Blog#6 The Booking/Performance Of A Norwich Norfolk Wedding/Party Band

A Norfolk Wedding Booking

In previous weeks we've looked at how we choose songs for Energy to consider performing and how to ensure a good rehearsal to get the songs sounding great.

Well . . . all of that hard work is in vein if you don't eventually get the opportunity to showcase your songs by way of a showcase or a booking.

We recently had the honour of performing at a fantastic Norfolk venue in Swanton Morley called Hunters Hall.

Early Arrival

Energy have great quality musical instruments and a crystal clear high fidelity digital PA system.  For the larger venues and when appropriate we mic up all of our instruments.  Along with the lighting systems, banners, and everything else we set up we need a couple of hours, so when time is tight in the evenings proceedings we sometimes set up earlier in the afternoon (for a small amount extra).  

Hunters Hall has a brilliant load in, the only challenge is the long narrow stage and the power points being all at one end.  We set up in a little over two hours by 3:30pm, with enough time to pop home and put the glad rags on to return later in the evening.  Sometimes we might be required to stay and take care of background music or keep an eye on the equipment, but not on this occasion.

I must say thank you for the help that the fantastic staff from Hunters Hall offered us.  A couple of large props for the day needed moving and they couldn't have be more helpful.

The First Dance

We sometimes learn the first dance but not this time.  Thank You For Loving Me by Bon Jovi was the special song of choice.  The clients looked at me from the dance floor motioning that they are ready for me to play the song through the sound system for their first dance since matrimonial commitment.  Lucky that without a previous conversation with them regarding the song Sharon our lead singer ensured I had downloaded it to my iPod just in case. . . thanks Shaz . .  phew.

The Performance

A few finishing touches to our set up and by 8:30pm we're on stage and ready to perform.  Having learnt quite a few new songs recently this was a great opportunity to perform them.  All continued to go down down well; although Rather Be by Clean bandit has a slow start until it gets going which makes the first minute tricky to dance to.  So I would consider that track on a probationary, we'll see how it goes down next time we perform it.  

Large venues with multiple rooms can make creating a vibe and getting people on the dance floor rather tricky, but within a few songs we had a good number of people bopping away to our carefully chosen infectious tunes.

We trialled our new guitar riff medley with Rocks Off, Are You Gonna Go My Way and Brown Sugar.  It went down a treat with both band and guests, and added a swagger that felt different from anything else we have in our set, so I'm already looking forward to drumming to that again.

The Encore

Somebody To Love by Queen has always been our trusty encore.  A rousing anthemic sing-a-long that provides a great opportunity to get both Bride and Groom in the middle of carefully choreographed surrounding guests that have remained until the dying moments of the special celebration.  Another opportunity to cement the day being all about them, brilliant.

Happy Clients

Nothing is more rewarding than lots of guests dancing to our tracks, and a bride and groom that immediately rush to thank us for our hard work and tell us how brilliantly that thought we were.

The Pack Down

Ok, this is not our favourite part of the evening but if it's all hands on deck (thanks guys) and the booking has gone to plan then it can actually be quite a laugh. Our bassist Matt managed to get a great photo of our keyboard player Paul in a blue curly wig.  Quite a change from the usually slick shaved head, and a photo that I duly placed on Instagram and Facebook.

In Summary it was a fantastic booking that we thoroughly enjoyed.

The venue have also said how impressed they were with our performance which was lovely to hear.

Thanks for Listening, here's until the next blog,

Thanks

Phil
Band Leader and Drummer





Norwich Norfolk Wedding Party Band

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