Connor McKeon Band or The Bentley Boys

Faith

Has anyone seen either of these bands live and can tell me how they found them? We're looking for an UPBEAT swing/jive/rock and roll band, but 95% of bands that say they're like that, are actually lounge bands and are incredibly boring. We're looking to channel the dance halls of the 40s/50s/60s and it seems like it's possible that CMK and BB could offer this. But we're having trouble getting to showcases and I'd love to hear any feedback.

optimistic_

Hi Faith,
We caught them last night in Dublin (Bentley Boys)
They were absolutely fantastic, it's worth checking out their website for a little taste of what they do, this doesn't do them justice though -
We were hopeful before seeing them but once we saw them, that's it - they're the band for us.

When is your wedding? I know 3014 bookings are about to close and summer 2015 are closing soon. I think they're doing a showcase in Belfast later on in the month.
Their Jonny B Goode is fantastic.

angel eyes 2012

Hi Faith, we had the Bentley Boys for our wedding in September and they achieved what I wanted, which was to get everyone up dancing I would highly recommend them, and the entire booking process is straightforward and professional. By the way I am not related to the Band in any way, I add this as a mod removed an earlier post of mine relating to the hotel we used for our wedding. I am almost afraid to recommend any service again in case the post is removed. I am not related to any service provider in the wedding industry. I wish I was as we may have saved some money! I am merely a very happy newly married wife who wants to help other brides to be

Ardeehey

We had The Bentley Boys for our wedding about 2 years ago, got the 4 piece and the extra singer....they were excellent to be fair. Unfortunately I know nothing about the Connor McKeon Band.

Faith

Brilliant replies, thank you! The Connor McKeon band's website is filled with testimonials but nobody I've actually spoken to seems to have heard of them . On the other hand, most people have heard of The Bentley Boys... As of a week or so ago, both were still free on our date but I know these things change so quickly.

Was there any room for negotiations with the Bentley boys on price? They are top of the price bracket for sure, and then charge a fortune for DJ and travel!

angel eyes 2012

We didn't negotiate as it was the first service I booked and I wasn’t very confident at haggling initially. They are expensive, but the Band and Food were my two priorities. I had minimal flowers, no cars, no church and used the savings for what we deemed to be important to us. We had charity favours in place of the usual favours. They did reduce the DJ as we booked him as part of the package.

Roddylarge

We saw the Bentley Boys in Belfast last month at their showcase, and thought they were amazing. We were also sold the line about 2014 closing and 2015 nearly full...
Like you said they are at the top end of the budget though.

We went for them though, booking the 5 piece band (Drums, Bass, Lead Guitar, Keyboard (who will also play trumpet) and Saxophone. So hopefully we get the sound of the full 6 piece band but for the price of the 5 piece.

As for negotiating, like everything it is worth trying to get some movement on price. We managed to negotiate a slight discount on both the band and DJ.

As someone else said, their booking/payment process is very professional and made the process very easy.

Our wedding is 12th Sept 2015, so I know for a fact that they are booked up that night :-)

clint_silver

Faith wrote: »

Brilliant replies, thank you! The Connor McKeon band's website is filled with testimonials but nobody I've actually spoken to seems to have heard of them . On the other hand, most people have heard of The Bentley Boys... As of a week or so ago, both were still free on our date but I know these things change so quickly.

Was there any room for negotiations with the Bentley boys on price? They are top of the price bracket for sure, and then charge a fortune for DJ and travel!

connor mckeon is one of the best male singers and showmen in the country and has been for a long long time. his band is made up of some the best musicians in the country. Whilst sometimes "the best" is self proclaimed because they entered a competition to see who has the most facebook mates to vote for them as being the best, in this case, the musicians he has are well known on the music scene.

He's not the cheapest ,neither are the bentley boys, so you might not get too many brides on here recommending, but thats not to say theyre not absolutely brilliant, just not too much of a target audience on here. If ever there was a guarantee that youd get what youd pay for, youd get it if you booked him. Id highly recommend him.

I wouldnt have said the bentley boys, while very good at what they do, are specifically swing orientated. May be wrong on that and hope Im not doing them a disservice. Another band excellent at what they do though.

There many excellent bands out there, many of whom dont advertise at the higher levels and therefore arent as well known but who gig just as much through word of mouth so dont need to advertise and would in fact deliver a nights entertainment as good as the top priced guys being discussed here. You just have to work harder to find them.

Faith

Thanks Clint, that's a great review!

We're very much still in the market for more options, so could you PM me some names of other bands you'd recommend in the general swing/jive/rock and roll genre that might be harder to find?

clint_silver

Faith wrote: »

Thanks Clint, that's a great review!

We're very much still in the market for more options, so could you PM me some names of other bands you'd recommend in the general swing/jive/rock and roll genre that might be harder to find?

For that specific genre, you probably do know most of the bands already. I know the price bracket of those bands and as its on the upper level they need max exposure to the market so advertise heavily or go through agents (which gets more work but also add a % to price to customer).

TBH, if youre looking at that bracket you could go to see 4-5 bands and they'd all be brilliant with very very little to choose between them. all top pro musicians. anyone who had any of them wouldnt fault them and think they're brilliant. might be 100e between any of the quotes and youd be travelling around for weeks to see them so what do you do?

the well known swing specific bands that come to mind are The ratzingers, the swing cats, the rat pack, velvet lounge, long john jump band

Im not in any of those bands before anyone says anything btw.

the harder to find bands might not specialize in swing but could do some if you asked them as theyre working musicians can basically play anything. If they advertised as a specific swing band then that might put some people off ("Oh I dont want swing all night"), so they might get 60 gigs a year, but advertise as a Band that can do some rock, indie, pop and swing and they might get 80-90 gigs a year (as well as working 10-20 pub gigs). They need to eat.

Faith

The Swing Cats were exactly what we wanted but they're already booked for our date . As are the Ratzingers. I've heard of the other ones and looked them up, but they didn't float my boat for whatever reason. We're checking some other bands right now that cover more genres but also play what we're looking for.

amdublin

I was at a wedding in sligo with the bentley boys.

Thought they were super!


What I thought was hilarious though was they were very cool young fellas (quite attractive if I am honest) and then when they spoke in between the songs they had these big boggery accents on them

Like that ad from a couple of years ago "Hiya Kaaate, it's de guy from de bar"