Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[funkymook]

Best gig of the year last night. Full floor, lots of mixing and friendly people.

Excellent - they're the ones that remind us why we do it.

Mine last night was supporting a top Ska band where I played NS, Ska and Mod classics to a packed pub full of appreciative people.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Not a DJ gig but I got to play with my huge band at the Wickerman Festival this weekend. Got to swan around with an artist wristband looking all VIP. The sad reality of it is that the only difference between the normal bar and VIP bar is that you could buy your overpriced lager with cash and cards instead of tokens. I never even got a chance to fire into the lovely Miss Amy McDonald.

Great weekend though. 33 of us in the band with our +1s = a lot of laughs and madness.

Highlight (apart from our set): Nile Rodgers being a total boss on the main stage.

Lowlight: Dexy's. I had so much hope for them and they were trully dreadful. Now every time I have to play Come on Eilleen at gigs I'll be transported back to watching Kevin Rowland dressed like a Frenchman (seriously!!!) doing a calypso version of Geno.

Come back to a bunch of enquiries too which is nice.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Some nice chappy only went a filmed us and put it on Youtube

[Excalibur]

A rare Sunday gig, in Deepest Lincolnshire. Last minute affair. Awful parking in a little Market Town, a fifty yard carry for the kit, to the bottom of a winding staircase, and then upstairs. 18th Birthday for the birthday girls mates, following the family celebration earlier for the older and younger ones. I'd had a "discussion" about revising my fee, due to the access, as I'd quoted for ground floor. If I was granted access only at the stated times, I wouldn't be able to set the kit up in time for the start. Promising start, eh?

Got there early, and found I could actually park the van in the least worst place for loading, and get access to the setup area once the buffet was cleared, an hour before the time I'd ben given. So far so good. Stripped the kit down to the barest of bare minima, Half Giraffe, screen, two Titans, plastic playout case, cable box, powerbar and all necessary tripods.

Was actually set up before the intended time, without a lot of difficulty, although I was suffering dreadfully from "sweaty DJ syndrome". Large doses of Lynx were applied, which helped no end. Kicked off with the normal charty/modern background stuff, expecting to move into the more current "bangin' choons " shortly. How wrong can a DJ be? If I showed you the playlist, you wouldn't be able to tell whether I was doing a fifth or a fiftieth birthday. Steps-Tragedy, S Club7-Reach, followed by T Rex, Men At Work, Men Without Hats, Ram Jam, Rolling Stones and Survivor-Eye of the Tiger. Varied to say the least.

They went absolutely wild for the obscure tracks I hadn't played for twenty years, were an absolute pleasure to deal with, weren't drunk, and generally made the evening an absolute pleasure. With the aid of volunteers, the kit was in the van in short order, and I was on my way home in half an hour, with a mutually acceptable fee in my pocket. Just goes to show, eh?

[Javlingames]

Did a wedding for a hotel on Saturday night, don't usually do them but I was helping out as we were short staffed on dj's for this weekend.

Arrived at 2pm for a 4pm set up time. Guests did not enter room until 5pm. 50 adults and 30 kids. I was asked if I could play some gangnam style and kids songs from 6.30pm. So I did all that and ended up doing laods of interaction with the kids , playing go fetch, jokes competition and tongue twisters.

I made a huge school boy era in the the way I set up. I put my speakers and tripods against the wall behind me and sat my decks 2 metres infront uptight to the dancefloor. Unfortuantel for me, this was a green light for people to take a shortcut and behind the decks to get from one side of the room to the other. This resulted in one drunk guy who had a leary look anyway, turning up my background music whilst the buffett was taking place and I was at the bar getting a drink. I went over and asked him what he was doing, he said it wasn't loud enough so he turned it up. My reply was, if you think it needs to be loud, please ask me and I will turn it up. He was very apologetic and went on to apologise a further 5 times during the night. Which was more of a pain than his initial behaviour lol.

Lovely bunch of people who laughed at my cheesey DJ jokes and patter all night and I received lots of compliments about my childrens entertaining and music selection!!

Bad point.............My starcloth front got broken by kids fiddling with it, I couldn't see them from where I was standing but my stuff was getting knocked all night. Bit cross but it was my fault for setting up so far forward, next time I will set up tighter to the wall when lots of kids are present!! Long night on my feet from 4pm til 1am.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Just read over my planning form and aside from the usual stuff, tonight's couple have expresely asked that a certain guest's requests are ignored because apparently she's a bit of a and will ask for rubbish

You'll never guess which guest has only gone and enquired about booking me for her wedding after being a guest at this one

[Excalibur]

Best gig of the year last night. Full floor, lots of mixing and friendly people.

You'll never guess which guest has only gone and enquired about booking me for her wedding after being a guest at this one

I look forward eagerly to the proposed playlist, tee hee.


And the feedback from Sunday?
Hi,
I just wanted to say a big thank you for the music at my party last night. The night was great fun and thanks so much for accommodating my friend's eclectic tastes in music! Everyone commented on how great the night was due to the music and you helped to create a great atmosphere! We were very pleased that we were able to jive which is somewhat of a tradition at our parties!
Again, many thanks; you made the party!
Thanks, Megan

[djdave01]

For the first time in ages, I took on an 18th last night. It was a last minute booking and I was dealing with the birthday boy directly.

He assured me there would be plenty adults attending as it was a 'family event'.

The booking got off to a bad start when I learned the venue, a run down dump where the staff, 2 older ladies, don't allow loud music and the lights have to be left on.

Got in and setup no problem for a 7pm start. Around 30 guests when I got going but that slowly increased to about 100 by 9pm.

First problem, there were no adults at all, the oldest guest was no more that 21 (I know that's an adult but drunk 21 year olds are as bad as 18's)

Second problem, the birthday boy supplied me with 6 'rave' cd's and said I wasn't to take requests. 'Just play these cds, one after the other'

Third problem, many of the guests were drunk before they arrived, some to the point of falling over and being sick.

I had plenty guests complaining about the music. The staff were constantly removing drink from underage guests and several had been chucked out before 9pm.

At 9.20pm, I was told by the staff to stop the party, as the police had arrived and caught guests drinking outside. Stopping the party caused a few guests to get angry and a couple of chairs were throw.

I was packed up and driving away by 9.40, there were still around 50 teenagers in the car park area, with 4 police trying to move them on.

I was paid in full and even got a £20 tip

Dave

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Another really enjoyable couple of bookings this week.
Firstly, here's a photo from a wedding I did a couple of weeks ago. I didn't actually take any photos when I set up as I'd forgotten my phone and it was too busy later on but this was sent to me by the photographer (it's his cases next to one of the subs).



So, Friday I did a 90s themed night in town and it went down really well. Lots of really cool requests and lots of dancing. I decided to take 4 lasers with me and a couple of Kam Panels and with the smoke it looked great. Again, didn't take any photos which is a shame.

Last night I was out of town doing a wedding that was booked with me a year ago to the date.
Went to visit the venue on Monday and met the Bride & Groom. I had never been there before and when I turned up and saw a tiny place I wondered how they'd manage to get me and 130 guests in there. I was then told (the B&G never mentioned it before) that the wedding was going to be held in a marquee on the grounds. We met at the front of the venue so when we walked round the back I could see the structure of the marquee being put together. I chatted to the guy in charge to get an idea of where I would be etc etc and all was cool. I wish I'd known in advance but it wasn't a problem. They were having a starlit ceiling and black & white dance floor too (supplied by the marquee company).

Anyway, one of the first things I noticed was (see photo below) that there were 3 small apple trees on the grounds. Obviously once the marquee was up, they'd be in there with us. I thought it was quite quirky as did the B&G and my first thought was "I'll uplight that!". I didn't say anything to the B&G about it at the time.
I set up at 9.00am Saturday morning and space was a bit tight but I got there in the end. It didn't take me long at all as access was very easy as I could back the van right up to the entrance.

I arrived back at the venue at 7.15pm and was ready for a 7.30pm start. Guests were milling about enjoying Pimms and sitting by the river which was behind the marquee. I started off with some ratpack and acoustic stuff and the vibe was really nice. I had a list of around 100 requests from the B&G and their guests. I'd advised them when they booked me to ask their guests for requests and it was a really good varied list. I played some of the slower requests and at one point a very nice young lady came up and asked me "Are we allowed to dance?"...."I requested this song" (Mr Bojangles). I said "I'm sure you can....can't you?". She was unsure as she thought she'd have to wait until after the first dance. She sat back down and just slow danced by her table with her partner.

First dance was Boyce Avenue - 'We Found Love' which is a kind of acoustic version of the Rihanna song. The B&G wanted me to mix it with the original so all of their guests could join them on the dance floor. It worked really well and the dance floor was packed. Followed it with 'Blurred Lines' and 'Get Lucky' and then played current chart stuff for around an hour with the same result. After that it was mainly going through the request list and working other stuff into it too and it just worked well.

It was one of those bookings where I didn't really look at the time. When I did I noticed it was 11.05pm and I was finishing at 11.30pm. I had some more requests to play including the last 2 songs which were 13 minutes long between them. I did what I could and then announced that we were coming towards the final songs of the evening and it would be great if everyone could join the B&G on the dance floor. They all listened and it went perfectly. 'Champagne Supernova' was the first one that had everyone singing along and as the waves at the end of the song faded out, the choir at the beginning of 'Never Forget' faded in. Everyone sang along and there was a massive round of applause as the song came to an end.
This one was really enjoyable.

As you'll see by the photo below, the apple tree didn't give me much room. I didn't take any photos of it uplit as I was busy but you get the idea I guess.

[Excalibur]

Wedding last night in the Hotel in Hull where John and I had the infamous "Travellers Wedding". I turned up as arranged to get the kit in before the reception. On parking where I expected to get in, I realised the place had had a radical overhaul, and I wasn't going to be in the same place as before. If I had to go where I found them setting up for the function, it was going to be a nightmare load in.

Except it wasn't. It just got better and better. I was told to drive the van further round the back, near the fire doors at the other side. When I got there, there was a nice stage a few paces from the doors, and better still, room dividers between me and the reception. Nice easy, leisurely set up, no worries, DSB, powerbar and two EFX500s on the overhead, and subs and tops. When they moved the dividers, there I was, ready to Rock and Roll.

It was a big room, and halfway through the night, I was asked to turn it up, as it was too quiet at the back. Doesn't often happen, but I simply turned it up. Sounded pretty loud on the dancefloor to me, but hey ho, the customer is the customer.

I'd prepared for the first dance by turning the EFX off, and setting the bar to a whitish colour, via the dmx controller. Photographer comes up and asks is it possible to dim my lights at all? Pull fader seven down to the bottom, stygian gloom ensues, and a voice to my right says " can you give me a chance to get off the stage? " Tee hee. I then dimmed the light to his preferred value, and he was a happy little bunny. Unusually, he stayed taking piccies right to the end.

It's funny how things seem to go in trends, and my last few gigs have seen many "off the wall" requests. This one was even more like that, and funnily enough many of them worked. I had a really wide spread of requests, and found myself changing styles rather a lot. Nice gig though.