Wedding Ceilidh at Oran Mor Glasgow | Review from Bride and Groom

• Category: Ceilidhs, disco/DJ, Events, Glasgow, Music, Scotland, venues, weddings
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We love performing at Oran Mor, the venue at the top of Byres Road in the west end of Glasgow. The Jiggers ceilidh band plays at ceilidhs there throughout the year, and Oran Mor recommend us to all their clients. It’s a stylish converted church venue with a painted arched ceiling, so you’re sure to get some great wedding photos there, as well as across the road in the Botanic Gardens.

Here is a message we received from a bride & groom after their wedding in June 2012. They had a lot of guests who were not Scottish, but we have no problem explaining the dances to people of any nationality, and they always seem to have a great time. On occasion, we have worked with translators where the audience was exclusively non-English speaking.

Dear Jake,

We just wanted to say a big thank you to the band who played at our wedding last Saturday. The musicians were just fantastic and the caller was very entertaining. All our Lebanese guests loved the ceilidh and were even swinging each other around and showing off the new moves they’d learned when the DJ was playing later on! We would certainly recommend you to anyone who asks.

Thanks once again,

Paula and Pascal June 2012 Òran Mór

And here is another note we received from a client at the same venue:

Dear Jake, many thanks to you and your band for helping to make our wedding so special. Everyone said how much they enjoyed your music and the banter from the caller! You guys were brilliant and contributed hugely to creating a lovely atmosphere.
Craig & Duo

 

Oran Mor means “great music”. The Jiggers ceilidh band play there regularly…maybe that’s why!

10 reasons people hire a Ceilidh Band with a DJ

• Category: Ceilidhs, disco/DJ, Events, Music, performing, weddings
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If you are planning a wedding or any other kind of event, this post explains why we think you should hire the Jiggers ceilidh band and DJ together.

1. It caters to your guests’ tastes.
Scottish ceilidh music is very accessible, sets a great tone, and is perfect to dance to. The DJ, on the other hand, has access to a much broader variety of music, and can play songs that people know and love.

2. A live band makes a good impression.
The DJ set is about playing good music, but getting a good live ceilidh band to perform gives people something to look at even if they’re not dancing.

3. Value for money.
if you’re on a budget, The Jiggers is set up so that if you want to have the ceilidh for the first hour or two, then you don’t need to hire the full five-piece band, instead, you can get the 4 (or 3) piece band AND a DJ for a lower overall price.

4. More value for money.
You’d really like a covers band that does a bit of ceilidh? Bear in mind that most good covers bands will charge almost double what The Jiggers charge for a night, and covers bands generally can’t do ceilidh music as well as a proper ceilidh band, because they don’t have the folk instrumentation. If you’re looking for a band that performs a ceilidh set AND a covers set, then we can certainly do that for you (in our 5-piece line-up). We still recommend adding the DJ at the end though, and see the next point for why?

5. People can make requests.
Our DJ has a library of tens of thousands of tracks, and (if the client doesn’t object) will be happy to put on a favourite tune, making the day all the more memorable to your guests. A great covers band will have a repertoire of maybe 100 songs, but they’re always limited by style, instrumentation and repertoire.

6. Simple, high quality PA and lights.
The Jiggers use a good quality, reliable and compact PA system. You don’t have to get two PA systems, one for the band, one for the DJ (that can mean extra set-up time, and is a nightmare if there’s not much stage space). Our approach means that’s not an issue, and changeover is smooth, too, when the band are finished their set. Our DJ uses a decent microphone, too. Seems rather obvious? Maybe not. Remember, our DJs keep the chatter to a minimum, and let the music do the talking, but at least you know that when they do have to make an announcement, it won’t sound like a guy with a balaclava on talking over the PA at Central Station…

7. Reliable, consistent service
Hire an in-house DJ, or another mobile DJ, you can’t guarantee what you’re going to get. Many DJ agencies sub out the DJ work to independent contractors with dodgy PA systems, lights from the 1970s, poor taste in music and a gruff manner. OK, so that’s a worst case scenario, but at least when you get the Jiggers, it will be one of the band members doing the DJing, and the DJ will know the standards we expect. And all our guys are very approachable, too!

8. You can tailor the music.
Don’t want any Robbie Williams? Want lots of Robbie Williams? No requests to be taken from your cousin who loves death metal dubsteb? Did I mention how The Jiggers are all very approachable? It’s no problem…We can do things exactly how you want them done, no fuss. Warn us, though, if you want lots of Robbie Williams. That kind of thing needs a bit of mental preparation.

9. Ceilidh to start, disco to finish works.
People are more likely to dance ceilidh at the start of the night, and will be ready for the disco in the second part of the evening reception. We think this is to do with the fact that the caller really helps people to relax and give the ceilidh dancing a go, and then they’re ready to freestyle it later on. It just works.

10. We can be flexible about the changeover.
If you really want to have four straight hours of disco, or of ceilidh, then of course with a little creative thinking we can usually make that work. We want to do things the way you want them…However… one last thing in defense of this method?
The ceilidh/DJ format works really well, because if you’ve got a break in the middle, you can take stock and decide whether to move on to the next section. People usually decide either to stop the ceilidh at the break, or have a little more ceilidh after the break, and moving into disco for the last hour or two. The change in the music means the entertainment stays fresh. There’s a natural flow to these things, and we’re experienced at getting it just right. At the changeover time, some guests might want to get home for bedtime, or for babysitters, and breaking up the entertainment in this simple way gives them a chance to say their farewells.

If you’d like to talk to us some more about it, give Jake a call and he’ll be happy to chat.

Wedding At House For An Art Lover – Ceilidh Band Review

• Category: Ceilidhs, customer comments, Events, Glasgow, more happy customers, reviews, Scotland, venues, weddings
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The Jiggers ceilidh band provided their popular 3-piece ceilidh and DJ entertainment package at one of our favourite wedding venues, Glasgow’s House For An Art Lover in Bellahouston park.

The venue is in a beautiful location, very central for taxis/transport links, but with plenty of parking. The cafe downstairs is a great location for an intimate ceilidh for smaller weddings, and can actually cope with larger parties quite well too. I’d estimate that you can get about 120 in there reasonably comfortably for an evening reception.

Here’s an email we received from the groom after the event.

Now that the dust has settled a bit and we’ve had a chance to meet up with the majority of our friends and family I think it’s fair to say there hasn’t been one person who hasn’t mentioned how good the Ceilidh and disco were. The dance floor was full all night and that was exactly what we wanted from our reception (Zoe and I obviously had a great time too). I will be making a point of recommending the Jiggers to anyone I know who needs a good band, they were well worth every penny of their fee.

Kind regards

Mark

Wedding, House For An Art Lover, November 2012

CBeebies Something Special with The Jiggers Ceilidh Band

• Category: BBC, Ceilidhs, Events, Music, performing, Scotland, weddings
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Fans of Justin Fletcher AKA Mr Tumble, and his CBeebies show Something Special are in for a Scottish treat this Friday 14th of December 2012 at 9.45am when he is joined by The Jiggers Ceilidh Band.

Three members of the ceilidh band, David, Andy and Scott will join Justin for the final show of the series, entitled “Ceilidh”. The show is hugely popular with children from 0-8 years (and therefore their parents!)

Something Special is designed to introduce children to Makaton signing. It is specifically aimed at children with delayed learning and communication difficulties. The band enjoyed the experience immensely, as did the children who were taking part in the ceilidh.
“We were very impressed with Mr Tumble” says David, the ceilidh band’s guitarist and “caller”. Justin’s amazingly energetic, and brilliant with the kids: I can see why the show is so popular. Mr Tumble is a legend!”

The Jiggers, who usually perform at weddings and student events were approached by the BBC to perform on the show. Ceilidh bands play traditional Scottish folk music for people to dance along to, and it’s a very popular choice for weddings because it gets the guests interacting with each other and with the band. There are usually some very simple steps which the caller will explain to the dancers, and it’s all usually very informal and fun. Greg de Blieck, the band’s manager explains: “As well as grown-up events, we also get invited to do a lot of ceilidhs for schools, especially Christmas parties. Working with primary-age children is great fun because they just love dancing, and at the end of term they’re usually high as kites as well. They get really excited when they realise that the music will be performed live, and not just on a CD. So many kids come up afterwards and tell us that they want to learn to play music, and it’s really gratifying to show them how much fun it can be.

At the filming of the Cbeebies show, entitled “Ceilidh”, some of the children were given the chance to join in with the music, and you could tell that they were over the moon about it.

“Not many people outside of Scotland seem to know about ceilidh dancing” explains Greg, “But the magic of this ancient Scottish folk-secret is slowly spreading out, thanks to the popularity of films like Pixar’s Brave . Ceilidh dancing is another of Scotland’s unique treasures.”

Greg explains “I think the attraction of a Scottish ceilidh is that it appeals to all generations, and it’s all about rolling your sleeves up and having a bit of energetic family fun. We’re now getting calls from people desperate for an authentic Scottish ceilidh band to play at events even as far as Singapore!”

“The world is waking up to the delights of Scottish ceilidh dancing. We’re really pleased that popular shows like Something Special are helping to spread the word to a new generation…as well as their mums and dads”

Something Special CBeebies show will air on Friday 14/12/12 at 9.45am and then again at 1.45pm GMT (please check listings for any changes)

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If you’d like to hire the band for an event anywhere in the world, call Jake Bingham on 0141 419 9558 or email info@thejiggers.co.uk

 

Want to check availability of The Jiggers Ceilidh Band?

• Category: Ceilidhs, Events
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Because we have a lot of blog posts, we don’t always notice comments right away. Sometimes these are from people who are looking to book a ceilidh band for their wedding…

For a fast response, the best way to get in touch is either via our CONTACT page, or by phone. We have a freephone number on our homepage, or you can use the landline number 0141 419 9558. Jake, our events co-ordinator is available during office hours, Monday to Friday. We also have an answer machine which we check regularly.

Thanks a lot, and we look forward to hearing from you!