Erm.....what just happened?
Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned.....quite badly in fact.
Tonight was a party I'd been looking forward to for a while. A Ruby wedding anniversary using the Retro setup (because that's what they had back in the day after all).
It was somewhat marred by recent personal events as paid up members will know and did dent my enthusiasm somewhat (there were a LOT of SMS messages going backwards and forwards to home checking in).
Back to the gig....the brief was simple. It was a surprise (and it actually STAYED that way for once), so required a bit of coordination of guests, confetti shots and the like. Musically, 70s to 90s "party classics", with Motown added by the couple's daughter when I got there. Other than the happy couple's first dance song (Crystal Gayle Brown Eyes Blue), dad's all time fave (Apache by the Shadows....we used this as they entered) and mum's fave (Hey Girl by the Tams), the playlist was empty.
No problemo thinks I. I'd been promised a lot of dancing and set about cracking out what I consider to be the party classics as requested. Motown got a warmish response (not unusual these days), 70s hits such as EWF, Barry White and the BeeGees flopped, the 80s wasn't working either. Even the failsafe Queen of Dancing by the Swedish Quartet failed me! It was looking like a long night ahead as rear ends stayed well and truly glued to seats.
OK, S-Club 7 then. BOOM!
This was sadly followed by the likes of the Macarena and Saturday night. OK - I can handle this.
Followed by Dolly, Steps (several of them), More S-Club....can you see where this is going dear reader? See the warning signs.
And then.....the requests came in aplenty. By classics they actually meant (deep breath), Agadoo, Superman, YMCA, The Cha Cha Slide, The Conga, The Music Man, The Hokey Cokey, The Can Can.....need I go on?
Each and every time I dropped a new one in (for there's no way of mixing this stuff), the floor was rammed. They lapped up every single ounce of fully-matured cheddar I could throw over the PA.
Do you know what though? As cringeworthy as it was to be playing those songs, that's what they wanted and it's what made the party. It worked, and worked an absolute treat. Plenty of guests singing their hearts out to Delilah and Sweet Caroline at the allotted end time and a round of applause for yours truly affirmed that I'd done a good job.
It's not always about the music we like, and it's never about playing the same tried and tested tracks week in, week out.
Next week, back to weddings. Guess what....the playlist I've been given by the bride actually looks very similar to tonight....eeek!