Live wedding band hire for Leicestershire
HARD TO HANDLE are one of the most sought after and in demand live bands performing in Leicestershire. Over 500 brides and grooms have chosen us to as their Leicester wedding band. Why? A massive 350+ song playlist, 2 hours of killer indie, rock, pop and more played live + free live DJ service may have something to do with it! It could also be our boundless onstage energy, full band sound and commitment to ensuring your guests dance all night. Oh, and not to forget that we are more cost effective than the majority of other professional Leicestershire wedding bands.
There’s no need to hire a large, expensive Leicestershire wedding band to get your guests on the dance floor – HARD TO HANDLE have been performing as a function band at Leicestershire and East Midlands weddings since 2008 and brides and grooms tell us that they love our mix of music and entertaining stage presence. We are also the go-to band for a number of national entertainment agencies, but you can hire us direct through this website. Our full service includes:
– Professional three piece Leicester wedding band
– Highly experienced band
– 2 hours of classic and contemporary live band music
– 350+ song multi-genre playlist
– Choose your favourite songs for us to learn and perform (including your first dance)
– Live DJ performing sets before, in between and after the band
– Fully self-contained including sound system and lights (stage lighting and room lighting)
– Quick and compact on-the-day set up
– Perfect for small to midsized functions
– Fully insured
– Totally live – no backing tracks
– 100% no cheese!
– Hire us direct – no agency fees or commissions
You can band watch performance and live bride and groom review videos, listen to music and more on our website here. You can also contact us direct on 0796 433 5657 or by using the Contact form. We look forward to hearing from you!
Finding the perfect wedding band in Leicestershire
Wedding? Birthday party? Business event? Summer festival? If you’re planning any of these, your choice of live entertainment is going to be a key component of its’ success. To create truly memorable evening entertainment for your guests, you’re either going to need a reliable, entertaining professional live band or a DJ with an impressive array of lights and an expansive playlist. DJs are great. DJs’ are fine. But for that “wow” factor, there’s nothing quite like providing a live band featuring talented musicians for your guests – it says “I have gone the extra mile to impress and entertain you”. Hire the right band for your wedding entertainment and you’ll have nothing but a full dance floor positive comments from your guests not just the next day, but the day after that, and the day after that and…you get the picture.
You don’t need to hire Leicestershire wedding bands through an entertainment agency – go direct
But what constitutes “the right party band”? There are so many Leicester wedding bands advertising their services throughout Leicestershire, and many of them seem to do the same thing and play the same music. If you’ve found us, this is something you have probably already discovered, because a Google search of “wedding bands Leicestershire” or “Leicestershire wedding bands” usually garners 20+ results that show the same thing – entertainment agencies. In theory there is nothing wrong with hiring a band through an agency, as long as you are aware of the following:
– Entertainment agencies are NOT price comparison websites, they are businesses and will charge you a commission for their services
– Agencies change bands’ names, which is why you will see the same wedding bands over and over again but with different names
– Most agencies promote large events-style bands as they are more expensive and they can charge you a larger fee for wedding music.
– As many brides and grooms who hire Leicestershire wedding bands discover, you won’t get to speak to the band direct until after you have paid the commission to the agency
Moreover, a lot of these wedding bands look and sound the same, by which we mean almost exactly the same, as if they have trundled off a factory production line! There is a reason for this, and it’s all about how much money the agency can earn. When it comes to Leicestershire wedding bands aren’t the most lucrative; instead both entertainment agencies and quite a few bands chase large corporate functions as for them it represents a big payday. They know that the available budget of a large organisation hosting an annual event will far exceed the budget a bride and groom will have for wedding entertainment – hence eight or nine piece events bands, where prospective clients will expect to pay more for their live music.
Not only that, but in an effort to cater to everyone, the people who put these wedding bands together (usually agencies themselves) will want to ensure that none of the musicians “stand out from the crowd”, so both the band and the music they play tends to be overly polished, bland and ultimately boring, which is not good for anyone – the band look like they’d rather be doing some else and your guests are ultimately unfulfilled. Best wedding bands? Keep searching!
How much should a wedding band cost?
Let’s face it, hiring the best wedding bands can lead to budget bow out. And while there’s no hard and fast rule as to how much you should pay, a smaller, compact function band will (usually) cost less than a large bands featuring eight or more professional musicians. The best way to work out how much wedding bands cost is to contact them either by phone or email – tell them what you want and ask for an exact price. Make sure there aren’t any hidden costs such as travel, accommodation or even things like learning your first dance song. As you might imagine, local wedding bands usually costs less and non-local bands will cost more. Mot always, but hiring a function bands from outside the Midlands might incur additional fees such as fuel and even accommodation.
HARD TO HANDLE – the perfect Leicestershire wedding band
Also, larger Leicestershire wedding bands also often feature keyboards and brass sections, which tends to limit the band to playing a certain type of music, ie. music which features brass – funk and soul. And while funk and soul are great, you might not necessarily want to listen to a function band playing one genre of music all night, especially if you are looking to hire wedding bands to get guests dancing at your wedding reception. Similarly, many bands featuring a brass section will want to use that brass section as much as possible, and this is often where the wheels fall off – if you’ve ever heard any of these large live wedding bands performing a cheesy medley of funky, brass-infused indie or rock song, you’ll know what we mean!
If you’re happy with all of the above for your band, then that’s fine, but wouldn’t it be better to hire one of the wedding bands Leicestershire has to offer who are equally adept and authentic performing not just funk and soul but the best of rock, indie and pop too, a band which can mould its’ sound depending on the song they’re playing but still sound like a great live band while not interfering with the essence of the songs they’re playing by turning them all into cheesy medleys? Oh, and don’t forget – not only are larger live wedding bands more expensive, they are, well, larger, which is going to be a BIG headache if you have hired one of Leicestershires’ more compact and intimate wedding venues. Once the band have set up, your guests are probably not going to have enough space to dance, which kind of defeats the object of hiring a wedding band in the first place, doesn’t it?
What you really need is to find a compact live band who can put their individual stamp on your wedding day; a band that sounds great but have a little more onstage personality than some of the large somewhat anonymous and expensive events bands out there, with added DJ sets. After taking a look at our videos, listening to our music and reading our reviews, we reckon you’ll agree that HARD TO HANDLE are definitely the band you’re looking for.
Live music performances at Leicestershire wedding venues
As a professional three piece band featuring talented musicians performing wedding music with over 500 gigs’ experience, we have a great reputation for delivering entertainment at small to midsized functions. We have performed at venues across Leicestershire such as Mythe Barns, Shearsby Bath, Keythorpe Manor, Prestwold Hall, Sutton Bonnington Hall, Brooksby Hall, The City Rooms, Hothorpe Hall, Catthorpe Hall, Stanford Hall, Sketchley Grange, Quorn Country Hotel and quite a few more. Clients who hire HARD TO HANDLE BAND love our eclectic mix of music (rock, pop, indie, soul and more from the 1960s to the modern charts with a 350+ playlist for you to choose songs from), our onstage energy and the fact that we provide a live DJ service with every booking free of charge.
The best Leicestershire wedding entertainment
We’re a lot more cost effective than most Leicestershire wedding bands, and all of our equipment is compact which means that we take up less space than most bands, allowing your guests to get on with the business of filling the dancefloor! We will also have spoken to you and the wedding venue well in advance of the big day to ensure that everything is take care of beforehand – so we will have put together 2 hours of live music including lots of your song requests, we’ll know what time to arrive and when to start setting up, and when to kick off the party. We’re also flexible enough change things around, so if you find yourselves running late, don’t worry – we’ll ensure that everything still runs smoothly like a professional live band should do!
If it sounds like you have found the perfect wedding band, then call us direct for more information on 0796 433 5657 or complete the Contact form – we’d love to hear from you!
Hire Hard to Handle band in Leicestershire
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.