Nottingham based Bellows, Scratchitt & Pluckitt barn dance and ceilidh band have provided high quality entertainment for many years. If you want something special for your wedding,  birthday,  anniversary,  corporate event or fundraiser please have a look at our pages. We have a wealth of experience and have established an excellent reputation. We are passionate about our music and love getting people up and dancing to our wide assortment of foot-tapping tunes.

We provide a range of dance tunes, mainly English, Scottish and Irish. A selection of reels, hornpipes, jigs, polkas, waltzes and slip-jigs. Our caller chooses dances to suit the mood and experience of the dancers. He gives complete and clear instructions to everyone and makes certain that everyone knows what to do.

Between dances the band entertain by playing a wide variety of tunes.

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Of course, every event is different and we pride ourselves in our adaptability. However most events run to a fairly similar format.
Firstly, if you book us we shall play for (up to) 3 1/2 hours (including breaks). Our line up always includes our excellent caller plus melodeon (squeezebox), guitar, fiddle & bass.

We try to arrive about 3/4 hour early to set up. All we require is a space for this and one mains socket. A small table to put the amplifier on is useful and arm-less chairs appreciated too. We are discrete when setting up, but of course we respect what is going on and will always wait for an appropriate time if necessary.

If it is a wedding, the couple often want a first dance. We can play for this and we do have a few suggestions here (please ask). Alternatively, we have provision to plug in a phone / ipad / laptop etc. so a chosen track can be used.

We’ll generally get things going with a few tunes and then the dancing starts. We generally call up the dances in pairs, giving the dancers a chance for a breather / drink / chat in between. During the breaks we play live music – a wide eclectic mix (you’ll be glad to know we don’t sing, you wouldn’t like it if we did!).

There will often be a break, again we are very flexible with timings here.

On some events we are followed by a disco. This is fine with us, but we must emphasise that it does not work at all if there is an attempt to alternate the two genres. The disco does need to follow us.

Of course we are happy to answer any further questions, just get in touch.

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