The Great Hall at Kelham is one of those rooms where you can fit two complete entertainment rigs and neither one feels squeezed. On a January evening, The Sisterhood shared the stage with a DJ for a corporate party after 600 delegates had finished the formal part of the day - speeches, breakout sessions, dinner. The band took the first set, high-energy and loaded with floor-fillers to get the room from seated-and-formal to standing-and-dancing. The DJ took it from there. Both ran independent PA systems - The Sisterhood held the band’s sound, the DJ held the room audio for their set.
Load-in and the Victorian grandeur
Kelham Hall is a Victorian country house set in 42 acres near Newark - the kind of venue that photographs well and sets a tone the moment guests arrive. The load-in is a side door straight into the Great Hall with steps between the outside and the room floor, so the kit lands closer to the stage than it would at a hotel but the crew earn it on the way in. Inside there is high ceiling, period detail and space for 600 at long tables or clustered for a party. There were power feeds for both PAs, and soundcheck happened while the room was still being cleared from dinner.
The band and the evening
The Sisterhood came in as an eight-piece - keys, bass, drums, two horns, two guitars, lead vocals. The brief was clean: one set after food, 600 delegates transitioning from the formal conference mode to the party mode. High-energy, floor-filled, hand off to the DJ clean. The Great Hall gave them room to spread out and take up the stage without eating the DJ’s space. When the DJ came on it was the same stage, both rigs wired and ready, a flip of the faders and the room went from live band to electronic dance.
Shared stage done well
What made the shared-stage setup work was that everyone was clear on the brief and the technical setup was sorted in advance. The Sisterhood knew what their PA was doing, the DJ knew what theirs was doing, the venue knew when each act should go on, and the timing was locked. There is no improvising when you have that many people and two rigs running at the same time. The Great Hall is big enough that the band and the DJ booth didn’t feel cramped next to each other - there was room to move, room for both acts to occupy the stage without collision. The events team at Kelham coordinated all of it and the evening ran to the brief. There is more on how the room takes two rigs at once on our Kelham Hall corporate band page, and on the rest of what we do across Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands.
South Wales-based live bands for corporate events, regularly playing Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands. We work with DJs, other entertainment, as headline acts - whatever role the event needs. Get in touch to talk about your evening, gala or party.
