Review Centre: Swing Bands

"Thank you so much for making the wedding of Josh and Paige so memorable. The songs were so varied and every one was sung with perfection. You took time to make the children feel special and allowed one young man to live his dreams to perform on stage with you! The Performances and the DJ from start to finish was faultless. All our guests have left with amazing memories of the day and that was down to first class entertainment. I highly recommend Tom Powell for any occasion."

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"Thank you for the excellent team from start to Finnish, Luke Mendez was and felt part of the Castellum team on the night. The music and vocals were excellent. He filled in when we had hiccups and his hole manner was spot on."

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"Victoria is our resident star! She is a brilliant performer who entertains our guests each week with her stunning vocals, creating a sensational atmosphere and is a delight to work with. She always brings magic, elegance, and poise to her performances, and we loved having her perform for all our resident guests this last New Year to welcome in 2023 in style."

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"Hey just a quick line to say that the Pop Swings were awesome on Saturday and all of our guests remarked on how great they were. It’s a shame that you yourself were not there, but the deputy singer was class. Well done, Pop Swings, you do great work!"

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"The Swing Gents really made our wedding a day we will never forget, they were the main act performing in the evening and instantly had the whole room swing dancing from start to finish, perfect for all age."

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"Highly recommended, couldn’t fault them."

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"Well what can we say! John was absolutely brilliant! What a lovely man, we loved the performance as did all of our guests. Stunning! We shall be looking him up to go and see him perform again as we loved it so much. To John - Thank you John, you really made our wedding very special and thank you for our first dance song, even though it wasnt on your repetoire you found the time to look it up and prepare and sing it for us, we are so grateful! "

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"We had such a great time having you as our headliners last week. You have an awesome, really varied set-list which appealed to everyone in the audience and even got the lindy-boppers dancing!"

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"Thomas is very professional and flexible. His repertoire of songs is vast and can more than accommodate any request given even ones with a tricky rhythm to dance a particular dance."

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"We were so impressed with you and had so many compliments afterwards on our choice of band. I was also pleased at your level of organisation – you were so professional from start to finish. Lovings! x "

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"You were AMAZING Couldn't have wished for anyone nicer to come and sing for us and EVERYONE loved your singing. Thank you so much - please can you let me know if you are performing anywhere public - we'd love to come and see you again. And please take another listen to your videos on your web site because I couldn't tell how amazing your voice was going to be from watching them. "

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"I just wanted to say a huge thank you for the music at our wedding. We both loved what you played, and I’ve had so many guests tell me that it really made the drinks reception special."

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"Thank you again for such as fantastic evening for our big day. We had many a complimentary comment about your band and how you all really made up a fantastic evening for us! Please pass on my thanks to the rest of the band and thank you for sharing our day with us; we hope to see you soon! "

Rating: 10 / 10 Share this review:

"The band were such a great fit for our evening! There was never an empty dance floor as they played jazzy takes on popular classics as well as chart hits – so it suited everyone! We were all really chuffed with their performance and we would 100% use them again. Thanks!"

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"REVIEW OF OUR LATEST CD ALBUM IN JAZZ JOURNAL Kit Packham’s One Jump Ahead: Everybody Loves A Boogie The entertaining British jump-jive revival band ploughs the familiar furrow, offering cheeky covers and originals with occasional solos By Hugh Rainey -13 October 2023437 Formed in 1984, this UK group plays jump-jive in a bright and breezy, entertaining style, blended with R&B and vintage rock and roll, and seasoned with light-hearted humour. Leader Kit Packham sings confidently in appropriate style on every track bar one, and contributes alto and tenor to the backing throughout. Packham also composed and wrote the lyrics for eight of the tracks and alternative lyrics for some cheeky adaptations of standards – My Swingin’ Valentine (an upbeat treatment of My Funny Valentine, which surprisingly works quite well) and the very funny Basingstoke (to the melody of Baby Face) and Buy A CD (with appropriate uninhibited bathos to My Way). On the whole, the originals work well for the genre. Love Me, Love My Saxophone and I Dig Potatoes have amusing lyrics somewhat reminiscent of Louis Jordan and Slim Gaillard in style. Enjoyable versions of Don’t Get Around Much Any More, Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby and My Swingin’ Valentine, come closest to straightforward jazz treatment with some worthwhile brief solos and touches of arrangement. The tracks come from sessions in 2009, 2017 and 2023, mainly as six or seven piece lineups it seems, but with changing personnels. Though studio recorded, the CD comes across as cheery live entertainment – for dancers, rather than perhaps for close, serious listening. But it’s certainly good fun, with some inventive fresh material, and a sense of humour to give a welcome lift to your spirits in these troubled times. Discography Everybody Loves A Boogie; Don’t Clap On The First Beat Of The Bar; Old Rock “n” Roll Songs Never Die; Don’t Get Around Much Any More; Love Me, Love My Saxophone; Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby; Route 66; Alley Club Blues; As Time Goes By; Alright, OK, You Win; Lockdown Chase; My Swingin’ Valentine; I Dig Potatoes; Basingstoke; Buy A CD; We Had A Real Good Time/We’ll Meet Again (53.52) Collectively: Kit Packham (v, ts, as, bar, cl); Nick Tomalin, Perry White (p); John O’Reilly (g); Steve Knight (g, ts, bj); Alex Keen, Ollie Blanchflower (b); Derek Gayle, Kenrick Rowe (d); Simon Da Silva (t); Tracey Mendham (ts, cl). UK, 2009, 2017, 2023 (No further details.) Pelican records PEL CD 523 "

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