Sing
Out Sisters are one of the UK’s top function bands
performing hits from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s & 00s.
This high energy show complete with costume changes
and choreography will drive you and your guests onto
the dance floor, dancing to the best pop, soul and
disco classics.
The Sing Out Sisters have been performing together for
nearly a decade and have earned the reputation as two
of the busiest and most professional singers on the UK
circuit!
Digger caught up with Claire and Laura to ask them
some questions about life in a top-rated functions
band.
Digger:
What is your background and the background to Sing Out
Sisters?
Claire: Well, Laura and I met about 10 years ago
performing in another function band. We very quickly
became close friends and realised we had so much in
common. We have a very similar background. We both
started our performing career in musical theatre when
we were very young, we then went on to train in
Performing Arts at university and then both furthered
our education and training by doing a masters and a
postgraduate degree. All the while, we had both
started singing in cover bands and tribute shows for
other people.
The seed for Sing Out Sisters was actually sewn in
2004, in the toilets, at Claridges in London. We were
performing at a function and during a break in between
sets we started to discuss the idea that we should
join forces and start our own act. I think the name
Sing Out Sisters came about because I was a fan of the
80s band Swing out Sisters and it made sense not only
because it had a ring to it but because we had become
like sisters!
We didn’t actually act on the idea until 2005 when
we felt we were in a position to commit ourselves to
the project fully. We decided to start small and see
where it took us. There was no great master plan to
start with. We knew we had to put in a lot of ground
work but we didn’t set out to create the exact
business we run today in 2011. We put a basic
website together (thanks to Laura’s superior
computer skills), got a friend to design a business
card and promoted ourselves as a female duo covering
songs from through the decades. We bought some
costumes and backing tracks, we choreographed routines
and rehearsed the show, we had a photo shoot and
recorded demos and put it out there. Laura had her own
small PA at the time so we were able to be self
contained which meant we could be affordable. We spent
hours and hours contacting venues and agents trying to
get our foot in the door. I remember one night at
Laura’s flat, we were working on our contact
spread sheet and one of us went into the bedroom to
call a venue and they expressed an interest in booking
us. We were so excited, I think we danced around her
lounge like 2 crazy girls for about an hour!
As with anything, the more you put in, the more you
get out of it so we worked our socks off and very
quickly we started to get dates in the diary and
thanks to word of mouth we started to grow. We began
to get enquires for live band functions so we expanded
and started to promote this line up too.
In 2006, we decided to invest more in Sing Out Sisters
and thought our best move forward was to create a more
sophisticated website. I had a web-designer friend who
was happy to work on our new site in his spare time. I
won’t reveal his name but he is one of our best kept
secrets! It did take longer than we anticipated but
all three of us worked so hard and set the bar so high
until we were happy with the finished product (little
did we know that a year later we would be updating the
website again in such dramatic fashion).
The new website got great feedback and allowed us to
feel more confident about contacting agents and venues
direct. The results were as we hoped and we started to
get more and more interest, so much so that people
started to ask if we could perform other things.
Obviously, it was inevitable that we were eventually
asked if we could perform an Abba tribute show. We
discussed this expansion in great detail as we were
already working for other Abba tributes (including
having performed for the world famous Bjorn Again). We
didn’t want to just throw anything together; if we
were going to do a new show then it had to be done
properly! We finally made the decision that it was a
natural progression for us to expand and if the work
was being offered then we would be mad to turn it
down. And so that’s when it all really took off.
Once we made that decision to create another show, we
realised that we were more than capable of doing this
again and again depending on what people wanted! Over
the past 3 years we’ve created 10 more shows
including a Grease and Dirty Dancing tribute, an 80s
show and most recently a Christmas themed show called
the Santa Sisters! (That’s why we had to re-vamp the
website again – to add pages on to promote all our
‘other acts’). The result is, we’re now really
busy and are now in a position where we don’t really
have to sing for anybody else anymore. We are also
able to offer lots of other performers and musicians
gigs (which is a great feeling)!
The great thing about Sing Out Sisters is that we now
have a formula to all our shows and it works! We’re all
about high quality vocals, tight choreography, killer
set lists, fantastic costumes but, most importantly, we
are all about talking to the audience and getting them
involved from start to finish! So whether an audience
member is sitting down, standing up or going wild on
the dance floor, they will definitely feel like they
have been ‘Sing Out Sistered’!!
We’re so happy with what we’ve achieved so far and
enjoy every aspect of running Sing Out Sisters.
We’re a great little team and discuss everything at
length before we make any decision (thank goodness for
free minutes!). I’m not sure we would have got where
we are today if we didn’t work so well together, both
on and off stage. We’re very lucky to have found
each other really and we’re looking forward to the
future. We have further plans to expand over the next
few years so WATCH THIS SPACE!!
Digger: You cover a number of decades and styles and
have a lot of different acts in your repertoire. Which
of these are the most difficult to perform and what
have been the most unusual requests you've had from
clients?
Claire: Each act we do requires us to think
carefully about the artiste or band or style we are
covering. We are always very clear that we are not
going to be a carbon copy of the original but we do a
lot of research to make sure that we make enough
reference to them so the audience can ‘play’ along
with us. We pay attention to all aspects of the show
and make sure the costumes, choreography, vocals,
harmonies, dialogue are all very precise and
considered. The tribute shows are the hardest to plan
but once they are set they are very structured, so a
bit easier to perform. The covers gigs are probably
the hardest to perform as you don’t really get to
hide behind a ‘character’ and you have to adapt
constantly throughout a gig. One minute we might be
singing We Are Family or Blame it on the Boogie and
then the next we’re singing Sweet Child O Mine or
Sex on Fire. You feel a lot more exposed.
With regards to unusual requests, we always offer to
learn a dance first or a special song if the client
wants something that’s not already on our ever-expanding repertoire. More often than not we get asked
to learn songs by male artists which can be quite
interesting if it’s not in our key! The most common request issue happens on the night of
a gig. Audience members (especially the ones who have
had one too many) seem to think that we know every
song ever written! They think nothing of jumping on
stage (whilst we’re performing) and asking if we can
do some song by someone we’ve never even heard of.
Even if we do know the song, we might not have the
backing track or the band might not know it. And even
if we did and the band do, it might not be appropriate
to sing a country and western classic at an Abba
night! The hard and often funny thing is trying to
make them understand!
Digger: What do you enjoy best about what you do?
Claire: There are so many great things about what
we do for a living! We get to be in charge of our own
success which is very rewarding and something I am now
very proud of. We still get to be creative which, when you think we
spend so much time running the business side of Sing
Out Sisters, is so important to us. After all, we are
performers at heart and so our passion really lies in
the music and the performing.
We also get to work with such talented people. All the
musicians and other performers we use are fantastic
and we try and make our gigs as enjoyable as possible
so they feel like they are part of the Sing Out
Sisters team.
We obviously get to travel and see so many places and
meet so many people. Not everybody gets to perform in
Glasgow one night and in Zurich the next! The variety
keeps it all exciting. However the most enjoyable aspect of what we do has to
do with our audience. Week after week we get to
perform to hundreds and hundreds of different people
and for the hour or so that we’re singing, we see
them forget about their lives and just join in the fun
and let themselves go. We don’t know them and it’s
more than likely that we won’t ever see them again
but for a very short space of time, we are all
connected. And no matter who they are or what they have
going on in their lives (good or bad), we can take
them away from reality. I think this is what motivates
us to get up on stage night after night and treat
every performance individually. They want to be
entertained and it’s our job to give them all
we’ve got! There’s nothing like the feeling of
looking out into the audience and seeing people going
crazy, enjoying themselves so much and knowing that is
all down to what you are doing!
Digger: What sort of feedback are you getting
from audiences and clients?
Laura: We’re always overwhelmed by the response
we get from our audiences. To receive positive
feedback is truly the icing on the cake and makes all
the hard work worthwhile. However, function after
function, it seems our most powerful asset, which is
common to all our shows, is that our audience can tell
that we love performing. It’s something that clearly
translates from the stage to the dance floor and yet
ironically is the one thing you can’t manufacture.
Digger: Why do you think retro and nostalgia are such
a big thing for us?
Claire: From doing tributes and theme nights, I
see retro and nostalgia from two sides. The serious and
the funny. Firstly, the teenage generation will latch
onto an era and try and make it cool again and the fashion and music world start making serious
references to it. The most recent was the 80s. I
couldn’t believe it when people seriously started
wearing shoulder pads again!!!
Secondly, once the era has been revived by the
teenagers, the adult generation seem to then revive it
in a comedy way and send it up by having fancy
dress parties and theme nights (and that’s where we
step in). They were there first time round so they
wouldn’t do it all again seriously but seem happy to
make a joke out of it. Our 80s School Disco show has
seen a huge rise in demand in the past 18 months and
the audience is mainly made up from people in their
mid 30’s-mid 40’s.
I haven’t really experienced the resurgence of music
and culture from my generation yet. I am looking
forward to the day if when I see teenagers getting
into the 90s and I’m sure there will come a time
when Laura and I are dressing up in Dr Martins and
grunge costumes singing along to Blur, Oasis, Pulp etc
and watching people our own age re-living the past!
Ultimately, I think people like to try and experience
the best bits of an era, whether they were there or not,
and it all becomes very stereotypical. But that makes
perfect sense. If you look back on anything in
life, you want to remember or re-create the most
memorable elements. So for us, we choose the biggest
hits and the most iconic clothes and that’s really
all people want!
I know some individuals have a deeper seated
connection with retro and nostalgia but I would say
this is very different and is more of a fanatical
hobby which is not what we’re about.
The only thing I would say now is that the tribute
world is changing fast. It used to be about
nostalgia but now, as soon as a new artist comes on the
scene, there are a dozen of tributes in line waiting to
be booked. Lady Gaga is a perfect example. This is
less about nostalgia and more about the fact that
tributes themselves have become a legitimate genre.
Either way, it keeps us in business!
Digger: 'Tribute bands' are well-respected in their
own right these days. How much rehearsal and
preparation goes into these shows?
Laura: Many people underestimate the amount of
work that goes into getting a show just right and some
the amount of work that’s needed to get it right,
which can show! We take pride in all our acts as you
have to remember there’s an element of
responsibility when you’re in charge of making
someone’s special occasion a night to remember.
Plus,
you’re often performing to fans of that particular
artist or movie and therefore you have to do it
justice. To short change them would be criminal.
Embarking on a new act can feel like a mammoth task
when you’re at the first phase of researching your
source. But as everything starts to come together, you
finally decide on that all important act name and the
show’s debut is a success. There’s a real sense of
achievement.
Digger: What are your retro passions?
Claire: It’s really hard to have any serious
retro passions as when you do what we do for a living,
it makes you a bit numb to it all in a way – not in
a bad way though. I have things from the past I really
love like The Commitments, David Lynch work from the
1980s, the Olympic Games, but I don’t cling onto
anything in particular and if someone invited me to a
1970s fancy dress party, I’d probably kill
myself!!!!
Digger: How do you see Sing Out Sisters' acts
developing in the future?
Laura: The sky’s the limit! In all seriousness if
there’s a demand for a particular tribute or theme
and we think we can do it justice or even bring a
different twist to what’s already out there then we
love the challenge of developing something new. As
long as we still enjoy what we do best then we will
continue to develop Sing Out Sisters.
