About
Smooth Ops is a cover band for hire in Canberra, ACT.
Seven to ten pieces, over 15 years together, and a Canberra address book most bands would envy. Smooth Ops have played Parliament House, the AIS Arena, the National Convention Centre, the National Gallery of Australia and the Australian War Memorial, which means charity nights, galas and black tie events are home ground. The repertoire runs past 150 songs from The Beatles and Bon Jovi to Bruno Mars and Beyonce, delivered as show style medleys with tight arrangements and guest performers dropped in. All instruments are live. They bring their own mixing desk and can either supply front of house sound themselves or patch into a production company's rig. Gear and public liability insurance both held, equipment tag tested, and members trained to work in heritage and high security venues.
Watch
The show
Fifteen years and counting in Canberra, mostly at the pointy end: charity nights, galas, black tie dinners. Everything is played and sung live, no backing tracks anywhere in it. Three singers carry the leads and stack the harmonies behind each other, with a four piece rhythm section underneath getting the sounds close enough that the songs land the way you remember them. The book runs past 150 songs, The Beatles and Bon Jovi through to Bruno Mars and Beyonce, so every decade is covered. Show style medleys pull together Queen, Toto, Earth Wind & Fire and Beyonce, and guest musicians turn up in the set, a bagpiper and a horn section among them.
On the day
Staging wants a minimum of 6m wide by 4m deep, though the band will reconfigure for a different shape if that's what you have. A drum riser is nice, not necessary. Their own mixing desk sits at the side of stage. If they're supplying sound, they bring front of house speakers and mix from an iPad. If a production company is on the job, that company provides the front of house speakers and runs the room mix, taking either a stereo feed from the band's desk or individual lines via a loom, while the band's tech handles onstage volume and in-ear monitoring. Two wedges are wanted for stage fill, patched directly or through the production desk. Three wireless mics for the front line if the venue has them, otherwise the band uses its own cabled mics.
Insurance and paperwork
Public liability insured
Song list
(Bohemian Rhapsody, We are the champions, Another One Bites the Dust, Don't stop me now, Crazy little thing called love)
(Dancing in September, Let's groove tonight, Boogie Wonderland)
(Devil Went Down To Georgia, Enter Sandman, Thunderstruck)
(Domino, Last Friday Night)
(Happy, Get Lucky)
(Love on top, Crazy in love)
(Rosanna, Africa)
(Take Me To The River, Treat Her Right, Land Of 10000 Dances)
24K magic - Bruno Mars
Addicted to you - Avicii
Ain't nobody - Jasmine Thompson
All About the Bass - Meghan Trainor
Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
As Time Goes By - Frank Sinatra
At last - Etta James
Bad girls - Donna Summer / Jamiroquai
Bad things - Jace Everatt
Bb turnaround - Matt Otten
Better - The Screaming Jets
Better the devil you know (Abbey Road) - Kylie Minogue
Beyonce
Birthday - The Beatles
Blame it on the boogie - Jackson 5
Body and soul - Billie Holliday
