While The Brotherhood were out at a marquee wedding near Raglan tonight, our sister band The Sisterhood were over at Celtic Manor in Newport, playing a corporate event in the Caernarfon Suite as a 6-piece with sax. Two of our bands out on the same Saturday, in two rooms that could hardly be more different.
Six-Piece, with Sax
The Sisterhood went out tonight as a 6-piece, with a saxophone in the line-up. Sax is one of those additions that earns its place at a corporate night - it lifts the brass-led party numbers, it sits beautifully over the soul and Motown end of the set, and it gives the front line something to play off. It’s a bigger, fuller sound than a standard four or five-piece, and in a room the scale of the Caernarfon Suite that extra weight tells.
The Caernarfon Suite
The Caernarfon Suite is the big banqueting room at the Celtic Manor Resort - 750 seated for dinner with a dance floor and a stage, the same room we run Celtic Manor’s Christmas parties and New Year’s Eve nights in. It’s a serious space, and it needs a band and a rig that can fill it without leaning on the room to do the work.
We bring our own PA and lighting for this one. Not every band carries production that covers a 750-cover room, and it means a client booking the band isn’t also having to book a separate production company on top.
Conference, Dinner, Then Us
For a corporate night the running order tends to settle the same way - day of meetings or conference, dinner, then the band on for the evening. By the time we’re up, the room has eaten, had a drink, and is ready to stop being delegates and start being a party. That’s the best handover a band can ask for.
We usually run two longer sets for corporate rather than the gentler build of a wedding. The brief is almost always the same - get the room up and keep it there - so the Sisterhood loaded the night with floor-fillers and let the sax do the heavy lifting on the big moments. A corporate crowd that’s been in suits all day tends to go harder than people expect once the first proper singalong lands.
Live Corporate Band Across South Wales
The Caernarfon Suite is one room on a circuit that runs well beyond it - the ICC Wales suites next door, DEPOT in Cardiff, Parkgate, Holland House and the rest of the South Wales corporate scene. We play all of them across our bands.
If you’re planning a corporate event at Celtic Manor or anywhere across Newport and South Wales, and you want a band that can fill a room that big, get in touch.
The Sisterhood are part of The Brotherhood family of South Wales function bands, playing corporate events, weddings and parties across the region. Contact us to check availability for your event.
