Archive for the ‘Getting to know…’ Category

Meet…the Motown Supreme girls…

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

I thought it might be nice to do a little interview with our girls from Motown Supreme… we’ve had all sorts of enquiries for them recently, from corporate events, to Summer festivals, weddings and birthday parties, even theatres are booking them up for Motown-themed evenings. The band has been going from strength to stregnth, so I thought its about time we introduce you to the girls properly….

So….introducing, Steph, Becca and Eirini….

What’s your favourite thing about performing with Motown Supreme?
Becca: Motown Supreme is like no other function band that I have worked with…. Not only is it great fun performing with such experienced players and singers, it’s also amazing how authentic the band are to Motown.

Eirini: That I get to sing with two amazing singers! What I love the most is the work we do with the girls. I have always loved singing in harmony and I love the challenge of having to figure out the harmonies, memorise them, blend our voices and give a great performance at the same time!

Steph: I’m the same as Becca & Eirini really – its all about performing with such fantastic musicians and singers. We always have a great time! But also, I just love singing motown – for me, there’s nothing better! Its great to see such timeless songs always going down so well at every event we play at.

 

How long have you been singing/performing for personally?
Eirini: I have been singing since I can remember, always sang at home with my mum and sisters, then learnt to play a couple of instruments and started performing professionally at the age of 11.

Steph: I’m not sure I ever stop singing…haha…I’m a nightmare to live with ;)   I’ve been doing it professionally for around 10 years now, and I love it!

Becca: I have been singing professionally for 9 years, spreading myself out in all areas of the industry – Session singing, vocal coaching, songwriting and performing.

What/who were you inspired by as when you first started performing?
Steph: Definitely artistes like Aretha, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner…

Eirini: The artist that first inspired me to sing in English was Avril Lavigne. Later, I was influenced by soul singers, mainly by Aretha Franklin.

Becca: When I first started singing my inspirations were drawn from all the great female vocalists that were around; Whitney Housten, Annie Lennox, Kate Bush and many many more. Motown was never part of my music vocabulary until I discovered it in my teens,
which is when I fell in love with it.

What sort of events does Motown Supreme work at?
Becca: The great thing about Motown Supreme is that we suit any event/party you can think of. We have performed at festivals, weddings, anniversaries, birthday parties, corporate events and many more events where they have wanted a party atmosphere.

Eirini: We do all kinds of events, everywhere in England and abroad!

Tell us your favourite gig moment ever :
Eirini: It was when we played in Trentham Gardens, it was the most beautiful surroundings I had ever played at, next to the most gorgeous lake on a summer’s night. We had the loveliest crowd and the night was great success and now we were called back to play again in the summer!

Becca: Yep, Trentham Gardens was just amazing!

Steph: Agreed! We can’t wait to do that one again this year!

Favourite ever Motown tune?:
Eirini: What’s going on – Marvin Gaye

Becca: My favourite Motown song would have to be Jimmy Mack by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas

Steph: Hard to choose….I love singing ‘Can I Get A Witness’…

So whats next for Motown Supreme?

Becca: This years diary is starting to look very busy for Motown Supreme which is amazing. There seems to be lots of work coming our way in the shape of more festivals, weddings, corporate events and even some theatre booking are in the pipe line

Eirini: We are really excited about getting into the theatre side – its a whole new ballgame for us!

Steph: We’ve also been put forward for some international gigs so hoping to do some travelling this year, which is always good fun!

 

You can check out Motown Supreme’s website here – www.motownsupreme.com

 

 

 

 

 

Getting to know: Rainbow Cakes

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

I thought it would be nice to feature a few events suppliers that we’ve met along the way. For me, whether I am choosing a bank or choosing where to buy a new dress, what really sells things to me is ‘people power’. If a business is run by nice people, I am sold! Working in the events industry is such a social business, and we are lucky enough to be constantly working with some of the biggest and best events suppliers in the industry. So… I thought we could introduce you to a few great people that we’ve met who are fab at what they do and share our ethos when it comes to their service!

Today I want to feature Marie Travell from Rainbow Cakes.

 

 

 

 

So, Marie…Give us a basic description of what you do…

I make cakes for pretty much any occasion you can think of – from decorated cakes for weddings and christenings, to birthday cakes for adults or children. I can even make undecorated cakes for meetings, to sell in shops and cafes, infact, anywhere you’d eat a cake, I can provide the cake for the job!!

 

What made you go into the cake making business?

I LOVE cake, which is always a good place to start :) Also when my eldest daughter was coming up for her 1st birthday, I couldn’t find a cake that was ‘just right’ and tasted nice (I never really liked the mass produced shop bought ones), so decided to give it a go and make it myself! That first cake was far from perfect, but tasted yummy and from then on I’ve always made birthday cakes for my husband and kids and Christmas cakes for family. It wasn’t until I offered to make a cake for a raffle prize, and peoples reaction to it that things really started to take off. For the six months following that raffle cake I slowly had orders for more cakes from friends and family, and realised that this was something I could actually turn into a business……and the rest is history!!!!!

 

Whats your favourite celebration cake you’ve done so far? 

Eeeek that’s a tough one – I love them all as I put so much time and love into each one (as corny as it sounds!!) I do think the Las Vegas wedding cake is my favourite so far – it’s a small cake, but I just love the caracature figures of the bride and groom, who are also good friends of mine.

How long does it take, on average, to prepare one of your wedding masterpieces?

A very basic cake can take 20 hours where a cake with several tiers and lots of sugar flowers can take 70 hours or even more. The Vegas cake for example, while it was only one tier, and didn’t look complicated, took a long time to get the models just right and to make sure all the handpainted pieces were right. Also, that’s just pure man hours – models and sugar flowers etc all need time to dry, so need to be started sometimes weeks in advance!

Do you allow your clients to make suggestions as to what they want, or do they choose from a selection?

Most people who come to me have at least a rough idea what they would like. I’ve only ever had someone tell me a colour scheme and flavour for a cake and nothing else once. It can be tricky if someone has a definate idea what they would like, and it just woulddn’t work in cake/sugar, but that happens so rarely, and I’ll give anything a try! If you watch ‘Ace of Cakes’ on tv then you’ll know that with enough determination, anything is possible!

Whats the craziest suggestion you’ve ever had? :)

I haven’t had crazy suggestions really – the crazy bit usually comes from me trying to go the ‘extra mile’ to make someones cake amazing. I can remember when I dreamt up the idea for the Vegas cake with the models in an awkward pose (for sugar models) I explained the idea to a lady who’s been making cakes and teaching sugarcraft for years, and she looked concerned, then quickly smiled and said ‘good luck!!’

Any predictions for the biggest wedding cake styles of 2012?

More traditional style wedding cakes but with a modern twist are still really popular – all starting from the Royal Wedding last year, and I think with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations this year, that will continue. Also gorgeous rich reds and purples look like they’re going to be really popular – especially bold statement sugar flowers on a crisp white cake.

Whats the best part of your job?

I work with cakes everyday – what is there not to love?!?! My husband would say the best part of my job for him is when I’m concocting new recipes as he gets to try them all out! I love every bit of my job, but even though it sounds cliche, I do love unveiling the cake and seeing people’s faces – it makes it all worthwhile!

 

You can check out Marie’s website for more information – www.rainbowcakes.biz

Song of the Week – ‘What Do I Know’ by Juan Zelada

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012


I really wanted to make this ‘song of the week’ because a) ITS BRILLIANT! and b) the band features some of our MIB musicians, and we are super proud and would love if you could all go out and buy the single (and/or the album which is out next week!)

I must say though – what a great band, and its not just because we know and love them, but having seen these guys play live – they have such an amazing chemistry, fantastic songs and they obviously love what they do. Thats something I love to see, and I can’t wait to get the album!

Enjoy….

Our musicians are on fire at the moment!

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

Our musicians have been getting up to all sorts of exciting things lately – and we are super proud! I thought you might like to take a little time to have a look at some of this….

Our fabulous vocalists Rachel and Kelly having been gigging with 80′s legends Heaven 17…check out this stunning clip of vocal gymnastics! The girls both sing with MIB, Funkadelics and Undercover Superstars…

Our lovely singer Tommy is still touring with Professor Green (see my last post for him on Jools Holland!)….check out this footage of him bouncing around doing backing vocals at the Radio 1 Big Weekend 2011 earlier this year! When Tommy isn’t touring the world with an international superstar, he sings with MIB and Undercover Superstars.

Our lovely John Roberts, who plays drums for MIB, is now full time member of the Blockheads… I had the pleasure of going to see them live a few weeks ago – what a fantastic band!

And…. we’re very happy to have the gorgeous Marco Bernardis back on sax with us! Marco was our first ever MIB saxophonist, who has been off doing all sorts but is now back gigging with us when he can. Here’s a very cool clip of him with Olly Murs live at V Fest…

And…I did post about this a few weeks ago…but its so good that its worth another post! This is Juan Zelada, and the video for his new single. The single has been A-listed on Radio 2, and apparently its Chris Evans’s favourite tune! All but 2 members of the band are MIB Musicians, and we are super proud – this is such a great song! What a fantastic vibe!

 

Our Motown Supreme bassist Ben Daniel is out in LA at the moment, with drummer Ben Mathews (who plays occasionally with MIB), with their originals band ‘Two Spot Gobi’. We hear the band are taking LA by storm – super exciting stuff! I’d highly reccomend checking out their album - fab sounds! (In fact I must have listened to it 100 times on holiday a few months ago! Great sunshine tunes!)

 

The lovely Tommy on Jools Holland….

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Did anyone catch our lovely singer Tommy on Jools Holland last week, with Professor Green? It was soooo brilliant (beautiful, in fact) – we are super proud!

Tommy sings for MIB, The MIB Experience,  and Undercover Superstars, when he’s not off touring the world with international superstars ;)

For your viewing pleasure, incase you missed it!:

Reccomended Venue – The Captains Club in Dorset

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Funkadelics had the pleasure of performing at The Captains Club Hotel, in Christchurch, Dorset, last week, and I just wanted to say ‘WOW’, what a venue!

The hotel is absolutely stunning – set right at the waters edge, and the design of the building just blows you away…it certainly is a beautiful place for a special event. The thing that really makes it for me though, is that the staff and management were all SO lovely – and I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, its all about the people! I just think it makes such a difference when people are friendly and accomodating. For us as a band, of course it means we are much more comfortable, which I think naturally leads to a better performance – but also more importantly, if a venue is friendly to us (who is, essentially, their staff for the evening!), I think that reflects really well on just how fantastic they will be for you and your guests.

We were given the most AMAZING dressing room – a 3 bedroom apartment, which was just stunning!

Everyone certainly seemed to have a fantastic time at the party! There was a full dancefloor all night and a room full of smiling faces :)

The hotel has various events throughout the year, and I’d definitely reccomend popping along to one if you’re based in the Dorset area. We spoke to a few people on the night who said they had got married there, or will be in the future, and I must say the photos on the website look absolutely beautiful for weddings! So definitely one to check out ;)

Here’s a lil pic of us too, taken by Joe our soundman!

A little sneaky peak of some video testimonials for The MIB Experience…

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

This is a little sneaky peak of some of the footage for our new ‘MIB Experience’ video, but I couldn’t wait to show it to you all…

A few little snippets for you :)


 

The MIB Experience

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

Yesterday we were incredibly pleased to announce the launch of our latest product and website – The MIB Experience. This is something we’ve been working on for absolutely ages, and it’s really exciting to now be taking bookings!

Something many of our clients have said about us is that they loved the fact that we have a number of different bands, a huge circle of musicians and a wonderfully flexible attitude when it comes to putting their entertainment together for their event. This has helped us to provide some fantastic packages for weddings, corporate events and private parties over the past few years.  More and more clients have been going for our package deals, and we wanted to put together the absolute ULTIMATE package for people who want something unequivocally top class.

The idea of being able to use just one supplier for the whole of your entertainment, sound and lighting is very attractive to a lot of people. Not only does it save oodles of time and hassle for you, but also usually means it will save you money too.

Not for the faint hearted, The MIB Experience features live music for the whole of your event, from start to finish. For weddings, this means your ceremony, your drinks reception, your entrance music to the wedding breakfast, during the meal, and of course the evening reception. We provide many options for each part of the wedding, so you can tailor make your day depending on your tastes and ideas. To finish off the day, the stunning MIB 12 piece band will perform during the evening reception 2 x 70minutes sets, backed with a DJ and full sound, lighting & staging.

This has been designed with clients in mind who want something super special and bespoke, who love live music and want a real sense of ‘wow-factor’ to entertain their guests.

I’d highly recommend checking out the website for more information. It’s an interactive site (which is ever such fun) and means you can play around with different options for each part of the event. There are also lots of ‘optional extras’ which add a little to the cost, but are well worth having a look through. These include things like having a song especially written by one of our in-house writers for your big day (perhaps for your wedding ceremony or your first dance), or perhaps adding in our ‘Undercover Superstars’ (singing waiters) into the package.

For anyone who is interested in package deals, it’s well worth checking out a few of our smaller packages also, to be found here on the blog. And any ideas you have, just let us know. We can completely tailor a package for you based on your own original thoughts & ideas.

 

Thanks to Matt Pereira & Ken Buist for the lovely photos for this blog :)

 

Introducing our latest act…The Crazy Christmas Band!

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

‘But its only September,’ I hear you say!
You are right there, however a) I noticed last night that Sainsburies have brought out all their Christmas chocolates, AND have already launched a ‘stocking fillers’ section of the store, and b) here in the office we are already being inundated with Christmas enquiries. So, we thought it was high time we launched our latest project, The Crazy Christmas band!

Some of our old friends may actually remember that this is not infact a totally new band. We ran the Crazy Christmas band many years ago, which proved to be hugely popular and even turned on the Christmas lights in Cardif to 30,000 people! So… this year we’ve decided to revamp the idea and relaunch the band.

We’ve now got two female vocalists, who will front the band alongside our fantastic guitarist and bassist, and the rest will be on a click track. This means that hopefully the band will fit most budgets and venue sizes.

They’ll be performing hits like ‘All I Want For Xmas is You’, ‘Santa Baby’ and ‘Step into Christmas’ and can also mix in some general party classics to their set also, for those who don’t want an evening completely full of festive hits!

The band is being aimed towards any Christmas themed event, so please get in touch if you’re interested!

Check out the band’s brand new website www.crazychristmasband.com for their new demo recordings, repertoire list and much more! :)

Ho Ho Ho….

A few photos from the Langham Showcase…

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

Oooh I love it when we get photos back! Here’s a selection of a few photos from last weeks showcase, courtesy of the awesomely talented Matt Pereira.

First up, a few ‘backstage’ shots… here’s the MIB boys doing a bit of last minute rehearsal…

Here’s the lovely Lindsay in preparations for the launch of her ‘Diva Sax’ act… (website coming soon by the way – its been in huge demand!)

Doing photos at the Langham was just a joy…everywhere you turn is another epic ‘picture moment’… check this out for a beautiful shot…

The beautiful Marianne performing her solo set…

Some shots of MIB as the 8 piece…

The awesome Francis entertained everyone while we changed bands over, with his beautiful cocktail piano, and later as a duo with the supremely talented Debbie…

Funkadelics then took to the stage…

Followed by our acoustic duo…

21st Century Riot…

We were very proud to then launch the first EVER performance of ‘Diva Sax’, which went down a storm! Please watch this space for the new website and video…

I love how every time our jazz trio plays, they have ‘naughty’ looks on their faces, like they’re doing something they shouldn’t…

And Motown Supreme were fabulous as always…

And then the 12 piece MIB took the stage, performing their Jewish medley and a 45mins set…