The True Colours

Hi Friends,

Greetings from the the Aleutian Islands in the Behring Sea! And don’t worry, we had no idea where that was either.

The past few months have run away with us, and to be honest we’re actually pretty grateful we have a long stretch of time at sea now to catch our breath! Because yes, we’re back onboard for a new adventure ✨

Firstly, we had an amazing time on the Silhouette in Europe this summer. We knew the itinerary would be amazing, covering Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal, and a gorgeous slice of Mediterranean, but even so, it was STUNNING.

We walked off the Silhouette gangway only a month ago in Southampton. It was a dream to meet family on the pier and get home so quickly!! With no jet lag, we were able to jump back into some awesome gigs on land, including playing as a band again. Check out the pics from the awesome audiences we’ve had!

But before we knew it, it was time to go again. We got on a flight to Vancouver last week to join a ship… An old friend, that we haven’t seen since our fateful trip to Asia in 2020, Celebrity Millennium! Yes we are back on the OG Millennium Class ship, the ship that we called home when the world shut down. Back then we had been so excited to explore some of Asia, and we’ve been waiting to get back out here ever since!

We joined the ship as it finished its Alaska season in Vancouver, and after a brief stop in beautiful Victoria (and a good dose of Tim Hortons), we set sail for the long crossing across the Pacific and Behring Sea over 10 days, to JAPAN!! Totally worth the 9 time zone changes in 2 weeks and losing one day to the international date line 😅

Because we will then begin an epic itinerary covering Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Bali, Hong Kong…. Check it out below. We are staying on Celebrity Millennium for over 6 months, as we really wanted to make the most of these destinations.

So, let us know are you cruising on Millennium any time soon! Also if you have previously cruised around Asia and have recommendations, or just general tips for any of the countries we’re visiting, we’d love to hear them. 

We are currently enjoying views of the remote Aleutian Islands of of Alaska,  where the locals are as intrigued by us as we are by them… This amazing pic of a bald eagle coming to check out the ship was taken this morning by our wonderful onboard naturalist, and good friend Celia Garland. For more amazing wildlife pics and stories from ships, follow @celiagarland and at www.celiagarland.com

Thanks for stopping by! We love seeing your pics of our gigs and on cruises so don't forget to tag us @thetruecoloursmusic 

Mia and Dan

Hi Friends!

We've got a new video up and live for you to check out. We kept being asked to record some of our Fleetwood Mac acoustic covers, and it's taken us a while due to living at sea this past year! But, we've got one of our faves recorded and videoed for you. We hope you'll like it, so feel free to save and add it to your playlists, and let us know what you'd like to hear us record next. Special thanks to Craft Brews UK https://www.craftbrews.uk/ for letting us record in their lovely barn! And kudos to Yulia Hauer of @indievisionvideos for capturing. 

Also, we'll let you know where we'll be headed to next this year after our European adventures soon. (Hint, it's another ship!)

All the best,

Mia and Dan

Hey Friends!

We are currently sailing across to the Atlantic after joining the Celebrity Silhouette in Miami. It’s our first Transatlantic cruise, a must do for any real seafarer we’ve been told! From Miami we sailed to Bermuda (through the infamous triangle of course), and will be striking land after 6 days at sea in Cork, Ireland. Being back in Bermuda was a bit of a dream come true, after we sailed there 6 years ago on our first ever cruise contract, and have been hoping to return ever since, and it didn’t disappoint. It’s #Bermudaful! The Royal Naval Dockyard is the blog post pic, see evidence of the famous Bermuda fish sandwich and gorgeous views…

After Ireland, we sail to Portland, Dorset, then Le Havre France and finally our new home port, Southampton. Yes, we’re cruising from home this time! We’ve been to some amazing places on ships, but this is kind of special. I mean, we get to go to Greggs.

Our itinerary is of course, amazing. We thank Celebrity Cruises for inviting us on yes another amazing adventure at sea. We are headed to some beautiful European ports this Summer. Cruises include The Best of Scandinavia, the Norwegian Fjords, Iceland and Spain and Portugal. See more on www.celebritycruises.com

We are now away for most of the summer, and that sadly means that we have had to turn down a lot of gigs at home. However, we will be back at the end of August, and we are looking forward to some British Summer gigs!! We have a few dates left to book between August 20th to September 12th, so do get in touch if you’d like to get us involved in your summer event.

Check out our itinerary below, thanks to www.cruisemapper.com, as usual we’ll be posting what we’re up to www.instagram.com/thetruecoloursmusic and Facebook @thetruecoloursmusic. Let us know if you’ll be joining us on board, or if you have any tips on these awesome destinations!

Dan and Mia

Season greetings friends! 

Hoping you're enjoying a wonderful holiday season wherever you are in the world. We are building up to seeing 2023 in here on the Celebrity Eclipse. Here’s an update from us, and also a massive thank you for an amazing year! 

2022 saw us travelling the world and returning to a jam packed summer of gigs back home, the first time since the pandemic. We can’t tell you how awesome that was, and how much fun we had. Thank you to anyone who has booked us, come to see us, danced and sang along with us. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! 

And summer never ended for us this year.  After crossing the Pacific in September from Canada and Alaska via Hawaii and French Polynesia we've been cruising around Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands for the last few months. This does mean crossing one of the roughest seas in the world, the Tasman Sea the world on a regular basis 😵‍💫  It's so strange to come from spring and summer in the Northern hemisphere to spring and summer again down under!

November and December was full of amazing trips, to bucket-list destinations. We flew over the great barrier reef, had a trip to Hobbiton and The Shire in New Zealand, visited Fiji for the first time, and hung out on Mystery Island, a 1km long uninhabited paradise island of the coast of Vanuatu with some of the best snorkelling we've ever experienced, (also the biggest spiders we've ever seen!) and we’ve loved discovering our home port of Sydney, Australia. 

We did come face to face with Blue Bottle jelly fish on Bondi Beach too...

All of this whilst we’ve been playing to some wonderful audiences! Highlights recently include stepping into a theatre show on the big stage with the wonderful Sue Denning on an extremely rocky night on the Tasman, hosting our acoustic concerts, including a particularly emotional Fleetwood Mac Tribute after the loss of Christine Mcvie recently, and feeling very at home playing in our favourite bars and venues on this lovely ship. 

We love Christmas, and we were rehearsing for a busy time of parties and events on board, but just before it all kicked off Mia tested positive for you know what, and spent Christmas in isolation. Luckily, symptoms were mild and we have an awesome team on board who were incredibly supportive. Mia got to rest and recuperate and everyone was treated to some of Dans solo performances. All is well, but not exactly the Christmas we had planned! 

The good news is that we're now reunited, ready to celebrate New Year and see 2023 in together. We are super excited to enjoy more of this amazing region as well. We'll be home in February for just a little while for we head out again, and we'll let you know where soon!

So, thank you friends, old and new, for your support this year, here's to you! Best wishes for 2023 everyone!

Mia and Dan

Hello from the Celebrity Eclipse!

So it's been a while since our last post! We've been busy settling into our latest ship gig, as the resident acoustic duo on the Celebrity Eclipse. And it's great to be back on this ship! Firstly we love the venues here, the guests are lovely, crew are fabulous and we're going to bucket list destinations.

We've actually been waiting to do an itinerary like this for years. We joined in Vancouver at the end of August, and got to spend some time cruising around Alaska, check out the ports we visited:

Alaska was absolutely stunning. Insert glacier pic below: We tried to do it all, the bears, whales, hikes and of course, a lumberjack show! But we still feel like there's so much more to do and see on the last frontier. Check out some of our snaps in Instagram! 

We've now been making our way across the Pacific Ocean, taking a full month from Vancouver to Sydney, with stops in Hawaii, French Polynesia and new Zealand. So excited to explore the land down under! Here's what we're up to at the moment:

And yes we are out here until February 2023! Stay in touch on our socials, as always we love to hear from friends near and far!

Mia and Dan 😊

So our Summer 2022 back home in England has come to an end, and we’re headed to distant shores once more! We have some great memories to look back on, here’s some of our fave pics and some lovely reviews from our performance this summer, thank you so much to all who booked us, came to support and made this summer so awesome! 

Rose and Patrick left us this lovely review:

"We used this band for our wedding and they were exceptional from start to finish. Really helpful and friendly from the first phone call all the way through to the big day. They did an acoustic set outside which set the whole afternoon off and in the evening they moved inside to start the dancing off. The vocals were stunning and really couldn’t fault a single thing from the music down to how friendly and professional the band members were. Mia took my playlist to play in between their sets and sorted it so it wasn’t all jumbled. They didn’t sound like “every other wedding band” and the way the band changes from the acoustic duo to the more upbeat full band ties the whole day together as well as completely changing it. Have already recommended them to people and wouldn’t hesitate using these guys again."

Also we love the pictures from Kalidron.Photography ❤️😁 Check out https://kalidron.photography/ for more.

Ellie and Ash had a beautiful day at Northbrook Park, and it was amazing to be a part of it:

"We were lucky to have The True Colours play at our wedding in July, and they really added another level to our day. 

Mia and Dan started as a duo act during our drinks reception, and then the rest of the band joined for the rest of the evening. 

The whole group are so lovely and easygoing, and the atmosphere they added to the day was priceless, we could not recommend them enough!"

Northbrook Park is a great venue for weddings and events, check it out here 

James and Sarah's big day was a full of colour and fun in the walled garden at Holywell Estate, love this review:

"We just wanted to say a huge thank you for playing at our wedding on Saturday, you were absolutely fantastic! All the guests were so impressed and kept saying how good you were. The first dance song was amazing and the party continued from there with your amazing playlist that kept people on the dance floor! You helped make our day very special and we look forward to seeing you live again."

Check out Holywell Estate for an awesome tipi venue! https://holywellestate.co.uk/

Check this great review from our gig The Festival of Sport for the British Army this summer:

"Flawless performance with infectious enthusiasm throughout the night, really made the evening. Top of the list for future events."

One of the best 'photos from the drum kit' of the summer at Sam and Dan' wedding Huntlands Farm!

Such good memories from Annette and Andrew's joint 60th bash! Thanks for this review:

"‘We booked this amazing band for our joint 60th birthday party and could not have been happier. Not only are they all truly talented, they are such lovely people to have around. Every single guest has told us that they thought you were wonderful. We cannot thank you enough for making our party absolutely perfect."

How can we forget our trip to Wales to play Beth and Matt's wedding! A stunning hilltop venue, New House Country Hotel overlooking Cardiff as well.

"Absolutely brilliant great changes of tempo, ability to get people on the dance floor and engage with people as well as playing some quieter more reflective songs"

We went to Ipswich for Victoria and Sam's big day, and after having to postpone a few times, it was great to finally celebrate with them! 

"We were so so happy with Mia and Dan at our wedding. They look fantastic, they’re music and selection is amazing and so many guests were amazed at our fabulous band! They are so friendly and helped everything go smoothly for our welcome drinks. We couldn’t of asked for a better band and they added that extra special touch for our day. I would highly recommend them to everyone!"

And shoot out to Pews Bar, The Calleva Arms, Craft Brews UK in Frensham, for some lovely public gigs this summer!

And we still have more reviews and pics coming in! If you saw us live this summer and want to leave us a review or share some pics we'd love that. Write us a review on our Facebook page, or on our Encore page and tag pics on Facebook or Instagram using our handle, @thetruecoloursmusic or email us at hello@thetruecolours.com

Stay tuned to see where we're headed next...! 

Thanks friends,

Mia and Dan

Hi Friends, 

Exciting news, we’re coming home for the summer! It’s been another busy contract cruising the Caribbean on Equinox and thank you to the amazing crew and guests we’ve met along the way. 

We’ve had some awesome shows here, from debuting our James Taylor and Carol King Unplugged, to having the best Fleetwood Mac shows and performing A Capella with Cruise Director Eddy and new Cruise Director Pete… And it’s been wonderful these last few weeks to get out and see some of our favourite places in the Caribbean again! 

So what’s next? We’re super excited to be playing loads on gig on land back home in the UK! Lots of private events and weddings at some gorgeous locations, and we have some public gigs too. Check out the dates below and let us know if you think you will be coming down to see us. 

Friday the 3rd will see Mia reunited with Ali on guitar for a set at The Holly Blue in Basingstoke. Ali was actually one of the founding members of The True Colours, and continues to play live with us when we’re in the UK. Saturday and Sunday Mia and Dan are down at micro-brewery, Craft Brews Brewery and Taproom in Frensham, for a weekend of locally brewed beverages and amazing food check out the link here for tickets and to pre-book some delicious food! Saturday will be a BBQ and Sunday wood fired pizza from Mama Lourdes! 29th July sees a long overdue return to Pews Bar in Guildford for some late night acoustic fun. And possibly a few more public dates if we can fit them in, feel free to get in touch!

And then, something we’ve been incredibly excited about for a while… on August 21st we’ll be returning to Celebrity Eclipse for what is possibly our dream itinerary, cruising Alaska to Australia! More on that in another post but for now, we have some packing to do… 

Mia and Dan 

PS. Hope you like the pic taken by Yulia Hauer Visuals at Silchester Farm, in Hampshire, we’ll share some more of these soon!

Hi Friends! 

Hope you are well. We are into our last few weeks aboard the Celebrity Equinox, and then we are headed home to play our first gigs on land in about 2 and a half years…. How crazy is that?! 

We are going to be nice and busy over the summer at home playing as a duo and band for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries aaaand a few pubs and public events as well, stay tuned for our public summer dates, we’ll be posting them soon. 

So as we start to discuss set lists for the summer, it got us thinking, what actually makes the perfect playlist? As musicians who play live everyday, in lots of different situations, covering Caribbean deck parties to British church wedding ceremonies, we came up with 5 main things to think about when choosing music for an event. So whether you’re putting together a Spotify Playlist for your BBQ or your booking a string quartet for your wedding, we hope this is useful! 

1. Who’s going to be there? 

Consider the crowd. A typical wedding will have everyone from kids to grandparents, and they all want to hear something they know and like, meaning the music should take us through the decades, Elvis to Dua Lipa. Hosting a school reunion? Everyone will want to remember the songs from the years you studied and graduated to, a great excuse for 90’s throwback playlist! 

Also consider where people are from, throwing in one or two songs from ‘home’, wherever that may be for some of your party, is sure to make everyone feel welcome and unite people on the dance floor. If booking live musicians, give them an idea of who they are playing for, a great band will be able to adapt the set list to different crowds. Compare our ‘Festival Feels’ to our ‘Old But Good Stuff’ sets… we might pick one or mix them together depending on the crowd. 

2. What time of day is it? 

Timing is key! Create the right atmosphere and flow for your event, so it doesn't peak too early or fizzle out. You may love indie rock, but it might not be the right thing at at your afternoon garden party as everyone tries to catch up over canapés. But, blasting out some King of Leon to a packed dance floor at 10.30pm might be the way to take the party from ‘good’ to ‘roof-raising-singalongs-synchronised-head-banging-air-guitar-contests-heels-off-neck-ties-around-heads-ninja-style-good’! 

Starting relaxed when people arrive is a good rule of thumb, think acoustic duo, jazz trio or string quartets, music that people can listen to and still mingle and chat. When people are ready to dance, and day turns to night, get louder and faster with a party band or DJ as the party continues! Live musicians will have lots of experience playing events and will be able to advise you on set timings.

Check out our ‘Sunny Afternoon’ duo set is perfect for a summer BBQ or drinks, whereas Our ‘Rock and Indie classics’ band set would be great for a singalong party.

3. What vibe do we want to create? 

Music has the power to create a shared feeling and emotion in a group of people. What are we celebrating? What is everyone feeling? The sound track to an event can help everyone feel relaxed, excited, nostalgic, or romantic at the right moment. We like to ask people booking us how they want everyone to feel when we’re playing, and the vibe they want to create, which can change through the day or evening. 

Live musicians have their strengths and may specialise in certain genres and styles and they will use their experience to play the right kind of songs for the moment. A good indicator if your making your own playlist is to use a trick employed by DJ's. The tempo(speed) of the music which is measured in BPM (beats per minute), like our heart rates. Music above 100BPM is good to energise and to dance, whereas, 90 BPM and below is good for creating a relaxed vibe.

The below set would work for a wedding ceremony and vows, creating romance and all the love feels! Our Jazzy Drinks set is perfect for dining and drinking, and the Dance Party set is designed to get those feet on the dancefloor!

4. What would be meaningful and create a special moment? 

Is there a song that is very special to you or the group? Do you want to dedicate a song to someone? Are you making a speech, and what to follow it with something special, or want to have a group ‘Happy Birthday’ singalong? Is there someone in your family that wants to perform to the group? Planning something personal or special with the music for an event could help make lasting memories, we've seen it happen so many times and it's awesome! 

If you’re booking live musicians, let them know what your planning and how you want them to help. We love being involved in magic moments! We include learning a special song for the occasion for any gig we play, although quite often we already know the request, check out our extensive ever-growing repertoire list here…. 

Our acoustic repertoire list

5. What works in the venue? 

Finally, we have to consider some logistics! Is there room for live music/DJ in the space? If you want people dancing, is there a dance floor? Is it inside or outside? Check with your venue if they have a built in sound system, any sound limiters (very common these days) or curfews, check they allow amplified music, and check that the system you plan to use will cope comfortably with the amount of guests you have coming. No point planning the perfect playlist for your event if you can’t hear it! 

Professional musicians often come self-contained with their sound equipment, and will be fully insured. Hiring musicians can seem costly, but you’re paying for so much more than the performance time. Some musicians can perform without amplification, such as strings and brass, but most can’t. We find playing acoustically as a duo is great for tight spaces and intimate settings. For venues with sound limitations we offer an acoustic band option, lower Db’s (volume) but still has all the elements to get people dancing! 

See our Weddings and Events page to see what line up might work best for your venue here

So, that’s our 10 cents friends, got any more pointers for planning the music at an event? Got any questions? Stick them in the comments below or drop is a line! 

All the best, 

Mia and Dan

Hi Friends!  

We're halfway though our time out here on Celebrity Equinox! And the gigging is good out here cruising the Caribbean. 

Some highlights from March included a super fun St Patricks Day gig with the Celebrity Equinox Orchestra and the talented Lulia, violinist from 'Sea Breeze', to a packed out 3 decks in the Grand Foyer here on board. We were a motley crew of English, Ukrainians and Argentinians but that didn't stop us playing those Irish drinking songs!  🍻

 

 

 

 

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We also had probably our best crowd EVER for our Fleetwood Mac Unplugged concert in the Celebrity Central Theatre. We had a standing ovation from a packed out house! Off the back of that we're working on and James Taylor and Carol King concert, premiering in April. And, we'd love to try an Eva Cassidy night... We've got tons of ideas actually. And we'd love to perform these 'unplugged' Live Lounge style concerts back home too, so let us know if that's something you'd be interested in... we'll get something sorted! 

 

 

 

 

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We've also had a few adventures off the ship, We got to see a little bit of Dominica, and the main pic at the top is Fort Lauderdale Beach, we finally got to see more of this city than the port 👍😁 Most importantly we've met some amazing people out here, who've made our gigs feel extra special. 

 

 

 

 

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As we look ahead to the rest of the year we cannot tell you how awesome it is to see our diary full of gigs again! In fact friends, we are basically fully booked for the NEXT YEAR. We are so grateful to be back doing music full time again. We return home in June to what's looking like a super fun summer, we're playing some great events at some awesome venues! The downside of this is that we are now having to turn away a lot of enquiries coming due to being booked up. But, we do still have limited availability for a few Friday nights and midweek dates this summer, so please do get in touch as we'd love to play even more gigs whilst we're back in the UK.  

And we're serious about a Fleetwood Mac Unplugged night, we'd love to trial this at home! So if you'd like to be a willing guinea-pig, we can collaborate, be it house party or a pub/venue get in touch and let's talk dates!!! 

For now, sending good vibes to you wherever you are in the world, and the view from (one of our) offices here on board, The Sunset Bar...

Mia and Dan x

 

 

 

 

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Hey friends! 

We hope 2022 is treating you well so far, we genuinely can't believe we're a month in already! 

Hope you'll forgive us for being a little quiet lately, we've been enjoying some lovely time out at home with family and friends. After 7 months sailing from Florida on Edge we actually enjoyed the British cold air and wintery weather rain! (For a bit anyway) We had planned to play a few gigs back home, but Covid had other plans... Despite this, things are looking up, and we are SO EXCITED for lots of live gigs and travelling this year! 2022 is looking AWESOME. 

 

 

 

 

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Firstly, if you're following our insta you'll have already seen that we're back onboard! Sailing around the Caribbean from what truly feels like our 'home port' at this point, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Seriously, we've got Amazon Prime set up here and everything. This time we've returned to an old friend of ours, Celebrity Equinox, one of the beautiful Celebrity Cruises Solstice class ships. 

We've completed our 7 day quarantine and although it's been very luxurious being fed mountains of amazing food watching the world go by, we are ready to go get reacquainted with this beautiful ship (and get in the gym to work off said food). Wanna see what we've been up to in quarantine? Check out this reel to see some awesome sunsets, our food, and most importantly, Dan's mini vacuum. 

 

 

 

 

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We've escaped from a few months of British winter here before, back in 2018 and in 2019, so it feels like a home away from home. We're here for 4 months, with an itinerary that, in our humble opinion, includes some of the very best of the Caribbean, check it out below...

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Celebrity-Equinox-739?tab=itinerary#itinerary 

Any of your favourite ports here? Recommendations? We've certainly got some fave spots we're hoping (fingers crossed) to visit. Aaaaaand let us know if you're coming to Equinox!! We've already heard from a few familiar faces who'll be joining us both crew, fellow musos and guests (wahoo!). 

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, we are so over the moon to see a full calendar of live gigs again (yaaaaaasssss). Thank you to all the people that have booked us, and in some cases re-booked us 3 times over, to perform this summer back home, including lots of dates with our awesome band! We now have only a few free dates left for our summer in the UK (so definitely get in touch if there's a date you had in mind for us so we can reserve it for you ASAP). 

And as we head into the Autumn this year , we are so excited for another adventure taking us to distant shores and will mean we will be enjoying an entire year of summer....! But more on that another time. 

Right now, we have sound checks to get to and treadmills calling our names.... Shout out to Celebrity Equinox crew for looking after us this week! 

Much love and music to you wherever you are, 

Mia and Dan

x