Show band hire in Australia: the complete guide

A show band is a production that happens to contain musicians. There is a running order, there are costume changes between blocks, the singers move in choreographed routines rather than standing at a microphone, and the whole thing has been rehearsed as a piece rather than assembled from a song list on the night. People watch it. That is the difference.

It sits at the top end of the live music categories on this site and the figures below show why. You are paying for rehearsal, for wardrobe, for the people who do not play an instrument, and for a night that is built rather than played. Sydney and Melbourne carry most of them, with Perth and Adelaide holding a few.

Look at the live figures underneath and then work backwards. A show like this carries dancers or front-line singers who are not also playing an instrument, so the headcount is higher than a band making the same amount of sound. Add wardrobe that has to be made, maintained and transported, plus rehearsal time that a covers band simply does not need, and the arithmetic explains itself.

It is also why the price barely moves for a shorter booking. The show costs what it costs to stage regardless of whether you have it for forty minutes or ninety. If your budget is tight, ask about a reduced version of the production rather than asking for less time, because that is the lever that actually exists.

This is the category where the venue can simply say no. Routines need clear floor area in front of the band, which means your stage needs depth, not just width. Costume changes need somewhere out of sight and close enough to get back in thirty seconds, so a change room across a public foyer will not work. Lighting needs to be pointed at the performers rather than at the ceiling.

Send photographs and measurements when you enquire and let the act tell you what is possible. A group that has toured this show has adapted it to hundreds of rooms and will happily scale it, but they cannot do that if the first time they see the space is on the afternoon of the event.

Book it for a moment rather than for the whole evening. The strongest shape is a dinner, then the show as the centrepiece with everybody seated and watching, then dancing afterwards. Many of these acts will do the dancing part too, dropping the choreography and running as an ordinary party band once the show has finished, which is excellent value from one booking.

What does not work is asking a production like this to be background music during the entrees. The performers are trained to hold attention, the arrangements are built to be watched, and a room of people talking through it wastes the most expensive part of your night.

Awards nights, product launches, gala dinners, club and RSL entertainment programmes and anniversary balls are the natural home. In those rooms the entertainment is meant to be a statement, the stage already exists, and the audience is seated and facing forward. Everything the format needs is already in place.

For weddings it can be spectacular but it needs the right couple and the right venue. A reception room with a proper stage and guests who like being entertained will love it. A marquee with a corner for the band will not fit the production, and you will have paid for a show that had to be cut down to a band.

How long is the show, and is there an interval? How many performers, and how many are dancers or singers only? What stage depth and change room do you need? Do you travel with lighting, or do we supply it? And can you carry on as a dance band afterwards, and is that in the same price?

Ask about the sound as well. A production with backing tracks, live band and several radio microphones needs someone competent running it, and you want to know whether that person comes with the act or whether you are expected to find one.