Lovely Tortworth Court in the heart of The Cotswolds exudes the sort of sophisticated air one would naturally expect of a region of the united steeped in bucolic pastoral affluence. Country chic in the Costwolds means Land Rovers, tweed jackets and chunky knitwear, a kind of understated refinement which is de rigueur. You know you are making a statement when you hold your wedding reception in the Cotswolds.
Every now and then of course you will find a cuckoo in the nest, a rough diamond in the fold. But if it comes with a ruggedly unique personality of its’ own, the sophisticate fashion arbiters will accept it as an original. In the wedding industry this translates as a not overly-polished live wedding band; closer to the style of band they may have once seen playing at a local pub, but with the professional approach more commonly seen when hiring one of those Gloucestershire wedding bands one might find on an entertainment agency website.
And so this is how HARD TO HANDLE BAND took the stage at the wedding reception of Hannah and Reece at Torthworth Court. As a Gloucestershire wedding band we are the first to admit that we are a little bit of rough
– we don’t have overly polished aesthetics. We don’t feel the need to turn every song we play into a cheesy funked up medley featuring interminably long instrumental solos. As a live three piece Gloucester wedding band we don’t utilise a vocalist who oversings every possible note while we lurk at the back, noodling around on our instruments, looking self-conscious and bored and like we would rather be anywhere else other than here entertaining you and your guests despite being paid to do so.
So if that’s not what HARD TO HANDLE BAND do, what is it that we DO do exactly? We are glad you asked. Well firstly we pride ourselves on being an entertaining antidote to the kind of aforementioned tired old function bands. You have seen them online when starting out on your journey to find perfect Gloucestershire wedding entertainment for yourselves: five members or more, snazzily dressed, largely anonymous backing musicians, Mariah Carey-wannabe lead vocalist doing as much as they can to distract from the tedious funk-soul versions of songs you had forgotten about since the late 1990s. Honestly, would it kill them to add a little classic rock or indie into their set?
- High energy three piece function band
- Performing at over 200 wedding receptions per year
- Live band + live DJ offered as standard on every booking
- Massive multi-genre fully customisable live band playlist
- More cost effective than most professional Gloucestershire wedding bands
- Fully self-contained with sound and light system
- No agency fees when you hire HARD TO HANDLE BAND direct
Actually, yes it would, because for some Gloucestershire wedding bands it’s clearly about them and not you. It’s about what they feel comfortable playing rather than playing the kind of music that you, your partner and guests might like to hear. Yes, they may add a concession to your musical tastes by playing one or two of your song requests, but you can just bet money on them reverting to type as quickly as possible, defaulting back to those funk/soul mashups they have been playing for the last thirty years.
Fortunately for you, HARD TO HANDLE BAND are here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be like this. As you may have picked up from our website, we take pride in being able to tailor the service we offer to suit individual tastes. So when you hire us as your Gloucestershire wedding band, it won’t just be a grudging, reluctant agreement to play your first dance and maybe one other song request – both of our live band sets and DJ sets are fully customisable. This means that in the 30+ songs we play live, you can choose as many of them as you like, including asking us to learn and play your most favourite songs.
Incidentally, most brides and grooms tend to choose around 10-12 songs to give us a flavour of their tastes, either from our playlist of other songs that they would like us to learn. Often as part of the invitation process wedding couples ask their guests to choose a song when they return their RSVP, which is a great way to get everyone involved – guests are much more likely to get on the dance floor if they can gear the band play the songs they have chosen.
The flip side of this is that as a professional Gloucester wedding band performing over 200 bookings per year, we have developed a keen sense of how to work the room. What that means for us is at any given point during your evening, we might choose to rotate in a song from our vast multi-genre playlist other than the song we had originally planned to play next in order to target a particular section of your guest list. What that means for you is that the dance floor is kept full, all night!
For Hannah and Reece what this mean was over two hours of kick-arse rock, indie, pop and more delivered in a high-octane style. All of the music we played was instantly recognisable, dance floor friendly, and our DJ took over seamlessly with killer dance, Ibiza classics, rock, pop and more so there truly was something for all musical tastes. They said they love dour mix of music and Reece remarked that he loved that we “even played the few random songs we requested”. And why wouldn’t we – it was their big day so they got to choose the songs they wanted to hear.
You can see by the broad smiles on their faces that both bride and groom were happy that the trust they placed in HARD TO HANDLE for their Gloucestershire wedding entertainment was well rewarded. If you also want to feel the warm glow of the knowledge that you have made the right decision in your choice of live wedding band, you really do need to get in touch!
https://hardtohandleband.co.uk/
0796 433 5657
https://hardtohandleband.co.uk/wedding-bands-gloucestershire/