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Fantastic Entertainment Packages

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

It’s not been long since we officially launched our ‘MIB Experience’ package, and already we’ve found clients are jumping on the idea of having us organise their whole day & evening’s entertainment. I thought it might be nice to take you through a few options that people have gone for so far… The fact that this idea is completely tailored to exactly what you personally want, seems to be what people are attracted to… (and if you haven’t had a play on the website yet then I highly recommend you do – its very interactive and good fun!)

Wedding – July 2013

We met up with this lovely couple a few weeks ago to come up with some ideas for their big day. The main focus for them was just the fact that they LOVED live music, and wanted it to play a real part in their day. They didn’t particularly want  anything too traditional or typical either – so rather than string quartets, jazz bands and classical singers, they were interested to hear some original ideas.

We’re very excited about the package they’ve gone for – its going to be absolutely unforgettable!

The Schedule

The Ceremony: They decided to go for a singer and acoustic guitarist here, which you don’t see that often in the ceremony but I find is just lovely. It definitely brings a less traditional feel to the ceremony. The duo will learn and perform the song of the couple’s choice – and this can take the place of a reading within the actual service.

The Drinks Reception: Our fabulous ‘buddha bar’ sax set will be played over the drinks reception… this is where our saxophonist will improvise over ibiza style ‘chill-out’ tracks. Its a fantastic alternative to jazz or classical music, and is totally modern and different which is the vibe that this lovely couple wanted to go for.

The Wedding Breakfast: They went for something a bit different here – adding in the Live Loungers to perform beautiful relaxed arrangements of well known pop tunes (Rhianna, Adele, Pixie Lott etc), but also arranging a surprise performance of our ‘Undercover Superstars’, who will be posing as a waiter and two guests throughout the meal, and will then burst into song and shock everyone! Great fun!

The Evening Reception: The MIB 12 piece hits the stage, with a selection of rock, pop, disco and motown hits which will keep everyone dancing til the early hours, and our DJ to fill in the gaps!

What they had to say:

‘Its such a relief to let you guys deal with the whole entertainment package – I had envisioned a complete nightmare trying to co-ordinate everything. Also, thank you so much for your fantastic input…you’ve introduced us to a whole load of  ideas that we didn’t even know existed for weddings!’

Corporate Event – December

These guys were really taken with the 12 piece MIB, and as they are holding a very large event for their christmas party (which has a conference earlier in the day and then the party during the evening), seemed to be keen to have one company who would take charge of all of the entertainment for the whole event.

The client started looking at the experience package options – however also came across our ‘Crazy Xmas Band’ and fell in love with them! So…we swapped into the package the Crazy Xmas band, rather than some of the earlier extra sets.

The Schedule

Drinks Reception: Live Loungers to perform lush background music to set a lovely atmosphere for guests as they chat.

Towards the end of the meal: The Crazy Christmas Band take to the stage, and start with some beautiful background traditional Christmas songs, and then work the guests onto the dancefloor for some festive fun!

Evening Reception: The MIB 12 piece perform 2 x 70mins of high impact party tunes – featuring 4 stunning lead vocalists, a 3 piece brass section, live percussion and a rhythm section that will get everyone throwing shapes on the dancefloor!

What they had to say….

‘We can’t wait to see the 12 piece band…its just going to be a fantastic evening, and the Crazy Christmas band look like such good fun!’

Jewish Wedding 

I love chatting to this couple about their wedding…in fact, its fantastic because their whole family has gotten involved in the planning stage which means we have got to know them all. Each of them has ideas, and the couple are keen to involve their close family members as much as they can with their big day, so we’ve put together a package that has brought in an element of them all! Its been an interesting one to plan, but I must say I think its going to be brilliant!

 

The Schedule

The Ceremony: They wanted to keep a sense of tradition here, so we’ve worked in our String Quartet to the package. They’ll be performing while guests arrive, and at points throughout the ceremony.

The Drinks Reception: This was a much debated topic, but in the end they went for the jazz trio here. The venue is very classic and traditional, and although the couple are relatively young, they’d like to keep a more traditional feel for this early on in the day.

Entrance Music: As the happy couple enter the wedding breakfast, they’d like to have the band play Bruno Mars’s song ‘I think I wanna marry you’.

Jewish Traditional Music: The band will then perform a 15-20minute Jewish medley, guaranteed to get everyone up on the dancefloor and kick off the wedding breakfast in full swing!

The Wedding Breakfast: This is where the whole family agreed perhaps things could get a little less traditional, so they chose to alternate between our buddha bar sax (which is very much a modern option), and a more classic piano and vocal duo. I think the mix of these two styles is going to be brilliant and will really keep the dynamics of the evening flowing brilliantly.

The Evening Reception: Keeping the ‘traditional vs modern’ themeing, the MIB 12 piece band will be joined by our string quartet, making the band into a mind-blowing 16 piece unit! The quartet will join for the party set and its going to be just stunning! Our DJ will be filling in on the band’s breaks and at the end of the night, then going for the club classics that the bride and groom know their friends will love.

What they have to say….

‘We are SO excited about our wedding now! We love the idea of the mix of tradition and a more modern take on things… our families are both relatively traditional and we wanted to encorporate that into our day, but with an essence of what we are personally into, as well as all our friends. Its going to be perfect!’

 

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FAQ of the week: Should the band play my first dance?

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

This is a question that really depends on personal preference to the bride and groom, but here are a few factors to think about:

Its more dynamic for the band to play the first dance

In our experience here at MIB Music, we do find that the first dance is a fantastic opportunity to kick off the dancing/evening reception with a big bang! So…making your first dance as dynamic as possible is a good idea. If you get the band to play your first dance, its always going to have more impact than having the DJ play it, or a CD, and its then a great moment for the band to get straight into the rest of their set afterwards, taking advtantage of everyone being gathered around the dancefloor! (In fact, even if you do choose to have the DJ/recording played, its a good idea to have the band straight on after that anyway!)

 

However, bear in mind it may not sound exactly like the original…

If you’ve chosen a song which is personal to you, chances are you LOVE the original recording – and so, how would you feel about it being sung by a different singer? Also, instrumentally, it won’t sound exactly the same…no matter how great the band are! The recording will probably have multiple instrumental parts, and the band will need to simplify what they are playing in order to make it suitable for a live band.

This is something to also consider if you’ve practiced a choreographed dance and have moves to remember… if you’re waiting for that one cymbal crash or guitar part before you go to your next move, it may be missed out by the band and mean that you get confused in your dance!

Some bands won’t learn a specific first dance song, and you’ll have to choose from their list…

All of our MIB Music bands will learn your first dance song (as long as there’s enough notice and its a ‘band friendly’ tune), however a lot of other bands out there prefer not to, and will give you a list to choose from… In a way this is a good idea because at least you know they will be comfortable with the song, however it does mean you are limited as to what song you can choose.

The general consensus from us….

…is that if you’ve chosen a song that works well with a live band (and please do feel free to ask if you’re not sure if it will), and are Ok with it not sounding exactly like the original, then definitely go for the band playing it live! However if you’re really fond of the original recording, or worried about choreography (and want to practice at home), it might be better to go for the original recording.

 

A few suggestions… (although this is totally a matter of opinion of course!)

Classic tunes like ‘The Way You Look Tonight’, ‘Cant Take My Eyes Off You’ or ‘At Last’ work really well with a live band

Songs by artistes with particularly original voices like James Morrisson, or John Ledgend, you may prefer to have the original recording.

Anything thats very electronic (like a dance classic) or particularly orcehstrated (like Shirley Bassey) may be better to have the original recording

Songs like ‘Greatest Day’ (Take That), ‘Still The One’ (Shania Twain) and ‘Lets Stay Together’ (Al Green) are very popular tunes for a live band to play.

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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!

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A Christmas Wedding…

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

Today I’ve been having all sorts of fun writing my latest article for The Wedding Community (The article will be published in the next few weeks, but you can check out my previous articles here). The subject was ‘how to incorporate Christmas Music into a Christmas Wedding,’ and it got me thinking!

Christmas is officially the most popular time of the year for proposals, and also incredibly popular for getting married. Its such a wonderful, romantic time of year – and weddings are just beautiful when everyone is in that gorgeous ‘christmas spirit’. So… I had a little think (well, I shouldn’t really take credit – myself, the guys in the office, plus all our friends on facebook and twitter got involved!) and have come up with some top ideas for Christmas music throughout the different parts of your wedding. Obviously, you probably wouldn’t want to go too overboard with this, but here are a few ideas for you to pick and choose your favourite bits:

The Ceremony –

To Walk Down The Aisle: ‘Silent Night’ in the Style of Beyonce’s version – I think this could be gorgeous performed live by a solo singer, or singer and pianist. Have a listen to Beyonce’s version here:

Performed in place of a reading:  ‘A Christmas Love Song’ Barbara Streisand

While signing the register: ‘Baby its Christmas’ Amy Grant, ‘Silent Night’ by Boys ii Men, ‘Joy To The World’ Aretha Franklyn.

The Aretha Franklyn one is my absolute favourite – soooo full of happiness (and, Joy!)

 

The Drinks Reception – ‘Driving Home For Christmas’ Bruce Spingstein,  ‘Let It Snow’ Dean Martin, ‘Rockin Around the Christmas Tree’ Brenda Lee

As Your Entrance Piece to the Wedding Breakfast – ‘What Christmas Means To Me’ Stevie Wonder – imagine walking in to this happy tune:

 

The Wedding Breakfast – ‘2000 Miles’ Pretenders, ‘Stay Another Day’ East 17, ‘Please Come Home For Xmas’ Eagles, ‘The Christmas Song’ Nat King Cole

The First Dance –

‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ Mariah Carey (if you fancy a fun choice – starts off nice and slow and then launches into full on Christmas fun!)

OR

‘Santa Baby’ (if you fancy something a bit sexy!)

OR

‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ Frank Sinatra (for something lovely and romantic)

OR

‘Merry Xmas Baby’ by BB King (for some awesome Christmas blues!)

 

During the Reception –

‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ Shakin Stevens (my personal fave!)

‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ Wizzard

‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ Slade

‘Step Into Christmas’ Elton John

 ‘Do They Know Its Christmas’ Band Aid (for nearing the end of the night when you fancy a sing-along!)

 

 

Last Song of The Night –

‘White Christmas’ Bing Crosby – beautiful classic to end on

OR, if you’re feeling a bit ‘80s’…

‘Last Christmas’ Wham!

 Let us know if you have more ideas! :)

 

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Another beautiful idea for a first dance…

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

Last weekend we had the honour of playing this beautiful track for Anthony & Dejana’s first dance at their wedding in East Sussex. It was just gorgeous – what a lovely choice! I couldn’t wait to share it with you all…

This is Adele’s stunning cover of ‘lovesong’ by The Cure.

Enjoy xx

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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 :)

 

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A beautiful venue to reccomend to you.. Lords Cricket Ground!

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

Our 21st Century Riot boys did a fantastic gig at the weekend for a beautiful wedding for Neil & Kelli at Lords Cricket Ground, and I just wanted to reccomend it to you all as a brilliant idea for a venue…

Not only was Lords a truly innovative (and beautiful) venue to get married in, but the staff were so friendly, accomodating and lovely to our Riot boys… they gave them a seating box, overlooking the cricket ground, (The Mike Procter Box, for all you hardcore cricket fans) as a dressing room, and practically forced food and drink down them all night. It sounds silly, but when we work at venues where the staff are as lovely to us as they are to their guests, it makes such a difference to the overall vibe and dynamic of the event. You wouldn’t believe how many times we’ve found it a little awkard dealing with certain venues/event planners/caterers, when there’s really no need to be difficult and really we should be working together. We always try to make a super duper effort to get on with everyone at your event, whether it be your guests or your photographer. It just makes the atmopshere of the whole event lighter, and full of fun, and means you and your guests will have an even more fantastic evening!

So, definitely check out Lords Cricket Ground if you’re interested in a ‘different’ idea for a venue!

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A Beautiful Wedding packed full of live music for Hannah and Karl

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

We were honoured to be part of Hannah & Karl’s special day at Stoke Park (Bucks) a few weeks ago. They obviously wanted to have a music-packed wedding, and we happily arranged the whole day’s entertainment for them.

The afternoon kicked off with Live Loungers who performed during the ceremony, including a beautiful rendition of ‘True Colours’ by Cindy Lauper.

‘The ceremony was gorgeous,’ said Rachel, who took lead vocals for Live Loungers. ‘I loved performing in the ceremony – it was a really personal and special touch to have the live music added to this part of the day.’

Live Loungers then moved out onto the terrace where they entertained the guests during their drinks reception, performing lush arrangements of well known pop and jazz tunes.

As Hannah, Karl and their guests sat down to dinner, our solo vocalist Emily Louise performed and kept everyone entertained with her gorgeous vocal tones!

Our DJ then kicked off the party as the guests finished eating, warming them up for Funkadelics, who then really kicked the party into gear! However not before the gorgeous couple performed their first dance, which was to ‘Feels Like Home’ by Chantal Kreviazuk (lovely choice too!)

The whole day went splendidly – we loved being so involved and having been able to design the whole days entertainment to flow from one act to the next meant that the whole schedule just worked perfectly.

We were very pleased to recieve this fantastic feedback from Hannah…

‘I just wanted to say a big thankyou to everyone who helped on our day on Saturday for our wedding. I cannot thankyou enough and every song that was sung was absolutely brilliant. All my guests kept commenting on how amazing the band was , the solo singer, dj, live loungers! I will definitely be using you again for any upcoming events I may have and will recommend you to anyone having a wedding.
You have all been so great and professional  right from the beginning, and I can honestly say my wedding wouldn’t of been the same without you guys. Every set matched the mood of the wedding throughout the day and the only wish I have is if I could of had you longer!
You really got the party started and the music was for all ages, I was so nervous about booking a band at the first but you really reassured me and exceeded all my expectations.’

Thank you Hannah & Karl, we loved every minute of it! :)

 

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Posted in Case Studies, Day In The Life, Funkadelics, Tips & Advice, We play at..., Weddings, What the people say... | 1 Comment »

Bands with Sound Engineers – worth the money?

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Here at MIB Music we put our prices up last September to include a professional sound engineer. Its something I’d been thinking about for a while, and I have to say since doing it, I haven’t looked back once!

The one reason I hesitated at first was because I knew this question would be in everyone’s heads…’Is it worth the extra money?’

I have one answer and one answer only, YES! Haha… I’ll explain a little why… (and its not just because we love having another member to the band – which we do, obviously!! As all our sound guys are LOVELY!)

I feel like there is a huge line between bands who use a professional engineer and bands who don’t. It makes such a massive difference. A lot of bands try to save money, keep their costs down and do their sound themselves. This usually means (majoritively speaking of course) they have relatively cheapish equipment, and although some of the band members will be very experienced in dealing with sound, its nothing compared to a dedicated engineer who’s pride and joy is his equipment (yes, they do tend to be a bit geeky, haha) and who’s sole job is to concentrate on making the sound perfect.

Since we’ve been using an engineer, you wouldn’t believe how much better a job we can do as a band. Especially speaking from my own personal point of view, as the band leader and the singer, I used to be SO stressed -  making sure all the musicians were in the right place at the right time, laising with the client and venue, lifting and lugging gear around, trying to soundcheck the band and make sure everything sounded great…by the time it came to doing what the general audience would see as my ‘main job’ (singing and performing) I was exhausted!

Nowadays, I am like a different person… gone are the days of tiring myself out lifting huge speakers around and stressing about feedback, and I know the rest of our musicians feel the same. We now have a dedicated sound engineer to take care of everything, so we can focus on performing and giving the audience the party of the century! Its gives the whole look and sound of the band a completely different level of professionalism.

The band being able to perform better is just one of the many benefits. The sound is being continuously tweaked, which means it just gets better and better throughout the evening, and gone are the days of worrying about sound restrictions or difficult sounding rooms.

The main thing thats convinced me this was the right choice, has been the feedback that we’ve got… without clients even specifically talking about the Sound Engineer, the effects have obviously been noted…

As for the funkadelics, one word ‘Amazing’. They made my wedding. I thought they sounded good on tape but in real life, Wow!!!!

I just wanted to say thanks so much to the guys for a truly amazing performance.  They really were absolutely superb, fantastic performance but also so very professional and got it just right, you could see the sound, lights, mood and everything was being tweaked all the time.  I was so worried we’d gone a bit long for such a small do, but they were totally relaxed and played brilliantly, they were perfect for us, they even looked like they were enjoying themselves :-)

As organisers of an event it is always a little stressful on the night – so it was a real pleasure to deal with people who were very professional and helpful. Howard on sound was a fantastic liason!  The performance was brilliant and really made the evening extra special.  Everyone had a fabulous time and I will definitely use you again should the opportunity arise in the future. 

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How To Design A Fabulous Evening’s Entertainment For Your Wedding

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

I thought it might be useful to write a little about how to organise the structure/timings of your evening entertainment for your Wedding reception. This is something that comes up a lot. Obviously, every wedding is different and all couples have their own ideas about entertainment, but it seems that over the years we’ve learned exactly what ‘structure’ seems to work best. This is based on having a lively party band or DJ for your reception – things may be a bit different if you’ve chosen something more low key.

Here are my top tips:

  • Think about what is the most important part of your evening reception, and design the timings around that. For example, most couples who book a live band will want this to be the main focus for the evening, and arrange their DJ to play around this. However some couples like to get the band finished earlier so they can transform their reception into more of a club vibe for later when the older guests have gone to bed. Its all about the vibe that you want to create, so have a think about your ideas and then make sure you design your timings to suit.

 

  • Don’t arrange things for too early…90% of brides and grooms that are planning their wedding always seem to want to start everything off a bit too early. I can imagine why – there’s that somewhat scary quiet time between the end of the wedding breakfast and the 1st dance, when you think, what will we be doing?! A lot of couples arrange their entertainment to start straight after the wedding breakfast, but in my experience this is often a bit early. Nine times out of ten, as a band we’ll be ready and raring to go at the time arranged, but the Bride & Groom realise on the night that there are just SO many people to talk to, and actually an hour or so after the Wedding Breakfast is quite nice to set aside just to have some quiet background music on and to chat to everyone. This leaves everyone a bit more time to have  a few drinks and relax before the hardcore dancing starts! This is especially appropriate if you are having evening guests - it gives them a bit of time to settle in, and also allows for late comers who I’m sure would be devastated to miss your first dance! 

 

  • Start later in the evening, and keep the breaks shorter - another plus point for starting a little later in the evening. Every band will need to take a break between sets. They’ll probably need at least 15-30mins, and I wouldn’t reccomend having a break longer than 45minutes, or you might loose momentum of your evening. This is just enough time to fit in the buffet too, or give the DJ a nice set thats enough time for him to build the dynamics back for when the band come back on.

 

  • Arrange it so you have your first dance, and then your live band kicks off into their main set. Sometimes couples have preferred to get the first dance out of the way early, then have a break and put the band on later, but what I’d reccomend is putting the first dance off until the beginning of the band set. This way, you have everyone gathered around the dancefloor for the first dance, and when the band starts their main set your guests will be raring to jump on the dancefloor! This guarantees a really dynamic start and will probably mean your guests are dancing all night long, whereas it may be a quieter start if you have a break between the first dance and the main set.

  • Make sure you arrange your entertainment around any buffets or fireworks. Sounds like an obvious point, but it is overlooked more than you’d think. Try to arrange your live entertainment (ie band or other act) to fit in around the Buffet (or better still, leave the caterers and the band to liase so you don’t have to worry about it!). There’s little point in paying lots of money for an amazing band, if everyone’s sitting down eating for part of their set. Similarily, make sure you work your timings around any fireworks or other attractions. We’ve had a few unfortunate moments when we haven’t been told about these things and then had to cut our sets short while the guests watch the fireworks or light lanterns (which are fab things to do during the evening! Its just about getting your moneys worth from your band!).

So, thats it really. I’m not going to babble on too much, but these points are really handy to keep in mind and will ensure that you get the most out of your evening entertainment.

Happy planning :)

Sera

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