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

We had a little ‘MIB Music’ social get together last week (belated Xmas gathering, in March!) and I have vague memories of this being ‘tune of the night’, so I figured it better become our ‘song of the week’! What a great song. I can’t wait to start playing this!

This tends to vary depending on which band you book, but we like to leave 2 hours to set up. We bring along a professional sound man who will usually arrive a little earlier than this whenever he can, but 2 hours is the minimum time we like to leave. This means we have oodles of time for surveying the playing area, setting up, having a good sound-check and dealing with any difficult sounding rooms, and of course tidying up the stage afterwards.

In restricted situations we can often get set up quicker than this, but this is the amount of time we like to leave so we can do the best job possible

This is another question we often get asked for Summer gigs (and sometimes winter ones believe it or not!). The answer to this is pretty simple – of course we can! What fun! However we do bring along a LOT of expensive gear and so have to have a few rules in place (get ready for the serious bit):

• The staging area must be covered and shielded from all elements. This means a covering for the top, and the sides, and with a front ‘flap’ that we can pull down if the rain starts to come down heavy. I know this seems like a bit of a pain, but it can get pretty dangerous with all our electrical equipment and we simply cannot risk it getting rained on.
• We don’t usually ‘demand’ a stage (we’re no divas, haha), however if the event is outside, we do need to request this. Our musicians use a lot of floor pedals, and if we were playing on a non-raised floor, rain water could wash into the staging area and not only blow up our equipment (meaning we were unable to perform) but also be very dangerous.
• We would highly recommend using a generator if your event is outside. We’ve played at far too many events where people have tried to cut costs and brought their power from a nearby building, and sadly this tends to lead to a lot of power problems. There’s nothing worse than putting on an awesome party but having all the power cut, so not only are your band unable to play, but any caterers etc will also struggle. This goes for marquee events too!

Please don’t take these rules/regulations as a downer on the idea though – some of the best events we’ve done have been outside. There’s always a fantastic vibe, playing in the great outdoors, and we love it! We just have to be super careful with safety and protecting our equipment.

This is a question we get asked all the time, so I thought it might be a handy thing to talk in more detail about.

It’s a tricky one – because I totally understand why you would want to have all your favourite songs played at your wedding or another special event – of course you would! However, there are a few things to consider…

1)      It’s worth listening to the expertise of your band… and keeping in mind that they play at events all the time, so will know how to structure a dynamic set-list. It’s actually quite an art – putting together a good set list – you have to think about many different aspects of the music, and the heights and lows of the evening. There are some songs that will work best in the first set, and some later on. You’ll probably want to start the evening on a high point – but then you don’t want to be ‘too high’ all the way through the evening, or there’ll be nowhere to build to! Similarly, you don’t want to be too ‘low’ either, or it wouldn’t be a very fun party! There’s a lot to think about. You may also find that the band like to Segway songs together, which is fantastic (because they will mix between songs like a DJ would) but does mean you’ll need to leave it to them to decide which songs work together.

2)      Some songs work better than others with a live band… A song that is a complete crowd pleaser for a DJ isn’t necessarily a good live band tune. For example songs that are very electronic may not always work as well with a band.

3)      Do you want to play to your audience’s taste in general, or play to your own tastes?… Again this is a tricky one, and there’s really no right or wrong answer because it’s your wedding! I think usually you can find a nice compromise though.

The best thing to do is get in touch with your band and chat through your favourite songs, and the songs they usually would play that go down well, and put together a setlist using their expertise, alongside your taste and knowledge of what you and your guests may want to hear.

This is a question we get asked a lot! We don’t tend to do a lot of public gigs, because we don’t tend to play in pubs or clubs – more weddings and corporate events. However we do organise regular (3 or so a year) showcase events, usually where we team up with some of our favourite suppliers/venues and show you exactly what we can provide, featuring all our bands/acts/and optional extras. This is not something you will find with many other bands, but we like to make the effort to put on free evening, not just for potential clients but also for our friends, family and past clients to come along and see us (they never get to see what we’re up to otherwise!). It’s always a great night and a fun evening out too – a free event in one of London’s top hotels, with around £20k’s worth of entertainment for your viewing and listening pleasure.

A lot of clients ask why we don’t allow them to come and see us at other weddings or private events. We never really feel comfortable asking our clients this because as far as we’re concerned, when we’re performing at someone’s event, we are 100% there to give them the best evening possible and don’t think it’s fair to have even one ounce of our concentration based on anything else, or anyone else. We also have to keep in mind that it’s their big day, which has had oodles of planning, thought and love put into it, and a lot of people don’t like the idea of strangers coming along, even if it is just to pop their head through the door.

So, generally you won’t be able to see us at another wedding, however we hope you can come along to our next big showcase event instead (dates will be announced on the blog/facebook/twitter), and occasionally our bands will play at charity events or festivals which we will also announce.

I thought it only appropriate to make one of my favourite Whitney tracks our ‘song of the week’. I have spent many a morning dancing round my kitchen to this one….

RIP Whitney, and thank you for the inspiration!

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

You may remember we launched our fabulous Motown tribute, Motown Supreme, about a year ago. They have had a fantastic year, performing all over the country at festivals, corporate events, weddings and private parties, and I must say the feedback has been absolutely brilliant. We also had some fantastic comments about their performance last week at our showcase.

Due to popular demand, we have launched today a 3 piece vocal-trio line-up of the band, which clients can book as an option for smaller events or budgets. We’re hoping that this will broaded the type of events that the band can be booked for – lets spread the Motown love!

Give us a call (01483511500) or email if you’d like more information!

Today we have launched a very special 15% off offer for last minute bookings for MIB band  for events in February & March this year. This is always our slightly quieter time of year, and whilst we enjoy a bit of time off, its not long before we’re chomping at the bit to get out performing!

If you’re interested in booking us for a last minute booking, please get in touch