Disco band hire in Australia: the complete guide

Disco is the one band category where the show is half the booking. The costumes, the horn section standing up together, the three vocalists sharing a microphone stand: it's staged, and people book it knowing that. Nobody hires this by accident.

It's also the most expensive shape of band per night, for a straightforward reason. The music was written for a lot of people playing at once, and you can't fake a horn line or three-part harmony with four musicians and good intentions.

The records everyone wants to hear from this era have strings, brass, layered backing vocals and percussion on top of a rhythm section. Getting close to that live means more people on stage, and the quotes in this category sit higher than the other band categories because of it.

Smaller versions exist and some are very good, usually by leaning on a keyboard player to cover the brass parts. Listen to a clip before deciding whether that works for you. For some people it's fine and for others the horns are the entire reason they're booking.

Choreography, costume changes and a bit of theatre are normal here and worth asking about specifically. Some acts arrive in full seventies dress, some do a costume change between sets, and some play the music straight in ordinary clothes.

There's no correct answer, but there is a correct match for your room. A formal corporate dinner may want the music without the flares. A themed birthday wants the whole production, and being vague about which you want is how you end up with the wrong one.

Eight or nine people need somewhere to stand, and horn players need room to move without hitting each other. This is the category most likely to run into a stage that's too small, and finding out on the day means a cramped, awkward version of a show built to look big.

Measure before you book and tell the band the numbers. Ask about sight lines too. A large band on a flat floor means the back half of the room sees nothing, and part of what you're paying for is the look of the thing.

Big milestone birthdays, themed parties, gala nights and any event with enough people to justify the size of the sound. There's a floor on that: a nine-piece for sixty guests in a small room is overwhelming and expensive at the same time.

It's also a rare category where the crowd's age barely matters. The songs are old enough to be inherited, so a room spanning three generations mostly knows the same material, which makes it a safe pick for a mixed wedding or a work party where you don't know the guests.

How many musicians in the version we're quoting? Is the brass live or on keys? Do you dress the part, and is that included? What stage area and power do you need? And how long is the set up, including sound check?

Ask about the lineup size in plain numbers. This is the category where a quote and a video most often describe different-sized bands, and it's an easy thing to confirm in one line.