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Thread: Good Gig, Bad Gig.

  1. #5161

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    Quote Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
    Fortunately for me, as the venue was a Village Hall, there was a big sign on the wall behind me, stating in capital letters that on Saturdays, entertainment must end at Midnight. Since I had statute, a big sign, and the off switch on my side, my argument prevailed.
    That reminds me of the village hall in my home village in Somerset. They have a similar sign saying that entertainment must end at 11.45. What they don't tell you is that the caretaker will switch the power off to the stage sockets at 1145 and 1 second, thus plunging the room into silence and darkness, before flooding the place with a million suns.

    Then he huffs and puffs while you struggle to get packed up and out (via a small set of stairs and two doors, politely giving you a hand when he's finished, by carrying everything he can out for you and dumping it in the car park.

  2. #5162
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Default Great night, sad reason.

    I'm well used to covering gigs where the DJ has cancelled for various spurious reasons, but last night was the first time I've done it because the DJ had died! Local(ish) lad, just over 50 years old, and one of our members had spoken to him only hours before. So, I'm the stand in, and in many ways, I get a completely wrong impression of the client and family. Sometimes, email doesn't give the correct picture.

    Anyway, I enlisted the invaluable help of a native guide, the splendid John Brown, aka Twinspin. There are two venues opposite each other, now with virtually identical names. I know the one we were at by another name, and once we walked in, John was treated like long lost family by the staff, who were wonderful.

    It was a 21st, and we'd been asked for UV lighting, so three Hadrons on UV, one borrowed UV bar, and two puny UV cans provided comfortably enough output to make lots of things glow nicely. Guests had gone overboard on costumes, it was very impressive. We had a playlist, which was nicely varied, and very workable for an audience with all ages. The clients were lovely people, the guests were equally nice, and the whole thing was very enjoyable for all concerned, yet still tinged with sadness.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

    www.excaliburmobiledisco.co.uk

  3. #5163
    mark@pegasus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
    I'm well used to covering gigs where the DJ has cancelled for various spurious reasons, but last night was the first time I've done it because the DJ had died! Local(ish) lad, just over 50 years old, and one of our members had spoken to him only hours before. So, I'm the stand in, and in many ways, I get a completely wrong impression of the client and family. Sometimes, email doesn't give the correct picture.
    A local DJ to me passed away at the beginning of the year (only 42) and I have been asked to cover some of his gigs. You just never know when it's your time
    Last edited by Excalibur; 27-01-2020 at 04:35 PM. Reason: Fixed quote

  4. #5164
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Default Bumper Bundle.

    Blimey, I've been remiss in recounting tales of my travels, exploits and triumphs, so let's have a good old catch up. Cuppa and choccy biccy time for you, I reckon.

    1st February: Should have been a rescheduled FFN gig, but they'd failed to sell enough tickets for a second time, so the cancellation policy meant a night off for me, with nearly full pay. Sweetens the pill somewhat. Jeanette and I made the most of an unaccustomed night off, and went to the pictures. I can heartily recommend Richard Jewell, excellent film.

    8th February: Serendipity strikes again. A DJ on Facebook had a friend who would have booked him, had he been available, so a gig popped up, and my hat was thrown into the ring. Client liked my sales pitch, so off I go to a Rugby Club not a million miles from me, with absolutely lovely staff. Small venue, small PA ( Two RCF 710s ) small crowd. Not many requests or dancers, but client was very happy indeed with my performance, so job done. The buffet was a delivery of Pizzas, which I was urged to partake of, a fiver tip, and an early finish meant I was a happy bunny as well, despite the howling gale and driving rain of Storm Ciara while I was packing up.

    15th February: Facebook, Sid, and a Phoenix. The Phoenix is the Phoenix Players, from Harrogate. Every year they put on a musical, and have a dinner to mark the end of the run. Despite having quoted for a couple of gigs on that date, I would not have been working, until the players rang up to see if I was available, so that was eagerly snapped up. It's a Golf Club I've worked before, very reasonable load in, especially if you're in the restaurant, which is closer, and smaller than the function room. I'd decided to travel light, so one Maui 5 GO was the PA, lighting was two bars and one Kaleido, and I only took the small booth and a single radio mic, as opposed to the huge wheeled flightcase containing DMX controllers, multiple radio mics and power outlets.

    This year, they had done " Fame", so the soundtrack to the musical got a hammering, while they showed off the routines they had done many times already. With a meal and speeches first, and a crowd of party animals, I couldn't fail. Praise was forthcoming from venue manager early on, who was impressed with the sound of the Maui ( as was I. I realised why I loved them so much previously. I'm saving up for the second one now), guests as I finished, and a second round of praise from the manager, who asked for a card, because I was " so much better than some of the discos they'd had". I know, damned with faint praise, but at my age, I'll take it.

    But where does Sid come in, you're wondering, aren't you? Well, during the meal, I was checking Facebook, and lo and behold a cry for help goes up. Help, we need a DJ. No real explanation, except as far as I can see, it's the one I'd quoted for. And so had three other DJs. And still they ended up without one. We are guessing that presumably, the low cost Disco they found was a no show. It's a valid hypothesis. Anyway, somebody covered it, I know no more.

    The next coincidence? I've just taken a diary filler from a colleague in the West Riding. Where is it? Well, only the venue with a no show last week!

    Right, off to bed for me, time for my tablets, and a mug of hot milk.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

    www.excaliburmobiledisco.co.uk

  5. #5165
    Imagine's Avatar
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    Default Getting back into the swing of things....

    This weekend, just a kid's party for me.

    Whilst most that I know would baulk at the idea of entertaining 30, highly energised 6 year olds, I'm actually getting back into the swing of these very nicely. After all, where else these days can you get away with dancing to Macarena, Superman, Cha Cha Slide and the Hokey Cokey, AND actually be allowed to USE A MICROPHONE!?!?!?

    I had given up doing parties for the littler ones a couple of years ago, but needs must and due to missing a lot of wedding bookings for this year when the enquiries came in due to not knowing about the better half's health, I started doing them again.

    My magic formula for these still works, and appears to work very well looking at the rave review I got from the lad's mother and the number of business cards I gave out at the end . By all accounts, my competitors prefer to stand in the corner and play loud music whilst flashing a lot of lights. I'm a little more energetic than that, and apparently games and indoor snow at a kid's party is a first for this particular group!

    What I really need to look at is how they're getting the same price as me for doing very little....and whether I can justify a slightly higher cost for doing what I do (I know specialist kids entertainers charging £225 for 2 hours against my £185)......food for thought....

    And do you know what? Acting like a big kid for a couple of hours absolutely suited me to the ground. Yes, I'd need to do around 4 in a weekend to make ends meet, but I'm starting to think I might like to do a lot more of these. And with the setup I use for these parties only taking 15 minutes at each end to get in and out....what's not to like?

    Next week, the first wedding of 2020

  6. #5166
    Pazz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Imagine View Post
    This weekend, just a kid's party for me.

    Whilst most that I know would baulk at the idea of entertaining 30, highly energised 6 year olds, I'm actually getting back into the swing of these very nicely. After all, where else these days can you get away with dancing to Macarena, Superman, Cha Cha Slide and the Hokey Cokey, AND actually be allowed to USE A MICROPHONE!?!?!?

    I had given up doing parties for the littler ones a couple of years ago, but needs must and due to missing a lot of wedding bookings for this year when the enquiries came in due to not knowing about the better half's health, I started doing them again.

    My magic formula for these still works, and appears to work very well looking at the rave review I got from the lad's mother and the number of business cards I gave out at the end . By all accounts, my competitors prefer to stand in the corner and play loud music whilst flashing a lot of lights. I'm a little more energetic than that, and apparently games and indoor snow at a kid's party is a first for this particular group!

    What I really need to look at is how they're getting the same price as me for doing very little....and whether I can justify a slightly higher cost for doing what I do (I know specialist kids entertainers charging £225 for 2 hours against my £185)......food for thought....

    And do you know what? Acting like a big kid for a couple of hours absolutely suited me to the ground. Yes, I'd need to do around 4 in a weekend to make ends meet, but I'm starting to think I might like to do a lot more of these. And with the setup I use for these parties only taking 15 minutes at each end to get in and out....what's not to like?

    Next week, the first wedding of 2020
    It's great to hear that you are getting success with the children's disco parties. I remember doing a lot of the entertaining for this type of stuff with the party dances, games and prizes back before I took a break from the discos. Even though they were sort of the bread and butter booking with a similar formula used for each event (like yourself) I did get a bit fed up of them. It was a bit difficult then to consider turning bookings down with things being so popular. Just like you I interacted with everyone and so got a lot of these type of bookings (through word of mouth and being seen). To be honest I can't imagine how a dj could just stand in a corner for these type of events.

    I still need to decide whether I should take these type of bookings on when I eventually get fully setup again - in fact as I'm keen to improve my dj skills I might be more inclined to take 18th, 21st birthdays and other events that include some dance, rnb and hip hop music where there would be more of an opportunity to to put my skills to the test. Saying this I am undecided though and given my past success at children's party events it might be stupid to cut off my nose to spite my face.

    You mention some of the old party dance songs above that you are including (just like I did several years ago now) - I would be interested to know what ones are currently the most popular for children's discos these days - are there any other more modern tracks since the days of Macarena, Cha Cha Slide, Crazy Frog, Saturday Night etc that you tend to play in many of these events?
    CP RIGARRAY MOBILE DISCOS

  7. #5167

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pazz View Post
    You mention some of the old party dance songs above that you are including (just like I did several years ago now) - I would be interested to know what ones are currently the most popular for children's discos these days - are there any other more modern tracks since the days of Macarena, Cha Cha Slide, Crazy Frog, Saturday Night etc that you tend to play in many of these events?
    Silento - Watch Me
    Zay Hilfigerrr & Zayion McCall - Juju On That Beat

    Both songs with moves. Ten and above will know them. Works great for teens.

    Baby Shark for younger ones
    www.retrodisco.co.uk Mobile Disco and 80s Night Specialists, Devon

  8. #5168
    Imagine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Retrodisco View Post
    Silento - Watch Me
    Zay Hilfigerrr & Zayion McCall - Juju On That Beat

    Both songs with moves. Ten and above will know them. Works great for teens.

    Baby Shark for younger ones
    ^^^ Wot he said.

    Plus there's a couple which have come out of the Haven holiday parks recently such as ChuChuWa and Choco-latte. Other than that, they still know the old ones

  9. #5169

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    Quote Originally Posted by Imagine View Post
    ^^^ Wot he said.

    Plus there's a couple which have come out of the Haven holiday parks recently such as ChuChuWa and Choco-latte. Other than that, they still know the old ones
    Recently? Only like about 5 years ago or more

    We've stopped going. Neither I or my kids can stomach the 'entertainment' for long.

  10. #5170

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    A bit of a mixed weekend for me.. a horrible cold struck me last week so when I set off to do Fridays wedding I wasn't feeling very alive .. but thanks to some marvellous tablets I ploughed on & despite the best efforts of a VIP guest who knew better than me (he thought) had a pretty good night.

    Saturday took me a long way from home... A 90 minute drive North up the A1 to where it's just a normal road, then off to the right after Alnwick.. a converted barn which was very nice indeed. I was sharing space with a band, so set up off to the side a bit which would actually be a more logical place to rig up even without the band there. I was landed with some last minute changes - one of which meant I had to buy a new track .. slight brown trousers moments til I got my phone tethered to my spare laptop.. then it was cake cut, bouquet toss, 1st dance, FoB dance & rammed dancefloor til the end, save for food time. The band were lovely folks & very talented musicians.. there was full on Irish dancing throughout. As for my sets... Motown & garage were mentioned in the pre event communications.. Motown was for early doors & I was open for requests.

    Ah the requests... a traditional Irish song I didn't have & had never even heard of (which started the guy off on a "WHAT? You're (expletive deleted)!!" tirade. I told him to wait 2 minutes. He went off & returned with a request to plug his phone in... I halted him by showing him the track loaded ready to play. Fist bump time then...

    Anyway for what amounted to 4 hours of DJing (I finished at 1am) I got through 96 tracks, quick mixing pretty much all the way. I got a request for the bee gees right in the heart of a hip hop set... Thought hmmm... Oh I know... I threw on Rob Base & DJ ez-rock's It Takes Two which produced an umpteenth dance off of the night, then looped the intro to Staying Alive & slowly mixed it in replacing the bass of one with the other.... Kinda brought the house down. I honestly don't think I've ever met a wedding crowd as up for it as these people & I'll classify this as the best gig in a long time. Someone put music on the venue's speakers & people were still dancing as I was packing down after 1am.

    I got out & loaded the van in under half an hour & headed to the nearest golden arches to tide me over for the long drive home

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