Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[musicology]

I think we all remember our elders saying to us that the music we listened to was awful. Oh no, we've turned into our parents!

[Corabar Steve]

Please keep this thread on topic, discussion of gigs only.

There is a whole section of the forum for musical discussion.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Firstly, Musicology.....My parents actually had really good taste (in my opinion) but I know where you're coming from.
On another note, what are they listening to up there in your neck of the woods? I'll be up there myself before the end of the year.

With all due respect, modern music is just as good as it's inspiration. I'm not a fan of fetty wap or Justin Bieber but I can see the reasons why others enjoy their offerings.

It's the ability to understand the tastes of others that allows us to be good at our jobs. Sometimes we need to take a look on the mirror (myself included)... I got a bit wound up the other week because guests kept asking for music I was not familiar with / really don't like (grime and garage), I shrugged it off ignored it and then again this weekend a few more requests of a similar nature... Yesterday I started learning about it ready for the next time and oddly enough I found some tracks I really enjoy now.

Right, let's start at the beginning eh! It's all about personal taste isn't it. If we all liked the same stuff it would be boring, especially in our line of work. It's a totally different generation...I understand that. I don't have to like it (and I don't) but I too understand that the examples I gave appeal to others.
I guess my Nan (r.i.p.) had the same thoughts about The Beatles, The Stones and David Bowie when my Mum was listening to them in her younger days. Likewise, my Mum probably thought the same when I started listening to the last etchings of Punk & New Wave and Gary Numan and the electronic stuff.

When you say "It's the ability to understand the tastes of others that allows us to be good at our jobs..." I think you're spot on actually. There's a whole lot of music out there that I may not like or know little or nothing about but I do as best I can. For example, you mentioned grime and garage. I was the same with dubstep when that appeared on the scene but I didn't ignore or shrug it off because it was (still is?) the thing that was getting requested a lot. I've never ignored anything just because I may not personally like it and I won't just download a bunch of songs of a particular genre and not listen to them before I go out on the road with them. I'll listen to them and see if they can be used elsewhere and not just at the booking they've been requested for....(if that makes sense?).

EDIT EDIT EDIT - Apologies Steve. I was typing when you must have posted.

[Corabar Steve]

EDIT EDIT EDIT - Apologies Steve. I was typing when you must have posted.

Bloody hell! How long did it take you to type the reply?!?!???

I was driving when you posted & had been for around an hour!

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Ha! Ha!

I wrote the reply, went to click on the 'submit reply' button but the door bell rang and I had a delivery. I forgot all about the post....oops!

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Long time no post on here.

Had an engagement party tonight in the west end which makes a nice change from weddings miles away.

Small hall, even smaller crowd and you're lucky if I had more than 8 dancing simultaneously all night - there was a group of 3 (2 girls and a guy) who were just going for it but everyone else was just sitting around chatting.

Instead of doing the usual " what should I try next to get them?" I kept chilled as I knew I was smashing the tunes (some ridiculous mash up and mixing went down that got some laughs and appreciation) and come the end of the night the bar staff, engagees (?) and all of the handful of guests who were left wouldn't give me peace telling me how good I was.

I had two guys force tips on me and they weren't even drunk.

All in a cracking night even though if anyone stuck their head in the door they'd have assumed it was a washout

Anyhoo I'm off to bed. Got some super exciting wedding venue viewing on the cards tomorrow

[Jennyg81]

I Agreed to Do a surprise 40th for a friend of mines Girlfriend , I was in in dated with requests off my friend everything from Jim Reeves to Speed garage and old skool R&B i had text after text with songs that where wanted so as you do i made sure i'd got all these songs well any way i put a list together using suggestions on here and other sites plus added in the songs that where requested, All started OK apart from 1hr in my laptop decided to go on a mad one and shut down awkward silence .... made a joke out of it rebooted and away i went , as the night went on my friend not the Birthday girl started get really picky with the music a song would come on that she had asked for then she'd say turn it off skip it, i ignored a lot of the demands and did explain i couldn't just keep stopping a song because she didn't like it well i continued playing requested songs people up dancing and again said friend wasn't happy started demanding a change i then went over to her and said that the birthday girl was dancing and that's all that matters" well the response at the top of her voice was"IT's MY PARTY Its all about me doesn't matter what everyone else wants well just then the music changed to a quieter song and everyone including the Birthday Girls Mum heard this then all of a sudden it was like a black cloud appeared over the dance floor everyone left the floor while said friend still demanded a change in music so gradually put one song i knew she liked on then went back to the reggae got everyone back up cloud slowly disappeared but there was still a major amount of tension in the room lightened the mood a little with some upbeat party songs then all was OK until someone came over to me from the other bar to ask for a card as they liked the music i was playing WELL it then kicked off again said friend got wrong end of stick and made a huge fuss on the dance floor sorted that then went and asked the bar staff if i could call last orders at 11:20 rather than 11:50 her reaction was priceless OMG she said yes call them now if you want(10:50) !!! it all seemed to calm down eventually
I got thanked by all party goers and congratulated on keeping my cool LOL said friend has recently asked if i could do there wedding next year but i think i may be washing my hair that night LOL so eventful night all round ..

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Last night I was at the hotel residency for the first of 2 nights over this weekend.
It was a 50th Birthday with a full on 80's playlist last night (I have 4 x 50th Birthday's with an 80's theme so far this year).
I couldn't have asked or wished for a better crowd. They were cracking! So many of them had requested some real classics before the event that the dance floor was busy all evening. The birthday boy was very happy and so were his guests and I shook a lot of hands at the end of the night.

It's nights like that where I could have easily played on for another hour, possibly two.

Tonight's booking at the hotel is a totally different ball game. It's an engagement party for a young couple and it's going to be a challenge because I am going into it 'blind' really. The impression I have been given is that one of the mother's has been very awkward about the whole booking. She wanted to bring in her own DJ originally but that DJ didn't have (or wasn't prepared to supply) PLI & PAT certificates.... So, that's a good start then. She's not got the DJ she wanted and has to "make do" with me (that's in quote marks because that's what she apparently said in her email)....

Next thing, I haven't met the couple, the mother....none of them. Would you believe that the mother refused a pre-function meeting!
She told me that she didn't think a meeting was necessary and she'd like it if I kept the music up to date and upbeat.....Yeah, that really helps a lot doesn't it!
By not having the meeting I haven't got to ask all the questions I would normally ask so I know nothing. It will be interesting and probably a long night too.

On the other hand......it could be a corker!.............fingers crossed!

[Excalibur]

All started OK apart from 1hr in my laptop decided to go on a mad one and shut down awkward silence .... made a joke out of it rebooted and away i went.

I got thanked by all party goers and congratulated on keeping my cool LOL said friend has recently asked if i could do there wedding next year but i think i may be washing my hair that night LOL so eventful night all round ..

Jenny, well done on keeping your cool. Two or three suggestions spring to mind, ( backup playout ready to go is one of them ) but they'll keep. We all have eventful nights from time to time.

It's nights like that where I could have easily played on for another hour, possibly two.

Hah! Hah!! And Hah again for good measure. You'll find out why shortly, but funny you should say that.
Re your gig tonight, sounds like you'll have to charm them with your professionalism and service. Often gigs which appear likely to head South beforehand can indeed turn out to be good, hope this one is. ( I'm expecting the Mum who wanted her own DJ to be hung off your neck come closing, telling you how glad she is that her DJ couldn't make it.)

Right, to my own. Well, it was nearly a classic. Nearly. 70th Birthday, and my remit was plenty of Rolling Stones, and dancey music from 60s to 80s, no rap. My kinda gig, eh? My van was on other duties, so I took the mini rig in the car, and curiously enough, it's a good job I did. Apparently, the Rugby Club is notorious for baffling Sat Navs. The trusty Tom Tom was in the van, so I used my phone through the car radio, which usually works well. It did so, until I got within a mile of the venue, then had a fit, froze, and told me I was now thirty miles away!!!

I parked up, entered the details into the car sat nav, and it said next right, and you're a few hundred yards away. It was correct, and just before I turned in, the phone chimed in with confirmation. Venue staff were impressed, as most folk don't find it, ending up on the wrong side of the railway line! This was a nearly new clubhouse, single storey with immaculate block paving up to the door. Lovely. Staff welcomed me, made me a coffee, and were lovely.

Guests arrived, and requests were few and far between. Dancing was sporadic, but responses to the ones they liked were ecstatic. I think I played about nine or ten Stones tracks, a load of classics, and joy of joy, nothing more modern than mid 90s ( I think )
At 11pm, guests started to wander off, and I'd only had around fifty to start with. I was booked till midnight, and at half past, the birthday boy's daughter approached, and with my experience of such things, I fully expected " wind it down, we're all cream crackered, great night".

Fat chance. I was gobsmacked when she asked if I would play past midnight. I was worried how I was going to get to midnight, let alone past it. Nevertheless, an extra half hour was agreed, and a fee negotiated. Lo and behold, the exodus speeded up, and the venue staff suggested fifteen minutes would be better. I agreed, and refunded the lady half the fee. Ended up playing to me, two guests and a barman.

Everybody was very happy and appreciative, so a result really. Tonight's is an anniversary, with early live performances from family members, a slide show and whatever else they throw at me.

[DJ Jules]

What a crazy weekend...

Friday night saw me at one of my favourite venues in Bristol for a surprise 30th party - a basement club below a hotel. Sounds less than amazing, but it's a great little cozy venue with a capacity of about 80 and the staff are great. Previous times I've used the venues DJ booth and either taken in my PA or occasionally they've had their own there. I took two PA's this time (RCF ART 422's and the HK Nano) as I wasn't quite decided if the HK would handle the room by itself. Turns out I shouldn't have bothered as since my last visit they've been buying a few bits and pieces. Firstly, they'd bought a sound limiter. Yay. Bizarrely the second purchase was a pair of RCF 705AS subs and a pair of 715 tops plus a 32 channel mixing desk and active monitors for bands. Luckily the limiter just turned off the sockets behind the bar and none of the my kit or the PA was plugged into that so it was actually just a handy way of measuring the sound levels at the other side of the room.

Anyway.... my PA stayed in the van and I didn't get the signal lights on either the tops or the subs to show all night without hitting the red on the limiter. Totally overkill, but the PA sounded awesome. I believe the tops were MK3 RCF and the subs were one version behind the latest and the subs were nicely balanced with the tops and didn't suffer from any of that usual band pass problem with peak notes.

On to the party. The guy had clearly spent a ton of money on this party with a photo booth, giant 30 letters and a massive chocolate fountain. 90 invited, 50 cancelled due to illness and the 40 that did turn up consisted of about 30 adults and 10 children. Booked for a 1:00am finish. I had a few dancers to some of the old Garage classics, but I was playing to 3 people by midnight. Called it a night at 12:30.


Last night was a wedding in a nicely done wedding barn about 30mins from my home. First time in the venue and another limiter! The caretaker was a practical guy though who let me plug everything apart from one speaker and a pair of uplighters into other sockets and I only tripped it once anyway with an announcement as apparently it's set at about 100db and the mic is built into the box which was about 3ft from the floor and about 3ft from the back of the room (and I put my speakers ahead of the limiter about 4ft from the back of the room ). The couple were "laid back" and couldn't find time to meet me in advance, but there's a fine line between "laid back" and "dis-organised". My brief - arrive at 4:30pm, set up while band play in other room from 5:00 - 6:00, start at 6:00, 6:30 first dance, 11:00pm finish. Turn up to find they're running an hour late and that the evening guests aren't set to arrive until 7:00. And the band has been scrapped. And the bar and music license both run until midnight. Um? Think they could have done with that planning meeting...

So.... Guests all gather in the main hall at the new time of 7:15 for the first dance and the mother of the bride approaches me and asks where the lighting effects are that they paid for. I point to the uplighting and she says, "no, the string lights on the ceiling, like in the picture". I twig what's happened immediately. When I answered their enquiry I sent them a photo of my rig in another venue that has string lights installed in a massive canopy above the room and somehow the couple have confused paying £60 for uplighting as an extra on their package with a £1200 set of suspended fairy lights. The clue is in the name... it's "uplighting". Tense moment while the mother of the bride explains to the couple what's happened and the guests fidget and I find more tracks to fill before I get the thumbs up for the first dance which all goes fine.

The rest of the night was not bad given the circumstances. One of the reasons for the delayed start was that a child had an accident earlier in the day which resulted in the child going to A&E in an ambulance and the whole family having to drive back home to Portsmouth early. Scratch 10 of the 40 guests. Then an additional 30 were supposed to turn up for the evening. I think they had about 15. To give them their dues though, I can count about 35 people in the final photo so a good number stayed on to the end - however, because they were doing really well I was expecting the groom to ask me to carry on until midnight (or cheers of more), and neither happened. So I was home by midnight

I have a feeling I'm going to get some kind of complaint from them this weekend though and I'd better contact all of the other bookings I've taken for later in the year off the back of the same venue photo, just in case anyone else expects me to string up 20,000 fairy lights on a 30ft wire frame in 90mins.

Julian