The Ultimate Wedding & Party Band

Phone: 07962 444 574

smoothcriminals@live.co.uk

Many of our clients book other entertainment as well as the band. You might want a DJ to end the evening or a lounge pianist to play during Your meal. We can provide all these services at a fraction of the price of booking them separately. Because we organise it all ourselves you can be sure of no conflicts and have it all swiftly set up often taking up a lot less space than the separate bookings. See our extra services page for more details.

Suitability

We’ve all seen great bands from time to time but would they all be suitable for a wedding? Whereas most bands will be happy to take a wedding booking some really wouldn’t be suitable. The Blues band from down the pub might seem great with a few pints and that tribute act might really entertain but will they suit everyone?

Having played hundreds of weddings all over the country, we’ve got it down to a fine art. We play songs that will suit everyone young and old, we make sure our show is entertaining for the whole family making sure there’s no bad language, we keep a professional approach at all times.

Type of venue

Does the venue permit live entertainment? Are there any noise restrictions or sound limiters? How accessible is the stage area? Are there any stairs to negotiate (bands sometimes have very large and heavy equipment that may be too bulky to carry up a flight of stairs)?

The Smooth Criminals  have  experience working with sound limiters and noise restrictions. The acoustic sound of the drums is often the loudest instrument on stage, this why we have the option to use state of the art Roland electric drums where required for no extra fee. This means the total sound of the band can be adjusted just as you would your hifi, meaning that the perfect volume can be achieved. We also work with venue staff to ensure that we  understand and meet their guidelines as well as discuss possible arrangements to overcome any venue problems and access restrictions.

Staging

How much space does the band need to set up? Do they require a raised stage? What are their power requirements? When planning the room layout it’s always a good idea to leave space between the band and the tables, as no one wants to have a speaker positioned inches away from their ear hole! Many of our clients have their evening meal in the same room as the evening entertainment. In this situation it’s always a good idea to remove some of the tables from the area in front of the band to create a dancefloor area -  8ft by 8ft is a good minimum size.

The Smooth Criminals  floor space requirements are highly flexible, as we can arrange our equipment to suit most sized stages or floor spaces.  As a fully ‘live’ 5  piece band with full drum kit, guitar, bass, keyboards, monitoring and lighting rig, we will require approximately 10 x15ft of floor space as well at least 2x twin mains power sockets (preferably on separate circuits). However, as we have a modular PA, we can add or downscale equipment to suit  the venue. Larger venues (with in excess of 350 guests) will require more equipment and as such more floor space. Please note, the Smooth Criminals do not require raised staging.

Band equipment

You may want to look into the size of the bands PA. As a rule, a 2000 Watt PA is adequate for parties of up to 250 guests and a 3200 Watt would be adequate for up to 350 guests although this can vary greatly dependant on quality and efficiency aswell as how the system is set up. Also, does the band provide lights for the dance floor as well as the stage area? Be aware of bands that greatly exaggerate the power of their PA system and turn up with a borrowed sub standard system - it’s advisable to ask how many the system can cater for instead of working with sometimes misleading figures.

As standard, the Smooth Criminals will bring a 2500 Watt PA with stage and dance floor lighting to suit. We always make every effort to get the sound as good as it can be, there’s no shortcuts with us. For larger events with in excess of 250 guests, we can provide more equipment to make the system 3200 Watts in total. For outdoor performances and very large events we can provide extra equipment to suit at a very reasonable cost. We appreciate that Weddings usually have a very broad age range and we understand that Grandad isn’t going to want be deafened when he’s sat at the back of the room trying to have a quiet chat! 

Repertoire

Every Wedding is different, do you want to have a lively night of crazy stage antics and non stop dancing, or a romantic event with ballads and laid back classics? Modern chart hits or rocking 60’s retro?

The Smooth Criminals  repertoire is extensive, thoughtfully considered and thoroughly tested. Our set lists are tailored for the purpose and designed to get people out of their seats and onto the dance floor.

We can cater for it all. We generally find that a lively mix of soul, disco, rock, and modern hits keeps the dance floor full all night. For most weddings we keep it up tempo, but if you want a sprinkling of romantic ballads we can do that too. We can take suggestions from you, and create the perfect set list for your event using our years of experience.

1st Dance Requests

Do you take requests for the 1st dance?

Yes, given enough notice (1 month) we can learn your 1st dance song free of charge given it is suitable for the band line up.

Announcements

Most Weddings often require a number of announcements to be made: Speeches, Cutting of the cake 1st dance etc. In many rooms it can be hard to hear these announcements clearly. For this reason we can let you use our radio microphone & pa to amplify these speeches and make announcements throughout the evening. This service is at no extra cost to you.

Piece Of Mind

We want you to be completely happy with our services and have piece of mind when booking us. If you choose to go ahead with a booking we’ll draw up a professional contract for our services, then request a small deposit to secure our services. We usually ask for the remaining payment on the night so you can be sure we’ll turn up and give it 100% without excuses of some less professional bands.

Set Up Requirements

How much time will the band need to set up and sound check? What time will they need to arrive? How much time will they need to prepare for the performance? How much noise will they make and for how long?

Most bands will require secure changing facilities. Venues that are used to booking live entertainment will usually have such facilities but it is always wise to check, in case they have to make any special arrangements.

We appreciate that arranging your Wedding is a daunting task with many people to coordinate. You may want the band set up and out of sight early in the afternoon, if that’s the case, no problem.

We will set up considerately and efficiently keeping the noise to a minimum at all times. Assuming we are required to bring our standard PA, the Smooth Criminals  require a minimum of 1.5 hours to get all the equipment into the venue, set up and to do a full sound check. We’ll need to make a bit of noise whilst we sound check to ensure the sound is as good as possible and at a suitable volume, but we usually do this in the last 20 mins of the set up.

If you have any queries that are not answered here please feel free to email or call us: smoothcriminals@live.co.uk  Tel: 07962 444 574, we try to respond to any enquiry within 24hrs.