About
McQuoids Offering Bushband is a bush band for hire in Canberra, ACT.
Bush dances done properly, with a live band and a caller who keeps everyone moving and nobody lost. McQuoids Offering work around Canberra, and for straight entertainment sets they'll play 60 to 90 minutes of Australian bush ballads mixed with folk, country and the odd iconic pop or rock number. The songbook runs deep: Click Go the Shears, Waltzing Matilda, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, Home Among the Gum Trees, Diamantina Drover, I Am Australian, I Was Only Nineteen, Holy Grail, From St Kilda to Kings Cross. They'll work to your program rather than impose one. Unloading access, power, shade during the day and somewhere to park are the practical asks.
The show
For a bush dance you get the live band and a caller, and the caller is the reason it works. Someone talks the room through each dance, so guests who've never done one aren't left standing there guessing. Everybody ends up moving. For a straight entertainment set it's 60 to 90 minutes of Australian bush ballads with folk, country and some well-known pop and rock mixed through it. They'll fit around whatever program you've already built rather than asking you to rearrange the night for them.
On the day
Somewhere to unload near the performance area, because there's a fair bit of gear. Access to power. Shade if it's a daytime event outdoors. And somewhere the band can leave their cars. If you're running across a meal time or the gig is a long one, some refreshment for the players is appreciated, though it isn't a condition of the booking.
Song list
78 songs
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Augathella Station
Aussie Mozzie
Ballad of 1891
Banks of the Condamine
Beneath the Southern Cross
Black Velvet Band
Botany Bay
Bush Jive
Chicken Dance
Click Go the Shears
Currarong Promenade
Dances: Barn Dance
Death Row
Diamantina Drover
Don't Ever
Don't Ever Step on a Snake
Drongo
Drover's Dream
Eightsome Reel
Erin Shore
Eumarella Shore
Flash Jack
Flying Doctor