Scottish traditional reels and jigs with a rocky twist, the tunes mashed up with rock songs and riffs. The Dashing White Sergeant merged with Pink Floyd, Strip the Willow with Kasabian and Deep Purple and other grooves and feels. Extensive repertoire of traditional ceilidh dances from jigs, reels, waltzes and marches. Full of surprises, they have many unusual and bizarre ceilidh dances if you're up for it! All dances are professionally "called", and if you're all ceilidhed out, they have a repertoire of rock and pop covers, all played live with no backing tracks.
The Hugh Jorgan Ceilidh Band have, for over a trillion years, been playing for weddings and events in some of the most prestigious venues at home and overseas. They've played for numerous A-list celebs, corporations and blue chip clients. If you want the very best ceilidh with top class professional musicians and a highly experienced dance caller then look no further. If you want a wild party with a Scottish flavour anywhere in the world, call your Warble agent. And if you can’t handle a full-on Hugh Jorgan ceilidh for a whole evening there are the covers of great pop & rock songs, all played live. No cheesy backing tracks. It's like two bands rolled into one. With a unique approach to ceilidh music blending cajun and rock influences while still remaining solidly rooted in the Scottish tradition.
With a state-of-the-art sound system, adaptable to suit small, intimate weddings and functions to large events in the biggest ballrooms. This, along with the very latest LED and laser stage lighting puts the icing on the cake ensuring that your event is a memorable one. All the favourite ceilidh dances are catered for as well as Scottish Country Dances if requested. Guests are talked through the steps of all ceilidh dances so that everyone can participate and nobody is left out.
Ceilidh Dances
Songs
Norman Colville
Davie, what can I say, you guys are the most amazing team, the whole night was absolutely fantastic, couldn't have asked for anything better. Only problem was I ran out of shoogleness and had to get a breather and realised I was missing more while I was outside, what a bummer! Please be assured that I will be giving out loads of recommendations, and I hope very much to hire your services again at some time in the future!
We give you a bespoke price based on the exact location of your event. The pricing below is based on a central location for your area so you have an idea of what your price will be. The exact price will be given in the booking process after you’ve provided the location details.
Do you have all your own equipment or do we need to supply anything?
We are completely self-sufficient with our own PA system and stage lights. Our PA is a state-of-the-art active sound system that can split into 3 different sizes to suit all venues from small, intimate venues, medium-sized function suites and halls up to the biggest ballrooms. Our stage lighting is a mixture of traditional tungsten “parcans”, the latest LED pars and laser systems. All equipment is PAT tested for electrical safety, which is now a requirement for most of the quality venues. We do require 2 x 13A 240V sockets to power our systems.
Do you give instructions for the ceilidh dances?
Yes. Our expert caller will guide your guests through the steps of all the dances. So if you’ve never been to a ceilidh before and don’t know the difference between a Dashing White Sergeant and a Haggis Supper our caller will have you shoogling around the floor like an expert in no time. At most functions there’s a mixture of experienced dancers, novices and people who have never been to a ceilidh before. Our aim is to include everyone so each evening is treated individually, where, with our 17 years’ experience enables us to strike the perfect balance between instruction, participation, insults and humiliation (!!) and participation. It’s all done with a wicked sense of humour and in a relaxed and informal style. For some international corporate events our dance caller will actually demonstrate dances from the dancefloor with the help of a suitable volunteer and a headset radio microphone.
We also take pride in the fact that we can encourage guests on to the dancefloor even if they are a tad reluctant at first. Really – if we can’t get a dancefloor filled – nobody can.
Do you play any music during the buffet break?
Yes, we have a portable CD Player and an iPod in our kit, which we use for playing background music during any breaks. We have some compilation playlists already made up but if you would like to make up one of your own on your iPod or mp3 player, we’ll connect it to our sound system for you. This music can either be background music, or, if you wish, louder and more upbeat if you wish to create a disco atmosphere. If you do, we’ll turn our LED stage lights around to light the dance floor and switch them on to “sound-to-light” to create the full disco effect.
Will you learn a tune or a song for our first dance?
Yes, we’ll learn a tune for you if you have a specific request. Please give us as much notice as possible for this. For traditional Scottish tunes we can often sight-read and play them the first time we see them but it’s better if we get to know them better to do them justice. Chances are we already know the tune anyway.If you want us to learn a song for your first dance that’s usually ok too but we definitely need plenty notice because many songs have complicated arrangements with many parts since many “chart” bands use numerous musicians on their recordings. We have to adapt the arrangements to suit our instrumentation, which is more often the 3-piece band. However, people are always amazed at the full sound we produce with just the three of us. Occasionally we do have to say to clients that a particular song would be best left to the original artistes (we’d hate to murder a great song…) and the option is there to play the song from CD or iPod.
What’s so unique about the band?
One of the unique things about us is that we can play pop/rock covers. Primarily, we are a ceilidh band so play all the ceilidh music and call the dances all night for a full evening’s ceilidh if required. But, we can play a set of ceilidh tunes and a set of cover songs, or mix and match as the evening progresses. We can read a crowd and adapt our music each night to suit any event. We’ve years of experience so know instinctively how to adapt. There are very few bands that can play both styles properly and convincingly. We’ve heard some excellent covers bands who’ll play a short ceilidh set during the evening but any we’ve heard were not able to play the ceilidh stuff very well. And we’ve heard excellent ceilidh bands that played some covers, and while their ceilidh stuff was right on the money, their cover songs were weak. We pride ourselves in being able to cover both bases extremely well. All that, of course, as well as our extremely professional approach, expert dance calling and compering, and of course our stunning good looks. Yes, and we’re very modest.