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Monthly Archives: April 2013

Fabulous Wedding Celebration In Oxford

Tonight the band were honoured to head down to the heart of Oxfordshire and play at a joy filled wedding celebration for some old friends of our lead singer. It’s a rare occasion these days that the band are able to celebrate with friends in such a way – and today’s wedding really brought home exactly why we do this!

A Day Full Of Joy

On perhaps the first truly sunny day we’ve had this year, our bride and groom could not have been more chuffed to be getting married. While, as always, timings slip and stresses of the day can creep in, the atmosphere was of an extensive community of friends and family so excited to see this bride and groom making this commitment to one another… It’s certainly cause for celebration in our books – and this bunch needed little encouragement from us!

A Wedding Infused With Personality

We seldom have such an insight into the personalities of the couple getting married – but today, even if they’d been complete strangers we’d have known them as old friends before the night was out. We arrived to a room with a coat rail in the corner; hanging on it though were no coats, but masks, wigs and all manner of costumes. There was clearly a silly and fun side to these guys… in the other corner was a bike/ice cream cart! As we found from the excellent band food, these guys know how to make people feel welcome with food. Our food was spot on, hearty and tasty, not overly fancy, and got us through the gig beautifully!

Packed Dance Floor From The Off

Tonight’s first dance was You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon. The groom being Al, and the bride’s middle name being Elizabeth (or Beth, or Betty!) made sense of the whole thing. It’s a great song and one we’re tempted to add to the repertoire with its great upbeat groove and sing-along chorus!

Next up the groom joined the band to sing Brown Eyed Girl. A great singer himself, it was a lovely chance for him to serenade his bride: and brilliantly he did too. Sadly in the photos below you’ll see our bass player’s behind obscuring the view of Al singing – you’ll just have to use your imagination!

From there on the dance floor remained packed throughout the first set – never once waning – as the guests got their groove on and went nuts for every track we played! Hard to pick highlights, but I think we all enjoyed She’s So Lovely by Scouting for Girls, and Steve always plays a beautiful Sweet Child o’ Mine solo…

Traditional Bridal Exit

It’s certainly become less common in recent years (to our experience at least) – but tonight the bride and groom made their exit around 11pm – about an hour before the reception was due to finish. While weddings can be so much fun you want to eke every last moment from them, they can also be exhausting! Some couples simply want to spend those last few moments of the day with one another – and not start their married life on the back foot through being tired. I completely respect tonight’s couple for making that decision and hope it gives them a great start to their honeymoon!

Now it’s time to leave you with some photos from the night, including a couple of the groom handing out ice-creams, and a few of us trying on the costumes! Enjoy!

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Tonight the band were honoured to head down to the heart of Oxfordshire and play at a joy filled wedding celebration for some old friends of our lead singer. It’s a rare occasion these days that the band are able to celebrate with friends in such a way – and […]

21/04/2013

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Return to The Dovecliff Hotel, Stretton for April Showers – But At Least It’s Warm!

It doesn’t seem like even yesterday that we made the trip to the Dovecliff Hall Hotel for a Winter Wedding – but that was all the way back in 2011! Well, in over a year since our last trip the venue has lost none of it’s charm. A lovely old manor, set in beautiful grounds, ornate and yet unpretentious; it’s an ideal wedding venue.

Straightforward Start

The evening got off to a good start with a straightforward load in, unpressured sound check after speeches and a truly relaxed wedding party. We always enjoy seeing a bride and groom clearly in their element; and these guys summed that ideal up. We were wonderfully looked after by the couple and the venue with a beautiful chicken dinner (I believe the same as the wedding guests had) – it really set us up for a great show.

Andy Williams – Or Is It Frankie Valli?

First dance tonight was Andy Williams’ Can’t Take My Eyes Off You… with a little key change inspiration from the original rendition by Frankie Valli. It’s such a beautiful track, and great for both first dances and end of night sing alongs – that rousing chorus always gets a great reaction!

Notable Moments

Other notable moments included an impromptu rendition of Marry You by Bruno Mars. Bruno Mars was requested by a number of the guests and as a track that’s made it into previous acoustic sets it seemed doable. With a bit of polish it could make the set – but should it?! Could the tongue in cheek look at marriage be misconstrued? We’re currently looking at another Bruno Mars song – Locked Out Of Heaven. A marvellous chorus, and great dynamics should make this a massive song this summer: and it reminds us of the Police, which is never a bad thing!

Until Next Time

Next week we’ve got a wedding for a good friend and the first dance is a corker – so, we’ll be in the studio this week putting finishing touches to that… some unusual aspects to the song, so we’ll need a bit more time than usual to make it work – but when it does it’s going to be special! We’ll let you know how it goes next week. Until then, enjoy the photos of tonight!

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It doesn’t seem like even yesterday that we made the trip to the Dovecliff Hall Hotel for a Winter Wedding – but that was all the way back in 2011! Well, in over a year since our last trip the venue has lost none of it’s charm. A lovely old […]

13/04/2013

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Does Keira Knightley’s Modest Wedding Give Us Any Ideas About Keeping On Top Of The Wedding Budget?

Last weekend saw the wedding of Keira Knightley and James Righton (Klaxons) which to many people was a surprisingly modest affair. Celebrating with only a handful of guests and using an old Renault Clio as their wedding car: does this give us a fresh perspective on the celebrity wedding?

Wedding Day Essentials

10 years in the wedding industry has shown us that anything is possible for your special day. From castles to a groom’s custom shoes, photo-booths to bands, magicians, cakes and cheese towers, fireworks, flowers that fill the room  –  we’ve seen so much that can make up the perfect day, it’s easy to see how budgets get stretched to breaking point. But seeing such simplicity in the wedding of a couple for whom money is no object brings the important parts of the day into focus.

A Celebration Of Your Marriage

When it comes to planning any wedding there’s so much choice. As a wise groom once told me, it’s the Bride and Groom’s day; so they’re the leading authority on what should happen! The marriage is the key thing, the wedding is a celebration of this marriage.

The very same groom didn’t invite me, his best man, to the wedding breakfast. Some may need to reread that last statement a few times, but yes, I, the best man, didn’t attend the wedding breakfast. To many, this may seem complete madness – on the contrary, it was complete sanity. The couple and parents simply couldn’t afford to feed upwards of 100 guests attending to celebrate the marriage and the meal was kept a strictly family affair. Being in central Bath there were plenty of excellent places to eat and we all met up later for some frankly quite excellent dancing!

Keira and James may not have been thinking about the financial implications of having a more elaborate ceremony but clearly, to them, something else was more important than dining with an extensive group of friends and family.

For the first wedding above it was simply that getting married was the most important thing. The celebration, while wonderful and great fun, was second. I hope Keira and James had a similar perspective!

Modest Weddings vs “Glittering Celebrity-style Weddings”

It isn’t the kind of thing you would usually read on a site promoting Wedding Entertainment – but we’re big fans of the modest wedding! Wedding budgets can quickly spiral out of control, often leading to the date being postponed or the idea being put on the back burner while other daily expenses are dealt with. As Sir Paul Coleridge, a High Court Judge, has been quoted as saying, “If people thought they could not get married unless they had a glittering celebrity-style wedding, I think that’s very tragic.”

Weddings The Keira Knightley Way!

It was great to see such a simple day from such a high profile couple – and we’d love to see more! While not every groom has a band who can play the reception, the CoverUps are always on hand. For our advice on keeping your wedding to a modest budget, why not check out our Top 5 Wedding Budget Tips.

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Last weekend saw the wedding of Keira Knightley and James Righton (Klaxons) which to many people was a surprisingly modest affair. Celebrating with only a handful of guests and using an old Renault Clio as their wedding car: does this give us a fresh perspective on the celebrity wedding? Wedding […]

09/04/2013

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Bistro Live! A New Party Venue Gig for the Band

Tonight saw the band visit a new venue – Bistro Live in Nottingham. It’s quite a different sort of a night to the usual weddings, with an epic DJ hyping the crowd to a frenzy before the band came to the stage; read on to see how that went!

Acoustic Over Dinner

The band played a 20 minute acoustic set over dinner, which was a nice way to introduce ourselves, though in some ways perhaps diminished the impact of the band later. It had been suggested to do a solo acoustic set, but the venue went with the full band having in house a number of hen-dos and similar parties! Still, it was good fun to play, and a great chance to whip out some Michael Buble!

Party Rock Anthems!

We opened the main set with Jet’s Are You Going To Be My Girl. While perhaps not the most instantly recognised of songs, the fast pace and bare faced rock seemed to go down well with the hyped audience. The rest of the night was great fun – the lighting and staging giving us a marvellous vantage point to deliver CoverUps staples like Don’t Stop Believing, Mr Brightside and Sex On Fire.

Next Time

We’ve got some changes to make to the set for next time – it’s always good to have a good gig, but there are ways we can make these great.. though not until October for now! We’ll be back, this time in Leicester’s Bistro Live venue on the 19th October this year. Have a good summer, and we’ll see you then!

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Tonight saw the band visit a new venue – Bistro Live in Nottingham. It’s quite a different sort of a night to the usual weddings, with an epic DJ hyping the crowd to a frenzy before the band came to the stage; read on to see how that went! Acoustic […]

06/04/2013

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Riverbank Rocks! The CoverUps Kick Off The Weekend In Nottingham

Our bi-monthly residency at the Riverbank on Trent bridge kicked off in style tonight; and wasn’t without a few surprises! It’s great having a place to call home, and we’re starting to feel that at the Riverbank. Long time friends of the venue’s counterpart – Tom Brown’s Brasserie – this year has seen the band take a regular slot on the first Friday of every even month… confused? Well, the next is June 7th: that’s probably all you need to know for now!

Change From The Norm

The CoverUps pride themselves on being almost exclusively a wedding band. Weddings are unique amongst band related events, and we’ve spent years honing the service we provide to make sure everything runs as smoothly with the band as any other aspect of the couple’s big day. So for us, this bar gig gives us a chance to try something different, something new, and enjoy the reaction from a very different audience.

The night kicked off around 10:30pm with our old school set… populated with classics that got the room jiving and rocking out, it’s a great excuse to hear so many tracks relegated in recent years by the current chart toppers.

Highlights

As a chance to drop some of the newest tracks in the list, tonight saw one of the first performances of No Diggity by Blackstreet. A classic from the CoverUps’ clubbing days, the slow R&B groove is one of few in the band’s repertoire. The dramatic change from the band’s usual style seemed to work brilliantly and the crowd really went for it. It’ll be making appearances over the summer I’d imagine, so keep your eyes peeled.

Other particular stand out moments tonight were Moves Like Jagger, Superstition and Sweet Home – each track placed to take the audience on to the next stage. Great fun.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention in this section a massive privilege too; to welcome international England Cricket player Graeme Swann to the stage!

Surprise Celebrity Stage Invasion!

Yep, as we were rocking out the second set – I think it was somewhere around I Predict A Riot – we were joined onstage by a surprisingly unassuming Graeme Swann, seemingly egged on by his mates, to sing Town Called Malice. The band struck up, and Swanny dived in – hitting the vocal with great verve and surprising accuracy! His twitter account puts lead singer as the 3rd string to his bow, and as you might expect from someone who plays for the England Cricket team, he doesn’t do it by halves.

As the night drew to a close, we had Swanny back up to sing out Wonderwall. With the Swagger of a Gallagher brother, he pulled that one off too… Fair play!

Behind The Scenes

Tonight we got the opportunity to beta test a new mobile app for live performance. We’re not at liberty to say much about it at this stage, but suffice to say it takes the smoothness and solidness of our performance to the next level! Jack, tonight’s drummer who was using the app, said during pack down “to be fair, I’m convinced”… watch this space for any further developments!

Back Soon!

Home now, but back to Nottingham tomorrow for another show – and back at the Riverbank on 7th June! Until then, enjoy these photos!

[embpicasa id=”5864779257157900881″]

Our bi-monthly residency at the Riverbank on Trent bridge kicked off in style tonight; and wasn’t without a few surprises! It’s great having a place to call home, and we’re starting to feel that at the Riverbank. Long time friends of the venue’s counterpart – Tom Brown’s Brasserie – this […]

05/04/2013

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