Just as any string quartet at a wedding can be guaranteed to play Pachelbel’s Canon in D within 15 minutes of picking up their instruments, any party band with at least one guitar, bass, drums and vocals will inevitably do Brown Eyed Girl and Mustang Sally. The band at Katharine and Edward’s wedding did things a little differently though, in that they didn’t do them until the second set! Gosh. Some of the guests must have found that really confusing.

The equivalent for trad jazzers is of course The Saints and for cool jazzers it’s Girl From Ipanema with varying amounts of bum notes, but did you know that for a military band it’s a march called Blazeaway?

And did you also know that the entire cello part for Pachelbel’s Canon in D consists of the same 8 notes played in the same order 52 times?

More pictures ‘n’ stuff to come, but not right now because we’re way too busy processing our last two weddings …

I have to confess that I’m of the school of thought that believes bagpipes are best heard up in the Highlands or at a military parade, but a properly turned-out piper is indeed a fine sight. And in our experience they don’t come more properly turned out than this chap who played at Claire and Jonathon’s Inner Temple wedding recently.

Martin McKay’s not only a fine piper and a really nice guy, but he also seems to have got the whole business of providing a service at a function thoroughly sorted. We were impressed.

Samah and Sam’s wedding yesterday was notable for several things, among them Samah joining in with the belly-dancers after the first dance, our pal Leo “Big Hair” Ferenc doing the vid and – believe it or not – a DJ that we’re actually happy to recommend!

For once we had a DJ who didn’t take forever and a day to set up, whose rig was neat and tidy, who had enough lights to put on a decent show, and who didn’t have his name and contact details emblazoned across the front of his setup. Not only did he have a very good sound system with really tight bass playing CD’s (not mp3′s), but he also had the ability to flawlessly co-ordinate the first two dances, then a live guitar and vocal duet, then a 20 minute belly-dance set with Egyptian music followed by a father-daughter dance and then get everybody back on the dancefloor – all without being in your face or in any way irritating.  Mark’s your man at Raindance UK 

The very talented belly-dancer was Fleur Estelle

What a pleasure it was to listen to these guys at Victoria and David’s wedding last month! This is After 8 Jazz in their usual incarnation of keys, bass, drums, guitar, sax and horns, and it’s been a long time since we’ve come across such a thoroughly professional band at a wedding. Great musicians, smart turnout, good presence, cool sound … we were impressed, and where wedding bands are concerned that really does not happen very often at all. David Kaplan’s the contact, he’s on 07956 818 035, and the band website’s here

Until I spoke to one of the brides about this last night, I thought it was just us. But it certainly isn’t, so if any of our clients are reading this and thinking of booking a ceilidh band, you might like to have a word with us before you do …

We’ve heard these guys at several weddings over the last few years, and have never failed to be impressed – which, considering Ann’s an ex sax player and we’re both ex music biz, doesn’t actually happen very often where musos are concerned. And on top of that Derek’s a really nice guy!

Contact numbers are 01322 557720 and 07961 347399