Berkshire wedding bands
Berkshire wedding band hire from a real live covers band. Live band + free DJ. HARD TO HANDLE BAND available to hire direct, no agency fees. Indie, rock and pop, folk, soul and more.
It’s true – you can hire professional live Berkshire wedding band music here, and unlike many other bands in Berkshire for weddings, we don’t come with a hefty entertainment agency tag.
Why? Because though some wedding bands in Berkshire who prefer to let entertainment agencies advertise them as one of their “top Berkshire wedding band”, or “best wedding bands Berkshire”, HARD TO HANDLE BAND want to provide you with a great service – 2 hours of live music all chosen to suit your tastes plus a live DJ performing during our breaks to keep the party going, at a great fee, which means no hidden charges or commission.
Just because you are planning your wedding reception, you shouldn’t have to overspend on Berkshire wedding bands, which is why most brides and grooms are pleasantly surprised when they discover what we charge for a fully inclusive night of non-stop music. Take a look at who we are and what we offer:
- Berkshire wedding music band
- Three piece live wedding and pop, indie and rock party band, perfect for small to midsized venues
- Massive 350 song playlist
- Wide range of music from the 1960s to modern charts to suit everyone
- Request your favourite music – we play the music you want to hear
- 2 hours of indie rock pop soul and more
- Live DJ FREE OF CHARGE
- Non-stop music until the end of the night
- Fully insured (public liability insurance)
- Sound system and lights
- Optional daytime drinks music and microphone for speeches
- Contract for stress-free booking
- No entertainment agency fees
- More cost effective than large Berkshire wedding bands
- A full dance floor!
We have performed at venues such as Easthampstead Park, Lilibrooke Manor, Moor Hall, Mercure Newbury Hotel, Newbury Racecourse, Stanlake Park, Combe Manor, Ufton Court, Old Luxters Barn, Readin Town Hall, Bearwood Lakes, Royal Berkshire Hotel and more. This might just mean that we are the perfect wedding band to get your guests on the dance floor…
Live wedding band and free live DJ
Bride and grooms and other party planners who hire HARD TO HANDLE BAND for their Berkshire covers band music have given a 5* Google review ratings and tell us that our wide range of music is superb.
They love the fact that we have more songs to choose from than other professional live wedding bands – over 350 – and that we are also happy to learn and perform their own song requests, including their first dance song, something that not all bands are happy to do.
They love our onstage energy and ability to get people dancing and keep them there, and let’s face it, that’s the reason you’re looking to hire wedding bands, isn’t it – a band that can keep you and your guests dancing, performing 2 hours of instantly recognisable non-cheesy live music for your wedding party.
And unlike some Berkshire wedding bands for hire, we also provide you with a live DJ for your wedding reception free of charge! This means you will have a live professional DJ service (not just background music) before, inbetween and after the band sets, playing music to suit all tastes, keeping the party going until the end of the night without you have to hire a separate DJ or other party entertainment.
Perfect for small Berkshire wedding venues
If your wedding venue is a little on the intimate side with a small dance floor and you are worried about the additional space required by a function band and DJ, don’t stress – we all use the same equipment (speakers and lighting) to ensure a compact set up which leaves plenty of room on the dance floor for you and your wedding guests.
Like the band, our DJ takes requests in order to personalise your wedding party by just playing the music you want to hear.
Think about that for a minute – we let you choose the music. That means you will hear your favourite music all night in order to keep the dance floor packed. Whereas some Berkshire wedding bands may allow you to choose a couple of requests, they may get a little “sniffy” if you request more than a few. They may try to charge you for playing requests and tell you that this is standard for Berkshire wedding musicians to do. All this really means is that they don’t feel comfortable paying songs out of their narrow rock party band playlist.
Some Berkshire bands may even flatly refuse to take out songs you definitely don’t want to hear; it sounds crazy but it does happen, often because people looking to hire wedding bands sometimes find that the musicians may not have a huge repertoire of songs to rely on.
HARD TO HANDLE BAND can actually perform up to 34 songs spread throughout the evening, which allows you to include lots of your favourite music for us to play!
Another benefit of hiring HARD TO HANDLE over other local wedding bands is that as highly experienced professional musicians we are able to read a room and pay songs that we know will keep the party vibe going all night, which we think is a really useful skill to have!
Should I hire a wedding band through an entertainment agency?
Have you noticed how many covers bands, party bands and wedding bands for hire Berkshire seems to have? And have you noticed that many of the professional bands seem to have the same line up or configuration – a male or female vocalist up front, supported by largely anonymous musicians who seem to want to hide themselves away at the back of the stage.
They only seem to make their presence known when it comes to one of those instrument solos or drum fills that function bands love to add to songs. Sometimes the solos are so long that you forget which song they are meant to be playing!
This type of line up and these type of live wedding music bands featuring six, seven, eight or more wedding musicians (spilling out onto the dance floor) don’t exist by accident – this type of party band have often been put together by entertainment agencies for one reason – a larger wedding band costs more to hire, which means they will charge you a larger commission than smaller professional Berkshire wedding bands such as HARD TO HANDLE.
That’s a bit cheeky, isn’t it! Still, if you’re happy to spend more money to hire a Berkshire wedding band by going through an entertainment agency, it might also be worth considering that not all Berkshire wedding venues can actually host larger bands: once the main wedding day room has been laid out for the day and your table seating plan has been arranged, there may not be enough space in the room for a large function band to set up.
Berkshire party bands need a certain amount of space for their musicians to perform and for their equipment and speakers and the larger the party band, the less space your guests will have on the dance floor.
How much should a wedding band cost?
When hiring the best wedding bands for your wedding day, as you might expect, there is no right or wrong answer to this question – you can pay as little or as much as you want to hire a wedding, but the best way to find out how much Berkshire function bands, cover bands and party bands should cost is to start making enquiries.
Pretty soon you will get a range of fees. Next make sure you are comparing like for like when it comes to the best local wedding bands – eg. just looking at bands who also provide DJ music – and then you can crossmatch them against your budget. By the way, don’t forget to ask if there are any hidden fees or additional costs!
We are a lot more cost effective and affordable than most other Berkshire wedding bands, because our three piece line up of male vocals, guitar, bass and vocals means that we don’t need to hire in additional wedding musicians to fill out our sound.
Hiring HARD TO HANDLE BAND makes perfect sense – as a three piece indie, rock and pop band we are nice and compact and venue managers love us because we won’t compromise your table seating plan and can comfortably set up in smaller performance areas than other professional wedding bands.
We will have liaised with you and your wedding venue manager to run though all logistical details in advance, including arrival time and where to set up – and don’t worry if your wedding breakfast and speeches have over run and your evening guests are starting to arrive – as professional Berkshire wedding musicians we set up very quickly so you don’t have to wait hours for the party to start.
In fact, we can provide entertainment approximately 20 minutes after have access to the performance area. Good luck finding other wedding bands in Berkshire who can set up so quickly!
HARD TO HANDLE features three professional and entertaining musicians who not only play their instruments but have strong vocals, creating a very full sound, as you will see and hear from our videos and music.
Will HARD TO HANDLE BAND get my guests on the dance floor?
Though each booking we play is different, people who searched for band hire in Berkshire and chose HARD TO HANDLE were all looking for the same thing – to get their guests dancing.
There’s no point in hiring a function band or party band if they can’t do this. So you’ll be happy to know that creating a full dance floor from the very first song is our #1 objective.
There are several ways to achieve this, foremost being playing wedding music that you want to hear.
By the time of your big day, we will have worked with you to build a set list which features songs requested by you and your guests.
We will have sequenced them in a way which makes them flow and keep that party atmosphere going.
You’ll recognise your song requests straight away when we perform them, because we play them exactly like the original versions.
Whereas a certain type of party band will create long medleys featuring snippets of your requests interspersed with other songs and long guitar and drum solos, we know that guests get pretty bored of this trick after a short time, so our philosophy is to keep things simple and play the songs the way they were meant to be heard, and in our experience of over 500 weddings, it’s a winning formula.
As you can see from our videos, we’re not the type of function band who shuffles onto stage, mumbles into the microphone, plays a song and then has a discussion about what to do next. Instead we play song after song in a high energy quick fire style all night, because the more party music and wedding music we can play, the more your guests will enjoy the party and band performing. And given that our total set list is likely to stretch to 34 songs of all styles and genres, there will be something for everyone.
What packages do HARD TO HANDLE offer?
That’s a really easy question for us to answer – none. No packages. None whatsoever. Why? Because packages are just designed to get you as a bride, groom, wedding planner or person who is paying for wedding entertainment to spend more money than you wanted to. Clearly it makes sense to have a realistic budget for band hire, but a function band which uses sliding scales of charges is just trying to draw you in to create the idea that maybe you should go for the silver package instead of the bronze, or the gold instead of the silver.
Just take this test – find function bands or bands for weddings offering various packages and ask yourself this question: does the “bronze package” feature a live band performing two hours of wedding music? Does it include the full band or is it a stripped down, somewhat bare sounding version? Does it include music until midnight, a free DJ and your song requests performed by the band at no extra cost?
It’s unlikely, because to get all of the above, many party bands will push you towards the more expensive package, and before you know it, your entertainment budget is blown hiring what you hope will be your perfect Berkshire wedding band.
This is why unlike some Berkshire party bands HARD TO HANDLE BAND don’t have any packages. Hire a party band with everything you need for your wedding day (a versatile, experienced and entertaining professional high energy live Berkshire wedding band performing indie rock pop soul folk and more + live DJ + sound system, lights and song requests) to have a great nights’ party at a surprisingly affordable fee.
Take a look at our videos, have a listen to our music and get in touch for more information and a quote. We hope you choose HARD TO HANDLE as your Berkshire wedding band. We look forward to hearing from you!
A refreshing alternative
Is your personal style a little alternative? Do you want your wedding reception to reflect this? Not totally traditional but a little more relaxed, not so formal? While you may want certain elements of your big day to represent the traditions and styles that your parents and more senior family members will love, not everything has to follow this route. There are parts of your wedding reception that will allow you to express other aspects of your style. Maybe you like to dress a little funky or bohemian. Maybe you and your friends grew up listening to nu-metal or emo and simply can’t envisage your wedding without a nod to all the things that made you the person you are.
We get it. If this is the case, hiring the perfect live wedding band is even more important. You need to find a band which can embrace the alternative eths but is also at home playing more traditional rock and pop. And while many bands claim to be able to play “something for everyone”, when you listen to their music, go through their setlist and watch how they perform, it’s clear that they are not going to be perfect for you.
What you really want in a live band is a slightly edgy approach. It’s difficult to put it into words, but a band that sounds lean and not soft. A band that sounds huge but not over the top. It’s as much about the way the band approaches performance and puts their own personality into the songs they play. It’s also about how they interact with your guests. And while you might find that there is something missing with the large events bands being recommended to you, we are confident that HARD TO HANDLE BAND will tick all the boxes and be the ideal band for you.
From our perspective, it’s not just about our playlist (although playing Green day, Fall Out Boy and System of a down may help!). It’s about our approach. We set ourselves up as a refreshing alternative to tired old function bands, and we have a successful track record in playing to brides and grooms just like yourselves who want a little extra. They want to hire a wedding band with a diverse range of music whose performance their guests will remember.
This is one of the reasons why we have been posting video reviews on our website: https://hardtohandleband.co.uk/reviews/ here you’ll find over a hundred reviews of our performances at wedding receptions, so at the end of the night, just after our superb DJ has played the last song, we’ll rush over to the bride and groom and ask them what they thought of our performance. We are doing this because we want you to get an idea of what to expect when you hire HARD TO HANDLE BAND to perform at your Berkshire wedding – we’re there in the moment and brides and groom say they love our mix of music and energy onstage and the fact that we really connect with wedding guests (It’s also nice to watch review videos instead of reading endless reviews on website which may or may not be entirely accurate…)
So take a took at our videos and imagine you and your friends and loved ones dancing all night to HARD TO HANDLE BAND!
Hire Hard to Handle band in Berkshire
Get in touch! For enquiries or just to find out more about Hard to Handle band, fill in the form below. We aim to respond within 24 hours. If you haven’t heard from us by then, we may not have received your enquiry so please call us direct on 0796 433 5657.