Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[ukpartydj]

I had a cracking party last night in Winchester for a 40th birthday. Also had the photo booth out but it was all so very nearly tainted!

So I've got a T-Bar with moving heads on it and a couple of heads on my table top the t bar out of nowhere starts falling onto the dance floor which is packed except for a very lucky patch just where the stand fell. Because all the heads are dmxed together with cables the heads on the table they fall off and nearly take my controller with them... At this moment I'm thinking three things:

1) thank God nobody was hit by it
2) all of my lights are likely broken
3) how in earth did this happen when nobody was near the stand, all cables are taped down, the stand was perfectly stable when I set it up (I always do a shove test after its set up)!

Utterly baffled I quickly move in the pick the stand and my lights up to find when I try and erect the stand again there is no room for it... But hold on there was loads of room for it when I set it up... So I unplug and move it to the side whilst the guests don't really care and are still dancing... Still confused I notice the dance floor is very close to my speaker stands... Odd they had loads of room when I set up and then I realise the dance floor has moved!

Because the tripod got stuck under my table it softened the landing and the lights seem to be working with no smashed lenses, the only damage I can see if a couple of bent brackets which are cheap as chips but I'm doing a full inspection of the lights in the morning to check.

I asked all the guests to get off the dance floor and kick it back but it was only a temporary measure and the dance floor ended up forcing me back into the wall repositioning all my stands and come midnight I just about had room to get in and out 1ft at most!

The dance floor had moved almost 3ft along the carpet looking back at photos I took of my setup earlier in the night! I lifted a panel to check underneath and was shocked that the battens aren't ribbed and are smooth aluminium! I thought all dancefloors had ribbed battons, really glad the ones I've bought do now I know what can happen if they are not!

First time for everything, it seems I was very lucky this time it could have been so much worse with injury or serious damage to equipment, surely the hotel knows about this problem too

[Nakatomi]

I blame the Cha Cha Slide

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

2nd busiest weekend of the year for me.

Friday I had a stormer just outside Alloa - all my dealings had been with the bride but as I loaded in a guy rocked up "YO ARE YOU SCOTLAND'S BEST DJ???"

"Scotland's Party DJ pal, I'm not very good never mind the best."

Big smiles "I'm the groom - I've done nothing but watch your videos for the past 2 weeks, you're a legend mate."


No pressure or owt then. Turned out to be a cracker - the guests were fantastic, they let me go mad on the wifi moodlighting and I could have played until 3 o clock given the opportunity.

Saturday was a more muted affair - Scots / Dutch wedding with lots of families and older guests. Even the hotel was assuming it would wrap early but we got them across the finish line and I got some fantastic feedback from the guests, venue and couple at the end of the night. One of those plenty of chair dancing affairs we probably overthink as not being that great.


Last night.....

Ridiculous - someone clearly didn't tell them it was the sabbath. Started really early - first dance was over and done with by 7:10!

Bride and groom were super nice and really back - gave me a 1st dance and the groom put in a sneaky slow one for them later on then left me to my own devices.

It was brilliant and again I could have gone on much much later. The video from it is really wonky because the floor was literally shaking (room is on the upper level of a large log building!

I had a 2 hour drive home, the video to do and upload and the website to update before a taxi picked me up to take me to the airport at 4 in the morning so at my end of the night spiel I said I usually hung around to see how everyone was but I had to shoot so I could get their video done pronto but if anyone wanted to have a blether they could come and see me when I was packing up.

No kidding I had a queue of about a dozen guests all congratulating me on doing a great job, asking for cards, the web address etc...

It turns out due to a few cancellations that this is my last "own client" weddings of the year and what a way to wrap things up on that front.

Now I'm sitting in Heathrow 7 beers and 2 delays deep waiting to finally get on my well deserved hollybags!!!

[Benny Smyth]

There is a new trend (for want of a better phrase) that I have started to notice recently - people turning their backs. It's really starting to grate against me, and last night was the epitome of it.

Wedding at a regular venue. 50 evening guests and 100 extra for the evening, so I was prepped for needing to wait for the lubrication to kick in. Introduce the first dance and after about a minute or so, about a dozen people turned away and literally had their backs to the bride and groom. Maybe I'm being a bit over sensitive to this, but I'm watching this happening and I'm really irritated by it. How rude can you be? For three and a half minutes, stand up and watch or - even better - after the first chorus, go join in. You don't have to be a party animal, nor am I demanding you swing off the chandeliers, but make some sort of effort and be polite to the people who have paid thousands of pounds to share their day with you!



The rest of the night saw similar reactions. The bride, bless her cotton socks, was chomping at the bit to have a dance. Bouncing around like a lunatic. Her guests amused her for about 5 seconds at a time, then went back to talking with each other and don't think it was because the night was specialist in music that only she liked - there was nothing 'unusual' about the playlist or requests. I went across the board and played a bit of everything. I had the same group of dancers for the majority of the night and for a Sunday night wedding, it was pretty decent but nobody showed the enthusiasm of the bride. Not even close.

Near the end of the night, I play the first dance again and the majority of the remaining audience sat and ignored the B&G while they swayed. Apparently standing next to someone and slowly swaying for three and a half minutes is far too much effort for some.

[deanoakley]

The gig that sparked the 'one more song' thread.

Got a text last Sunday from a booking agent who has used me a couple of times, asking me to do a gig on the Friday (14th). Didn't get much info off of him apart from the start/finish time and how much it was paying, had nothing on so said yes.

I turn up to find it's some huge corporate event in what is known as 'The Ballroom', it's black tie event and there I am in a relatively nice jumper, jeans and trainers *gulp*.

The company must have spent thousands on the event, they'd hired in this massive stage for what ended up being a 20 minute presentation, had a casino bit set up and three course dinner with drinks.

Started at 7.30 playing background music whilst they ate, no problem at all. They did the presentation and then it was my time to shine from 9.30. Except everyone disappeared off to the casino bit or to the bar (which was in a different room) and so for the next two hours I played to nobody, not a single soul.

Then around 11.30 a few ladies started to come in and as they were the only people dancing were chucking requests at me left, right, centre. No problem, I was happy to oblige. And then it got to 11.50 and suddenly there's a crowd and everyone has their own ideas of the best tunes to finish on - and so began the frustrating part of 'one more song', 'play this', 'no, you can't finish on that, play this instead'. Nightmare.

To add insult to injury, used my phone as a hotspot to grab some songs I didn't have and then discovered my laptop had decided to update itself in the process and burned nearly 1gb of my data.

And I'm still waiting to be paid for it by the agent.......

[musicology]

The gig that sparked the 'one more song' thread.

Got a text last Sunday from a booking agent who has used me a couple of times, asking me to do a gig on the Friday (14th). Didn't get much info off of him apart from the start/finish time and how much it was paying, had nothing on so said yes.

I turn up to find it's some huge corporate event in what is known as 'The Ballroom', it's black tie event and there I am in a relatively nice jumper, jeans and trainers *gulp*.

The company must have spent thousands on the event, they'd hired in this massive stage for what ended up being a 20 minute presentation, had a casino bit set up and three course dinner with drinks.

Started at 7.30 playing background music whilst they ate, no problem at all. They did the presentation and then it was my time to shine from 9.30. Except everyone disappeared off to the casino bit or to the bar (which was in a different room) and so for the next two hours I played to nobody, not a single soul.

Then around 11.30 a few ladies started to come in and as they were the only people dancing were chucking requests at me left, right, centre. No problem, I was happy to oblige. And then it got to 11.50 and suddenly there's a crowd and everyone has their own ideas of the best tunes to finish on - and so began the frustrating part of 'one more song', 'play this', 'no, you can't finish on that, play this instead'. Nightmare.

To add insult to injury, used my phone as a hotspot to grab some songs I didn't have and then discovered my laptop had decided to update itself in the process and burned nearly 1gb of my data.

And I'm still waiting to be paid for it by the agent.......

..edit. post deleted. oops

[deanoakley]

Pre-empting a bad gig for tomorrow night already.

Wedding for a work mate, so doing it at a cut price and they've asked that there is no music post-1986! That's far too specific for me!

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Pre-empting a bad gig for tomorrow night already.

Wedding for a work mate, so doing it at a cut price and they've asked that there is no music post-1986! That's far too specific for me!

I learned long ago not do mates rates for anyone except close close family and friends I wouldn't mind being stuck in a lift with.

Absolute best result you can expect is a good night with less pay but with restrictions like that it's likely to be worse...

[funkymook]

they've asked that there is no music post-1986! That's far too specific for me!

Post ’86 covers an awful lot of styles and genres, he actually needs to be more specific (and double check he actually means ‘post’ and not ‘pre’)

Ask him for a few examples, you don’t want to be caught out if they’re all into a particular music and you don’t have any.

[Excalibur]

Pre-empting a bad gig for tomorrow night already.

Wedding for a work mate, so doing it at a cut price and they've asked that there is no music post-1986! That's far too specific for me!

Works for me, although for preference I'd have said post December 1979

Post ’86 covers an awful lot of styles and genres, he actually needs to be more specific (and double check he actually means ‘post’ and not ‘pre’)

Ask him for a few examples, you don’t want to be caught out if they’re all into a particular music and you don’t have any.

If he does mean pre, It's Dragons Den for me.


And to spell it out for those who don't know, my tongue is firmly in my cheek regarding the above remarks.