Live music in Orihuela Costa: Royal Band at The Abbey Tavern

On the evening of 19 September, Royal Band played at The Abbey Tavern, an Irish pub in Orihuela Costa that is only minutes away from Torrevieja. It was not a one-off: we play here regularly, which turns the evening into a test of consistency: the same sound quality week after week, songs that keep the tables full until closing, and gear that copes with a damp seaside night. If you are looking for live music in Orihuela Costa, or thinking of booking it for your own bar, this is how the evening works from the inside.

Live music in Orihuela Costa: the venue

The Abbey Tavern is a large Irish pub with a garden: palm trees, statues, a fountain, tables in the open air and a stage under a canopy with a “Música en vivo · Live music” sign. It is a familiar format for the south of the Costa Blanca. People come for dinner and stay for the music, rather than travelling specially for a concert. That is a different job from a wedding or a company party, where the programme is timed to the minute and the guests came for you.

On a night like this the musicians compete with conversation at the tables. If the sound is too quiet, the chatter on the terrace covers it; if it is too loud, people leave because they cannot hear each other. The right volume in a garden pub is a narrow corridor, and you only find it on site, by ear, once the room has filled. We set the sound for a full garden rather than an empty one, because people soak up the high frequencies, and what sounded harsh at the soundcheck sounds even later in the evening.

An audience that knows the songs by heart

The core of the room is British residents of the coast, mostly older, and that shapes the programme more than anything else. They recognise the world classics from the first bars and hear a wrong note in a familiar chorus at once.

So for an English-speaking audience we do not try to surprise anyone with rare material. International hits work, the kind you can name in two bars, with a tidy delivery: clean vocals, a tight rhythm section and no endless solos. Later in the night the programme gets heavier, with rock and dance classics, once the room is warm and some of the tables turn into a dance floor.

The line-up that holds the room

The band on stage was Royal Band, which plays international hits as a cover band. That night the line-up was vocals, guitar, bass, drums and keys, which for a pub is full but compact. A bigger band simply would not fit on that stage, and a smaller one would not give the weight an older audience expects.

Wind instruments are not part of the basic band, but a guest saxophonist can be added for a particular evening, and this is a case where the extra is audible at once. Outdoors a guitar line-up often sounds dry, because a garden has no walls to bounce the sound back and the middle of the sound disappears. A saxophone fills it with a live tone, with no processing.

Our own sound system on the stage

The equipment on this stage belongs to us. It is not a one-night hire and not the pub’s kit: we bring our own, set it up, tune it and take it away. The photo shows the working pair, an active Electro-Voice top on a Peavey subwoofer, with monitors, stands and cases beside it.

It matters because when a band plays through someone else’s system, the evening depends on the condition of that system that day: whether the cables are sound, whether one channel crackles, whether there are enough inputs for the whole line-up. Our own kit removes the question. We know every unit and carry spare cables and microphones, so if something fails mid-evening the replacement is already in a case behind the stage.

Set-up in daylight, while the terrace is empty

The kit goes up while it is still light, because building sound among the guests is awkward for everyone. Before the first customer sits down, everything is assembled, connected and tested, and the same rule applies at weddings.

What really spoils sound on an open terrace

A seaside venue has its own quirks, and almost none of them is about amplifier power.

• Humidity: evening air by the sea is damp, and it hits connectors, extension leads and cables lying on the tiles, which collect condensation overnight, so we lift power lines and move them away from the edges where moisture settles;
• Wind: it does not mute the speakers but it is heard in the microphones, and a gust into a vocal mic sounds like a dull thump, which is solved with a windshield and the angle of the microphone, not with volume;
• Neighbours: a garden venue is almost always surrounded by homes, so time and volume limits are real, and we aim the speakers at the tables, not up and not at the fence.

How a pub night differs from a private party

People often assume a cover band is universal: play the same programme and it works anywhere. In practice the difference is large, and it is not in the songs.

At a wedding the musicians work to a script of ceremony, first dance, toasts and cake, and must stop and start on the host’s cue. At a corporate event there is a formal part, after which the format changes sharply. A pub has no script at all: there is a room that fills and thins, and the band’s job is to hold the level all evening and sense when to lift the tempo and when to let people talk.

Booking live music for a bar or restaurant

If you run a bar, restaurant or pub on the coast, the logic is simple. A live evening raises the average bill and lengthens the time a guest stays, and a regular programme gives people a standing reason to come back.

What we need from the venue is a place for a stage or a level area, power nearby and an agreed set-up time. We bring the rest, including a platform if there is no stage. We talk about money in concrete figures once we know the format: how many evenings, which line-up, whether lighting is needed and whether you have your own system. There is no single price for everyone, and we do not like naming one at random.

If your venue already has a system, we say honestly which option is better. If it works and has enough inputs, we play on it, which is cheaper for you. If it is old, mixed together from different parts or built for background music, we bring our own, because a live drum kit eats all the headroom on a background system and the vocal starts to sink just when the room has warmed up. The same kit is also available separately through our sound and lighting hire.

Where else we play

Our base is Alicante and we work most densely in the south of the Costa Blanca: Torrevieja, Orihuela Costa, Benidorm, Elche, Calpe, Denia and Jávea. We go regularly to Valencia, Murcia and Cartagena, and take events in Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and Marbella. Every town we cover is listed on the cities page. If you are choosing between our cover bands, the cover bands page sets them side by side.

More of our work

• The CODART festival in Barcelona: a contest stage supplied with about two vehicles of kit;
• Finca Victoria Garden in Torrevieja: how a basic kit coped at a private celebration;
• The Girona wedding: turnkey technical support far from base;
• The Finestrat concert: a stage, a screen and a concert rider.

Frequently asked questions