A few weeks ago we were booked to play at a NYE event for a restaurant in Hertfordshire which was timed to fit in with the wedding we were at earlier in the day (more on that another time). However, the day before New Years Eve this was suddenly postponed, we believe due to a lack of ticket sales. No matter, we have been rebooked for an event in February.
However it did leave us without an event on the evening of NYE. No matter though, popular as we apparently are, within an hour we had been booked to play for a Dinner at the Swan Hotel in Bibury.
New Years Eve Dinner
This turned out to be a fantastic event – organised by the hotels new General Manager Peter. As The Swan is local to where we live in the Cotswolds, we went over the night before to meet Peter and discuss what he would like musically speaking for the NYE event.
As it happened we ended up staying at the hotel for a rather splendid dinner!
The following day on New Years Eve, our first engagement of the day was a wedding in Shropshire. With this (for us) finishing at 4pm we then made our way to Bibury for the evening.
Setting up in the dining room our original brief was to play a couple of 45 minute sets from 7pm whilst guests had pre dinner drinks and then again during dinner.
As it turned out the hotel kindly supplied us with our own dinner as well. After we had played for the arrival drinks we were invited to dine in the bar area of the hotel before going back into the dining room to play another set during the meal.
Music for Dinner
Normally when we play for a wedding breakfast we tend to tone things down a little and present a blend of cocktail jazz piano and slower numbers. However the brief tonight was something a little more upbeat. Indeed, Peter was very keen on Africa by Toto and to be fair when we played this we did get a round of applause.
The diners at The Swan definitely seemed to like the upbeat numbers and also seemed very happy to keep applauding us even during their dinner. In fact we have never had so much applause. Normally we like to blend discreetly into the background, just providing a stylish ambience to the occasion.
We had a fabulous time last night at the Swan in Bibury and ended up being there until around 11pm even playing an extra third set just because it was such a pleasure to provide entertainment.
All the staff were extremely welcoming and positive about our performance and we are looking forward to returning to the hotel for a Wedding open day in a couple of weeks time.
