Eeeeeee.it's good to be back
Yup - my first gig of 2018 was a wedding....on a Wednesday night.
This was one of my more regular haunts, one of those which either rewards you with a very full dance floor or punishes you with only a handful of guests left by the end of the night (the last visit proved the latter with only a dozen left after the first dance).
This one was going to be different though.....we had a big surprise to pull off between us (and believe me...it's cost sleep!)
I took a call from the groom several weeks ago telling me of this surprise, and by the way I'll leave you to liaise with everyone else on how it's going to work.
Okey-dokey.
The surprise? Mrs Bride when younger was a backing singer for a Blues Brothers tribute act (can you see where this is going?) See the red flags? Wayne can!
Turns out the groom has managed to track these fella's down after a lot of detective work.
OK - telephone number of one of the "brothers" in hand I make a phone call. Turns out he's a really nice chap who's actually retired from doing the act in favour of being a wedding photographer....and a damned fine one to boot looking at his portfolio!
Arrangements were made that to keep the element of surprise and have as little additional kit as possible, he'd plug his mixer into one of the channels on my desk and I'd control the final levels. Until I arrived tonight and they're humping their own PA out of the back of the car....oh well.
So, a mass of speakers and a huge, ancient Carlsboro desk later, everything's in, my own kit included and we're standing watching our breath condense in the dance marquee. The idea is that Mr & Mrs will do their first dance and then somehow.....we need to do a big surprise reveal. Sounds simple, but things like props and mic stands were also involved and needed to kept hidden from view until the time was right.
Let's wheel in the official TOGs then. I have an idea. First dance over (it's a long one at 5 1/2 minutes and guests will naturally come onto the floor), let's do a group photo with the guests between the bride and the stage. What a stroke of genius (when the TOGs finally came around to the idea).
And you know what.....they did the shot, the intro to the Blues Brother's act came on their PA and I had a huge lump in my throat as Mrs Bride turned around and saw her old friends there in full get up....just ready to roll for one more time!
And they were good too!
There was only one problem.....'twas a tough crowd. 150 bodies were in tonight, 80 of them had been there all day and started "tucking in" at 10am. They may have peaked just a tad too early. As good as the tribute act was, getting anyone dancing was a real struggle.
Oh heck!
Finally they finish to rapturous applause and it's time for yours truly to take to the stage. No playlists of any kind (including what not to play)....it's open season :)
Except it never really got going. I had people on the floor all night, sometimes up to about 20, but nothing really got them throwing shapes. I had the inevitable nagging for Man's Not Hot (and you can guess what that did!).
When I say it never really got going....it did.....on the last song of the night :mad:
One very large gentleman was insisting I turned the last track off (despite this one being the groom's request) and play Summer of '69....or else. Sorry chap...no can do and there won't be "one more" either, because it's not allowed. I honestly thought he was going to flatten me. As are the rules of the house, I dutifully sent him off to find the DM (she was with several male staff so not all bad), who he then promptly called a hard nosed cow!
You just don't get the quality of guests anymore.
I seem to be getting busy again. I've got a last minute WMC gig on Saturday (could be "interesting"....I haven't done one of those since before I retired the last time round), and I've just secured a nice little brasserie '80s night for the following week for a nice price and very minimal kit! (and unlike the previous commentator, I'll be taking Maui 28s with me on that one because I know how to use them correctly :sofa:)
I know they were there...I could hear them breathing
OK - a break from the norm for me tonight. A last minute booking for a local-ish WMC.
It's been years since I've worked in one of these places (about 25 years in fact), but it was an empty date in the diary and the van's just cost a fortune to keep on the road for another year so hey-ho!
The brief, play the sort of music that'll get the members dancing.
Okey dokey....how hard can it be?
Well...it would have been a damned site easier if more than 20 turned up in a hall which will easily hold 5 times that number if not more.
Requests trickled in....all for :chzy::chzy: and at one point I had 6 people on the dance floor for a couple of tracks. :whiteflag:
To be fair, I had a couple of the younger ones (late 20's) ask why I wasn't there more often because they loved the "old school" stuff I was playing (I'm finding people are swaying more towards the older music again at the moment), and the management were very apologetic for the lack of guests. Apparently it's normally packed but there are two other sizeable halls in town and both of them had a DJ with various parties going on as well.
It was actually refreshing though. No strict playlists/do not playlists, lighting (including the Swarms which I dusted off before leaving home) on basic S2L master/slave mode all night and very relaxed....no pressure whatsoever. I even spent a good amount of time chatting to the people there during the evening.
Now to start planning next week's shenanigans in a very nice brasserie local to me who are hosting an 80s night next Saturday....that one's looking like a lot of fun :)