Yesterday we had the absolute pleasure of being asked to provide acoustic drinks reception music for the wedding of Mathew and Ffion at an absolutely stunning North Wales wedding venue called The Quay Hotel And Spa.
This is an incredible location, right on the waterfront with breathtaking views across the water to Conwy Castle, and a beautiful setting for a wedding that came just as the last of the UK heatwave was passing without trace.
Ffion and Mathew found our website while searching for acoustic bands in north wales, and felt our sound would be a perfect background accompaniment to their drinks reception, so we hit the road bright and early, arriving in Deganwy with plenty of time to not only set up for the show, but also to head outside for a little acoustic video shoot… more on that later.
It’s a teeny bit of a cheesy move, but whenever we’re in a position to strike up the music as the bride and groom enter the room, we always like to kick off with our acoustic cover of Signed, Sealed, Delivered by Stevie Wonder. It puts a smile on everyone’s face and sets the perfect tone for an acoustic gig that’s not too in-your-face, but not too downbeat and moody either.
We’re making a point of reintroducing songs into our set which, for one reason or another, we haven’t performed in a while. So our opening salvo consisted of Birdhouse In Your Soul by They Might Be Giants, followed by The Sound Of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel, and a wonderfully stripped back and brass-free version of Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes’ hit Home.
Take a little look at the video below to get a sense of how this sounds, and see if you can tell that, while we’re loving the lo-fi, acoustic feels, we’re also really missing the big, brassy sounds that we normally get from the GR55 during our early evening looper sets. We think it works either way, though…
Listen to our version of ‘Home’ performed at Quay Hotel & Spa:
After braking the ice we settled into acoustic duo mode, breaking out covers of Little Lies by Fleetwood Mac, Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong by The Spin Doctors, and since we were in on her home turf, it felt appropriate to also perform Donna Lewis’ seminal hit I Love You Always Forever… this is a magical and transportive composition and we hope that the sympathetic magic of performing it on her national soil amplified the vibrations and made her feel it wherever in the world she is now… 🤣
The rain held off as the afternoon proceeded, and we’d like to think that had at least something to do with our acoustic bands version of Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head by the incredible Burt Bacharach. If you do a little digging, you’ll find he wrote all the songs you love and was very much the Ed Sheeran of his day.
Before bringing the show to a close, there was just time to throw in the classic Bruce Springsteen track Dancing In The Dark. This one is so much fun to play, and the harmonica does a passable job of emulating that gorgeous, warbly synth from the original.
Finally, sticking with the Bruce Springsteen theme, we closed out the show with a fingerpicked and ballad version of I’m On Fire and left them humming the song all the way home. Or at least we like to think we did.
To hear a short snippet of our I’m On Fire cover, hit play below!
Listen to our folky version of ‘I’m on fire’ by Bruce Springsteen:
Thanks a million to Matthew and Ffion for making us feel so incredibly welcome on the their wedding day, and also to the warm and friendly staff of The Quay Hotel And Spa.
If you’re looking for a North Wales acoustic duo for your wedding entertainment, check out our Video Page for some inspiration.
Some photos of the day at Quay Hotel & Spa…