the music department that allowed a thuggish element to use the instruments as cricket bats. Your bass came from a school in North West London. A student of mine rescued it thinking he would make a fretless bass out of it. He abandoned the bass and passed it on to me to repair." [/i] Cricket bats! The little bastids. No respect, some people. Thanks to M for the extra info, I'll definitely keep the diary going with any progress I make over the next months.[/quote] I think I know where they work now [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=716"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=716[/url]

[quote name='Bass_Junkie' post='57433' date='Sep 8 2007, 05:12 PM']anyone else got any ideasssssssss?[/quote] My sold all black Precision Lyte may have done it ... mine you the gold hardware and goldfleck finish may not have been right .... They come up on Ebay all the time for about £275 or so. Very light, Very active 80's Ibanez sounding (ie not at all a Precision) Very fast neck.