Lively irish, Ceilidh, Folk and Gypsy Band
- Website link www.sboondocks.co.uk
- From price 550
- Areas covered All
A lively folk/Celtic punk/Irish and Ceilidh band with tunes and songs from all over the world. We are available for performing concerts, barn dances (or ceilidhs), pubs, festivals, weddings, birthdays, BBQ’s or anything else that needs a good ol fashioned knees up!
We perform a range of music (both songs and tunes) from traditional Irish, Americana, sea shanties and much more – often being compared to The Levellers, 3 Daft Monkeys, Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys with a hint of The Dubliners.
The music can be fast and exciting – great for stomping your feet – or slow and relaxing – great for chilling between the stomping and to catch your breath!
We can also cater for Scottish ‘flavored’ Ceilidhs, although for most Barn Dance/ Ceilidhs we would keep it mixed to allow dancers of all experience levels, and ages, to enjoy themselves.
Our aim is to ‘entertain, not educate’, it should be fun after all!
Booking us for your wedding? Here is some more info!
Your wedding day is important to you, and it’s important to know that everything is in hand.
We have a few different wedding services that we can offer, but we are also flexible – so if you want to combine parts, or mix and match or have a different idea, do talk to us!
Ceremony
We can happily provide music for the bride to walk down the aisle, or for the happy couple to make their grand exit after tying the knot – or both! We have a very versatile musical background and we can offer violin, guitar, bass, mandolin, bouzouki, cajon drum and if given enough notice we can probably dust off some of the older instruments we played in a previous life and give them a go too!
We’ve done this before for couples, and if we know in good time we can learn any song or tune you want us to – if in the unlikely event we can’t, we will always let you know in good time.
Previously we have played Ray Lamantage’s ‘Can I Stay’ for a bride walking down the aisle, and I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab For Cutie.
We’re still working on popping out of hidden places like Love Actually, but if you did want a favorite song or tune played live down the aisle, then please do let us know.
You don’t even have to book the band for the evening entertainment for this – we’ll happily just come and do the ceremony for you – we have done this before!
First Dance
The first dance is becoming more and more difficult to plan; thanks to YouTube there are hundreds upon thousands of videos from people showing off their first dance to the world, and if you plan on being one of them you need to think of something special.
If you have a special song you would like the band to learn, please do talk to us and we will try everything to make it special for you.
If we’re not able to learn the song, we again will let you know in plenty of time and we are always more than happy to load the requested song onto our Ipod before the event, and play it through our PA for you.
Evening Entertainment
We have two options for the evening entertainment, but we’ll discuss that in the next FAQ header….
What forms do the band come in?
The band can be booked in a number of different ways. Our style is Irish Jig / Folk / Ceilidh – and we can cater really whatever you are looking for – here is a run down of what we do…..
I just want a band people can listen to and dance when they want
That’s fine! We have a great mixture of tunes and songs that we play from traditional folk, to obscure rock with our own twist and bits and bobs in-between as well. We can keep the party going as long as you need us to with our wide range of songs (see sample set lists a bit later on) and bouncy Irish Jigs.
What this Ceilidh thing I’ve heard about?
Ah, so glad you asked! You may have heard it referred to as a Barn Dance before – but Ceilidh is where we bring our best Irish and Scottish tunes, and our own dedicated Caller.
The Caller’s job is to get people’s bums off seats, and to teach them different dances for them to do along with our tunes.
This is a very, very fun evening – you’ll be surprised by just how many people actually really do enjoy themselves – especially when they see all their friends making a fool of themselves.
But don’t worry, we wont make fun of you – if you give us enough encouragement we might even join you for a dance!
Is Ceilidh dancing hard?
Not at all! As I said, we have our own dedicated Caller there to guide you through it, and we’ve had children as young as 5 joining in with the dances before! We’ve even seen our guitarist do it, and he can barely talk and walk at the same time.
We can also do a dance for the bride and grooms exit – we have a great little dance called Strip The Willow, where the top couple will dance their way down the row of guests, linking arms and having a quick swing with everyone on their way out – almost like a guard of honor to your vehicle that’s whisking you away for the evening.
This gives you a perfect way to say goodbye to everyone, and straight into your car!
What about when you’re not playing?
We need to take a break about halfway through the evening to refuel. When this happens, we’ll play an Ipod through our PA – we’re very happy for you to provide one to us to play, or we can chat to you before hand, get an idea of what type of music you want played and we’ll fill our own for you and play that – so you don’t have to worry about the music at all!