With all the complaints (and I agree with most of them) about the live band/singers mangling up the music, does anybody know what the couples actually train to.

Does the band record its version for them or do they train to the original artists and then have to adapt to the band at the last minute ?

As far as I know, they rehearse to the original track until they got to the dress rehearsal.

loulabelle is right; the band themselves only run through the music a short while before the live show. I think it was Darren and Lilia's samba in season three where they found the band played the music faster than the version they had been practising to.

I wondered about a similar point ~ because they only dance for 1.5 minutes, there has to be some editing of the original track: verses are missed out, sections of the song are skipped etc. This is not a problem for the band when given the revised arrangement, but how does the pro get hold of a version of their chosen track edited in the correct places for rehearsal purposes?

If they dont have access to the final music it will be VERY difficult to finish and polish the dance!!

I'm sure Dave Arch can go as fast or slow as he is asked. but getting the length and tempo correct is absolutly essential!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JJ

I would guess at maybe the pros get given a list of the dances and the weeks they will be doing those dances before the show starts so they can go off and start making preperations (music, routines etc), so they probably have all their music edited down to the required time before they even start rehersals with their celebs. I'm sure the BBC sound department sorts that out for them!

Absolutely. It's not exactly difficult to edit the track in a studio, burn it, and give one to the dancers and one to the band. Stick a click track in Dave Arch's headphones for the performance, job done.

This is normal for all kinds of output, think any of the so-called "talent" shows (X Factor and so on). Fame Academy did a behind the scenes on it ages ago, and it was standard practice even then.

Here's a really interesting thread from last year that may help with your questions...

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...ight=dave+arch

post 12 onwards is by ncorners who is the bass player with the band (he wears a leather hat and you can see him behind Dave Arch). His posts are well worth a read.

There was an interview with Camilla in some women's mag I was reading where she was talking about having to get her final playlist in really early, which I guess'd back that up.