Ceilidh dancing is inclusive, interactive and great fun. At a typical wedding party, often involving two disparate groups of people who may never even have met before, it is an unbeatable icebreaker, overcoming potential barriers of nationality, language, dialect, gender and class at a stroke by promoting carefree, exhilarating fun with a strong binding element of teamwork.
Read MoreYou can call it a barn dance, a ceilidh or a country dance – it all comes to the same thing. A dance caller walks you through a dance, the band strikes up and the caller calls out the moves. No previous experience is required.
Read MoreIstanbul has long been considered as being the gateway between East and West, a two-way portal for the exchange of goods, peoples and cultures. Once at the crossroads of Roman influence and home to many diverse ethnic traditions, when that great empire shrank, certain cultures grew to dominance, others were displaced, migrated or dispersed. Among…
Read MoreBoth the camera and the microphone loved that consummate performer, Frank Sinatra. His velvet-textured larynx and unique romantic style won him worldwide acclaim, coupled with the notoriety of the celebrity lifestyle he led and the ‘Ratpack’ company he kept. Along with Fred Astaire, he was Hollywood’s leading man of the Swing Jazz era. A hard…
Read MoreWouldn’t it be absolutely incredible to have your all-time favourite band come and play at your wedding reception? Unfortunately, unless you are either related to or can number Mick or Keith or Paul (or even better, Simon) among your close friends, or you are quite obscenely loaded anyway, this is and will remain purely a…
Read MoreThe style of live music you choose for your wedding reception will effectively create the atmosphere and set the tone of the proceedings, so it’s vitally important to choose wisely. However, identifying music that both reflects your personality and simultaneously appeals to your guests’ varied tastes can present a bit of a conundrum. Careful consideration…
Read MoreYour wedding is anticipated to be the most special day in your life, and naturally the ceremony is central to it. Irrespective of whether you are planning to marry during a church service or elsewhere in a civil ceremony, live music can play a significant role in creating a real sense of occasion. Consider carefully…
Read MoreTrad Jazz is an ideal style of music to add a celebratory atmosphere to a wedding reception party, especially outdoors, and as their name implies, The Al Fresco Trad Jazz Band are ideally suited to such an occasion. Their lively, swaggering renditions of all the well-known classics of the genre performed in authentic New Orleans…
Read MoreThe Mississippi Delta, where French and British cultures blend with African and Creole, is acknowledged as the birthplace of what has become known as Trad Jazz. An amalgam of blues and gospel hymns with European dance-tunes and song models, this idiosyncratic style of musical delivery appears to emerge in the popular marching church bands, especially…
Read MoreYou don’t have to be Scottish to appreciate Scotland (although it probably helps). The breathtaking natural beauty of the landscape, both lowland and highland, combined with the historical mystique of a powerful, colourful, unique and indomitable culture, lends the territory north of the border an unparallelled attraction steeped in nostalgia and tradition. Such a romantic…
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