The day after a bank holiday is the best time to have a wedding, because everyone can have another day off with you!
Back in the early part of 2023, Roya and Phil came to see us at one of our rehearsals to see if they liked what we did, and they did, so we planned to be their entertainment for their big day!
And so it was that we set off for Kidderminster, still in the AM (I know, musicians don't usually come out until dark!) and arrived in the beautiful setting of Roya & Phil's wedding for around midday.
Sometimes when you play weddings, to fit around everything and not be twanging your bass or carrying speakers over people's head's when they're eating, you have to set up before the space is being used, and then skedaddle out of the way of the wedding guests before you get in the way! This was the case for this wedding, so we set up and then whisked ourselves off to a room upstairs to wait until set time.
It was around... 6 hours, give or take, until we could get back in the room for sound check, whilst staff were turning the room around, so we got ourselves settled in.
Many fun times were had in the room. Clive went off for a while into town to run some errands, and I think he may have had a little nap in the car when he got back, but most of us hung out and chewed the fat, as it were. We had William and Grandad with us, which was just wonderful, and the whole family were together for goofy times.
Anna did a grand impression of putting on a jump suit when the back measurements are too short, and did a little turn around the room so we could all get a good idea of what that looked like. Paul - him dead. I took a video and zoomed in. You can literally see when his soul leaves his body because he can't even.
Anyway, enough about us for now. We managed to catch sight of the wonderful couple! Roya looked absolutely amazing! She has the most gorgeous hair and she had it all natural and it was just wow. Phil looked absolutely dapper in his suit and the guests were in their finest, too!
We also had no idea until we arrived at the wedding that Roya's sister had seen us last year at the amazing Regfest festival! And we couldn't have possibly forgotten Mitra because she was up the front having the most amazing time allllll night! What a small world it is at times! It was great to catch up with you as well, Mitra, and we'll do our absolutely best to get back to Regfest, because it is the coolest experience and atmosphere.
The only down side I will tell you about, guys, is that the hotel staff weren't very nice to us! In fact, two of the managers came up to the room we were in to ask IF WE WERE SMOKING. We in fact weren't smoking in the room, because it ain't 1992 and we are not 16 years old. Man even had a good eyeball around the room when we said we weren't smoking, just to check for, I dunno, lit cigarettes or suspiciously smoke-wafting handbags. All he saw was several musicians sitting on the floor, because we didn't have enough chairs...Annoying at the time, but pretty funny in hind sight!
Anywho, Cat the drummer was with us once again, along with his lady Marie and his daughter, who last time I checked was tiny weeny and is now all grown up and putting makeup on in the dressing room! They had a lovely day dividing their time between the venue and West Midlands Safari Park, which is a fantastic idea!
When it was time for soundcheck, we all piled in and sorted our sound, which was easy as reception class maths because Will was on the sound and he's an actual artist.
The time actually flew by because of the wonderful company we had with each other and the guests.
When it was time for stage time, we played a custom set built by the couple, with lots of favourites like 'She's Royal' and 'Everything I Own'. Everyone played very well, but I just need to go on to this next paragraph and talk about Teebs.
Because Teebs played an absolute blinder on Tuesday. Since he's joined us full-time, he just gets better and better, but his confidence was on his side on Tuesday, which it should be all the time because he's a tremendous musician, and he absolutely blew us away. I nearly did a little cry, which, if you're a religious reader of this blog, is not entirely unusual (I have a lot of emotions) but it was so warranted. He played Johnny Too Bad (The Slickers - Helen and Graham's favourite) absolutely perfectly, with some real funky additions and flourishes that are just TeebsTM. We are so very lucky.
The real beauty of the band at present is that everyone is in the same zone and mentality when we play together. Everyone has passion for what they are doing. No one has ego. And it's so important because in that atmosphere you can just keep surpassing and growing each and every time.
The crowd were really lovely. Proper chilled out. Some people danced, especially Roya which is obviously very important to us. She just oozed positivity - you could tell she'd had the most amazing day, and her and Phil are a beautifully loving couple around each other, which is just aww. Goals, I tell you.
Roya and Phil are truly kind and genuine people to be around, and we had a wonderful time performing for them and their guests.
It was a heck of a long day, but it was so wonderful to be around friends and family alike in our little Reggulites world.
Huge thank you to Dawn, who sparkles each and every time she gets on stage.
Anna looked and sounded absolutely to die for, even if I'm a little biased!
Clive looked cool as a cucumba (Makka B stylie) .
Paul played brilliantly, even if I want to use the pun 'A-Paul-Ing', I can't.
Teebs absolutely slayed heck outta that keyboard.
Cat lit the drums up and gave us all the groove.
And Sugar...well... We'd be very very little without him. What a showman. What a voice.
And Will and Grandad are just our family now. There's no getting rid of us!
We have some private stuff to do for a little bit, but we'll be back soon and we'll keep you posted with blogs and posts and such.
Much love and light to all of you
The Reggulites x
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