November 30th, 2011
For the majority of our wedding bookings we are asked if the wedding band can perform the first dance for the bride and groom. Having a live wedding band perform the first dance adds the finishing touch on an already amazing day, and is also a great way to introduce the band who will be keeping your guest dancing for the rest of the evening!
Most people tend to choose the more ‘traditional’ first dance that either has significance in the song lyrics (”Let There Be Love” for example) and others may choose something a little more contemporary that might have meaning in the location where the song was heard or other factors. Some people even choose not have a traditional first dance at all and instead opt for something more upbeat to get the guests dancing straight away (”Play That Funky Music” for example).
Over the last 10 years our musicians have built up a great selection of first dances for weddings and the list below shows most of them. You could choose any of these songs for your wedding day and there would be no problem to have it performed live by the wedding band. If you don’t see your preferred choice of song on this list please feel free to ask as we may be able to arrange and learn it for you.
- A Groovy Kind Of Love (Phil Collins)
- Call Off The Search (Katie Melua)
- Can’t Take My Eyes Off You (Andy Williams)
- Cheek To Cheek (Irving Berlin)
- Dream A Little Dream (The Mamas & The Papas)
- Everything (Michael Buble)
- Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac)
- Feeling Good (Nina Simone)
- Fly Me To The Moon (Frank Sinatra)
- For Once In My Life (Stevie Wonder)
- Georgia On My Mind (Ray Charles)
- Have I Told You Lately (Van Morrison)
- I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You (Elvis Presley)
- It Had To Be You (Harry Connick Jr)
- Kiss Of Life (Sade)
- Let There Be Love (Nat King Cole)
- Let’s Stay Together (Al Green)
- Moondance (Van Morrison)
- My Baby Just Cares For Me (Nina Simone)
- Nightingale (Norah Jones)
- Nobody Does It Better (Carly Simon)
- Stand By Me (Ben E. King)
- Sunshine (Gabrielle)
- The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Roberta Flack)
- The Way You Look Tonight (Frank Sinatra)
- When A Man Loves A Woman (Percy Sledge)
- You Are The Sunshine Of My Life (Stevie Wonder)
- You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody (Dean Martin)
- You’ve Got A Friend (Carole King)
- Your Song (Elton John)
Please note that there may be a small surchange to arrange and learn a new song for an event with less than 2 months notice. Please double check if you are unsure.
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November 23rd, 2011
Due to our ever increasing amount of Jewish wedding bookings we decided to demonstrate exactly what we can do in order to help prospective Jewish wedding clients realise that our musicians are the perfect choice for their event. We already had a live recording of FUNKification performing ‘Hava Nagila’ and ‘Shalom Aleichem’ but thought that this didn’t quite represent the large amount of traditional Jewish repertoire that our bands can perform, and hence we decided to spend some time recording many of the other songs that we can also perform at Jewish weddings.
Traditional Israeli ‘Hora’ dancing
The Hora is a popular dance form which is performed at practically every Jewish wedding for which we provide a wedding band. It is a very lively and joyous part of the wedding day! During this dance the bride and the groom are lifted above the shoulders of guests, and whilst sitting on chairs the bride and groom may wave a handkerchief or napkin to each other, or even hold the ends of a single handkerchief if they are feeling brave. A wide circle of guests is formed around the couple, dancing clockwise and anticlockwise. This dance is also often referred to as the ‘chair dance’ for obvious reasons. Any band that you book for your Jewish wedding should not only be experienced in performing for the Hora dancing but they should also have enough repertoire to keep the dancing going for a significant amount of time until the guests start to get tired. This can vary from 5 to 20 minutes! The music would ideally be played in medley form so that the dancing is constant without breaks between songs. For example, a ’standard’ Hora medley performed by one of our bands would consist of a number of traditional tunes, played either instrumentally, with vocals (in Hebrew) or a mixture of both.
Jewish Wedding Repertoire
Upon careful consideration of repertoire options it was decided that the following list of well known Jewish/Israeli songs would demonstrate just what our musicians can do to make the ‘Hora’ go with a bang!
- Hava Nagila
- Shalom Aleichem
- Siman Tov U Mazel Tov
- (Chosen Kale) Mazel Tov
- Moshiach Moshiach Moshiach
- Ose Shalom
- Tzena Tzena
- Mayim Mayim
- Odessa Bulgarish
**UPDATE** The audio has now been uploaded to our website. You can listen to them on SoundCloud or you can visit our Jewish wedding bands page, which also has much more information that may be of interest to you when planning your wedding.
We look forward to working with you soon!
Regards
Dave Odams
Partner
The Musicquarium :: Exclusive Live Music
www.themusicquarium.co.uk
0845 838 8726
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October 22nd, 2011
CONGRATULATIONS to Simon Clegg who attended the National Wedding Show at Earl’s Court this year. By entering our prize draw on the day he has won our pianist to perform at his wedding on 12th November 2012. Thanks to everyone for entering the prize draw and watch this space for more special offers and prizes!
Dave Odams
Partner
The Musicquarium
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August 22nd, 2010
“Dear Dave,
Please forgive me for taking so long to write to thank you for the wonderful music you played at our wedding. [..]
Your band was fantastic as I knew it would be and so many people said so. BOTH my parents danced and that NEVER happens! My Cambridge friends led by Graham didn’t stop dancing (and one of them was 4 months pregnant!) so you certainly got people on the dance floor. [..] I had my wish of a fantastic live band and it finished off a perfect day so well.
Many thanks and when’s your next gig?!!
Love,
Laura & Nick”
Laura & Nick chose FUNKification as their wedding band
Wedding venue: Clandon Park, Guildford, Surrey
Please view our website for more information on wedding band hire in Guildford Surrey
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August 22nd, 2010
“Dear Dave and FUNKification,
We know this is very belated, but thank you so much for providing such wonderful music at our wedding in March, at the Burford Bridge Hotel. The band was everything we’d hoped it would be and our guests thoroughly enjoyed dancing to the live music. The band played brilliantly and we really enjoyed the set they performed.
We hope that you are enjoying the summer and what must be a very busy period for you. Please pass on our thanks to all the members of the band. We were, and remain, utterly delighted at how the whole event came together.
Best regards,
Niki & Sean”
Niki & Sean chose FUNKification as their wedding band
Wedding venue: Burford Bridge Hotel
Please view our website for more information on wedding band hire in Surrey
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August 22nd, 2010
“Hi Dave,
Please pass on my thanks to everyone in the band, they really did help the party come together. I have had nothing but praise for their performance and shall be putting your information on our noticeboard at work – lots of people have been asking about where I found you – so you never know – more work may be coming your way!!
Thanks so much!
Melissa”
Henson Creature Workshop chose FUNKification as their corporate event band
Event Venue: Jim Henson’s Creature Shop
Please view our website for more information on hiring a band for a corporate event
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August 22nd, 2010
“To Dave and the rest of the band,
Thank you so much for the brilliant boogying music you provided for our wedding on 21st August at Titchfield Abbey – as you could tell everyone absolutely loved it! Thanks particularly for carrying on through all the interruptions and people falling over on to the stage – I think everyone enjoyed the Polish vodka!!
You guys were excellent, we can’t thank you enough – let the recommendations continue!
Best wishes,
Jo & Jim Bliss”
Jo & Jim had FUNKification as their wedding band at Titchfield Abbey
Wedding venue: Titchfield Abbey
Please view our website for more information on wedding band hire
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August 20th, 2010
June 2010 saw our largest single corporate event booking so far, with a total of 21 musicians hired to perform across 3 stages in 6 different configurations!
This was the fourth consecutive year that this event company had hired the services of The Musicquarium to provide corporate entertainment, and it was also the most complicated production so far. The event started with a simultaneous performance from our string quartet for the arrival of the guests, and Swing Connection (4-piece band) on the outdoor ‘festival style’ stage. Shortly after this FUNKification performed as a 5-piece in the ‘big top’ marquee playing chilled soul and funk classics from the likes of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Swing Connection performed their second set on the outdoor stage as the full 8-piece ‘mini big band‘ covering all of the Ratpack and swing classics from the likes of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. The string quartet finished things off on the outdoor stage by performing a chilled set to those people still outside on the wonderful summer’s evening, followed by Swing Connection performing their third and final set in the big top. Audiobox was next up in the big top and performed a set of classic rock, pop and indie tunes as an 8-piece band (including 2 keyboard players and 2 guitarists!). The evening was finished off with FUNKification performing as a 12-piece band (2 singers, 2 keys, 2 guitars, bass, drums, 4 brass) to the packed out dance floor.
As you can see, this was no mean feat getting all of the musicians to the right place at the right time and also making sure that the repertoire chosen for each section perfectly matched the type of audience in that location. Many hours of planning from both The Musicquarium and the event company ensured that it all ran perfectly. The client was over the moon, the guests (1500 of them!) had a great night and the weather was perfect. Fingers crossed for our 5th consecutive booking in 2011!!
Here are a selection of photos from the event (all taken by Chantal Richards – www.chantalphotography.com):
The excellent feedback from the event company was as follows:
“Thank you for all your hard work in helping to make the party in the park a great success. Again, the musicians and performers that you supplied were of the highest quality and we have received very positive feedback from our client about the entertainment. Please pass on our thanks to all of the musicians that performed on the night.”
Please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information on hiring a live band for a corporate event.
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August 20th, 2010
“Hi Dave,
Just a quick note to once again thank you for everything in the lead up to our wedding in July. The band was fantastic – please pass on my thanks, particularly to Simon for all his help on the day. Many guests commented on how good they all were and I would not hesitate in recommending The Musicquarium in the future.
Best wishes,
Julie Dunford (nee Bevan)”
Wedding Venue: Private residence
Wedding Summary: Julie chose FUNKification’s 5-piece option with male vocals, guitar, keyboards and drums. In order to create a bespoke song list she chose to include songs from three of our bands – FUNKification, Audiobox and Swing Connection.
Please contact us for more information about wedding bands for hire in London.
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August 20th, 2010
“Dear Dave,
We would like to thank you for organising the band, and the song choices were great. We both had a faboulous time on saturday.
Many thanks
Jumpei & Wings”
Venue: The Commonwealth Club, London
Please contact us for more information about wedding bands for hire in London.
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