FAQ
Please provide us with as much information as possible so that we can provide you with a quick and accurate quote. Fees are dependent on date, location and the times the band will be required as well as audience size, as with bigger crowds we may need to hire in extra equipment.
Generally speaking our prices range from around £5.4k for our smaller line-ups in central London and can work all the way through and up to a maximum of around £20k for our largest international events.
Surprisingly, the space required does not really differ hugely with either with most of our line ups. Most of the room is taken up by compulsory instruments such as drums, keys, bass & guitar. Extra singers and horn sections slot in at the front of the band very easily.
Although optimum stage space is very much appreciated, we often have to fit into very compact spaces so will be flexible to work around your arrangements. Aesthetically, the more room the band have to perform the better but if you are considering booking the smaller band, we would usually say this is a question of budget as opposed to space.
We are very flexible when it comes to extras, so if you have any special requests let us know and we can very easily alter & increase the band line up accordingly. Generally speaking, our line ups are below:
6 Piece Band – 1 x female vocal, 1 x male vocal, guitar, bass, keys, drums
7 Piece Band – 2 x female vocals, 1 x male vocal, guitar, bass, keys, drums
8 Piece Band – 1 x Female Vocals, 1 x male vocal, guitar, bass, keys, drums, Tenor Sax & Trumpet
9 Piece Band – 2 x female vocals, 1 x male vocal, guitar, bass, keys, drums, Tenor Sax & Trumpet
10 Piece Band – 2 x female vocals, 2 x male vocals, guitar, bass, keys, drums, Tenor Sax, Alto Sax & Trumpet
12 Piece Band – 2 x female vocals, 2 x male vocals, guitar, bass, keys, drums
+ Tenor Sax, Alto Sax & Trumpet
14 Piece Band – Add strings!
Please enquire about bigger line ups if space and budget allow.
Yes!
Please keep up to date with our social media to find out when we are next performing live publicly.
Unfortunately due to the calibre of weddings the band are hired to perform at, we are unable to allow any guests into private events.
As a rule, an ideal minimum space for us would be 6m x 3m. If you can give us more than that, great! If you have much less room to give, don’t worry. We can also just about compact down to about 4m x 2.5m with our 6 piece band and DJ Live outfits.
By all means give us your preferences and favourite songs from our current repertoire list, but we strongly advise against picking entire set lists due to the specific way in which we put together our performances.
Over the years, we have discovered that many of our favourite songs don’t work as well as others in a live situation and there are certain songs that crop up as requests from our clients which can actually be real dance floor clearers as well! If enough of our audience aren’t enjoying dancing to one song compared to another, they will usually use the opportunity to head off to the bar and even if they have every intention to return a few minutes later, it can be incredibly hard to get them back…
We have designed our Traffic Light Survey to help make designing our set-list a collaborative effort between us and our clients. You can pick your favourites, ‘don’t minds’ and highlight your definite ‘nos’ which will give us a very good idea!
We will send this out to you to complete four weeks before the event to ensure it is the most up to date version.
The White Keys are a ‘working band’ and a professional business, so the band cannot really ‘split up’ in the way that conventional bands may. Although the members you see displayed on this site are the musicians that work for the band full time, we work closely with a good selection of the highest quality musicians right across the country. We have official, rehearsed, ‘deps’ or understudies who are ready to stand in at the last minute should an emergency occur, and we can guarantee that the standard of the band will not falter should this be the case. As well as regularly alternating between players to give the other a break, our ‘B team’ are working in the West End, on television and on global pop tours when they are not with us, so you will be in safe hands either way…our 14 year reputation depends on it!
On events without production, ideally the band will need 90 minutes to set up and thoroughly soundcheck to ensure the best possible performance. We understand that timings can run tight on the day so, if needed, we can minimize set up to an hour if all runs smoothly. Please ensure that when planning your event, you allow enough time for this, as a decent set up is vital to the band providing you with the best entertainment possible. It’s in both our interests to work as quickly as we can so please don’t rush us! We’ll already be working as fast as we possibly can. Rushed sound checks can mean poor sound, feedback and overlooked issues later on which can ruin the performance all together. When we’ve got first dances to think about especially, it’s paramount that we get this right for you!
With production (staging/lighting/dance-floors etc.) we will need 3-4 hours to get this ready for you, so note that this will usually require an afternoon arrival time.
Yes please! We don’t expect a three course meal, and we don’t drink on the job (many of us are teetotal!) but even though you may only see us for a few hours, event days are always intense for us.
Behind the scenes, our day usually involves early starts, long journeys and stressful sound-checks and having to think about feeding ourselves properly often falls very far down the list as our priority is you and your day! When we are often out in the middle of nowhere, looking after ourselves makes things difficult, and going off-site can risk late running.
We have a simple hospitality rider that we ask our client’s to provide which is just a request for a substantial hot meal of good quality (caterers will often to large ‘chafing’ dishes for staff), access to tea and coffee, water and soft drinks.
Click here to view our rider: TWK Hospitality Rider
We won’t beat around the bush – sound limiters are difficult.
Generally speaking, they read bass frequencies above everything else which usually means the rest of the band can be relatively loud but as soon as the bass guitar and bass drum kicks in (which is what gets people dancing!), the power is likely to cut at incredibly low volumes.
If you are booking any kind of band and are expecting it to be loud enough for people to want to dance, we wouldn’t advise booking a venue with a sound limiter as they really do lower the tone. It is also difficult for us to give you our full attention as we may be constantly watching the traffic light meter on the wall to ensure we don’t trip the power. This will usually cut all the lights and sound in the room (a real vibe killer!) and in turn our amps and equipment from the mains which could cost hundreds and hundreds of pounds worth of damage. However, this is not an ideal world, and as more and more venues are installing these limiters due to council restrictions, we will consider playing, and have played at a multitude of venues with sound limiters.
They vary hugely system to system so not all are as bad as each-other. You’ll just have to be prepared for quite a bit of drop in volume.
Here are a few of the venues we LOVE for live music:
Loft Studios (White City) – A stunning old victorian warehouse building with exposed brickwork and iron windows that is now used for filming & photography amongst other things. No noise limiter, great acoustics, huge amounts of purpose ready space for suppliers back stage and a fantastic in house team. Ample on street parking directly outside. If it wasn’t for the extra crew needed for the load in up the fire escape, this venue would probably be perfect!
If we have agreed with you that you will provide technical and AV support for the band please see our tech riders, channel lists and stage plans below:
6 Piece Band
7 Piece Band
8 Piece Band
9 Piece Band
10 Piece Band
12 Piece Band
14 Piece Band