Down for the Count at Wembley Stadium

On Wednesday 1^st February 2012, we were invited to perform at one of the most iconic, instantly recognisable venues in the world – Wembley Stadium.

Some of us had been to see Take That at Wembley the year before… sadly we weren’t performing to 80,000 people (more like 80) but you’ve got to start somewhere!

The event was the European Annual Conference for D-Link.  The delegates had a large meeting in the daytime, before retiring to the hotel to prepare for the evening meal and party – at which time we arrived to set up.

When we arrived at the venue, we were guided through a very impressive security gate and then to the stadium’s internal perimeter road.  This meant driving extremely close to the pitch – the temptation to jump out of the van and run on to the pitch shouting ‘GOOOAL’ proved hard to resist!

Our route from the loading bay to the function room involved walking halfway around the stadium.  On the way, there were reminders of a few of the stars who had performed here before us...

Our home for the night was the Pitch View Restaurant – and the view from the balcony was amazing:

After we had set up and sound-checked, we were shown to our changing room.  We are used to all kinds of different changing rooms – sometimes we don’t have one, sometimes it’s far from glamorous – but this one was incredible, a corporate box with a spectacular view of the pitch and, waiting for us when we got there, a delicious hot lasagne and bread rolls.

Suitably fed, we sorted our music and got ready for the first of two sets.  Before our performance, a group of Brazilian dancers got the guests in the mood with a demonstration.  We then launched into two sets of swing and soul music – with the instrumental Glenn Miller music proving especially popular.

The dancefloor was full all evening, and we all had a fantastic time.  Sadly it was all over too soon – and all that remained was packing up, followed by the long push around the stadium with three trolleys worth of gear.

We all had a fantastic evening and hope to return to Wembley one day soon!

A weekend in the life of Down for the Count

The weekend of the 3rd -5th of February was a busy one for Down For The Count, and definitely had its fair share of challenges and surprises! With swing, soul and lots and LOTS of snow on the agenda, here's a little snippet of what went down...

The 3rd of February 2012 meant one thing and one thing only for the folks here at DFTC: the eagerly-awaited Down For TheCount LIVE at Crouch End Music Palace, London!

The first of many public concerts in this stylish yet homely venue, the band swung the hall to the rafters with two sets of our finest, premium-quality jazz and soul. Set-up was a breeze, with everyone chipping in and knuckling down, and soon soundcheck was under way. This time we were polishing up our new addition of backing vocals by the very lovely Kate, Claire and Steve, and as a rare treat we had the stonkin' duo of BOTH of our premier singers, Katie and Nicky, who delivered a cracking duet of 'Me And My Shadow'!

Once we were finished, the venue looked a treat:

And the rest, as they say, is history - if you don't believe us, read a rave review from Hire-a-Band's Martin Kyprianides! A fantastic gig, and a tradition in the making: head on to our next performance here on the 4th of May, when we will be opening the very first Crouch End Festival.

Review: www.hireaband.co.uk/down-for-the-count-gig-review

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But the fun didn't stop there, oh dear me, no. After a well-earned rest at DFTC Towers (aka Mike and Amelia's flat), Rich and Simon nipped off to Budgens for what can only be described a a brunch fit for a Count (sigh), perfectly cooked by Claire:

After that it was straight off in the car, on our way to Eynsham Hall, West Oxfordshire - Simon was in the middle. Cue obligatory panoramic car photo:

As we approached Oxfordshire however, the snow began to fall… so much of it! So that by the time we arrived the beautiful venue looked like this:

A fantastic wedding was to follow, and such a success it was that the venue has asked us back for a charity ball in aid of Ovacome! Energetic as ever, we were still full of beans enough to have a little play in the snow afterwards:

Fortunately, high spirits were exactly what we needed next - as a long, LONG journey back along the M40, and a skillful but hazardous drive by Mike back to the unit, saw us arriving home at 5.30am (an average journey speed of 16 miles an hour) - but not a minute of it wasn't good, bandterous fun.  We even had our text message read out by Richard Allinson on early-morning BBC Radio 2!  Down For The Count's epic weekend in the snow was certainly one to remember.

A Down for the Count Road Trip!

In September 2011, we had three gigs, in three days, in opposite corners of the country – the perfect excuse to hire a van for a long roadtrip!

The long weekend started, as ever, at Tesco (if you're ever at a loose end on a Saturday afternoon, come along to Colney Hatch Tesco, as there's a good chance you'll find us there...!)  We loaded up the van with food - some healthy, some less so - before hitting the road.

The first gig was a wedding in Somerset.  We had been looking forward to this gig for ages, because we were being joined by Simon Selmon from Swing Dance UK, who took the guests for a swing/jive lesson (we couldn't resist joining in!) before we started our first set.

At the end of the night we were swung out, so it was off to Leigh Delemere Travelodge for a snooze, followed by brunch....

...before driving to the next wedding in Buckinghamshire.  As we were early we took the opportunity to have a pub lunch before heading to the venue to set up.

The wedding was for a couple who had seen the band at Down for the Count Live - and they insisted we had a glass of champagne whilst they were finishing dinner - we were only too happy to oblige!

After we had performed it was back to London for a sleepover at Mike's before driving to the final gig in Suffolk.

By this time the travelling was taking its toll - with some people needing a 'disco nap' in the van:

The event was a 40th wedding anniversary party in a beautiful house on the seafront - before we set-up we had 30 minutes to enjoy the views - and for Steve to do a spot of birdwatching.

It was then time for the final two sets of a fantastic weekend.  There was still one more surprise in store as we were joined by a relative, who gave an absolutely fantastic rendition of three Frank Sinatra numbers.

Our three-day, 508-mile road trip was a fantastic experience - one we hope to repeat several times in 2012!

The Down for the Count Sound

This week, we share some of our secrets about what makes our 9-piece band sound as good as it does!

We often get complimented on the sound of our 9-piece function band, with comments such as “the sound was simply fantastic.”  It’s always great to hear that clients and guests appreciate the sound, because we work very hard to get our band sounding as good as it does.

The 18-piece Big Band may be the “gold standard” for most of the music that we perform, but sadly most people can’t afford, or don’t have space, for a full Big Band at their events.  It is also hard to get a big band sounding just right underneath vocals, as most weddings and corporate events are in venues that are just too small or intimate to handle the Big Band sound.

However, cutting down on the number of musicians often only serves to ‘water down’ the Rat Pack, big band and soul music that we love to perform, taking away the edge that makes the music so fantastic.

This is why we have carefully selected the instruments in our 9-piece band line-up to be as flexible as possible, and we arrange each song specifically for our band. To the best of our knowledge, our line-up featuring two keyboards, four horns (including two saxes and two trumpets) alongside drums, bass and vocals is completely unique in the function band circuit – so really does give us a unique sound.

One of the things that is different about our band, compared to all other function bands that we know of, is that we have two keyboard players.  In the Rat Pack and Swing sets, one keyboard covers the traditional ‘piano’ parts, whilst the other keyboard covers a huge variety of sounds that enhance our songs (and increase the amount of repertoire we are able to perform).  However talented the rest of our musicians are, songs like “New York New York” and “The Way You Look Tonight” will never sound the same without the rich orchestral string parts.  In the Soul and Motown sets, the two keyboards share a large variety of piano, electric piano, organ, clav, synth, strings and guitar voices to give us a huge amount of flexibility, meaning we can make each song sound as good as possible.

Our horn parts are spread across two trumpets and two wind players (who spend most of the time playing saxophone, but also cover important clarinet and flute parts in the big band and Rat Pack repertoire).  With this line-up, the four players can blend together in a horn soli to make a fantastic ‘brassy’ sound, or the saxophone and trumpet sections can split to play in a classic big band ‘call and answer’ style.

A second trumpet is also far more flexible than a trombone, because the added harmony close to the high trumpet gives our four-piece horn section a much ‘fuller’ sound than you would normally expect. The second keyboard in our band also often joins in with the horn section, filling out the harmonies and giving our 9-piece band a much richer sound.

In the next article, we will have a look at how we arrange our songs for our line-up.

Down for the Count at Pablo & Clare's Wedding, Dartmouth House

On Saturday 15th October 2011 we performed for Pablo and Clare's wedding at Dartmouth House, London.  It was Mike's birthday so we hoped that it would be a fun gig - and it certainly was!  Here is a lovely email we received from them after the wedding - thanks so much for having us, and thanks to Andre Penteado for the fantastic photos.

Hi Mike,

Just to thank you very very much again for the amazing time Clare and I had at our wedding at Dartmouth House on 15^th October 2011.

Your repertoire was spot on, the performance was superb, the sets were great and each and every song was chosen and played according to the moment. It was a ten out of ten performance with Distinction, thank you. A lot of guests remarked how great the music was, and we had the best time ever dancing to the old standards (thank you for the many Glenn Miller songs, by the way!).

I also appreciate your timely expert advice, making us see that some songs that we didn't want at our wedding (like New York, New York) simply must be played, because people LOVE them. It's no wonder that at the end of the evening everyone was shouting "one more, one more, one more": it must happen to you all the time.

And sorry again for disappearing without even a card!

Please pass it on to the rest of the group the satisfaction, indeed the delight that it was to have you playing at our wedding.

Have a great and prosperous 2012!

Pablo & Clare

Down for the Count at the Enigma Ball

On the 26th November we were delighted to be asked once again to play for the Enigma Ball, at the very prestigious and rather beautiful Bletchley Park, home of the Enigma code-breakers! A slight deviation from our usual diet of weddings and functions, this was a perfect blend of sophisticated, stylish 1940's dancehall and good old-fashioned partying with Milton Keynes' LBGT (Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender) community - and what a night it was!

We all arrived punctually as usual, although Nicky's sat-nav caused some grief - luckily, Mike was to the rescue!

No harm done though, as we were set up, sound-checked and swinging in no time!

In between sets quite a bit of jewellery was going missing, so Mike had a lovely time chatting with the guests and making special announcements, and taking the odd request:

By the end of our second set we were really getting into the atmosphere, and enjoyed a much-needed break from energetic playing and boogying while our gorgeous host Kathy drew the raffle:

Some of the outfits were truly spectacular:

Finally we launched heart and 'soul' into our final soul and Motown set - the crowd response was unreal and I'm sure that even Chaka Khan herself didn't get such a response the first time she played 'I'm Every Woman'! A mainstay in our set from now on, to be sure. A truly memorable night and one of the best, most responsive and enthusiastic audiences ever! Here were some of my favourite moments (playing with my posh new camera, from the back of the trumpet section!):

Thanks to the Enigma Ball for a great gig - see you next time!

Article and photos by Simon Joyner

Down for the Count and Vintage Style

down for the count and vintage style

There has never been a better time to add vintage style to a wedding or party, and a classic jazz band is one way to guarantee your event is special.

With artists like Michael Buble bringing swing music back into the charts, and TV shows such as Mad Men and PanAm celebrating the music and fashions of the 1950s and 60s, the vintage trend grows and grows.

Although fashions come and go, the interest in mid-century design and music doesn’t seem to be fading. 1950s and 60s style was classic, smart and sophisticated, so introducing some of this subtle glamour to your party through live music is a simple way of making an event memorable.

Pan Am - We'll Always Have Paris - Season 1 Episode 2

Down for the Count have always tried to combine classic vintage style with a young, enthusiastic performance that keeps things up to date. The name ‘Down for the Count’ is the title of a Count Basie chart from 1953, and the logo design was inspired by the unmistakeable graphics of Saul Bass (graphic designer for many Hitchcock film posters of the 1950s and 60s), and most notably the opening credits to North by Northwest (1959).

Watch North By Northwest credits here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fNabF8bq_o

When developing the repertoire list for the band, Down for the Count carefully chose songs that would be a hit with all ages – swing numbers that get people ballroom dancing even if they didn’t know they could, a jump-jive set perfect for retro lindy hop moves, not to mention lounge jazz which is always effortlessly cool as the backdrop to a drinks reception.

The retro music currently being used in hit TV shows Mad Men and PanAm, features classics songs of the period which speak of nights out in the city, jetting off to exotic destinations, and above all, love and romance. Down for the Count showcases the talents of its band by combining jazz, swing and soul music in each performance – keeping things modern by playing contemporary favourites such as Valerie (Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson) and Aint Nobody (Rufus feat. Chaka Khan) alongside early Motown hits from the likes of Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder.

Mad Men - "5g" - Season 1 Episode 5 

We have been lucky enough to play at several events that were the ultimate in retro cool this year; a wedding featuring a dance lesson from Swing Dance UK tutors who demonstrated how swing music and dancing can bring an event to life; and another wedding where the bride, a dance teacher, had choreographed the first dance to our own arrangement of ‘Fly Me to the Moon’, and performed it wearing a vintage bridal gown purchased at The London Vintage Wedding Fair.

The music of the 1940s-60s definitely conjures up feelings of glamour and sophistication, especially when performed in slick dinner jackets, and chic cocktail dresses. Down for the Count will always champion the impact that a live band has at an event, and are sure that this music will never be out of style.

Essential listening

“Blue Skies” - Ella Fitzgerald

“Caravan” - Gordon Jenkins

“Too Close For Comfort” – Sammy Davis Junior

“Mack The Knife” – Bobby Darin

“There’s a Small Hotel” – Ella Fitzgerald

“Botch-A-Me” – Rosemary Clooney

“Volare” – The McGuire Sisters

“Fly Me To The Moon” – Julie London

“Blue in Green” – Miles Davis

“On The Street Where You Live” – Vic Damone

“Manhattan” – Ella Fitzgerald

“There Will Never Be Another You” – Bud Powell

“Break It To Me Gently” – Brenda Lee

Further reading

http://designmuseum.org/design/saul-bass

http://www.davidairey.com/saul-bass-life-film-design/

http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men

http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/pan-am