Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[ckpr2]

Fantastic! It's obviously too warm at the far end of the room, so they've opened the fire doors onto me and the deserted dancefloor. Added to which, they've onsisted on running their in house lights. Roll on 2016, grrr

I did a wedding evening gig many years ago.
I was almost set up and ready to go when someone put on the juke box !

[Imagine]

That was the strangest NYE I've ever done.

Let's start at the very beginning......I went and loaded the van early afternoon as I always do at this time of year - mainly so I've got time to think between doing that and actually arriving at the gig in case I've forgotten something vital.

Tonight's gig was 8pm to 2am....a family affair by all accounts. I didn't have too much to do to beat last year's effort, who apparently spent most of the evening outside smoking with the rig on auto pilot, and missed the chimes completely.

4pm, the phone rings with "where are you?". Erm....at home with my feet up comes the reply.
Apparently (and nobody thought to pass this one on to me), my normal arrival an hour before the gig wasn't going to be possible due to the fact they close the venue at 5pm on NYE and re-open 10 mins before the guests arrive....OK, so it's an unexpected early setup.....it's only 10 mins down the road so it's not a biggy and gives me time to come home again, refresh myself and walk in at 8pm with the lappy ready to rock and roll. I do quite a bit of work there so I'm not going to rock the boat on this one.

It's a lightweight rig (I'll post the video over the next couple of days for Peter so he can see the Swarms in action), so it's not particularly hard work to get in (in fact, 30 minutes from van to ready to roll in an upstairs venue, and 15 the other end.....discounting the 45 minutes spent talking to the bar staff )

Now...I mentioned it was a family gig. They weren't kidding. 150 people, of which probably around 40 of those were under 10, and at least 10 of them not even reached a year old.....all of those 40 were sat on my dancefloor. Now had I been told about this, I would have taken some of the kids party stuff with me and run a kids party for the first hour or so, but I wasn't, so I didn't.

The dance-floor remained void of adults until midnight when they all came on to do the countdown and Auld Lang Syne....nothing, I repeat NOTHING was going to shift them out of their seats. I threw the kitchen sink, the washing machine AND the dishwasher at it.....working my way through the trusty favourites from each genre and decade....this is going to be a long night (and we all know how long the couple of hours after Big Ben can seem).

Midnight passes, I'm down to around 20 guests (those with kids have gone home). The younger generation (those under 30) wanted the rest of the evening as an 80's night (as indeed did the boss). Okey dokey...no problemo......apart from Mrs Cut-Throat (of a much older generation than even me) who kept demanding up to date dance music....you know..."stuff people will dance to"....and believe me, that's exactly what the youngsters didn't want as they demonstrated by going back to their seats each and every time I put something "modern" on.

Eventually got some action going (mainly to 80's), a little Motown and Northern Soul, followed off by a decent hard rock set (and of course, with the late, great Lemmy). The remainder were even baying for one more at the end. OK - just the one then....the bar had been understaffed and they were knackered and wanted to go home too....it was a long night.

So, now home and quickly tucking into the traditional 3am single malt to ring in my own personal New Year before crashing for several hours and being awoken around lunchtime tomorrow with a roast breakfast

Hope you all had half decent nights. Personally, I may give NYE a miss next year....it just seems like too much hard work, although I'm sure the smell of folding stuff when offered around next September will probably persuade me otherwise.

Happy New Year all

[Nakatomi]

I had a bit of a weird one last night. First of all, the numbers were looking a bit grim as NYE approached. Up until last week only around 50 had booked tables but when I turned up to setup yesterday there were settings for more than 80.

Now the actual gig itself. Not much was going to get people moving for ages. No foot tapping was evident, no mouthing of lyrics as far as I could see. Sheesh. Time pressed on & I'm guessing as lubricant was applied liberally the wheels began to move just after 10.30pm. Great, now I had a full floor with Free - All Right Now & went to continue in a similar vein. Nope. 2 4 6 8 Motorway turned it into tumbleweed town. Damnit! Can't Get Enough Of Your Love followed & wahey.. full again! Next tune demolished it again & I think they'd had enough from that particular seam.

So, kept plugging away and finally had requests for... MOTOWN. TAMLA. MOTOWN. MOTOWN! Great, except nobody was getting up & actually dancing to the bloody stuff & it was beginning to hurt my ears.. right then... slight detour into some soul, a la Soul Banana type affairs... Yes! Now we're cooking on gas! Or not.

Midnight was fast approaching & digging into a seam of 80s got a great response.. Erasure packed them in, as did Madonna (I gave Whitney a wide berth), Frankie Goes To Hollywood.. and to lead them into the chimes of Big Ben (timed to the second) I played 500 Miles. Which kind of segued nicely into the piper to see in the new year with Auld Lang Syne, Scotland The Brave, and lord knows what else - I'm no fan of the pipes at the best of times but this player kept hitting bum notes.

From the piper, I unleashed cheese after cheese after cheese. Went back to Motown (ow, my bleeding ears! Why can't people remaster the tracks so they don't SOUND LIKE CRAP?), then into a bit of light rock again... then some 90s dance (!), followed by a short 70s disco set, more soul again.. and at 2am we stopped. Only half an hour earlier than advertised, which for that place isn't bad going.

In all, a difficult night made harder by the fact I was still recovering from a lurgy.

Happy New Year everybody!

[fullcontact68]

Much better than last years NYE party I did at a local WMC. (If you remember I was packing up at 23:30, it was dead)

This year I was working in a Pub in Chesterfield, booked 20:00 - 00:30.

It's a fairly small place, with a small side room for me (Just about enough room for a pool table), which opens into the bar area.
No room for a booth, so setup on a pub table. Just took my DXR15's (Which are too big for the venue, 12's would have done, if I had any), ADJ Dotz system, and a single Mini dekker. More than enough for the room.

The bar was packed, standing room only. However, the room where I was was empty. However, I could see people singing, dancing at the bar to the music etc.

For the first couple of hours the dance floor was empty (Other than the odd kid/parent having a dance), then turned 10, the floor filled out.

When I say filled out, you could only fit about 10 people max on it.

Anyway, turned out to be a surprising night, I was not expecting much, but in the end plenty of handshakes from the men, pecks from the women, and well dones. So I'm a happy chappie.

Happy new ever everyone.

[Excalibur]

The dance-floor remained void of adults until midnight when they all came on to do the countdown and Auld Lang Syne....nothing, I repeat NOTHING was going to shift them out of their seats. I threw the kitchen sink, the washing machine AND the dishwasher at it.....working my way through the trusty favourites from each genre and decade....this is going to be a long night (and we all know how long the couple of hours after Big Ben can seem).

Snap.

Hope you all had half decent nights. Personally, I may give NYE a miss next year....it just seems like too much hard work, although I'm sure the smell of folding stuff when offered around next September will probably persuade me otherwise.

Happy New Year all

Snap again.

I'm sitting here wondering why we bother sometimes. Last night was a wedding, in a lovely venue ( on the face of it ) and I'd put in uplighting as well. All lights were under some form of DMX control, and for the first dance I had uplighting on white, Cheetahs on white open slow rotate, with the Samurai on white stars. Classy, eh? But there was just one thing missing, which the venue thoughtfully provided. A pair of those cheap hemispherical plastic efforts which aren't master and slave, and send dots hither and thither, with a few rings of dots expanding and contracting.

For heaven's sake, it's a wedding in a stately home!! I showed the photographer what my lights were going to be doing for the first dance, and told him I'd asked for the monstrosities to be switched off. I'd asked, but it hadn't happened. He was very happy with mine, and less than impressed with the venue's offerings.

And then, yay!! They switched theirs off, and we had a beautifully lit first dance, followed by a Father/Daughter dance with the DJ misty eyed thinking of his own daughter on her wedding day.

After that, all the wheels fell off, never to be seen again. They switched the things back on, and ruined anything I could do with mine.
There were a lot of very energetic children there, and the floor was busy from the off, as they asked for their favourites, and folk danced with them. For all of five songs. After that, it was Was asked for Motown early on, so played it to: apathy. Got asked for it again later, and it worked for ten minutes. Soundtracks worked for a short while, Mustang Sally et al, but nothing packed the floor.

I'd been warned that the venue staff weren't little rays of sunshine, and to be fair, they weren't at all bad. The lovely looking venue had design faults though. It had a bar at the far end, tables in the middle, and a dancefloor my end. The trouble was, tables were so tightly packed in the middle that it was virtually impossible to get from the bar to me. The lovely smelling hot buffet at the far end didn't help, and yes I wasn't offered any. The far end was packed with bodies, and obviously hot, so to alleviate this, they opened the fire doors at my end, and let in the icy blast. Genius.

Time dragged really slowly, and the room had virtually emptied, until with ten minutes to go, all the folk I thought had left came onto the floor for midnight. Cracked it, I thought. Ten minutes later, again.

Finish time arrived, and I had all the kit to pack. I'd had a grim night, I had way too much kit to pack up ( mainly due to the venue lights. If I'd known they were going to do that, I'd have slung the powerbar up and nothing else. The drive home wasn't one where I felt a warm glow of a successful evening, believe me. Still, at least it wasn't snowing.

Next year, I'm gonna find a pub to work in, and take a powerbar, or two Swarms.

[DJColsie]

Got to say I had a cracking NYE.

Big gastro pub had sold 170 tickets at £15 a pop! No kids and everyone in fancy dress. Popstars past and present the theme.

Had been booked for 7pm to 1am but the manager had said that he wanted to reward the staff for a successful year and give them a staff party once the guests had gone. I said no problem in accordance with £50 per 30 min clause in the contract, cash upfront. Fine he said we'll play it by ear.

Fantastic night, everyone up for a party. All genres covered. No trouble, friendly and appreciative staff and guests with constant supply of coffee and soft drinks.

At 12.45 manager said it was going so well he was going to extend it to 2am for everyone. First extra payment received. At 1.55 said he want another 30 mins for staff only. Fine by me and more cash.

Finish at 2.30 pack up and go to retrieve the car from their carpark and realise the key had split in half! Daryll will remember I lost my keys at a gig he helped me at earlier in the year! I had one half with the battery and metal shaft. Was missing the electrics inside and the half with the buttons on. Retraced my steps using the light on my phone and 20 mins later found them.

Load and return to get home at 3.45!

Great night just tired now.

[Daryll]

Well , Thats another NYE gig out the way
My usual haunt at midhurst club , the first 2 hours it felt like a under 5`s party , good job for two things , My wife and glow sticks...

The rest of the night was as expected , a few dancing , a few drinking and a few , well I dont know what they were doing, played a good old mix from 60`s up to modern chart.
loads of requests, all played , well expect for one little who keep asking for Eminem and skillrex, I knew that would clear the place, so it didn't get played .
however the fun and games started after the end , my van had gone for its MOT , so everything went in the landrover, now my landy and damp cold weather dont mix.
I could not get the key fob to unlock her , I used the key , the doors were open , but the alarm went off , and the immobiliser clicked in, nothing would get the immobiliser
to turn off , so we decided to walk home , now this is 7 miles , pitch black , no pavements , and cold, after a couple of miles I had a thought , ring my local club , you never know , but it was 2:10 in the morning
well someone answered the phone , the barman just clearing up, result , within half an hour he picked up myself and my wife, home by 2:50 , trouble was , I had work in the morning..,., still thats the way it goes sometimes, at least I can sit back and relax now , with one thing and another , I am glad to see the back of 2015 , lets hope this year is better..

Cheers

daryll

[alphawave]

Again booked in the local club.. One minute travel time!!... Arrived 8pm to a packed out club BUT.... There is now a no child rule after 9pm so as i expected 9pm came and all mums and dads left .. They need to think about this rule next year as alot of people left.. Next a bus turned up and took even more guests leaving me with just a handful of people,most sitting at the bar...
Started with some good 80s megamix`s then some 90s music... But not alot happened due to low numbers ... 1.30am finish was now a 1am finish.. The people there had a good time but they need to rethink this no children rule as not everyone can pay alot of money for child minders NYE ..
Made me think about maybe taking one year off .... But then again it is a easy night compared to some weddings i have done,so maybe i will..

[CRAZY K]

Hope you all had half decent nights. Personally, I may give NYE a miss next year....it just seems like too much hard work, although I'm sure the smell of folding stuff when offered around next September will probably persuade me otherwise.

Happy New Year all

You might well appreciate the night off---no one joining in Auld Lang Syne at NYE

Mind you my friend who runs an agency in Scotland reports he had a problem in Glasgow where people were allegedly unable to work out ALS--I can only blame the alcowol

I think personally many people totally overrate NYE--hence the disappointment when people arent dancing on the tables and singing auld lang syne at Midnight at ear splitting volume---as we were here at my private party last night.

(But not dancing on the tables )

Definitely a good gig

I used to do them every year in the 70s when there was a lot of enthusiasm around for music generally--but my wife got fed up so now its home celebrations only and we handpick the guests to be sure its going to be a great night

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY

beer1:

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

I had a cracking party at mine.

There was hot tub action

The tunes were banging

One mate had a go at another but to be fair he deserved it

Got the guitars and djembe drum out. My bro pulled off a passable slide guitar rendition of livin on a prayer using a can of hooch.

My oldest pal who me and my bro used to be in a band with cracked out some tunes we've not played together for about 15 years (some I'd even forgotten about!)

Brilliant night no amount of dough could surmount.