Hiring a band for your wedding or function could be a new experience, hopefully these FAQ’s will answer some of your questions, if you have any other enquiries please get in touch.
Click on a question to reveal the answer.
How much does The Mini Big Band Cost?
Every event is priced individually so please provide as many details as possible in your enquiry. Prices can vary depending on the event location and the exact service required, times required and the audience numbers. For larger events we source a larger sound system that ensures the highest quality of sound. The Mini Big Band also provide a professional sound and lights company with sound man for every event, which ensures that we have full control over our sound, and sound great in any venue. This is an area that is often overlooked by some bands that opt to bring smaller budget systems.
What Geographical areas do You Cover?
The Mini Big Band are based in Yorkshire but are happy to travel anywhere in the UK, Europe or the World.
How Long Do You Play For?
The Mini Big Band usually play two 1 hour long sets, however we are happy to split this time over 3 sets or even do 1 longer set if required. We can also play background music through our professional sound system before, in-between and after our sets. The Mini Big Band also feel that when you commit to us you deserve our services all night, so we offer a free DJ service with every package until our contracted times.
What Do The Musicians Need?
Although the band comes completely self-contained, there are certain things that we will need. Such as an appropriate area to perform, a safe power supply, an appropriate room to get changed and store gear in and enough time to set up.
How Long Does It Take To Set Up.
The Mini Big Band will need 1.5 hours from entering a room for set up to being ready to perform. Please allow time for this in your plans. At a push we can probably cut this down a little but please bear in mind that if your event runs behind this time cannot be made up in our set up time.
Do We Need To Feed The Band?
Yes please. We do put this in our contracts as our rider. The Mini Big Band often travels for many hours to reach a venue, and once at the venue (often isolated) we are often all go setting up and getting ready to play. We provide further details on this when booking but it will mainly consist of a hot meal for all band members and crew (11-12), access to water, tea and coffee and soft drinks for the duration of the event.
Can We Chose All of the songs for the set list?
You can certainly let us know which songs you would definitely love to hear and if there are any that you don’t like but please leave the set list to us. This is something that we spend hours developing over countless gigs, working out which songs go down well live and the songs that don’t. We take into account style, tempos and general flow of the whole evening to produce a set list that we know will work all night long.
Can We see the band live?
Unfortunately most of our gigs are for private events so this is not possible. Our video and recordings are recorded in our studio but as live as possible, ie the whole band playing together. There are no overdubs or extra instruments added, what you hear is what you will get.
From time to time we do live public events so if you would like to see us live please let us know and if we have anything like this coming up I will be sure to let you know.
Will the line up be the same as the video/photos/audio?
It is not fully possible for us to guarantee certain band members from our promotional material although we do try to stick to the this line up as much as possible. As you can imagine, with 100’s of shows to do and a 10 piece band it is not always possible to have the same line up on every event due to holidays and other professional commitments.
The Mini Big Band is a collection of some of the countries finest professional musicians and singers who along side working with The Mini Big Band, regularly perform at the highest level with the acts such as Jamiroquai, Ollie Murrs and on TV shows such as The X Factors Big Band Night and many of the counrtires top West End and touring musical shows (The Ratpack, Jersey Boys).
This level of professional musician means there is always a level of flexibility (you never know when Michael Buble will call!), as we are not just a group of friends or students playing music but a collection of the finest in demand musicians around! This will effect all professional bands of our high calibre and we feel it best to be open about this.
We have built our reputation on providing the highest quality entertainment and one of the countries finest modern swing shows over the past 5 years, by not excepting anything less than the highest quality of professional musicians and singers to feature in our band.
This means when booking The Mini Big Band you can rest assured that the quality of musicianship and entertainment that you will receive will be of the highest professional standard, providing you with a show that you will never forget!
