Ahh, the Beatles. Everyone, and we mean everyone everywhere has heard of the Beatles. It seems that even young children are familiar with the songs and that from an early age they form part of the audio landscape of our lives whether we are fans of the music or not.
But why are we writing about the Beatles today?
2 reasons
It makes a change to write about something apart from Valentines day, and
Today is the anniversary of 'Meet the Beatles' going to No.1 in the album charts in 1964.
And there are such a lot of well known songs on that fist album and, of course, because we are students of musical history and have undertaken a mission to be able to play their music whenever we're asked to. And to that end, we've played a variety of songs from this seminal band
From Baby You Can Drive My Car to I Saw Her Standing There, through to Twist and Shout and Something for a lovely first dance at Rowton Castle in Shropshire, there's no doubt that this music holds a special place in the hearts of many people.
And that takes us onto the next question. What sort of music should a band play at the reception or function? If the bride and groom love Garage, does that necessarily mean that your entire family will want to listen to two hours of it? Probably not, and whilst we'll happily play whatever you want us to, we'd urge any prospective bride and groom to take the advice of the band about what works well and what isn't so good for a wide range of ages in your audience.
One particular wedding reception is memorable for exactly this. Playing at Brownsover Hall in Coventry, the bride and groom wanted a particular rave version of a Bryan Adams song (Everything I Do, I Do it For You) for their first dance. We couldn't do it justice (know your limitations!) and deferred to the version the groom had created himself and had passed to the DJ. First thing is that it was too long - well over 8 minutes, and after about 90 seconds of impenetrable drum and bass the guests started drifting back to the bar and chatting while the groom danced the song away and the bride cast increasingly anxious glances over his shoulder. Happily, we got everyone up and dancing shortly after with a version of Mark Ronsons and Amy Winehouses Valerie and kept them up for the rest of the evening, but things were touch and go for a while.
So unless you're having the party with a specific theme in mind (like Disco, or Motown) we think that it's important to pick music that everyone can get into. Going full circle, the Beatles are great. And so are many many other bands. And if you're not certain about what music to play at your event, just ask us. We'd love to help and have masses of experience in playing all over the West Midlands and beyond to ages from those at primary school (Baby Shark, songs from Shrek) and the Monkees, to guests attending a black and orange themed Goth wedding for their friends where we almost played music that was exclusively from the 1980's.
Not sure what you're after? Get in touch and we can talk you through it. No problem! :-)