On the Road: Diary of a Local Wedding Band
When you hire Punch The Air as your local wedding band, you aren’t just getting a high-energy trio; you’re hiring a band that knows the Staffordshire and West Midlands circuit inside out. Based right here in Lichfield, we don’t just travel to these venues, we are regulars at them. Operating as an established local wedding band means treating every reception across the county like a hometown show. Contact Andy for more info now.
The Local Advantage:
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Zero Travel Costs: Because we are local, you aren’t paying for our petrol or hotel stays. Every penny of your budget goes directly toward the live performance and professional sound and lighting.
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Venue Familiarity: From the acoustics of The Guildhall to the load-in requirements at Shenstone Village Hall we know the local logistics. We know which venues have strict decibel limiters and how to manage our professional digital drum kit to ensure the music never gets cut off.
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Reliability: There’s no risk of major motorway delays ruining your first dance. We are 15 minutes away from most local venues, meaning we arrive early, relaxed, and ready to rock.
Whether you are getting married in a rustic barn in Whittington or a grand hall in Lichfield City Centre, hiring a local wedding band means you get a more personal, stress-free experience from a group that loves a home crowd. You can contact me directly to check on your live music requirements for your wedding or party. I am Andy Starkey, the band leader, and I live in Lichfield myself. I will even meet you for a coffee in the city centre face to face if you like. I love a cappuccino, or seven. You are buying though by the way, laugh out loud.
Behind the Scenes with a Local Wedding Band: Minute by Minute
To give you an honest look at what a professional local wedding band actually does on the day of a performance, here is a complete, unedited breakdown of what occurred at a recent wedding reception we performed at.
5.50pm – And I am off to the venue to perform with Punch The Air as a local wedding band. Even the M54 has roadworks at the moment, so that is now every motorway around my home town. Luckily it was pretty clear driving and I arrive at the venue 20 minutes earlier than planned. Arrival time was supposed to be 7.00pm on this occasion. James the guitarist had just arrived so we had a wander around the lovely farm, realised that the wedding speeches were still taking place and so chilled out for a while as Matt the drummer arrived. Why do drummers always arrive last when they always have the most amount of gear to set up?
How a Local Wedding Band Handles Equipment Loading and Setup
7.10pm – With the schedule only running 10 minutes late, we are able to move our vehicles right up next to the load in doors of this Salop venue so it is a very easy load in and out later. We help out the serving staff by moving the tables for this evening wedding reception so we can get our indie rock wedding band gear in and get setting it up. This really isn’t our job but we want to get set up and not let things run late for the happy couple. It is a beautiful looking barn and we have the whole end section which is plenty big enough for us. There are cool large retro styled bulbs hanging from the ceiling and a large wooden illuminated star on the wall right behind where drummer Matt will set up his drum kit. We speak with the bride and groom quickly and we are ready to start setting up. It is not going to be hard work today in this lovely barn environment.
7.40pm – It is all going very smoothly and stress free and there is plenty of room for our live wedding entertainment, the PA and the lighting. We brought along our new high powered lighting rig to make sure the dancefloor looks fantastic for this Shropshire wedding band booking. Apart from one cable being connected into the wrong input and one XLR deciding to break on us there are no further setup issues at all. This is now one seriously tight ship.
Soundcheck Sorted for the Reception
8.20pm – Only 70 minutes have elapsed and we are set up and have already sound checked our live wedding band. We managed to knock 20 minutes off our usual 90 minutes wedding band setup time. This is exactly what we can achieve when there are no issues and nothing else is running very late.
8.25pm – We go off to get changed into our dapper wedding party band on stage clothing. A quick dab of deodorant and trussing of hair takes place and we are back on stage waiting for the bride and groom to arrive for the first dance.
8.40pm – We don’t usually do first dances, but the client had asked if there was any chance we could learn Here Comes The Sun. With us all being huge Beatles fans, how could we resist? The bride and groom approach the dancefloor at this SY4 postcode venue as we kick into the song. The photographers are snapping away as we do our best to not ham it up rock n roll style while they happily dance along to our rendition. Before the song finishes many others have also joined them on the dancefloor and then we kick into the rest of the Beatles heavy first set.
During the First Live Performance Set
9.00pm – We are well into the live entertainment of the first set now with no real issues. Local wedding band guests are happily continuing to dance along to us while playing their legs like guitars and sloshing alcohol all over the floor. I made a mental note to self to get the serving staff to mop the dancefloor at half time. We go out onto the dancefloor and play our guitars alongside them merrily dancing away much to their enjoyment.
9.30pm – The first set is over and there is a huge round of applause for our professional wedding band. The buffet is about to be served, so we head off to get some fresh air and a cold drink.
9.55pm – We tuck into hot pork and stuffing baps, strong cheeses and are informed that we have a tab behind the bar and to help ourselves.
10.15pm – I chat with the bride for a while checking that she is fine with the evening entertainment so far, which she is of course. I am surprised she is still quite sober. I then have a chat with the groom about when they would like us to go back on stage. Originally we had planned for 10.45pm, but we both agree that 11.00pm would be better for the flow of the party.
Wedding Running Late? No Problem for Your Local Wedding Band
11.10pm – Batteries are changed in our in ear monitoring systems and a little later than planned, we crack into the second indie rock cover band party set. There are a couple of light hearted punk numbers to start with and then onto a new song, Common People by Pulp, performed in our own unique style. Guests are going crazy at this point jumping up and down and climbing the beams of the barn. They even attempt to invade the stage area.
11.40pm – It is in full swing and the guests are enjoying themselves as much as we are enjoying performing for them. They sing along to the huge choruses of I Love Rock n Roll, Sex On Fire, Parklife, and Wonderwall. A quick encore and then it is midnight.
Midnight – The second set is over and we say our thanks and start to pack away while the DJ set goes on. But apparently it is not over yet. The groom comes over and starts to barter with us for more live material. How can we refuse? So we start putting the gear back together again, another quick change of batteries and we are into a third set. We let the guests decide which songs they want us to play so we perform Valerie and There She Goes, then Seven Nation Army with massive crowd participation and a few other great numbers.
Third Live Set Completed
12.30am – The third live set is now complete and it really is time to start packing away. The guests continue to happily dance along to the final 30 minute wind up and wind down DJ set we have put together for them. They are complimenting us for our kick ass live show, as one guest says. What a remarkable wedding band, another guest remarks.
1.00am – That is it, the night’s entertainment is over. The lights go up, guests drink up and start to leave the venue. We continue to pack away the rest of the PA and lighting and start to load up our vehicles. It lightly rains outside. We chat again to guests and the bride and groom. It sounds like they have all really enjoyed their entire day and our evening entertainment.
1.30am – We say goodbye to the bride and groom, set our sat navs to HOME and we are off. There are still roadworks on the way back. No doubt it won’t be the last time I see them. I think to myself that it was one of the best and least stressful weddings we have ever performed at. I am very happy with how it all went.
2.20am – I finally arrive back at home and fall asleep on the sofa until 3.30am.
Two Days Later We Receive an Email from the Client:
Many many thanks for Saturday night, you were fantastic! Lots of people commented on how good you were. I apologise if I pestered a little too much, and for the impromptu request for an additional set. I was a little worse for wear by that point! We hope you had a good time. We’ll most certainly be recommending you to whoever we can for a local wedding band.
Many thanks,
Tom and Hannah
Ah, bless them.
Contact wedding party band Punch The Air for your local wedding reception band.
