Venue Review: House For An Art Lover, Glasgow

• Category: business, Ceilidhs, Events, Food and Drink, Glasgow, Music, performing, Scotland, venues, weddings
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A popular wedding venue where the Jiggers are regularly invited to play is Glasgow's House For An Art Lover in Bellahouston park. (It's just round the corner from where the Jiggers are based, which is nice!). This is the venue of choice for lovers of Charles Rennie Mackintosh art and architecture.

The venue has an upstairs section for the reception ceremony and meal, with the downstairs "Art Lover's Cafe" which is a kind of mini-gallery that transforms into the gathering place for the evening ceilidh.

We often provide clients with music for the full day there, and were performing there again at the weekend. A popular choice is our bigdaymusic Wedding Silver Music Package, which includes a piper for welcoming guests (handy, if you're lost in the park and can't find the venue) and our jazz pianist usually tickles the ivories on the venue's baby grand piano during the meal. We also supply our string quartet for e.g. the drinks reception or the ceremony which can be held in the venue too.

Clients often ask what size of band is suitable for the House for an Art Lover…We usually suggest 3 piece or 4 at a push. 5 would be tight, especially if it was a full function band with backline. You can see the relatively small stage setup of the 3 piece Jiggers band, including DJ & lights, in the picture below. Including lights with the entertainment is a must for the art lovers cafe, whose white walls really benefit from some nice party lighting, i think.

If you've had an event at the House for an Art Lover, please do post a comment to tell us about your experience there.

Me, Katie & Dougie, the 3 piece Jiggers ceilidh band outside the House For An Art Lover.

Top 10 records every wedding DJ needs: No. 2

• Category: Ceilidhs, DJ top 10, Fun Stuff, Music, performing, Songwriting, weddings
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Why is Van Morrison's Brown Eyed girl such a successful record?

People "hear" music before they "hear" words. But what do they actually remember? Neither, I think.
It's confusing for a songwriter to hear that, but I think it's true. So what do listeners specifically remember about a song?

In the vein of “Summer of 69” , “Brown Eyed Girl” is an enduring classic record. Who can avoid its charms at a wedding disco?  It’s a simple song about the reclamation of
youth, about love, simplicity, passion. And it has the added market appeal that
it references about 25% of the world’s population in the title. Van was not writing this for
a niche market.

I was playing pool in the student union when this record came on in the
jukebox. I could probably give you a good guess as to what I was
wearing, eating, who I was with, what I was thinking about, how much I was losing by…

Brown Eyed Girl is a soundtrack for happy times. Evocative. Music is a catalyst for emotion, but it's the emotion that people remember first, and the music second. Songwriters hoping for that enduring classic should think in terms of creating moments: enhancing experiences rather than creating notes and melodies.

Songs help human beings to feel alive. Once your song is indelibly associated with a certain emotional experience, listeners will return to the song to reclaim and re-examine that experience. The more firmly the song is rooted in a clear emotional experience, the more enduring the song will be.

I know a couple who admitted that Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On" was their favourite all-time record. Need I say more?

Songwriters…musicians…people who enjoy good music… What are your thoughts? Do you agree, or am I way off the mark? Post a reply below.

Top 10 Records every wedding DJ needs: No 3

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CANDI STATTON – Young Hearts Run Free

DON'T DO IT LADIES! 

"What's the sense in sharing this one and only life? Ending up just another lost and lonely wife?"

Edit: if the youtube vid doesn't work hear it on last.fm

Strange
that a song that decries the meaningless nature of commitment should be so
popular at weddings…Or maybe people enjoy a dose of realism in the midst of
their fairytale day?

 Young Hearts Run Free again capitalises on nostalgic
emotions, this time sung from the persona of a bitter older woman (or maybe
she’s not so old?). Word of advice girls…don’t get married. Look out for
number one.

Why is this song so popular, especially when we're playing a wedding ceilidh? It’s an
enigmatic reminder that straightforward analysis of lyrics does not always tell
us how a listener is likely to respond.

When communicating, it's not always what you say, it's how you say it. Your voice communicates with music more than words. Interesting that something as "throwaway" as a 70s pop song can remind us the extent to which music, not lyrics, is the real communicator.

So what does this song *really* say to you?

Top 10 records every wedding DJ needs (no 4.)

• Category: Ceilidhs, DJ top 10, Events, Fun Stuff, Music, performing, Television, weddings
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Hi all. Back from a nice blog-holiday break with…

Top ten records every wedding DJ needs: no 4

Scissor Sisters: I don't feel like dancing.

Ironically of course, play this record at a wedding, and people
do.

It annoys me that the Scissor Sisters made this record. It’s
just the right tempo for the “walking to the dancefloor dance”. Since I don’t
tend to play more than one song by the same artist (unless it’s a very long DJ
set), it means that I rarely get to play what I think is their absolute best single, the abounding-in-funk, groovetastic and often forgotten-about “take your mama out”.

Still, lyrics in the chorus for this record deserve a
special mention, just because they’re especially indecipherable (how many teenagers know what "that old joanna" is?). 

“I don’t feel like dancing when that old Joanna plays, my
heart could take a chance but my two feet can’t find the way, you’d think that
I could muster up a little soft-shoe gentle sway, but I don’t feel like
dancing, no sir, no dancing today”

PS Don't you love that fun Youtube video?