bristol wedding band|a blog by the Moon Loungers

For the first time in a while, the Moon Loungers managed to squeeze in two weddings in a day on the weekend: a daytime performance at the Avon Gorge Hotel in Bristol, and then an evening performance at Priston Mill near Bath.

We arrived at the Avon Gorge Hotel around 11.00 on Sunday morning, and after the usual parking-related shenaigans that are customary in Clifton we eventually got ourselves set up for both the ceremony and drinks.

As has been the case a few times recently, we had been left minimal space in the ceremony room, but managed to find a corner to position ourselves in.  It also became apparent that the room had been set up in such a way that the bride wouldn’t actually be able to get in – not ideal… after a bit of chair shuffling this was rectified, and we were soon playing away as guests assembled.

The bride entered (unobstructed, thankfully) to “Chasing Cars”, and we then played a couple of tunes during the register while everyone enjoyed the stunning views out onto the Gorge.  Everyone exited to us playing “It Must Be Love”, following which we quickly unplugged our guitars and headed down to the terrace where Set of Equipment 2 was waiting for us.

The weather mercifully remained dry for the drinks reception, which meant the guests could really take in the spectacular views of the Suspension Bridge and Avon Gorge while sipping on their bucks fizz.  We played a couple of sets before everyone was ushered back inside for the wedding breakfast, and then it was time to pack everything up, grab a quick bite to eat and head off in the direction of Bath.

We arrived at Priston Mill Tythe Barn around 6.00, met up with Stu the drummer and promptly waited until about 7.15 to access the room – not for the first time the speeches had over run!  Having seen all this before, we set up in super quick time and kicked off the first set with a first dance of “You’re My Best Friend”.

The first set went down well, and during the break we relaxed in the newly converted lounge area of the barn. A large queue formed when the hog roast was served, and once everyone had eaten we returned for a lively second set.  The lads were clearly enjoying the copious amounts of “diesels” they had been drinking – lager,  cider and blackcurrant – and really got into the spirit of things.

Once we’d finished performing live the disco took over, and the bride and groom’s choice of playlist took things through to the end of the night.  We were paticularly surprised to see how well the lads knew the words to Westlife’s “Flying Without Wings”, which closed proceedings…

All in all it was a long but very enjoyable day. Well done to all concerned!

The Moon Loungers completed a very busy April with gigs at Coombe Lodge in Somerset and Priston Mill (between Bristol and Bath) on the weekend…

First up was an evening party at Coombe Lodge.  Once again we set up on our lovely rugs and kicked off with a first dance of “We Have All The Time In The World”.  This was followed by “You Can Never Can Tell” by Chuck Berry, in which the winners of the film quiz  – which had taken place during the wedding breakfast – were able to choose another table of guests to dance to the song, a la Pulp Fiction.

Yes, it was a bit complicated, but once it had been explained by the bride and groom it was quite amusing, and we followed it with a lively first set.  At one point we could smell burning and worriedly checked all the equipment to see if anything was on fire, before realising that someone’s jacket had caught alight thanks to a tea light positioned on a window sill near where he was sitting…

After a break and a spot of buffet we returned for an enjoyable second set that featured a rare outing of “It’s Not Unusual” and Stereophonics’ “Dakota”, both in honour of the Welsh contingent that was present.  As usual the disco took things up to midnight to complete an enjoyable night’s work!

The following day the acoustic duo headed to Priston Mill for a daytime engagment that involved providing music during a ceremony and drinks reception in the water mill. Unfortunately, the weather was dismal and so everything was taking place inside, a logistical challenge given the 3-storey set up of the venue…

The ceremony was held on the top floor, and we tucked ourselves away at the back of the room where we could keep an eye on proceedings.  The entrance music was “Here Comes the Sun” (if only…) and the exit music was a specially learned version of “Bring Me Sunshine (ditto!).  We then had to quickly pack the ceremony equipment away and head downstairs to the packed bar, where another set of gear was waiting for us in amongst the masses of guests.

With the radiator next to us on full blast it was a very warm and cosy drinks reception…  At one point an alarm went off, which we assumed was triggered by a certain temperature being hit, and it was nice to be handed a cold beer at the end by a very generous best man.  The photographer for the day was Lee Niel, a friend of ours from weddings past, and he managed to take a few shots of us relaxing before we headed off, so keep an eye out for those on the blog once we get our hands on them!

So that was April – very busy but lots of fun! Congrats to all the newly weds and let’s hope for more of the same (perhaps with some improved weather) in May…

Last weekend the Moon Loungers continued with their busy April with a wedding at Ashton Court in Bristol.

We set ourselves up on the stage, which is located at the far end of what is a very long main function room (see below), and kicked off proceedings at around 8.30 with the first dance. The bride and groom had chosen Jason Mraz’s brand new song “I Won’t Give Up On You”, perhaps in an attempt to ensure that no-one else has ever had this song for their first dance…

Given the considerable distance between ourselves and the closest seated guests, the area left for dancing was fairly large, but we managed to keep a hardcore of guests on the floor without feeling too lost in the expanse of space!

After a quick munch of the buffet we returned to the stage for a lively second set, culminating in a two-song encore and followed by a spot of disco for those up for dancing right up to midnight.

The bride and groom left at 11.45,and in honour of the bride they headed off to the strains of “Sweet Caroline”. We’d been asked/urged/implored to play the song about a hundred times during the evening, but stuck to the instructions to save it until the end – a good decision!

Well done to the B&G and all those had a boogie and sing song (and didn’t badger us about Sweet Caroline!).

Hello everyone, firstly apologies for any strange e-mails you’ve received over night, our e-mail account has been hacked by some lovely people tapping away at computers in a dark room somewhere…

Moving swiftly on, the Moon Loungers chose not to hide themselves away in a dark room on Saturday night, instead heading to the splendid Jacobean pile that is Coombe Lodge to perform at a wedding party.

With our van (the infamous yellow peril) being treated to a nice new gearbox, our mechanic friend Brad had kindly lent us his impressive Mercedes van for the evening.  Needless to say Eric the co-ordinator at Coombe Lodge was suitably surprised when we arrived in what appeared to be the A-Team van.

Transport issues aside it was business as usual for the Moon Loungers, with the speeches running late and the first dance not kicking off until about 9.00.  The bride and groom had chosen Ellie Goulding’s version of “Your Song”, and their choreographed routine went down a storm with the jovial guests, who quickly joined the dance floor for our first set.

After a quick break spent munching on bacon sarnies, we returned for an enjoyable second set that culminated in a rowsing “Hey Jude”, followed by our current favourite encore tunes of “Moves Like Jagger” and “Rolling in the Deep” and a finale of “Chasing Cars”.

There was time for a few disco songs before we signed off, “Come on Eileen” and “Cha Cha Slide” making a rare foray past our quality control at the special request of the bride’s sister!

It was then time to load up the Merc and enjoy the luxurious drive home – all being well the Yellow Peril will be back on the road by next weekend…

Well done to the guests for making it such a good night and congrats to a lovely couple!

It has been a VERY busy Easter for the Moon Loungers, with no less than 4 weddings in the space of 5 days. Believe  it or not, Chris actually found the time to attend a funeral during this period (before you ask!).

First up was a rare Tuesday wedding at Orchardleigh House in deepest Somerset.  Whilst setting up we had to send home a DJ who turned up thinking he was providing the music for the evening – the venue had neglected to tell him that his services wouldn’t be required on this occasion…

The first dance was our version of Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”, which was followed by a couple of well-received sets of music either side of a delicious buffet.  Given it was a mid-week gig, some guests left early, but a decent number of stalwarts stuck around until the midnight finish.

There was a lot of confectionary left over at the end of the night, and the mother of the bride made sure that the Moon Loungers headed home armed with vast quantities of chocolate buttons – perks of the job!

After taking Wednesday off we returned to action on Thursday with a full day engagement at Kingscote Barn in Gloucestershire.  Things kicked off with an acoustic performance during the ceremony, featuring our slowed down version of Guns n Roses “Sweet Child o’ Mine” (now available on iTunes!) as the bride walked down the aisle.

Unfortunately, the warm weather of late March had been followed by a chilly start to April, which meant our drinks reception performance took place in the barn’s reception room.  We knocked out a couple of sets of acoustic tunes before the guests headed through to the main room for the wedding breakfast, then it was time to pack everything up ready for the evening.

During the break we were able to partake in the delights of the barbecue (it wasn’t really barbecue weather, but since when has that stopped the British from enjoying a nice barbie?!), and before we knew it Stu the drummer had arrived and we were setting up for the evening party.

For the first dance Steve had kept his acoustic guitar at hand for a slowed down performance of “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon that worked really well.  Once again we followed the first dance with a nice mix of covers to keep everyone dancing.  During the break we grabbed some cheese and biscuits while a number of inebriated female guests (the girls are also the worst!) descended upon our equipment and mimed along to the disco with our mics…

The second set was suitably raucous, and the encore featured another performance of “Wonderful Tonight”.  It was then over to the disco for the remainder of the evening, during which the father of the groom even gave us a generous tip – so all in all a very succesful and enjoyable day!

Friday night saw us reconvene at Coombe Lodge for an evening party.  At Kingscote the previous night we’d set up on rugs in an attempt to combat the “challenging” acoustics of the barn, and we did the same again on this occasion (these venues tend to avoid having any soft furnishings – less for them to clean/repair, we assume – so we’ve resorted to bring our own!).

For the first dance we played “This Year’s Love” by David Gray.  We reckon the last time we played this was a first dance about 5 years ago, but it didn’t take much to freshen our memories – and it sounded great as well.  The guests stuck around for the rest of the first set, and piled back on to the dance floor for the second set to make it a really good night.

And then on Saturday we headed to Wick Farm for another evening party.  On this occasion the first dance was an old favourite, “Better Together” by Jack Johnson, followed by a dance floor filling first set. After a delicious lasagne courtesy of Strawberry Fields caterers (who we’d worked with at Kingscote on Thursday!) we performed a second set that (eventually) got everyone up dancing.  As it seemed a shame to stop playing once we’d filled the dance floor, we knocked out a 4-song encore before putting on the disco for the final throes of the evening.

The fun continues tonight with a gig at Chewton Place (the venue we thought as no more!) so our busy Easter hasn’t finished just yet.  So far so good though – well done to all concerned and congrats to the happy couples!

Moon Loungers HQ has been understaffed during March due to Steve being on extended paternity leave; whilst this has meant that the blog has been quiet, the new arrival hasn’t stopped us from squeezing in a few wedding gigs!  Here is a quick rundown of what we’ve been up to…

Back on the 10th March we played a wedding evening bash at Wick Farm.  Due to the late timings of the day, we weren’t required to arrive until 8.00, and as we didn’t actually start playing until gone 9.30 we decided to forego a break and knocked out a solid 2 hour set.

Admittedly it took some persuading to drag a number of the guests away from the bar, but come the end the dancefloor was full and they were (typically) crying for more.  So we played a few encores before letting the bride and groom’s selection of disco tunes close proceedings.

The following weekend saw us return to Kingscote Barn for another evening do,  memorable in large part due to one female guest who spent most of the night studying our set lists. At the end we let her take a set list away, which she was utterly delighted by – our hope is that it has since been framed and put up on the lounge wall for further inspection..

And bringing everything up to date, we played at Combe Lodge on Friday at a wedding ceremony and evening party.  The ceremony saw us squeeze into the billiard room (which I’ve never seen a billiard table in, incidentally) and  play – most notably – “You’re My Best Friend” for the entrance of the bride and “Let’s Stay Together” for the exit of the happy couple.

The evening party kicked off with a performance of “At Last” by Etta James, followed by our now preferred short first set and long second set.  For an encore we played two recently learned numbers, namely “Moves Like Jagger” and “Rolling in the Deep”, both of which went down well. Special mention should also go to the bold move of having paella for the evening food – a nice change from the norm!

Many congratulations to all three couples and well done to all the guests who enjoyed a dance and a sing along.

Hot on the heels of our recently released acoustic covers album, The Moon Loungers 3-Piece Covers is now available to listen to on Spotify and download from iTunes.

The album contains 12 tracks and draws together a mixture of studio recordings from down the years and a couple of live performances for good measure.  In true Moon Loungers style, the range of covers spans the decades and includes something for everyone…

Track listing

1. Stuck In The Middle With You

2. Let’s Stay Together

3. Higher and Higher

4. Can’t Take My Eyes Off You

5. You Can’t Hurry Love

6. Town Called Malice

7. Uptown Girl

8. Johnny B. Goode (Live)

9. Mr. Brightside

10. Back for Good

11. Suspicious Minds (Live)

12. Hey Jude

Enjoy!

No gigs over the weekend, but on Sunday the ever-busy Moon Loungers headed to Clevedon Hall in Somerset for a wedding fair.

We tend not to appear at many of these type of events nowadays, but we made the exception for Clevedon Hall  – a relatively new venue for us, but one we have really enjoyed playing at since our debut there last year.  One thing’s for sure, the sun always seems to be shining there…

Once set up we were rewarded with bacon sarnies and cups of tea, which was very much appreciated!  We were positioned in the large entrance hall, next to another band (Ian Towers’ Trio), so we liaised with Ian and agreed to take it in turns to play half hour sets throughout the day – a nice change from playing fairly solidly for 5 hours (which is what usually happens at wedding fairs…).

As promised by the organisers, loads of couples came through the doors to browse around the many photographers, cake makers, musicians, vintage cars, etc.  We had an enjoyable day, and it was great to share the bill with another band and trade a few musicians’ tales with each other along the way.

Well done to Sarah and the team at Clevedon Hall for putting together such a good wedding fair, and hopefully we’ll be invited back for the next one!

The Moon Loungers were at Clevedon Hall on Saturday night for a highly enjoyable evening wedding performance. It was another chilly night, but with the next few weeks off this will hopefully be our last wedding of the winter proper!  Here’s a picture of the venue in warmer conditions:

The wedding ceremony had taken place quite early (midday), which meant the wedding breakfast was finished relatively early; as  a result, some of the guests headed to their hotels/homes during the break before the evening party, whilst others simply parked themselves in the great hall and watched us set up over a cup of coffee…

The plan (there is always a plan!) was to kick off around 8.00/8.15 and play a short set before the buffet at 9.00.  However, with one particular guest late to return for the first dance, we eventually started things off around 8.40.  As some guests were convinced that the Carpenters’  “Top of the World” would be the couple’s song of choice, we played a few bars of this rather cheesy classic through the lap top before the real first dance of “It Must Be Love” by Madness took over.  Much more like it!  A routine had also secretly been learned to ensure the guests were suitably surprised.

The guests joined the bride and groom on the dancefloor midway through the first dance, and we sought to keep them on the floor for the first set (despite the temptations of the buffet being served up next door!). After a quick break we returned for a brilliant second set that featured our new versions of “Mamma Mia” (which drew a conga from the crowd) and “Rolling in the Deep” as a rousing encore.

The disco took over for the final throes of the evening, and then it was time to brave the freezing weather to pack up.  Another splendid evening, featuring a great crowd and a lovely couple. Well done to all concerned!

PS we are back at Clevedon Hall this coming Sunday (19th February) for a wedding fair. We will be performing as an acoustic duo, handing out flyers and having a general chit-chat with anyone interested.  We hope to see you there!