Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Excalibur]

A sort of twofer one.

Don't be late:
I sneaked in a midweek ( Valentine's Day ) wedding. Low budget affair in a WMC, low numbers. ( The low numbers seems to be a recurring theme lately, as you will see ). Being as it was an early start ( 5pm ) in an unfamiliar venue, I was there a good hour and a half before kick off. Venue was open, access was good, and staff were helpful, so all good. The small wedding rig is one of the quicker ones to deal with, and I'd got the speakers and booth up and lights on poles, when people started arriving over an hour early!

Seems photos were really quick, and everyone would be here soon. I concentrated on getting music playing, and then dealt with lights. Less than thirty bodies of all ages, we leant towards Cheese somewhat, but with some Rock and other styles as well. Having started early, we also finished early, with happy guests and requests for cards.

Saturday saw me heading for Driffield, to one of Mr Jackson's venues. He was nearby for a wedding, and the cunning plan was to both get set up early, and then have a look at my playout laptop and controller, which have been throwing up software issues lately.
You know what they say about the best laid schemes of mice and men? They gang aft agley. Dave's much vaunted Gigbar turned its toes up before it had started, delaying him returning home. My laptop repairs proved " problematical " so both of us were on the back foot, but relieved that we were both set up already.

Adapt and overcome:
Dave took more par cans back with him, and was kind enough to lend me a hard drive configured for Engine DJ, the Denon OS. With this plugged into the Prime, and my Surface tablet with one of my spare drives, I had a viable playout and mission control. A 75th Birthday with just over twenty people shouldn't be too testing, and it wasn't. Lots of The Usual Suspects and a few other mainstream song requests meant it was a decent night, if short on bodies. Seems Dave had a similar amount at his wedding, so low numbers everywhere.

Overall, a successful evening, thanks to resourcefulness and helpful colleagues. Thanks Dave, much appreciated.

As an aside, at my gig I had young adults coming up with phones to request songs, which I like. The first couple were no problem, but " Lick The Lizard- Rusko and Reso " led to some dispute. Tidal came up with it, no problem, and on listening to it to check, it was a bit of Drum and Bass. As I'd just lost the floor, I decided to give it a bash and guess what?

" It's not this one".

Panto time- " Oh yes it is". Every version I found was indeed Drum and Bass, so unless you lot know of a Country and Western version, Reggae version, or similar, I think I was right. Guest didn't offer a correct version, so that backs me up.

[Nakatomi]

A bit of a different kind of wedding to the norm for me. My client was so laid back as to be nearly horizontal & she trusted me to be able to wing it with whatever came my way. When I saw what the first dance was I thought it was going to be an interesting night. I wasn't wrong.

Soon after the 1st dance the bride & groom requested a few songs, one Tiresas Rasputin, then Green Jelly - 3 Little Pigs & a couple from Ghost. These went down a storm & between guest requests I was filling the gaps with (mostly) appropriate bangers from the same stable.

We had some of the usual wedding suspects too but not too many. Requests dried up for a while I was almost out of ideas til I remembered I'd loaded my sidelist with some food for thought earlier on.

In there I'd shoved RATM, Enter Sandman, Chop Suey, Faith No More Epic, stuff like that. It all came out & a lot of folk had a good old mosh. The penultimate tune of the night was One by Metallica, which had the groomsmen doing aeroplanes around the room to the gentle intro section. I decided it'd be fitting to end the night by reprising the first dance which had everyone on the floor with the couple.

Result: a very happy customer & appreciative guests.

[Imagine]

Second wedding of the year in a venue I'm more than familiar with and having compiled the playlist during the week, was thoroughly looking forward to.

However, the rules of engagement at the venue appear to have been "tweaked" a little. I was taken aside as I walked through the front door and told in no uncertain terms that music must end at 11:45 sharp. 11:46 doesn't cut it - we'll cut your power. Ooooh....harsh! Is the bride aware of this? Is she heck as like (cue me and bridey talking this one through with the coordinator....I like everyone to be on the same sheet!).

On to the party. It's a small venue but it was absolutely rammed. A good contingent had managed to sneak over Hadrian's wall for this one as could be seen by the number of lads in skirts. This was getting better and better. You bet your life Runrig got a little airing whilst I snuck out for a crafty ciggy

Got cracking on a playlist of mainly 80s,90s and clubland stuff.....all to a great reception. There was also a lot of Abba on the list which sort of bombed...unusual in these parts. Sadly the Macarena filled the floor

Ended the night to calls for that Spanish chap again which were quickly hushed, and had a chat with the groom who gave me some interesting advice which I'll put into members. It was a bit insightful as to how couples choose their suppliers though....

All in all, brilliant night and keeps the scoresheet at 100% positive so far

Next up - midweek school disco

[Nakatomi]

A wedding last Friday night with, it'd not be unfair to say, a bunch of scallywags in a nice venue.

My remit was fairly easy on paper. 21 pre requested tunes & a tip I'd need to play some NS and clubland later.

One of the groom's friends asked me to get on the mic & say "well done to everyone who made it from Newton Aycliffe to get to this craphole". Note he didn't say craphole. His version was much stronger. I declined.

With the tone well & truly set, come 9.30 the groom came baying for clubland. I sighed & off we went on a 140-170bpm merry go round for the next 90 minutes. Guests began to leave in droves at 9.45 & numbers weren't great by 11, with an hour left to go

Requests from guests were all for tunes I'd already played. One, Stick Season had to come out 3 times, for it was "the soundtrack of the stag do".

I went to the loo & saw multiple small empty polythene bags on the floor which probably explained a lot.

The bride thanked me at the end. "It's been fun" I lied.

It'd probably have helped if I didn't have a stinking cold mind...

[DJ Jules]

Wedding season seems to be back in full swing for me - 2 the week before last, 3 last week and another 3 this week. The last few I've had have been refreshing in that the couples have followed my recommendations and provided their favourite 10-20 songs (and separated out guest requests from their own requests where they've provided them) which means I've had a much smaller list of music to start from than some of the weddings I had towards the end of last year and early this year with more music than I could physically fit into the night.

In short, for the last few weddings I've actually had to think about what music I'm going to play, rather than just spending the night working out what play next from the list. It's actually been quite a welcome change and the nights have gone much better for it (even with only 24 guests in attendance on a Thursday night!)

Tomorrow night's wedding has 5 hours of music on the list for the 4 hour performance so we're back to the normal process of spending the night cherry picking from the playlist...

Oh, also somewhat refreshing, I picked up the wrong stand bag for a gig last week and had to use black speaker stands without scrims instead of the usual white stands/white scrims combo. No one died. No complaints. I'd go as far as to say that no-one noticed the difference... I'm still considering switching to Gravity stands or adding another pair of podiums for my PA. But now I might not bother

Julian

[Nakatomi]

A change from the norm on Friday - an 18th birthday party at my favourite castle in all the land.. No request list, just an easy-going customer who said as long as there's not loads of heavy rock we're good. A lot of repetition called for in this one - the birthday girl just loves Murder On The Dancefloor & her dad seems to like George Michael's Flawless.

I had to laugh when I was playing background music as the guests arrived though. I put on a long remix of Gladys Night & The Pips Bourgie Bourgie so I could nip outside - on getting back to the room the birthday girl collared me & asked if I could play this again later - it's her favourite song. Talk about reading the room

Then Saturday night wedding number five hundred and oh who's counting anyway.. which went down a bit like this:

Key: BR - bride request. R - request.

18:00:00	Gladys Knight & The Pips	Bourgie', Bourgie'	120
18:06:00	Chic	Good Times	117
18:10:00	Michael Jackson	Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (Nick* Disco Redux)	120
18:16:00	Jess Glynne	Rather Be	121	1st Dance
18:20:00	I Got U	Duke Dumont Feat. Jax Jones	120.8	2nd Dance
18:24:00	Thin Lizzy	Dancing In The Moonlight	145.2	Parents of Bride Dance
18:27:00	Diana Ross & Lionel Richie	Endless Love	93.6	Parents of Groom Dance
18:30:00	Sister Sledge	We Are Family	115.8	BR
18:34:00	Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars	Uptown Funk	115	BR
18:38:00	Whitney Houston	I Wanna Dance With Somebody	118.9	BR
18:43:00	human league	don't you want me juski edit	120	BR
18:46:00	Michael Jackson	Billie Jean	117.2	BR
18:50:00	Wham!	Everything She Wants	114.9	BR
18:56:00	Eurythmics	Sweet Dreams Juski Edit	125
19:00:00	Major Lazer x DJ Snake feat. MØ	Lean On	98	BR
19:03:00	Miley Cyrus	Party In The U.S.A.	96
19:06:00	Two Door Cinema Club	Are We Ready Wreck	94.1	BR
19:10:00	Backstreet Boys	Everybody (Backstreet's Back)	108
19:13:00	Busted	Year 3000 Juski Edit	108
19:16:00	Will Smith	Miami	108.2	BR
19:19:00	Destiny's Child	Bootylicious	103.4
19:22:00	Rema & Selena Gomez	Calm Down	107	BR
19:26:00	Shakira	Hips Don't Lie Juski Edit	105	BR
19:30:00	Kevin Lyttle	Turn Me On	106.3
19:33:00	Abba	Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)	119.6
19:37:00	Earth, Wind & Fire	September Juski Edit	124	BR
19:40:00	Velvelettes	Needle In A Haystack	153.9	R
19:42:00	The Supremes	You Can't Hurry Love	97.1
19:45:00	Tina Turner	Proud Mary	85.2	BR
19:50:00	Culture Club	Karma Chameleon	91.9	BR
19:54:00	Wham!	Wake Me Up Before You Go Go	81.3	BR
19:57:00	MeatLoaf	Paradise By The Dashboard Light	83.6	R
20:05:00	Queen	Don't Stop Me Now [2011 Remaster]	156.5	BR
20:08:00	Sophie Ellis Bextor	Murder on the Dancefloor	117.3
20:11:00	Shakira	Waka Waka This Time For Africa	127	BR
20:14:00	Cher	Believe (Single Mix)	133
20:18:00	Gala	Freed From Desire (full vocal mix)	129	BR
20:20:00	SNAP!	Rhythm Is A Dancer (Radio Edit)	124.3
20:23:00	Livin Joy	Dreamer	127.4
20:26:00	Paul Johnson	Get Get Down	128
20:27:00	Eric Prydz	Call On Me	128.2	BR
20:28:00	Majestic x Boney M	Rasputin	128	BR
20:31:00	Kungs & Cookin' On 3 Burners	This Girl (Kungs vs Cookin' On 3 Burners) [Extended]	122	BR
20:34:00	Depeche Mode	Just Can't Get Enough	128.1	BR
20:37:00	Kevin Rowland & Dexys Midnight Runners	Come On Eileen	106.7	R
20:41:00	The Smiths	This Charming Man	104	BR
20:44:00	Arctic Monkeys	I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor	103	BR
20:46:00	Bloc Party	Helicopter	85	BR
20:50:00	Jimmy Eat World	The Middle	81.1	BR
20:53:00	Stereophonics	Dakota	147	R
20:57:00	The Bravery	An Honest Mistake	140	BR
21:01:00	The Killers	Mr. Brightside	148
21:04:00	The Fratellis	Chelsea Dagger	154.6
21:08:00	Blink	All the Small Things	148.6
21:11:00	Fountains Of Wayne	Stacy's Mom	118
21:14:00	Smash Mouth	All Star	104
21:16:00	Los Del Rio	Macarena	103.2	BR
21:20:00	Whigfield	Saturday Night	130	BR
21:24:00	David Guetta feat Sia	Titanium Juski Edit	126	R
21:28:00	Britney Spears	Womanizer	139	BR
21:31:00	Britney Spears	Toxic Juski Edit	143
21:35:00	Ginuwine	Pony	142
21:36:00	Usher	Yeah Juski Edit	105
21:37:00	Fatman Scoop	Be Faithful juski edit DIRTY	101
21:39:00	Panjabi Mc	Mundian To Bach Ke	98.1
21:39:00	Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince	Boom Shake the Room	99.9
21:40:00	Gwen Stefani	Hollaback girl	110
21:43:00	Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome	Dance Wiv Me	112	R
21:46:00	Ronson & Winehouse	Valerie Juski Edit	108	R
21:49:00	Steps	5, 6, 7, 8	140	BR
21:53:00	CamelPhat X Cristoph f./ Jem Cooke	Breathe (Radio Edit)	125
21:56:00	Rui Da Silva Featuring Cassandra	Touch Me	130.5	R
21:59:00	Lana Del Rey	Summertime Sadness (Cedric Gervais Remix / Radio Edit)	126	BR
22:01:00	CamelPhat & Elderbrook	Cola (Club Mix)	122
22:04:00	Fisher	Losing It	125	R
22:07:00	99 Souls	The Girl Is Mine	124
22:09:00	ATB	9PM (Till I Come)	130.2	BR
22:13:00	Calvin Harris	Summer (Radio Edit)	128	R
22:16:00	Philip George	Wish You Were Mine	123	BR
22:18:00	Swedish House Mafia ft. John Martin	Don't You Worry Child	129	R
22:21:00	Benny Benassi/Chris Brown	Beautiful People	128
22:25:00	Pitbull Featuring Ne	Give Me Everything	129
22:28:00	Chris Brown	Yeah 3x Juski Edit	130
22:31:00	David Guetta Feat. Kelly Rowland	When Love Takes Over	130
22:33:00	Rihanna	We Found Love (Album Version) [Feat. Calvin Harris]	128
22:36:00	The Black Eyed Peas	I Gotta Feeling	128	R
22:40:00	LMFAO	Sexy And I Know It	130
22:42:00	Pitbull ft Keisha	Timber Juski Edit	130
22:44:00	Pitbull Ft John Ryan	Fireball (Tony Franco Remix)	128
22:47:00	Rihanna	Only Girl	126
22:51:00	Wilkinson	Afterglow	87	BR
22:54:00	DJ Fresh feat. Rita Ora	Hot Right Now	87.5
22:56:00	High Contrast	Remind Me	86.5
22:57:00	Chase & Status, Bou, Irah, Flowdan, Trigga, Takura	Baddadan	87.5	BR
23:00:00	Becky Hill, Chase & Status	Disconnect	87.5
23:02:00	Chase & Status	Mixed Emotions	87.5	BR
23:05:00	Blackstreet feat. Dr. Dre	No Diggity	88.7	BR
23:08:00	Tupac	California Love Juski Edit	96	BR
23:12:00	Lil Jon & The Eastside Boyz	Get Low (feat. Ying Yang Twins)	101	R
23:15:00	Ice Cube ft Ms Toi	You Can Do It Juski Edit	102
23:17:00	Khia	My Neck My Back Lick It Explicit .314459	102.1
23:17:00	Shaggy	It Wasn't Me	94.7
23:20:00	OPM	Heaven Is A Hallpipe	95.9
23:22:00	The Coral	Dreaming Of You	99.5
23:24:00	Sum41	Fat lip	98.1	BR
23:27:00	Good Charlotte	Lifestyles Of The Rich & Famous	106.3
23:30:00	Jimmy Eat World	Sweetness	135.2	BR
23:34:00	Kings Of Leon	Sex On Fire	153.3
23:37:00	Robin Schulz	Sugar feat. Francesco Yates	123	BR
23:41:00	Disclosure Feat. Eliza Doolittle	You & Me	130
23:45:00	Katy B	Katy on a Mission	140	R
23:48:00	Sigma	Nobody To Love	87.5
23:51:00	Pendulum	Propane Nightmares	87
23:54:00	Sigma	Changing (feat. Paloma Faith)	85.5
23:59:00	Jess Glynne	Rather Be	121	1st Dance

The observant will notice that some tunes don't stay on very long. Or they stay on juuust long enough. You be the judge