Yellow Jersey Beer Festival

Yellow Jersey Beer Festival 2017

Also known as the Grenoside Beer Festival this little known but popular event started out life as a Tour De France Party. Four years on this family friend event is steadily growing and but retains the atmosphere of a big family party.

With 7 ales on, several lagers and ciders and a cracking DJ all this event needed was some live music. We were delighted to be invited back to play the Yellow Jersey Beer Festival for the second year on the trot and were sound checked and ready to go by 2pm.

As 8pm rolled around, and we were getting ready to start our first set, the DJ played his last song, Primal Scream’s Rocks. We had to laugh, this was to be our opener so we had to perform a sneaky set shuffle and stick it in the encore.

Are cold hands soon warmed up as we got the marquee jumping to 50 minutes of 90s and 00s cover versions. Half an hour break to sample a beer or two and we were back in for the second set opening with ever popular Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand.

As we wound things up with Rocks and Seven Nation army we left a tent of very drunk, contented revellers dancing the night away. Stopped to shake Mark, the organiser’s, hand on my way out.
“Same time next year?” he said.

“You’re on!” I replied.

Yellow Jersey Beer Festival Set List

Set 1
Song 2
Dont’ Know What To Do With Myself
Mr Brightside
Small Things
Roll With It
Mardy Bum
Disco 2000
Teenage Dirtbag
Park Life
Learn To Fly
Waterfall
She Moves In Her Own Way
Alright
Set 2
Take Me Out
Sex On Fire
Dakota
Love Machine
Common People
Dreaming of You
Get Lucky
Cake by the Ocean
Shut Up And Dance
Last Night
Chelsea Dagger
Are you gonna be my girl
Don’t Look Back In Anger
Many of Horror

Encore – Rock, I Predict A Riot, Sit Down, Seven Nation Army

Read More >>
Thoresby Courtyard Wedding

A Wedding at Thoresby Courtyard

Thoresby Hall is an impressive spa hotel which sits in a vast estate just outside Ollerton. The location for this celebration was Thoresby Courtyard wedding venue which is nestled in those same grounds.

Small enough to be intimate but big enough to easily handle 200 guests, Thoresby Courtyard has a large, outdoor square with a large corridor leading to the main hall. The hall has high ceilings and great acoustics and plenty of room for the band to set up.

There’s no stage at this wedding venue but in many ways this is better as we like to feel as if we’re playing in the party, rather than to it. There were lots of highlights but here are our favourites:

  • The first dance for which the couple had chosen John Mayer’s version of Beyonce’s XO. I played acoustic while Adam picked out the harmonica part on the electric guitar.
  • We played a cover of James’ “Sit Down” towards the end of the first set, this saw the audience take the lyrics literally and sit down on mass and dance on the floor.
  • The Father of the Bride and the Bride began the second set dancing to “I loved her first” by Heartland. There was not a dry eye in the house.

We had a great time playing this wedding, the guests were enthusiastic and the venue staff were helpful and friendly. Thoresby Courtyard is a versatile wedding venue and should definitely be on your shortlist if you are getting married in the Newark area.

Thoresby Courtyard Wedding Set List

Set 1
Friends Theme
Park Life
Roll With It
Mardy Bum
Common People
Alright
Mr Brightside
Small Things
Teenage Dirtbag
Sit Down
Dreaming Of You
Rocks
Set 2
Take Me Out
Sex On Fire
Love Machine
Get Lucky
Cake by the Ocean
Shut Up And Dance
Disco 2000
Last Night
Chelsea Dagger
Are you gonna be my girl
Don’t Look Back In Anger
Time Of Your Life

Read More >>
Toast at West Street Live

West Street Live 16 July 2017

It’s summer and we find ourselves again at West Street Live for another evening of 90s classics and 00s guitar hits. It’s the second time this year we’ve played Sheffield’s best live music bar and the West Street Live audience did not disappoint.

You know you’ve made it when the rider consists of semi chilled in date beer, the first time we played West Street Live they gave tequila infused cider. We are creeping up in the world.

Toast at West Street Live July 2017

Toast at West Street Live July 2017

We kicked off with some Blur, White Stripes and Killers, polishing of the first set with Supergrass’ Alright. After a short break we started with Franz Ferdinand’s Take me out and this set the pace for the second set. We brought the pace down a touch with don’t look back in anger and Biffy Clyro’s Many of Horror to finish.

For the encore we wheeled out the ever popular Sit Down by James and threw in 7 Nation Army right at the end which took the roof off the place. Another great gig with a great audience. We hope to be playing West Street Live again this year, fingers crossed for New Year’s Eve. If you want a slice of Toast before then we’ve been invited back to the Grenoside Beer Festival in September.

West Street Live Set List

Set 1
Song 2
Don’t Know What to Do with Myself
Mr Brightside
Small Things
Roll With It
Mardy Bum
Disco 2000
Teenage Dirtbag
Park Life
Learn to Fly
Waterfall
Dreaming Of You
She Moves in Her Own Way
Alright
Set 2
Take Me Out
Sex On Fire
Love Machine
Common People
Get Lucky
Cake by the Ocean
Shut Up And Dance
Last Night
Chelsea Dagger
Are You Gonna Be My Girl
Don’t Look Back In Anger
Many of Horror
Encore
Sit Down
Seven Nation Army

Read More >>
8 Reasons to Hire a Wedding Band

8 Reasons to Hire a Wedding Band

Your wedding is likely to be the biggest party you’ll ever throw and one of the most enjoyable and memorable events in your life. With this in mind, here are 8 reasons you should hire a wedding band for your special day.

1. Make Your Reception Rock!

Nothing gets a party started like a live wedding band. The energy and spectacle of musicians performing live never fails to breath life into a party.

2. Get People Dancing

Live music has the ability to break down the most resilient inhibitions and get people dancing.

3. The First Dance

Your first dance is a special moment, ask your wedding band to perform a unique version of your favourite song so that the moment is a one off event.

4. It’s Got To Be Loud

There’s no guarantee that your venue will have a sound system capable of pumping out music for your guests to dance to. When you hire a wedding band, they’ll bring their own PA and should be happy to run a disco for you, saving you money on a DJ.

5. Get People Talking

It’s a great ice breaker and a talking point for your guests.

6. Lighting Up The Dance Floor

The wedding band will have their own lighting rig to transform your event room into a dance floor. Another thing you don’t have to worry about.

7. Choose Your Favourite Song

You get to choose the tunes. As part of the package, most wedding bands will offer to learn some of your favourite songs for your special day.

8. Make Some Memories

People always remember a good party and a wedding can be memory people will carry with them forever. A live wedding band can help create that memory and every time you bump into friends and family for years to come, they’ll say “your wedding was brilliant”.

Thoresby Courtyard Wedding First Dance

The first dance is very important

When you hire a wedding band it’s important to think about the style of music you and your friends will want to dance to. There is no point in hiring a Madness Tribute Act if you love 90s brit pop. Contact a few wedding bands and have your questions ready. Check out their website, watch their videos and most importantly listen to their music.

A wedding band should be able to easily provide you with a list of the songs they know and help you put together a set list that will keep people on the dance floor all night.

Toast love playing weddings, it’s great to be involved in a couples’ special day in such an important and fun way. We’ve performed a wide range of songs for the first dance, from Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend” to John Meyer’s version of Beyonce’s “XO”. The pressure to get it right is high, but that’s all part of the thrill of performing a new song live for the first time.

It’s not just the groom who get’s to dance with the bride and we performed Heartland’s “I Loved Her First” at a wedding for the Bride and her Father to dance to. There was not a dry eye in the house after that.

There is a lot to think about when you’re organising your wedding entertainment. When the costs start to mount up, to hire a wedding band can seem like an unnecessary expense. It’s important to consider that this likely to be the biggest party you’ll throw and you want your guests to stay on the dance floor to the end and remember the night forever. A live wedding band can instrumental in making that happen.

To hire a wedding band might not cost as much as you think. Get in touch today.

Read More >>
90s Fancy Dress

Mark’s 40th Birthday Party at Harrison’s 1854

I know it’s hard to believe but yes, I am as old as Star Wars, as old as Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album. I’ve been alive as long as Elvis has been dead. Today I am 40, so last night we had a 40th birthday party.

I suppose I could have hired a band for my 40th birthday party and it might seem odd to some that I would want to “work” on my birthday but let’s be honest, playing music isn’t really work is it? Playing for a room full of strangers and seeing a full dance floor is fun enough, but playing for a room full of the nicest people you’ve met over the last 40 years is the best fun I’ve ever had.

You might also think that there would be lots of pressure and stress; setting up a PA, organising the music for between sets, making sure you get to talk to everyone and then getting up to perform in front of everyone you know, but it was possibly one of the most relaxed gigs we’ve played. This might be because we’re old hands at this game now. It might be because I was the client. It could even be because we were all pretty well lubricated.

Whatever the reason we all felt like it was one of the best gigs we’ve played and it seems like everyone else had fun too. Who knows, a band that plays 90s music in 90s fancy dress could be our USP. It’s not common practice to make a big deal out of your 41st birthday but we may throw convention to the wind and do it again next year.

 

Read More >>
Toast at West Street Live April 2017

West Street Live 21st April 2017

A welcome return to West Street Live and our first gig of 2017. This wasn’t for lack of interest but because of injury. Our drummer, Andy had to have an operation on his ankle and songs just don’t sound the same without a pounding kick drum running through them so we’ve had to turn down quite a lot of business. Happily now Andy is on the mend and the gigs are coming in thick and fast.

Some confessed to a few nerves before we got up on stage, not entirely surprising as our last gig had been on the 30th of December. Fortunately we had been maintaining some semblance of a rehearsal schedule and we were back in the groove from the off.

Kudos goes out to Nathan, the resident sound guy at WSL for getting the stage levels sounding so good. He’s always on point but he brought some special sauce with him on this particular evening. Using the audience response as a barometer, we think it sounded pretty good at front of house too.

To back up this theory we even got our first fan mail the following day.

Just wanted to send you a quick email to say how much we loved your gig at West Street Live last Friday.
What a fantastic band and a really great night.

We’re back at West Street Live on the 15th of July. See you there.

Set 1
Song 2
Are You Gonna Be My Girl
Roll With It
Mardy Bum
Common People
Last Night
Alright
Mr Brightside
Small Things
Teenage Dirtbag
Dreaming Of You
Predict A Riot
Reptilia
Sex On Fire
Set 2
Take Me Out
You And Me Song
Park Life
Love Machine
Get Lucky
Cake by the Ocean
Love Machine
Shut Up And Dance
Disco 2000
Chelsea Dagger
Don’t Look Back In Anger
Many of Horror
Sit Down

 

Read More >>
The Church House Sheffield

October 2016 Gigs

We found ourselves doing a back to back, Friday and Saturday gigs in October. The Friday was a 50th birthday party at a venue in Hillsborough. The other was a wedding reception at the beautiful Church House in Central Sheffield.

We learnt a lesson this weekend – Always use your own PA if you can.

Behringer PMP6000

Our trusty Behringer PMP6000 powered mixer.

The Friday night went without a hitch as we setup our PA, sound checked efficiently and went home to get changed. When we came back, we picked up our instruments and dived straight in. Switched seamlessly into Disco mode for the interval and then back on for the second half – no worries

Using the house PA at the Church House was a stark contrast. Despite the best efforts of the sound guy (who confessed he’d only had the gear a week) we found ourselves plagued with technical issues and feedback. The sound check took a laborious 2 hours. When we returned to the stage to start our first set it was as if a malevolent spirit had taken possession of our instruments and cursed them with a weird delayed echo effect that took the sound tech considerable knob twiddling to remove.

The Church House Interior

The Church House Interior

Once this issue was overcome we had an absolute blast of a gig, the crowd were well up for it and danced through the night. We surprised the bride with a song her husband had told us she loved – Family Tradition by Hank Williams Jnr. He didn’t tell us that the chorus had a call and response element to it. So when I sang:

“Hank, why must you drink?” I had the full force of a tipsy bride and her three well lubricated friends bellow back “TO GET DRUNK!”.

“Hank, why must you smoke?” – “TO GET STONED!”

With the first set under our belt and the sound issues of earlier an distant memory we got stuck into the second set which went down even better than the first. It really was a great gig and we had the entire bar dancing.

Read More >>

Grenoside Beer Festival 2016
Edit: We’ve been invited back to play the 2017 Grenoside Beer Festival on the 16 September 2017

The Grenoside Beer Festival is little known event that started off as a Tour De France party in 2014 and has taken on a life of its own. It took a bit of finding but we eventually discovered a massive marquee nestled in a field on the outskirts of Sheffield. First note was scheduled for 9pm and the DJ had warmed the crowd up for us. There was a chill in the air but once people started dancing the tent soon warmed up.

We left a tent full of extremely drunk revellers baying for more and had to use some tasty rhythms from the DJ to placate the mob. We left our PA running for as long as we could so the party could go on into the night but eventually we had to unplug the last speaker and call it a night.

Great fun, great people. Hope to do it again next year.

Directions

12 Oughtibridge Lane, Sheffield, S35 2PH

Read More >>

West Street Live, 11th of June

We closed a busy weekend of gigging with a couple of sets at West Street Live following a cancellation they’d had. The crowd took a bit of warming up as England had just drawn with Romania in their opening match of Euro 16.

The stage at WSL is becoming quite familiar now and nerves are a thing of the past. We must be going up in the management’s estimations as we received just out of date Japanese lager as the booze component of our fee this time round, might get a bottle opener next time.

 

Read More >>

Halifax Hall, Sheffield 10th of June

We were invited to play for the Friends of Westbourne School at the rather lovely Halifax Hall Hotel. It was absolutely chucking it down when we arrived to set up and the hotel manger kindly gave us some towels so we could dry ourselves and the gear off.

We set up in the bijoux library at Halifax Hall. After a bit of creative cable slinging to get the extension lead running along the top of the book shelf and a quick sound check we were good to go.

Our official start time was 9.00 but they’d only just started the main course so we watched the footy in the bar. We finally played our first note at about 10:15 and with two 45 minutes sets to squeeze in before the curfew at midnight we started rattling through our set list.

We learnt a few lessons, namely that Radiohead’s Just clears all the ladies off the dance floor, as does The Strokes’ Reptillia, maybe we’ll save those for public gigs. Thankfully the Arctic Monkey’s version of the Girls Aloud hit Love Machine gets everyone back on the dance floor and we followed this with Get Lucky, Shut Up and Dance and wrapped up proceedings with Chelsea Dagger.

They were screaming “ONE MORE SONG!” but it was twenty past twelve and we had to call it a night. Great fun, great audience, hope to do it again next year.

 

Read More >>