Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I had a really good one at my local last night.
One of the bars was closed as it's being refurbished (opens again today) so everyone was in one bar.
The requests flowed and there were some really good ones. Lots of requests for Nirvana and Alice in Chains as the singers died on the same day and it was the 19th anniversary (I have another story about that but maybe that's for another time).
I also decided to mix things up last night and tried to use VDJ a lot. Did a nice mix of Mesh 'Crash' and New Order 'Blue Monday' and then in to Guns 'n Roses 'Sweet Child'.
Not working tonight and have band practice shortly as we're gigging next weekend.

Just before I left the house last night I had a call from someone who was looking for a sound system. When I asked when it was for, they said "7.30pm". Obviously there was nothing I could do as I was on my way out of the door. I didn't even have enough time to put a message up on here either.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

had a rather dull 60th birthday last night. For the first 3 hours, no one danced and only the kids made requests.

Apparently 100 were invited, about 40 actually showed up, in a hall that can take 120.

By 11pm, most had gone. I had about 15 left, although they did start dancing and requesting songs.

One guy, who was extremely drunk, asked for 'simply the best'. I wont normally play it, but the bar staff said it was fine. He decided he wanted to sing along. I wasn't keen, but the organiser said it was ok. He proceeded to 'sing' along on the mic, substituting the correct words for his own expletives. Several adults in the room didn't look pleased with him.

At the end, I was asked to play Runrig's 'Loch Lomand', to which the drunk guy decided to sing again. I kept the mic turned very low, and everyone ignored him.

While packing up, the drunk came and thanked me for letting him sing and for a good night. Later, while loading the car, he came and shouted the I was a DJ and I should off and never DJ again. Several people heard him, his wife looked mortified and apologised to me for his behaviour. The drunk man then feel over. No one helped him up, and he was still lying there when I left.

Not a great night

Ive got another 60th birthday tonight, hope I get a better crowd.

I support Rangers but I have it written into my contract that I won't play anything that's going to cause offense which is pretty much to cover my back when refusing to play any songs that Rangers or Celtic fans happen to have hijacked.

I got into a fight on Christmas night several years back because someone had asked for the Saturday's Just Can't Get Enough and I didn't know that Celtic had been playing it after they scored at Parkhead.

I really don't get the point of it I mean when I'm at the football or watching it in the pub I do the whole singing, shouting and swearing malarkey but I've never once been on a night out and thought "you know what I really want to hear, that fitba song that's probably going to off half the guests."

Such a shame because both teams combined have totally ruined and blackballed a tonne of great songs.

Although it's in my contract, I usually find that saying you don't have any of the songs because you don't play them is enough to get people to give you peace.

[Nightowl Discotheques]

The biggest fight ive seen in over 32 years started because i played simply the best in a small village hall here in the western highlands... tourists up here look at me bemused when i say sorry cant play that because... ive never followed football and have no interst in the garbage that follows it our local radio have a ban list of football songs . do we have a definitive dont play list for scotland ? even my postie sings hearts hearts gloriouse hearts...when he delivers the post coz im from edinburgh....:O( is this just a scottish thing... ?

[Excalibur]

is this just a scottish thing... ?

From my experiences last night, it would appear not, sadly. Not football related (as far as I know ) but no less disturbing for that.

Last night I was at a venue I've played at before, for my regular customers, Tony's Legslappers. The event was organised by the local Lions branch, and they're a lovely crowd, who we have played for many times. The venue's very nice, and described by one of our happy band as "Ideal". ( well I'm tempted to say it would be ideal if the performance area was next to the access doors, rather than at the opposite end. More of that later )

We'd had a really good night, all of us had perceived the crowd as friendly, happy, and up for a good time, just the sort of crowd we love. I was soon doing a roaring trade with nubile young ladies coming up to stick my headphones on, and pose for the happy snaps with the DJ. I had taken over with only about an hour and a half left, and immediately the requests started.( And I started to recognise the theme of requests I'd had last time. All the ones I love to play. ) Very shortly, I had enough requests to overrun by an hour, so was in Procrustean mode, adjusting everything to fit. So, all set u for a great night.

And then............................

And then...........................

( All the over 50's reading this are now singing Along Came Jones-The Coasters . The under 21's are baffled )

I had three records left to play ( pick any three from thirty three actually, but I'd got some lined up ) and you know how it is, you just catch that movement out of the corner of your eye. At first I thought it was folk being "boisterous", as they often are, but no, World War Three had broken out. Over went the tables, seemingly the entire far end of the room near the access doors/fire exit had by now joined in. The venue signalled the end, all lights came up, music went off, and I said my piece and packed up. As usual, you expect these things to fizzle out, but from what I heard, it was far more serious. The Police arrived, and were a welcome sight. I think an ambulance may have been needed as well, but I'm not sure.

As I picked my way through the mess left by tables of food and drink overturning, many many punters apologised for the bad behaviour, and said how much they were enjoying the music up to that point. A great night spoilt by idiots.

[djdave01]

I do deliberately try to avoid any song I know are football related, especially Rangers or Celtic songs. If I get a song requested I always check with the bar staff, the organiser and warn the crowd that ive been asked to play the song before i'll play it.

If im working at a 18th, 21st or even a 40th, I will not normally play them at all.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

The biggest fight ive seen in over 32 years started because i played simply the best in a small village hall here in the western highlands... tourists up here look at me bemused when i say sorry cant play that because... ive never followed football and have no interst in the garbage that follows it our local radio have a ban list of football songs . do we have a definitive dont play list for scotland ? even my postie sings hearts hearts gloriouse hearts...when he delivers the post coz im from edinburgh....:O( is this just a scottish thing... ?

I don't a comprehensive "ban" list is even feasible but as a guide I won't play:

Simply the Best
Penny Arcade (this was another one I played for a good few weeks and wondered why it was being requested a lot before someone took offense at it)
Sloop John B (I was raging when this one had to go as I played it a lot and love the song)
Just Can't Get Enough
Chelsea Dagger

there's a few more I can't think off the top of my head though I know them if people ask.

The problem is that not going to the football or following it that closely these days, I've got no clue what people are singing. I know Celtic fans have started doing the main riff to Discoland and apparently Rangers fans have started chanting the riff from Million Voices.

I love both songs and would be loathe to stop playing them. I'll keep doing it until someone moans.

Obviously anything political or sectarian is a total no go.


One of my good mates is a Jambo and I've done a few pre-cup final parties for his supporters club this year and last plus I plaed music at the wake of one of his pals who was a huge Chelsea fan. He provided the tunes and there's so many great football songs out there that don't require offending people or causing aggro.

And on cue the Rangers fans have started singing some alternate version of Sloop John B on the tely :facepalm:

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Back on topic I suppose.

Did a charity fundraiser for Yorkhill Children's Hospital last night. This is the one I mentioned a while ago that I thought I might be stung as I thought it might have actually been an 18th they were booking me for.

Turns out it was a charity do after all and it was a great night with the exception of one guy.

They had a raffle with well over 50 items so I was calling numbers out, someone else was pulling tickets and the winners just went and picked what they wanted to get it done as quickly as possible.

About 10 minutes into this (it took half an hour in total!!!) some little prat that apart from being drunk looked like he was or had been on eccies flounced up and slebbered something in my ear about getting the mic. I told him i was in the middle of the raffle.

"Aye but, ah want tae say happy birthday to mah cuzzin pal."

I politely told him not just now and he disappeared.

As the night wore on he got drunker and drunker. He started grabbing girls, trying to lift people up (the guy must have weighed about 8 stone soaking wet and being drunk, I was expecting an accident) and at one point he was in the middle of the dancefloor himself dancing on a chair until i told him to get down.


As the night was winding down I was speaking to the venue manager who was moaning about him too (apparently he'd brought his own drink in) when he came over and managing to slur even more than before he said something about me not giving him the mic the conversation went something like this:

"oiencibcubjw the mic"

"I told you pal, I was in the middle of the raffle, they'd have strung you up."

"That's **** mate, you're no a real DJ are you?"

"Well I'm playing tunes and people are dancing so...."

"Naw I mean you're a part timer."

"Yup."

I think he somehow thought that would offend me. He went off and started harrasing some girl he was with.



As I was breaking down I had one eye on my gear and one ee on him because he was getting more and more aggressive with this girl and the people around him.

On cue he came up and started ranting in my face about how I never played any of his requests.

I pointed out that the reason for that was because he never made any.

Oh but he did. MILLIONS of songs he asked for and I didn't play a single one

At one point he was getting into my personal space and I had to tell him to step back before I made him get out of my way. He sized up his odds. I'm not particularly tall but I come in a nice stocky little weight lifting package, self preservation kicked in and he stumbled away to argue with his mum about something.

I was almost hoping he tried something because he was one of those little s that really needed a hiding to teach him a lesson. But hey ho rest of the night was good. There were a few other arses dotted around but he was the only one that caused any aggro.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Didn't have a gig myself last night and decided to pop out for a quick drink at a pub up the road from me. We took the dogs out as the weather was quite nice and sat outside with them. I didn't know that the pub had a Disco / Karaoke advertised and as I went in to the pub to get our first drinks I had to have a little chuckle to be honest as the sight I saw was horrific. The Disco / Karaoke set up was a mess. I saw people with their fingers in their ears and there was nobody singing. The music was screaming out of the Pro Sound speakers and they were distorting. I noticed the DJ was sat behind the console on a stool and he looked like he had no idea as to what the punters were thinking. It was spaghetti junction with reference to the cables and the lighting didn't really light up anything.

Anyway, I got our drinks and sat outside with the missus and commented about it. You could hear the music easily from outside. It was deafening inside. We were halfway through our drinks when a lady came outside to collect the empties. She loved my dogs (white boxers) and stood chatting for us for a moment so I picked the opportunity to mention that I was a DJ and on my night off. As we chatted it became clear that the DJ was a regular who goes down the pub and he was being paid £50.00 and beers. I said nothing. A bit later on I went in to get us another drink. The place had emptied a bit and it was only just before 9.30pm. A guy was attempting to do a rendition of 'My Way' and it was ok actually because you could hardly hear him. He was stood there with a pint in one hand and the mic in the other with his back to what audience there was as the portable TV that they had the graphics on was positioned the wrong way.

I got our drinks and as I was on my way out of the door to go back to my missus I heard a BANG!!!! I thought to myself "That'll be the amp". I sat down at the table outside and the missus said "What was that noise?". I told her that I bet it was his amp giving in or the speakers popping. It was quiet for around 5 minutes and then the lady (landlady) came out again. She came over and asked if I could help out and get him up and running again. It's happened to me in the past so in I went. The DJ was around my age. He looked very drunk and the first words he said were "I aint got a clue governor". I told him to turn everything off. He didn't turn down volumes or go through the 'routine' we all have of powering down. He just switched the plug off at the wall!

I checked his cheapy amp first of all and plugged that straight into the wall. It powered up.
I checked his double CD players by doing the same. All fine.
I checked everything and couldn't really find a problem so I was baffled.
He had a separate extension for the TV and Karaoke machine that he had. When I unplugged those from the extension and plugged them both in directly to the wall they were fine.
I eventually found out that one of the extension leads had blown. This was running the Karaoke equipment. I had the same kind of thing happen to me a while back which resulted in a blown amp.

I don't know why there was such a loud bang though? Anyway, the Karaoke part of the night was binned and he continued with the Disco part. Yes, the music went straight up again and yes, it was distorting. I didn't get a thanks off the DJ who didn't have a clue but I did get a thanks off the landlady who said I should pop in and see her in the week. Whether I do is another thing but what a horror story. This guy did not have a clue. It was the topic of conversation last night as we walked home with the dogs. John Wayne would have been proud of this bloke!

[marting]

Not The Best of Nights for me last night although it was the first trip out for my new to me Vauxhall Vivaro no more playing tetris in the back of the wifes rover.

Gig was at a local working mens type club with it own stage and very dodgy steps up to the stage, got the gear in and started to setup ample sockets that were not working....

After 10 mins of stating my objections to running off one 13 socket at the side of the stage and much muttering that i wasn't going to be held liable if the place blew up we started laying out spaghetti junction of cables and set up.

First dance time i had the first and second dance cued up i made the big entrance speech fanfare and then hit play on the wrong deck quickly recovered and we carried on.

half way through the first dance i invited the guests to join the couple on the dance floor not one person did so i left it 30 seconds and again invited the guests to join the bride and groom again nothing.

Second Dance Bruno mars amazing empty dance floor

third track cant remember what it was to be honest can you tell them the foods ready help themselves.

the rest of the night was hit and miss dancers for one two tracks and then by the third track of the genre they had gone.

towards end of the night dance floor packed for some slowies

very end of the night i asked everyone that been dancing to stay where they were the bride and groom joined them and asked to form a circle and played circle of life which really worked with a few narrations from myself which brought a few tears to few peoples eyes

before finishing with the Hokey Cokey and New York New York.

11 pm finish and local but i still didn't get to sit down with my burger till 1.30

[surround sounds]

I was booked in a lovely golf club near solihull Birmingham
They sent me a play list full of indie and alternative Music (which i sometimes play any way but not for 4 hours)
The couple said i could set up from 6.30 for a 8.00 start but i was there at 5 just in case (I am always early)
The manager told me they was not ready because they was still getting married in the same room as i was setting up in.
At 5.15 manager said i could set up now while they was turning the room around for the wedding Breakfast.
I was set up for 6.15 and the manager called guests in at 6.30 to eat a four course meal.
The meal and speeches finished at 8.45, so its a good job i was there early to set up at 5.15.
The groom came over and said he was sorry about his times he had given me. I said do not worry about it but i asked him about his play list daying there was to many indie and alternative music for the crowd he had on the night. He told me thats the music he would like and would want it for all of the music.
So i started at 8.50 and within 30 mins people started to go.
The manager came over and said i gathered you are playing to a play list, i said yes how did you guest. to his reply was its a terrible choice of music for the type of guests attending.
By 10.30 half had gone and a very few dancers, i decided to put gangnam style on where i got a few up (8 people). I was given dead eyes by the bride and groom so i knew i had to return to there playlist. Basically then i had no one dancing for the last 75 mins and to be honest i was glad to finish at midnight. There was more life in a grave yard than in these guests but does not help with the music choice they had choosen.