Wedding ceilidh band review |The Jiggers

• Category: Ceilidhs, performing, Scotland, weddings
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Carberry Tower – Ceilidh Band and DJ | Wedding Review

• Category: Ceilidhs, Music, venues, weddings
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The Jiggers ceilidh band & DJ played a wedding in Carberry Tower, Musselburgh, near Edinburgh in July 2012. The bride’s mother wrote us this kind message afterwards…

Hi there, Jake,

Can you please send our very grateful thanks to Katie, Andrew, Dave and Xander for their tremendous ceilidh music. It was even better than I could ever have hoped for. The combination with the two fiddles was unbeatable. The Burns piece for the first dance could not have been more beautifully presented and my daughter was thrilled. Dave is a brilliant DJ, and, it transpired, being a teacher at Alva Academy, had taught a few of the younger guests which made their night! Congratulations all round! A wonderful day with a fantastic and memorable conclusion!

Very best wishes. Alexis. (Wedding, July 2012, Carberry Tower, Edinburgh)

Wedding at Edinburgh Zoo | Ceilidh Band Review

• Category: Ceilidhs, customer comments, more happy customers, Scotland, venues, weddings
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Julie and Peter had their wedding at Edinburgh Zoo. They booked the Jiggers ceilidh band and DJ for their party. We arrived and set up for the evening entertainment, and since there was a bit of time to kill before the start of the ceilidh, we were allowed to go for a wander around the zoo, free of charge! Edinburgh Zoo is a world-class zoo, and has very versatile banqueting rooms, so it’s a great choice for weddings and corporate events. They also have lots of cool animals. Do you need any more reasons?

Hi Jake,
Could you pass our thanks to the Jiggers.  They were fantastic at our wedding and really helped make the day truly special.

Many thanks,
Julie and Peter McGhee,
May 2012  Edinburgh Zoo

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.