Booking Us
Alongside the songwriting projects and album releases, Broken Watch are also a well-seasoned covers band that are available for bookings. The band is available for pub gigs, parties and other private functions. They’ll even come and play in your garden or front room if you want!
The band offers two basic services, a ’small venue package’ and a ‘large venue package’ to suit the needs of different customers.
Small Venue Package
This package is ideal for smaller venues or residential areas where volume and space might be an issue. The band uses a Yamaha electronic drum kit (which sounds just as good as the real thing) which means that the music can be as quiet or as loud as the customer wants it. This option also involves a smaller sound system, takes up less room and therefore leaves more space for dancing! The band will provide a basic disco lighting system.
The standard charge for this service is £150+ travel expences.
Large Venue Package
This package is better for larger venues and halls as the band uses a very pretty Ludwig drum kit with a spectacular range of symbols. This kit sounds and looks great, but it does take up a bit more stage space and does mean that the music will be a touch louder; which is exactly what you need when entertaining a larger crowd. The band will provide a quite spectacular range of lighting to make the Broken Watch experience a memorable one.
The charge for this service is £250+ travel expences.
Travel Expenses
To calculate how much travel expenses will be incurred, the band uses a very simple catchment-based calculation. We work out how many miles, by road, the gig will be from our central meeting point - the Bowling Green PH at Weeley, Essex - postcode CO16 9AD. We then apply the following scale of charges:
- 0-10 miles = £0
- 11-20 miles = £10
- 21-30 miles = £20
- 31-40 miles = £30
- 41-50 miles = £40
- 51- 60 miles = £50
- …and so on.
So, for example, if we are playing in Clacton-on-Sea, there is normally no additional charge for travel, but further affield say Colchester, 12 miles away there will be an additional £10 charge and for Braintree, some 28 miles away, there would be a charge of £20… and so on.
Notwithstanding these standard charges, our fees are negotiable and, for charity events, we will only tend to ask for travel expenses.
Cover Versions
Apart from the songs they write themselves, the band play the following well-known numbers written and recorded by some of pop music’s biggest stars:
1950s
- That’ll Be The Day - Buddy Holly
- Move It - Cliff Richard
- Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley
- Peggy Sue - Buddy Holly
- Dream Lover - Bobby Darin
- Rock Around The Clock - Bill Hayley
- Johnny B Goode - Chuck Berry
- La Bamba - Richie Valens
1960s
- A Hard Days Night - The Beatles
- Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
- I’m A Believer - The Monkees
- Twist And Shout - The Beatles
- Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison
- Get Off My Cloud - The Rolling Stones
- Mustang Sally - Wilson Picket
- Substitute - The Who
- Can’t Buy Me Love - The Beatles
- The Mightly Quinn - Manfred Mann
- I Can’t Explain - The Who
- Mrs. Robinson - Simon and Garfunkel
- Keep On Running - Spenser Davies Group
1970s
- Can’t Stand Losing You - The Police
- Come Up And See Me - Cockney Rebel
- Hot Love - T-Rex
- Starman - David Bowie
- Another Brick In The Wall - Pink Floyd
- Brown Sugar - The Rolling Stones
- Heroes - David Bowie
- Get It On - T-Rex
- Message In A Bottle - The Police
- Teenage Kicks - The Undertones
- Jean Genie - David Bowie
- 20th Century Boy - T-Rex
- Crocodile Rock - Elton John
- Jealous Guy - John Lennon
- I Don’t Like Mondays - Boomtown Rats
- Olivers Army - Elvis Costello
- December 1963 (Oh What A Night) - Frankie Valli
- Whatever You Want - Status Quo
- Take It Easy - The Eagles
- Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley
- Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
1980s
- Every Breath You Take - The Police
- It’s The End of The World - R.E.M.
- A Kind Of Magic - Queen
- With Or Without You - U2
- 500 Miles - The Proclaimers
- Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
- Me & Julio Down By The School Yard - Paul Simon
- I Want To Break Free - Queen
- Summer of ‘69 - Bryan Adams
- Somewhere In My Heart - Aztec Camera
- A Little Respect - Erasure
- Hold Me Now - The Thompson Twins
- China Girl - David Bowie
- Fall At Your Feet - Crowded House
- Everybody Wants to Rule The World - Tears For Fears
- Happy Hour - The Housemartins
- Together In Electric Dreams - Phil Oakey
1990s
- Breakfast At Tiffany’s - Deep Blue Something
- Live Forever - Oasis
- Losing My Religion - R.E.M.
- One - U2
- What’s The Frequency Kenneth? - R.E.M.
- Sit Down - James
- Country House - Blur
- Disco 2000 - Pulp
2000s
- Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes
- Why Does It Always Rain On Me? - Travis
- Yellow - Coldplay
- Sex Is On Fire - Kings of Leon
- All These Things I’ve Done - The Killers
- Heartbeart - Scouting For Girls
- Chocolate - Snow Patrol
- Valerie - The Zutons
- Never Be Lonely - The Feeling
If there are particular songs that you would like played that do not appear on this list, if you give us plenty of notice we can do our best to learn them ready for the gig. However, please bear in mind that because we are essentially a 3-piece group, we are restricted in terms of what styles of music we can perform and we wouldn’t necessarily be able to do all good songs ‘justice’. We are always happy to discuss this though and, who knows, you might help us to expand our repertoire!