Want to know why the music professionals choose Metropolis live music?

So this may surprise you...  Matt, a first call musician and conductor in London’s West End and beyond, chose us when tasked with finding a perfect band for a family event.

Last year Metropolis had the pleasure of performing at Rachel & Simon’s Wedding at the beautiful White Dove Barn in Suffolk. 

Rachel’s brother Matthew West, was given the job of sourcing the band. As a highly regarded conductor and professional musician in West End Theatre,  it was the natural choice for Rachel to ask Matt make sure the music was top notch!  Matt has written a short piece here about the responsibility he felt making sure the music was perfect for his sister’s big day, why he chose not to do it himself, and how he came to book Metropolis.

"Expect absolute top quality music."

 "When my sister began arrangements for her wedding she asked if I would sort out all the music for the day. Being a professional musician it of course made sense that she would ask me but from my point of view there are two big drawbacks. The first being that everyone is going to expect absolute top quality music, and the second is that, being in charge, I would have to run around organising everyone, load in, start times, finish times, load out etc and thus miss out on a lot of what was going to be a great day and a great party. 

"A band I had worked with once... I remembered the whole gig ran like clockwork"

 So I had a few ideas and spoke to the happy-couple-to-be. I had the idea of putting a band together... meaning I could get top notch musicians and make sure everyone was organised. But, then thought about the rehearsal time needed, setting up the sound equipment, and herding a bunch of musician friends around and quickly dropped that idea as far too complicated! I then remembered James Eager and Metropolis, a band I had worked with once, standing in for a friend when he was unavailable. I remembered the whole gig ran like clockwork, James was calm, professional and the band sounded great, and this was a number of years ago in the early days of the band. So I gave James a call and told him what my sister wanted. He then asked me and then my sister bunch of questions, all easy to answer, and then he put together a package that looked absolutely perfect for the day. 

"They organise the band like true professionals, which only comes from real experience and hard work."

 Now the band sounds even better than they did all those years ago. Well rehearsed, great arrangements, tight playing, great singers; each of them are extremely good at what they do. These were the top notch players I wanted. They put a set list together that worked perfectly for this wedding party. They were polite, kind and everyone came up to me to say what a great band I’d chosen. Which was nice. But for me the best thing about Metropolis is how easy they are to work with. Before hand, nothing is too much trouble. If timings changed, as they did for us in the run up, it’s easily dealt with. On the day itself, it’s a well-oiled machine. From the engineer who sets up in the morning, finds all the plugs, deals with the light switch that no one can find, to James and Toby who organise the band like true professionals which only comes from real experience and hard work. So what can I say, excellent musicians and a pleasure to work with, and I had a bloody good night." Matthew WestJanuary 2016 To read Rachel & Simon's thoughts on Metropolis please click here.