Unrealistic looking for a band for a wedding under £1k?

[Major Fallout]

Am I being unrealistic trying to find a band to play rock popish indi stuff at my wedding for under £1000 including transport, that can also sing in tune?

[anonymous-user]

wedding tax. A good pub band would be £500.

I would local social media, like bands etc or look at what is playing at local pubs.

[HOGEPH]

Whereabouts are you?

[Bullett]

It's about what I was quoted 8 years ago.

How long are you expecting them to play for, is there a disco as well?

Where are you?

[Bullett]

I was interested in recommended rates and it looks like the Musicians Union recommends £38 per hour per musician from set up, not just playing time.
So a 5 piece is £190 an hour. 6pm set up to midnight finish is £1140.
Everything is negotiable though. Start later and finish earlier should be cheaper.

[Major Fallout]

I'm getting married near Peterborough.

No dj, I have noticed some offer a iPod type of thing in between and after sets. I'm thinking two one hour sets? Or 30min - 30min - 60min? What ever the band wants to do really.

[davidd]

Major Fallout said:

I'm getting married near Peterborough.

No dj, I have noticed some offer a iPod type of thing in between and after sets. I'm thinking two one hour sets? Or 30min - 30min - 60min? What ever the band wants to do really.

Morning,

What date? We might be able to help...

https://www.facebook.com/theaccelerants

Cheers

D

[ruggedscotty]

Just a word to the wise - dont skimp. dont.....no dont....

We got married 11 years ago and have to say it was the band that made our wedding reception it cost us around the 1k mark back then. Really need to get that right or the night is a damp squib and the wedding memorable for all the wrong reasons...

[Tom_C76]

We paid £300 for a really good RnB band a our wedding. That was a 6 piece. They delivered their gear during the afternoon, then came back and played 2x60min sets. In Ely, though I did know them so it may have been a special deal.

Alternatively, if you want rock type stuff, my mate and I have already done one wedding with our duo, and are surprisingly affordable Stones through to Who, up to Primal Scream. Ping me a message if you'd like to discuss.

As for MU rates, they're a work of fiction. Bands on the pub circuit round here are lucky to see £50 each a night including travel, set up and 2.5 hours playing. Too many bands, not enough venues any more.

[davidd]

Tom is right. The price thing is usually well out of the window. I suspect that is the difference between a function band and a normal covers/pub band. I suspect that even though we will never be as polished as a function band we will give much more... A function band will be better prepared and will have deps to stand in which we don't really have.

The last wedding we did was for a friend we played an acoustic set of 6 songs then a 2 hour set of our normal classic rock/brit pop stuff. All for under £300. That was local and for a friend.

[Hoofy]

No man stroke woman video links? #disappointed

[vanordinaire]

Have you considered a Mariachi band ? I was at a wedding a while ago and they had the guys that did the Dorritos advert on telly. They didn't exactly sing in tune but it made for a fantastic night, couldn't beat it for a wedding. And apparently they were ridiculously cheap considering their telly 'fame'.

[dojo]

Decent players will want £200-£250 per head (esp if its a wedding/corp gig)

[davidd]

dojo said:

Decent players will want £200-£250 per head (esp if its a wedding/corp gig)

Professional musicians will, people who do it for fun/love won't. We only play for people we know, I would never pretend we are a Wedding or Function band but we have played both. If the OP can't get a band and we would fit the bill (and are available )then we'd do it for a lot less than a grand. Chances are however that we'll be busy.

[Major Fallout]

davidd said:

Morning,

What date? We might be able to help...

https://www.facebook.com/theaccelerants

Cheers

D

Sorry for the slow reply, the internet has been down here.

Thanks for your link, not had chance to have a look yet. I will have a look with my future wife after work.

Its October 22nd by the way.

[Tom_C76]

dojo said:

Decent players will want £200-£250 per head (esp if its a wedding/corp gig)

Rubbish. We're more than decent as anyone that has seen us will attest. Friday night we will play a two hour set in a pub in town and be surprised to walk away with anything over £50 each. For a wedding we'd look for a bit more but our starting price for a private function would be £250 for the pair of us. £250 a head would be nice but the market just won't support it round here.

And not all function bands are equal either. Some are clearly worth the money for corporate stuff, but there are others round here that call themselves function bands to claim the big money and are frankly not up to pub standards. Always be suspicious of a band that only publishes studio demos, all our demos come straight from the mixing desk live.

www.facebook.com/barstoolangels btw

[Turn7]

Tried looking on Lemonrock ?

[Bullett]

It's supply and demand like anything else.
Kind of distorted though by the hobbyists who are doing it for fun and not to feed the family.

[dojo]

Tom_C76 said:

dojo said:

Decent players will want £200-£250 per head (esp if its a wedding/corp gig)

Rubbish. We're more than decent as anyone that has seen us will attest. Friday night we will play a two hour set in a pub in town and be surprised to walk away with anything over £50 each. For a wedding we'd look for a bit more but our starting price for a private function would be £250 for the pair of us. £250 a head would be nice but the market just won't support it round here.

And not all function bands are equal either. Some are clearly worth the money for corporate stuff, but there are others round here that call themselves function bands to claim the big money and are frankly not up to pub standards. Always be suspicious of a band that only publishes studio demos, all our demos come straight from the mixing desk live.

www.facebook.com/barstoolangels btw

Maybe I should have worded it as professional players, no doubt there are some very good hobbyists who will do it for less but I'd be surprised if you found any band that consisted entirely of good pros going out and playing a wedding for much less than £200. The only way IME of getting top quality players out cheap is if they artistically buy into the project and to be frank they don't with cover bands, this is their bread and butter work.

All bands in this bracket will travel for gigs, it isn't a case that the local market won't support it, because you travel to where the gigs are, if you factor in often it will be 6 - 7 hours driving, 2 hours playing, 2 hours loading/unloading/set up and a fair old time hanging about £250 isn't much at all.

I'm sure the OP can find a good solid 4 or 5 piece band that will come and do a very serviceable job within his budget and most of the clientele won't be able to tell the difference.

Edited by dojo on Wednesday 4th May 22:52

[red997]

We're in the same boat as you;

been quoted massively differing prices from bands.

Best advice is to go out and see as many bands as you can in pubs etc - get talking to them, find out what can / can't be done.
Everything is negotiable

We've sorted ours out for Sept this year, but it did take us about 5 months to get there !

Great band, profesional musicians, people we actually get on with, and sub 1K
so it can be done...