DJ Marko and the Wheels of Steel

Hey, Mr DJ, Put A Record On!

Busy, Busy

Well, as lead vocalist of Pretty Vegas and a DJ for 17 years, one way or another I’m out most weekends.  I love it. That feeling when you’re loading up ready to drive to a gig. The anticipation of a good night, when the crowd will sway and dance and fool around, and spill beer and steam will rise from the dance-floor; it gets me going. Setting up the gear is never fun, especially with a work-shy lead guitarist, but I love getting it right; the sound-check; putting on the background music and watching the guests appear; the lights illuminating the stage; the spurt of dry ice as the music surges and the band kicks off. I love it.

Fitting the Bill

We at Pretty Vegas know our music. We all have our ideas about what should be playing when we’re not. Pretty Vegas is, at heart, a rock band; it’s what we grew up on. That’s not to say we don't play with feeling and soul, but we’re never happier than when we’re rocking out with the crowd on the dance-floor, Ritchie on a chair, groin in the air, me and Leighton on the stage and a random lady in the audience banging our tambourine out of time. That had to mean we would end up being a rocking wedding band.

 As resident DJ at a successful country hotel for 17 years I know that rock is only part of the solution. I do a little set of Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, The Killers and Kings of Leon and it always goes down a storm, but I also recognise the young ladies who want some Rihanna or LMFAO, the mum, dad, grandma or granddad who wants some ‘proper rock n’ roll’ and the 80s fans, revving up for Frankie, Duran Duran or Dexy’s Midnight Runners. I love all music. Various members of Pretty Vegas have been in various different configurations, playing all kinds of music from punk to REM to Metallica to grunge to Britney Spears to Tracey Chapman, since we were just old enough to hold a guitar! We love it all and I pride myself, in terms of being a wedding DJ, on being able to judge a crowd; to look at the spread of people in a room and to establish what they want to listen to.

New Toys

As writer of this blog, I get to talk about the new toys we’ve just bought. Pretty Vegas has just invested in a pair of RCF powered speakers. When coupled with our previous investment of a Mackie sub-woofer, we now sound, as I believe the kids say, unbelievably awesome!

As my colleagues have said in previous blogs, we try to put on a show. We were concerned when we first started out as Pretty Vegas that we didn’t have a light show. We now have a kick-ass light show!  We pay out for the little things all the time - a set of guitar strings here, a £2000 Taylor guitar there! We could get by on some bargain basement second hand gear, but we want to sound good. People sometimes seem incredulous that bands would like to be paid what sometimes amounts to £10 per hour each for a gig. They don’t see what money goes in behind the scenes to get a band to sound like that. To give you a clue, when we go out, because we want to be the best sounding wedding band, we generally have around £10,000 of equipment with us.

I tend to use a combination of iPods and laptops to run my DJ show these days. I’m always a bit suspicious of electronic technology though. I still carry my faithful CDJs and two big cases of discs to every show, just in case. My biggest enduring fear is playing the Bride and Grooms’ first dance and the laptop crashes! Accordingly I now cue the track up simultaneously on iPod, laptop and disc, so there are two failsafes! 

There’s no doubt that technology yields results and as well as the recent upgrades to our PA rig and lights, we at Pretty Vegas take pride in using the best tech and equipment we can.

Dance My Pretties

As a DJ I love nothing more than to make people dance (I think it was Don McLean said that). As I’ve mentioned, I play little sets as a DJ. Unless specified by the Client, I would play a fairly broad range of genres from dance/chart to funk/soul to motown to rock to party to jive to swing to disco to house. If people aren’t dancing then I’ll change the vibe until they do. Often Clients will supply a play list. I will make suggestions about order and what will get people dancing etc. but, at the end of the day, it’s the Client’s evening and usually when a customer supplies a play list it’s because they care about the music they’re going to listen to and the selection is usually pretty much on the money. I’ll play anything! One of my best nights as a DJ was when the Bride and Groom (and all the guests) were into heavy metal and rock. I had a ball playing Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Metallica and the Chilli Peppers. Pretty Vegas may be a pop soul and rock wedding band, but at heart we know what we love!

To tell the truth I just love to play what makes people happy.  I know that sounds really cheesy, and I try to stay away from extreme cheese like The Birdy Song and Agadoo, but it’s true. Sometimes you get a play list of tunes you’ve never heard of. You spend hours and pounds on iTunes downloading obscure sounding tracks, never expecting anyone to be into it. But it often works! If enough people are prepared to get up and cut a rug, then it’s a hit and it’s job done-client happy. 



Mark Keown - Vocals
Pretty Vegas Wedding Band 

  

New Toys For The Boys - RCF Art 715a's!

Peavey Smeavey!

Just a quick one today, as we have finally put our Peavey UL15 Messengers into retirement. Boys, ye served us well! Whilst we will look back at the time we spent together with happiness, at the same time, we know that our new babies will add an extra dimension to our shows.

RCF Art 715a - The new Addition To The Family

You would not actually believe the "discussions" we had before getting these, and it was only the untimely death of our old power amp that pushed us down this route. I had wanted to upgrade our cabs for a while as they were constantly on the limit, but as with all things, it is the justification of the price when they were still performing well for what would be an unknown benefit to the sound.

The problem with music equipment, is that it is very much a bottomless pit if you want it to be. There will ALWAYS be a better desk, better cables, better effects units, same performance but a third of the size etc... Whilst our aim is to have the best sounding equipment and as a wedding and function band make the best sounding and looking show, this HAS to be balanced with cost to both us, and what we would have to charge to cover the investment. We could have a lighting rig with Martin movable fixtures, the sort used on Strictly, The Voice and X-Factor, but it really could not be justified (sadly!).

With the PA though, you are paying for sound quality, performance and reliability, and as a band playing a wedding simply cannot afford to have a "show-stopper", its not about the investment making you money, its about it not losing you money.

As I wrote last year about how hard it is to find pub gigs, even though the band focus on being the best rock pop and soul wedding band, we still love playing pubs, and given the money paid for pub gigs really hasn't increased in many a year, this kind of investment may seem over the top, but with these new workhorses, coupled with our Mackie SRS1500 sub-woofer, means that we can go from a small pub to a 300 person function room without worry.

Well, that's the theory anyway! We have a short break now due to Mark Keown about to become a Dad for the third time, but as soon as we have our first show on 19th May with these new bad boys, I will report on how they perform, hopefully with some pictures of them in action.

Ritchie

Pretty Vegas Wedding And Function Band

Contemplating How Any Bum Notes Will Sound Much Clearer!

This Is What I Like To Call "Quiet Time"

For those that didn't know, that was a quote from the film "Cruel Intentions", and the reason to mention it was that it's been a while since the last blog post, mainly due to Christmas, and also because for most wedding bands, or any type or cover band, January is generally very slooooooow!

Ever since we have been in a band together (about 18 years in various forms! God, I feel old!), on the run up to Christmas, we have always said that this year, that's it, we are going to work like hell in January to do the things we normally struggle to find the time to do.

Every year, the first 2 weeks are always "instead of practice, fancy a pint and a chat instead".

We need to start sticking to New Years Resolutions!

First Christmas For The Future Band Member

One of the reasons for the break was also that it way my son, Vegas', first Christmas, so whilst we booked up gigs up to the 22nd, we all had the Christmas period off.

 

That was actually a joke, his name isn't Vegas! He is actually named after my favourite F1 driver and acoustic guitars. Little Kamui Breedlove loved his first Christmas.

Hahaha, God I am on fire!

Anyway, the time away gave us the usual breather that we do actually need to keep ourselves sane for the rest of the year, what with us all being married with jobs, family, mortgages (rock n' roll!!), and coming back we have the renewed vigour to start gigging again, with this being the 3rd year in a row of us being fully booked in February. 

The last few practices in January, as per usual, have been us getting back into the habit of playing, and getting together the songs that we have been texting each other about over the break!

New Tunes

With some of the bookings we have so far for the coming 12 months, a few have been getting creative in their requests for songs that aren't currently on our set list, and whilst we keep trying out new stuff, there is nothing quite like a new client making some suggestions to add a few divergent styles to our repertoire. Even though we get booked by the set we currently have, people often use a mix of their own faves, or the songs we have a starting point and think, "hell, you do ..., what about ...?" and that is great for us. Some plainly don't work, but some definitely provide us with avenues to explore.

So this means that for the band, the next few months are going to involve more rehearsal time on, and me in the studio on backings, getting things up to speed. That means staying away from dirty nappies, mashed food being thrown and having my arm thrown up on. And that's just my wife!

Can I get a high five?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Time to give up the comedy and get back to the studio!

Prior To Christmas Dinner Growth!!! Gym Time!

Ritchie 

Pretty Vegas - Wedding Band Covering Manchester, Liverpool, Cheshire and Lancashire

Choosing Songs For The Band

So Many Songs, So Little Time

For a Wedding Band that plays a variety of styles, it can actually be VERY difficult to choose what songs to learn that will be a success within a set. Having too much of one thing may alienate a section of the audience, whilst having too many disparate styles may fails to connect you to your crowd, and as humans, there are only a finite number of songs that you can learn and remember. Well, that's the case for us anyway! We do have a lot of songs in the set list that get played on a regular basis, but there are some that are definitely "pub" tunes, "function" tunes and "wedding" tunes, so when we have a gig coming up and are working on the set list for that show, we choose what we think will have the most impact and enjoyment for the crowd. This can either be a rough guess based on previous performances there, or from a wild stab in the dark after speaking to the event organiser.

Some Songs Just Work

When we started playing years ago, we realised that some songs in our set suited our style better than others, be it the arrangement, tempo or harmonies we used. These tunes just have a certain something about them and always go down an absolute storm, be it a function in Manchester or a wedding gig in Liverpool. 

This video of us doing "Take Me To The River / Please Please Me" is an example of what we do that ALWAYS blows the roof off!

It's probably because we have learned so many songs over the years, many which are no longer part of the set, that when we look at new songs, we know if it is of a similar style to what we do then we can generally make it work quite easily. The obvious problem with this is that it can quickly make the set sound too similar and lacking in diversity. This is not a problem for bands who stick to a particular genre, but that is NOT what Pretty Vegas are about. 

Medleys - A Pretty Vegas Speciality!

Please, watch this video.

As music lovers, there are sooooo many songs that we would love to play, but due to time constraints, original song length or its structure, we can't realistically play the full tune.

This is where our trademark medleys come into play, mainly in thanks to years if watching Live Metallica shows!

In some cases, we will actually "segue" songs, like we do with "Take Me Please Me", which are full songs that just happen to run nicely into each other and keep the audiences attention / dancing shoes moving. We also do Prince's "Kiss" straight into "Perfect 10", which is great because our lead singer Mark Keown is built like a brick s**thouse, is about 6'4" and does all the female and falsetto parts!

Mark Keown - Big and Scary but Sings Prince For Fun

For other songs that people know and love, we generally look at what are the main elements of a song, what are the fundamentals that make it what it is, the hook, the solo, the breakdown, then try to incorporate that into a medley. That way, people get the song, but the attention of everyone in the room is maintained as the medleys we write are usually done to get a wide variety in that will keep everyone bouncing, even if they don't like THAT particular song.

In an earlier post about why it is Why Its Harder To Get Gigs in 2012 I mention about the decline that has occurred in pubs playing live music, and the one thing that has always been said when we play at a venue for the first time is about our diversity when selecting music, and the medleys we play. The general consensus is that we provide something for everyone.

Getting Picked For The First Team

As a band we are always looking at the songs we play, and seeing how we can strengthen our set, and in many cases, when chatting we use a football analogy.

"Yeah, but is that song strong enough to be picked for the first team or will it be left on the bench. Its good, but its no... (insert current set song here!)"

What still surprises us is that when we are looking at new songs to add to our repertoire, they aren't always songs that have only just been released. You would be surprised how many songs we have actually "forgotten about", classics that for one reason or another have been overlooked.

Take "Rolling in The Deep" by Adele, that was an instant favourite, but we discounted it until the other two boys were at Download and saw a metal band do a version, and by doing a mix of the cover and the Adele original, it is now permanently in the first team. That song had been out about 6 or 7 months when we added it to the set and at the moment it shows no signs of going anywhere, in part due to the continued success of Adele in the UK and US, and in part because its a great song that we do well. Then there are songs that you hear on the radio and think "God, how did I forget THAT!"

Recently, we finished getting "Brown Sugar", "I Feel Good", "Jailhouse Rock" and "Dakota's on Fire (Dakota and Sex on Fire segued) up to standard, and these are songs that many bands would consider to be essential for their set, but for us, we either forgot or didn't think that at the time we first tried them that we could do them justice. Ultimately, its easy to say "no, not good enough" and leave a song alone, but as we grow as musicians, we do re-visit songs too and find that from a different perspective they can be part of the set.

Or at least on the "Subs Bench"!

Our Indulgences!

These are songs that we know aren't THAT well known, and are generally saved for pub gigs due to being a BIT more obscure or not an acts Top 10 hit, but as Pretty Vegas, we feel we do a stunning version of. We also include them in the Set List on the website as potential Clients can also see our diversity, and it may be one of their favourite tunes than nobody else does!

Some examples of these for Pretty Vegas are:-

• Bad Things - Jace Everett (Theme From True Blood)

• Call Me Number 5 - Paul Weller and Kelly Jones

• Its Only Natural - Crowded House (They did other songs, not just Weather With You!!)
• The Captain - Biffy Clyro ('Mon The Biffy!)

The funny thing with these songs, AND the "Enter Sandman" solo in the middle of the Shakin' Medley, is either when we are playing, or after we have finished, we nearly always have a few members of the audience go wild about them, almost like its an "in-joke" because they are not the most well known of songs. We think of them as songs for music lovers played by music lovers.

Client Suggestions

At some point during a gig, or when we are taking wedding bookings, someone will suggest a song that we don't play, or an artist we don't cover, and whilst we will take specific requests from clients for functions of weddings, if we are playing a pub gig and the same song gets requested in different locations, that certainly pricks our ears up, and as part of moving forward, we need to ensure what we provide meets peoples expectations. That doesn't mean that if enough people say it we will play a Steps song, but more a case of keeping our minds open to different avenues for this thing we do, and ensuring that everyone at a Pretty Vegas show, the band included, come away happy.

Thanks for reading

Ritchie

Pretty Vegas North West Wedding Band

"Movember" Charity Gig - Success!!!

Roaring Success!

Just a quick post to say that the Movember Charity Event I posted about yesterday was a roaring success thanks to Jo Wright and her great organising skills, raising nearly £500 for the Movember charity.


With a music for the evening provided by Pretty Vegas and the food by Gina Hamlet, it was a chance for the men (and women!) to don their Mo's and get partying, with a raffle, that whilst not QUITE shambolic, showed that Jo needs a bit of work with the microphone in preparation for next years event!


Anyway, here are some picture from last night, so hopefully you can see what a great night you missed!

Thanks again Jo, keep up the great work

Ritchie
Pretty Vegas

Why Its Harder To Get Gigs in 2012

Times, They Are A Changin'

All of Pretty Vegas are 34-35, so we are not that old (well, in our minds certainly!), but even we remember when we started, how there seemed to be live music of some sort always available near us. This could have been 2 guys with acoustics, guitarist / vocalist with backings or a full band, but pubs made a point of having it on regularly and as you knew when this would be, you could make a point of going down to the various acts playing the local circuits. Yeah, mostly, they were covers, but you didn't mind as the standard was usually pretty high, the pubs were packed, and the beer flowed.

Back then, the money was OKAY, but was topped up with free drinks from landlords happy with their establishments being packed  to the gills, even on a Sunday night.

So what, exactly, has changed in such a relatively short space of time?

The Recession

There is no doubt that people have less disposable income to go out for a night on the town. Prices have gone up, taxes have gone up, and supermartkets sell 24 cans for £12. Not really hard to see why there has been a general downturn in pub attendance just on these basic facts is it? I mean a lot of places will still have their "regulars" propping up the bar, but rarely are they being replaced by new customers who devote a night or two (or whole weekend) to one venue, and as such the landlords have to look at how to still shift pints without the additional costs involved. Food is okay to bring additional money in, but the landlords really need to go for that change in a big way, new kitchen, refurbishment, more staff, and this is expensive. So why pay for entertainment, when its not going to attract new customer, and reduce the profits for the ones they have.

 

People Want More For Their Money & Death of "The Local"

I don't really think its a stretch to appreciate that when times are tough, people want to get bang for their buck, so if they are buying food, do they want to eat in a nice, relaxed environment, where everything is clean and tidy, with a wide selection of dishes, or a place that "does food" as long as the darts team aren't at home.

The transition from pub to pub / restaurant is not generally a small step, and there is usually the alienation of the former clientele in favour of a new one, one with cash to spend on products with greater mark-ups, and the cost in doing to is usually VERY high. This means that in order to recoup the expense of this transformation, the only option is to maximise seating for the new aspect of the business. Don't get me wrong, some pubs HAVE successfully merged the two, but they are very much in the minority, and this has generally meant that what was the typical "Local" is either now looking very shabbier compared to the new swanky eateries, or have been closed and turned into gastro-pubs or brasseries. And the last two aren't typically looking for live music (unless you are a Mickey Bubbles tribute act at Christmas!)

 



PV At The Saracens Head in Warrington, Great Venue, Too Close To Wine Bars

The Infamous Wine Bars

FACT:- Men want young women => young women don't go to dives =>  men don't go to dives.

 

As more and more people want the celebrity lifestyle, nice cars, nice houses, nice nights out, ridiculously overpriced wine bars  and bar/clubs have become the places to be and it is DJ music that is wanted in these types of establishments. This not only drags in more punters, it drives down the desire to spend a night listening to live music as the men will generally go where the women are. The problem is that maybe typical old-fashioned pubs haven't really adapted to this change by refurbishment of existing premises, but retaining the essential elements of what drew people there in the good times.

 

 "Live Music Saturday Night - Karaoke With Jim!"

 For me, this is one of the fundamental problems with getting live music back into pubs and that is the easy entertainment that comes from karaoke; cheaper, occupy less space and the familiarity of the same songs every week by the same people.

 

Pubs are essentially about community and if you see any karaoke host "off-duty" they are in many cases revered as Gods by the public, and with the same faces singing the same songs every week, it endears them to their fellow punter for getting up and "having a go"!

 

Whilst I would much prefer to have this than a DJ playing hard-house, it is still getting away from what live music is about, and yes, we do use backing tracks for our shows, but we would play with a full band if it was logistically possible, but it isn't for us, and this is a topic we fought with for a long time before starting Pretty Vegas as we thought it was selling out, but in this day and age, its the only way we could do what we could do to keep ourselves playing live music.

 

 

But Wait, There IS Hope!

 

The flip side of all this, is the increase we as a band have seen in live music at Weddings and Functions. Rather than years ago where the organiser wanted to have just a DJ, the amount of people looking for bands to play in this environment can only be seen as encouraging for all musicians, so I think that this only really backs up my point.

 

As a Wedding Band the market is competitive, but this is good for all concerned as market forces keep costs within a reasonable limit so people can have the entertainment in the evening that they are wanting, and musicians can keep working.

 

As a Function Band there is still room for growth as clients are still reluctant to pay more than what they would for a disco, but that is changing as the cost of hiring a DJ has steadily increased, not a massive amount, but certainly more than they were, and this does mean that for a working band, functions represent the middle-ground between pubs and weddings.

 

This must mean that there is still a desire for live music to be played, and as i put in my first blog I will keep striving to get Pretty Vegas out there to the masses, and if this means this is achieved by changing some of the perceptions of how live music is to be performed, the composition of the structure of what is a "live band", and what sort of places will play live music, then that is definitely something I, and we at Pretty Vegas are prepared to do.

 

Ritchie

Pretty Vegas Wedding and Function Band

 

 

 

Pretty Vegas - "Movember Charity Event"

"Movember" Charity Event

 

 

Just a quick post to say that Pretty Vegas are playing a charity event tonight for Movember, the mens health charity made famous by celebrities and supporters growing moustaches and other facial appendages to raise awareness of prostate and testicular cancer.

 

The event we are playing is at THE UNITY CLUB in Standish near Wigan, starting at 7.30pm, with £7 entry fee, buffet, disco, at set or two by Pretty Vegas and more.

 

I will post some photos of the event so everyone will know what they missed, but hopefully word will spread and the event will be a complete success.

 

 

Please spread this if you are a supporter or care about the issues addressed by the charity.

 

Thanks

 

Ritchie

Pretty Vegas

 

Pretty Vegas - North West Function Band Supporting Movember. 'Taches to be added later!

 

Pretty Vegas - Northwest Wedding Band Blog Introduction



Pretty Vegas - Thats me on the left!

 

Back With A Bang Band

Hi all, I actually started writing a blog a while ago on various subjects, but due to various reasons, I just didn't have the time to actually do anything as regularly as I wanted, but loved the freedom of expression, so I thought I would start this blog in order to give me something more direct to focus on, so this is my blog about Pretty Vegas, Wedding and Function Band, my own wedding and function band.

Erm... Why Would I Want To Read About This?

Fair point, but I actually think it might be useful for potential clients, other people interested in playing a cover band, or even existing band members who are in the same position as us. I plan to not just post about things like up-coming gigs, but also the ins and outs of what it is like playing in a gigging band in this day and age, for people OF a certain age with families, day jobs, mortgages etc...

I know there won't be 10,000 people reading this per day, but if you do read it, and do like it, then please do let me know.

What Will I Write About?

I want to really document all aspects, from what it is like choosing the tracks Pretty Vegas play, the ones we decide against, producing the backing in the studio, how we promote ourselves, playing weddings, keeping your head up whilst playing to empty pubs, new equipment and equipment choices.

Some of this is to help me keep my sanity despite wife, baby, band, work etc... but is also hopefully going to be informative, useful and most importantly, interesting.


Please feel free to add suitable comments, and I look forward to posting again very soon.

Ritchie
Pretty Vegas

Ritchie Mellor - Lead Guitar, Pretty Vegas