PROM

Hi Ladies and Gents

So the DJ gods have seen fit to book me for 3 school proms next week and I thought I should do some prep.

My experience of such occasions tells me the order of the day is modern dance music and chart hits for upto 90 mins then play it by ear (if you have an audience left that hasn't slunk away for prom parties with alcohol).

Now I do mix and like a flow to proceedings with an increase and decrease in tempo (bpm) so have put together the following list for your perusal, comments and thoughts.

We did a prom for school leavers last year and was the best gig of the year!

From the first track (Fatman scoop - Be Faithful) to the very last the floor was rammed and they kept getting louder and louder.

Loads of Kisstory style tracks, 90s, early 00s go down a treat. The list you've got so far looks pretty much spot on.

We're back at the same prom in two weeks and can't wait!

Honestly, the playlist looks tame to me, quite a few of those tracks are ones that I'd consider warmup material (Mabel for one).

As others have said elsewhere, music tastes seem to be getting broader with the younger generations and kisstory style classics go down well. I've got a prom tomorrow night for a bunch who will have an average age of 21 and the playlist covers every year since their birth and quite a few from before they were born (last track of the night : Come on Eileen!)

I'd be very surprised if they stuck to just chart, but let us know how it goes :)

Julian

That is only the first 80 mins and not set in stone.

I will freelance from then on and have some requests to play already.

I find proms a very mixed bag. Mostly in my neck of the woods though the music requests can make it more like a very generic WEDDING DISCO than a young adults shindig. More is the pity :(. They do actually request new & upcoming tracks but when those are played the people default to staring at their phones. The real engagement happens, and this is where it gets LIT.. tends to be where I'm free running, whipping them into a frenzy with 'proper' danceable classics (00s onwards typically - which I still find odd.. I don't like much music that's older than me) . All radio edits of course, for the teachers' sensibilities only. What's the point playing sanitised edits when you've literally got 100 kids yelling the replaced lyrics at the very top of their lungs? :rofl:

Playing a prom can be a life affirming experience. They're probably not the hardest crowds to nail, but make no bones about it they won't dance politely to something til the next banger comes along. I tend to be a lot more vocal at proms than usual gigs, encouraging plenty of interaction using their school name... I often use fx & samples too (yes sometimes even air horn).. I even go to the extreme of making little premixes occasionally.. Minimixes that are slightly too complex to pull off live.. One that sticks in my mind was a mashup of a monta tune with an acapella of Let It Go, which took in mid 90s fast dance tunes (CoTN, forever young etc).. That got me the biggest ovation I've ever had in my life. At the end the kids filed out the rear door of the venue, so I nipped out the front for a quick smoke.. Little did I know they were headed that way. What followed was me chucking the cig away as a line of kids formed waiting to fist bump or shake my hand to thank me. Almost 100 of them for chrissakes.. I was flying for DAYS after.

So good luck & I hope you get the same reaction I did!

For what it's worth, I've not managed to top that one yet but I'm hoping this year's proms will...

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Originally Posted by Nakatomi

IWhat followed was me chucking the cig away as a line of kids formed waiting to fist bump or shake my hand to thank me. Almost 100 of them for chrissakes.. I was flying for DAYS after.

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Forget the money - it's always those moments that make this job worth doing!

That 'feeling' you get when everything comes together, just cannot be matched!

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Originally Posted by rth_discos

Forget the money - it's always those moments that make this job worth doing!

That 'feeling' you get when everything comes together, just cannot be matched!

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That particular school were from a part of town you might describe as the wrong side of the tracks but you know, I don't think I've ever met a more polite, appreciative crowd.

Anyway whatever your preconceptions are, leave them at the door. The last prom I played was last year at a fee paying school & in spite of being accused of being racist a couple of times (asking kids to get down off the stage, and for playing censored tracks) once 'N' in Paris (well the theme WAS Moulin Rouge lol) dropped (looped intro over Drake track if you must know) it REALLY got off the hook to the point I feared for the integrity of the marquee :lol:

Yeah the racism accusations were a pretty low blow. "please. Get down off the stage. You can't dance up here"... "is it becuz I is black?" came a response. My retort.. "seriously. Are you even gonna go there? No! It's because it's already wobbling like hell & we don't want to break it". Now, get back down & help break the marquee floor.

Requests came in for early 00s hip hop.. I struggled finding radio edits as it was but being accused of racism again really got my goat. I ended up telling the lad if he pulled that on me again I was going to pack up. "just havin a bit of fun wif ya mate" he said. Chuh, right. Pfft.

And just when it got REALLY good a teacher decided to call time on it & in a snap everybody filed out.

That brings me to another point.. Make sure you've got a definitive finish time. I know you'll be booked til whatever time but I've been derailed by teachers keen to get away more than once, almost depriving the event of the kind of ending it deserves. Nail down the ending time & play to that. If you're booked til 11, make sure as hell that's when you'll be finishing, cos having a plan to build & explode at 11 is all well & good til a spoilsport yells at you to cut the music off at 10:45. I tell the organisers to keep me in the loop & give me some notice now. Most are nicely laid back, but even at a trouble free prom some of the chaperones are too keen to get everyone out before the official finish time.

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Originally Posted by Nakatomi

All radio edits of course, for the teachers' sensibilities only. What's the point playing sanitised edits when you've literally got 100 kids yelling the replaced lyrics at the very top of their lungs? :rofl:

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I teach when not being a superstar DJ and unfortunately we're legally bound by duty of care to the kids which is pretty vague but basically anything that could negatively affect them, we're hardwired to avoid like the plague, regardless of the fact the kids are totally unfazed by it.

I work in ASN just now so it's a lot different but I spent years in mainstream:

Do I know they go out drinking at the weekend? Yes, have I grassed a pupil up when I've been in the same pub and I know they're under 18? Yes

Do I know they're sleeping around, sending nudes to each other etc...? Yes, but I'm not going to stick on Eyes Wide Shut when it comes to DVD season.

Do I know the kids all swear like :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored:? Uh huh, doen't mean I'm going to play songs laden with profanities at a prom.

It only takes 1 parent to get their nose out of joint and you've got a tonne of :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored: falling on top of you. Just this week a school in Perth is all over the papers because one of their leavers did a speech at graduation where he made crude remarks about his peers 'banging on' with their studies, 'getting the finger in instead of out' etc... Have the kids all been :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored:ing about at parties? clearly, is this what the parent has taken umbridge at? No, it's the school for letting a kid make some underhanded remarks about it....