Reviews

Dear Mike, Please pass on my thanks to the band for such a fabulous performance on Saturday night. Everyone really enjoyed listening to you and you certainly got everyone up and dancing! So many of our guests told us how great they thought you were. I also wanted to say how much we appreciated your flexibility and professionalism - breaking early to give people a bit more time to 'warm up' was exactly the right thing to do. You really made the night very special. I will certainly recommend you to people in the future! Best wishes

Dear Mike, Just wanted to say a huge thank you to you and your band. You were absolutely fantastic! Not only were you professional, you looked good and sounded amazing! You really made our wedding very, very special. We really can't thank you enough! We shall be recommending you to everyone!

In the lead up to the event Mike was very friendly and helpful. On the night the band were a pleasure to work with and really wowed the audience - a very talented bunch! We look forward to working with them again soon!

Dear Mike & The Band, We just wanted to say how grateful we are that we booked you for our wedding in Oxfordshire on 4th February. To be honest it didn’t take a lot of effort to choose The Get Downs to play at our wedding… after listening to some of your tracks on the website it was an easy decision. You were just what we were looking for; a great mix of music, played incredibly well, by a professional, enthusiastic and charismatic band. Mike, you were so helpful in making the arrangements. We obviously had so many things to worry about in the run up to the wedding, and so much to organise, but you made our arrangements for the band really easy. On the day, despite the distance you had to travel, you were on time and we never had to worry about you – your arrangements with the reception venue staff went perfectly (I’m just sorry that your journey home wasn’t quite so easy – although the heavy snow that night was perfect for us, it must have been a real pain for you and I’m so sorry it took you so long to get back!) We’re very grateful that you were able to play our song for the first dance – although it wasn’t in your repertoire, you never made us feel like it would be a problem, and in the end it was played beautifully. As for the rest of the evening’s music, the full 9-piece function band were really fantastic and many people commented on how the music really topped off an amazing day. I certainly noticed how the dance floor was full throughout your entire set, which is testament to how fantastic you are. Often the band at an event like a wedding can slip into the background, but you certainly made yourselves very memorable and your performance really impressed us as one of the key things that made our day such a success. It's a fairly mean feat getting 70-year-olds, 20-somethings and 4-year-olds all on the dancefloor at once but you did! A couple of our guests asked for your details, to play at their own events – hopefully you’ve had some more bookings through us, and that really is the least we could do to say thank you. I really have no hesitation in recommending The Get Downs to anyone. Thanks again!

We booked The Get Downs for our Christmas departmental event. Through their dynamism and enthusiasm, they certainly know how to bring an audience of serious bankers to life. The set list was extremely enjoyable, with a variety of classics, Christmas tunes and powerful beats to suit all tastes. Many thanks to the band for their responsiveness, making the booking so easy and flawless.

Hi Mike, I hope you're well. I just wanted to send you a quick email saying thank you for last night. The music suited the atmosphere perfectly and several of the guests told me how thoroughly they enjoyed it. Nicky might be a bit big-headed now with all the compliments that were lavished on her! I hope you enjoyed the evening, and I look forward to working with you again in the future.

The Get Downs were brilliant - super professional, polite and above all great entertainers! The manager was a super bloke! Thanks ever so much.

Hi Mike, I just wanted to say a big thank you to and your fab band for the great job you did at our wedding. Everyone enjoyed the music and it all worked perfectly with Swing Dance UK! Thanks so much – I hope you enjoyed it also.

Mike, a massive thanks to you and the rest of your band members for the great music you put on at Sue’s party. Actually the partying only finished at 6:00pm on Sunday night, but everyone who was at Keston Village Hall on Friday was totally and rightly complementary about the party and in particular the band. From what I’ve heard you’ll be back in Keston before long; there is always a celebration going on here, and your band was a great hit. Hope to see you again!

Dear Mike, firstly, my apologies in taking so long to email you, secondly - Thank you so much! You were all amazing when you played for our wedding on Sunday 28th August. Everything went so smoothly, and the music was exactly what I was hoping for! We had so many comments on how good you all were and how lovely the music was - its just a shame the weather didn't quite hold out and you had to move inside, but that definitely didn't spoil it! I hope you all enjoyed playing as much as we all enjoyed listening! I would recommend your band in a heartbeat, and would love to go to another wedding where you are playing! Thanks again.

From Karen and myself, many, many, thanks for your part in making our wedding day so successful. The band were quite superb, as were the jazz quartet, and the ceremony duo. Best regards.

As most people would attest to, finding a band to play at your wedding that you feel you can trust is difficult. We certainly struck gold in finding The Get Downs. Firstly, in the run-up to the wedding, Mike, the band leader, was incredibly professional, courteous and enthusiastic, which instantly put our minds at ease, and we felt that we could put our faith in this band. He was also proactive in his suggestions of these things that might work during the wedding, and was helpful in assisting with the timings. We had the piano-sax duo playing during the wedding breakfast, which was much better than simply having a CD or iPod playing, and it was played perfectly in harmony with the mood during the meal. Our first dance was to a song not in the band’s repertoire, but they showed great flexibility to learn it in time for the wedding day – and it was played and sung beautifully. Shame about my dancing…! In the evening, we had the 9-piece band play and the sound was simply fantastic! The best sign that you have a good band in front of you is that everyone is on the dance floor having a great time. People are still talking about the music at our wedding now… All in all, we highly recommend The Get Downs – a great band. Photos courtesy of Capture It

Dear Mike, We would like to thank you and express our sincere appreciation for making our wedding day so special. Your professionalism and talent exceeded all expectations and made the day a success. All our guests were incredibly impressed with your performance and you went a long way towards creating the exhilarating atmosphere that they're all still talking about. Our wedding would not have been the same without your contribution and we would like you to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the rest of the band. We decided to have both our civil ceremony and reception at the same venue as we had guests from England as well as Ireland and Italy – a multicultural affair! We asked friends and colleagues and looked hard online for a pianist to play during reception drinks and ceremony and a jazz band to play during the meal. Eventually we came across The Get Downs who were flexible enough to provide both and, based on their reviews, we thought they were the best option for us. Mike also kindly agreed to play some background piano music as we arrived for reception drinks. As we had two relatives singing some Irish folk songs during the ceremony, Mike provided piano accompaniment, which made for a very touching, haunting experience. The songs included The Hermit Song and The Hiding Place by Liam Lawton and, especially for the Italians, Nella Fantasia by Ennio Morricone. Mike was already proving to be a consummate, talented musician at this point. The vocalists also commented on his professional and personable manner, which made it easier for them as they only had about 20 minutes to rehearse before the ceremony! The 6-piece band played two 45-minute background jazz sets during the meal and two 45-minute dancing sets. As we were very busy coming up to the wedding, we hadn’t really had time to sit down and decide what songs/music we wanted, so we made a few requests and asked Mike if they could provide a mix of their best pieces. Their performance was outstanding, exceeding all our expectations. One of the guests commented that she couldn’t believe a jazz band could be so talented and so young at the same time, as you would normally expect such flair from an older band. They played some classic pieces and, of course, our requests, which included Have I Told You Lately That I Love You for our first dance. Another request was Valerie, Amy Winehouse style. The singer belted out such an amazing rendition that, as it was our first dance and we were quite nervous, at one point we thought it was the Winehouse CD playing! The band then played and sang some electrifying dance pieces, which got everyone dancing. They continued to play until 10 pm, when the DJ began. We must admit that by that point the atmosphere was so exhilarating that we wished we’d booked them until the end! Between the piano music during reception drinks and ceremony and the jazz band later, Mike Paul-Smith Music were with us throughout the day. We were absolutely blown away by them. They scored top marks in every area, from professionalism and flexibility to talent and stylishness. Mike was incredibly efficient and organised throughout the process and he was a pleasure to deal with. We would recommend this band for anyone who wants to give their function, wedding or party a special edge. Thanks again!

Dear Mike, now that we're back from honeymoon and getting into the swing of things again, we thought it was time to sart thanking the many people who helped to make our day - and evening - so special. You and the band were amazing! Such a fantastic sound and a wonderful set - including the horn section on "All You Need Is Love" - made for a night we'll all remember for the rest of our lives. Our guests and Jamie at Micklefield Hall have all commented on what a fantastic band The Get Downs are. Thank you so much for being so flexible, so lovely to deal with - but most of all thank you so much for the wonderful music!! All our very best wishes.

The Get Downs were on time and organised, and did very well not to get in the way or disrupt the party whilst setting up! They seemed lovely as well as professional, my husband had time to chat to them and said they were really nice. The performance was perfect - loved the band and the vocals, and they seemed enthusiastic and happy to be performing. All of our guests loved them - we got alot of compliments about them and people asking how we found them, and I was really happy that they appealed to all ages - specifically my 75 year old grandad absolutely loved them, and in contrast my 19 year old cousin who is in a rock band also thought they were really great! An all round winner!