Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Excalibur]

and back in the van 30 minutes after unplugging. That's what I call a wedding

Pah! Managed that myself last night.

OK, sit back with your toast and coffee, three for the price of one today!
Last Saturday was another last minute filling of a cancellation, and could be the ill wind that blows some good. An events company in Lincolnshire had a poorly DJ, and to cut a long story short, yours truly got the gig. Mayhap there may be more work from them in the future after this one.

Down to near Newark, to Thoresby Riding Hall, which is an incredible place. Don't know what it was designed for, but the doorway was so big I could have driven three Transits in simultaneously, stacked vertically! Thus, the Mauis stayed in the van, and the Proels came out again.
It was a wedding, and my only info was first dance, and three requests. No problems, the venue staff were lovely, and the bride was so laid back she was horizontal. ( once she'd got over the shock of finding a white haired Old Git she had never seen before bringing his kit in to her wedding. Once I'd said I was booked through the event company, everyone relaxed again.

Apart from awful acoustics, whoever refurbed this barn wants a medal the size of a dustbin lid. Ceiling is criss crossed with fairy lights, rafters have lovely downlighters, and walls have batten uplighters ( and twin 13amp sockets ) every couple of metres. Perfect. Bride just wanted to get the formalities over and party, and I met a rare animal, a well dressed Tog. Lovely fella. So, we had our first dance, and I tried to get them up. Groom's Mum ( lovely lady ) was a party all on her own. What started as a real PITA from bride's brother turned into a very workable situation. His first words?
" What you've been playing so far has been spot on, but now we need.............................."

To cut another long story short, as he mellowed/got lubricated and the guests got into the spirit, it went very well, and a good time was had by all. Especially once the venue staff gave me the WiFi password, and and i could get my hands on the more obscure requests, including The Ying Yang Twins. ( Not recommended for general usage, believe me )
Up to the point where the wedding curse struck, and with the last half hour in play, it was one man and his dog. Really should have finished at midnight. I'm gearing up to playing the first dance as a closer, when the venue staff snap, and put the house lights up full. Ah well, I can take a hint. I can also get the kit out sharpish, as there's now a Transit parked just outside the whacking great doors. All in all, a very good night.

Friday sees me taking a last minute 18th in a venue I've visited as a punter very often. It's where we have our DJ meetings staged by a local dealer in Liversedge. The main reason for taking it was to give me an excuse to pick up some kit from Davesounds, and as a bonus I was able to hire young Matty as a roadie. ( And so much more. If Dave could clone him and hire him out, he'd make a fortune. The lad's got a bright future as a DJ and Lord knows what else. He's so full of it, I could do with a pint of whatever he's running on. I think they call it " Youth ". )

It's a slightly awkward load in, with ramps and tight corners. Venue staff were very helpful, and we were set up in very good time. Guests were an " interesting " mix of people, and we couldn't hold the dance floor no matter what we played. Nevertheless, a very satisfactory gig, and I've got the pleasure of Matty's help and knowledge next week for a Karaoke. Were he not still a teenager, I think I'd adopt him.

Saturday was local, a small Country House Hotel for a wedding. I was greeted by loads of Bubble Cars outside, which explained why I had " Beep Beep " on my playlist. That one brought fits of laughter, if not a packed dance floor. I was really early, and resigned to a long wait for turn round. Blimey, it was empty, and I was straight in! Manager expected an early bath on this one, and I wish he'd been right. Another one which passed its sell by date, with a dozen folk sat at tables listening to the music.
I couldn't buy a request, less than half a dozen all night. Very sporadic on dancers, too. Except for my bride. She'll never see twenty one again, but she never stopped dancing. Playlist was mainly her choice, and while it varied from the sublime ( Baba O'Riley, Thunderstruck, The Doors) to the ridiculous ( Beep Beep, Birdie Song, Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep ) she loved every minute.
Out of the door and into the van in thirty minutes, home by 1am. Makes a nice change.

[simon1969]

Well a brilliant night last night we arrived to set up at Newark Showground.
A charity event for Newark benevolent fund (charity for injured armed services personnel).
Two singers on before us who just plugged into my speakers so no hassle there.
The singer warmed the crowd up for us and then my son did a tribute rap song for ex service men and women and present service men and women .
He went down really well and got a lot of compliments and so did our disco!!
We have been booked for next year, and were told we were very professional it was an emotional and moving night and lots of money was raised.

[Imagine]

Last night was something a little bit different from me, and it made a nice break from weddings.

The occasion? A charidee night for a good customer of mine who's supported me since I first started back up several years ago with various functions. I don't do too many of these types of gigs, but this one was for a really good cause for a group who support kids with life-changing illnesses.

It's also a very small venue, so I had the luxury of not having to take too much kit in. In fact, had I not had the telly for the racing bit, I'd have got in with just one Rock 'n' roller cart full .

I also did something I've not done for a very long time....I turned up with a pair of GigBars (the Mk1's) and put them in S2L mode (eek!). Do you know what, not a single criticism from the guests

So, lots of fundraising to do then

We started off with a race night (although it was taking so long to sell the tickets and give out the winnings we only actually managed three out of 12 races). Then onto an auction, followed by dancing.

The poor lad behind the bar didn't know what had hit him. Being an indoor bowls club, he's used to about 10 people in on a Saturday night....he had just shy of 100 tonight and couldn't cope. Not his fault, the venue hadn't thought to supply any help, so the organiser and her husband ended up pulling pints as well just to help things tick along.

Music was a mix of all-sorts, from good old fashioned cheesy moments to hard rock and the modern tat. All well received though and dancing aplenty.

There were a couple of pains during the evening. One young lady who was so inebriated that she could barely stand kept coming to shout things in my ear and then moaned because I wasn't playing them (well apart from the fact I've got absolutely no idea what she asked for.....)

The second...again, completely out of her swede asked me to "stick some Karaoke on".
"Sorry love - I don't do Karaoke" came the honest reply (and even if I did....she wasn't going near a microphone).

For the first time in a long time I got the "what sort of DJ are you?!"
"A good one came" came the reply from yours truly, at which point, I honestly thought she was going to lump me one on the chin (if she'd been capable of aiming straight). She behaved for the rest of the evening

So apart from those two, not a bad night. Lots of money raised, happy DJ and happy customer

Several wedding meetings during the next week, followed off with an 80's wedding on Saturday night (yup...16 feet of proper bulbs for the night )before heading off to Brum on Sunday to watch the bedroom DJs twiddle knobs like the next Guetta at BPM.

[DJColsie]

Last night was a first for me, a Silent Disco!

Only booked on Tuesday and was a first for client too. Him and his girlfriend had been to a few festivals this year and she decided last weekend she would like a Silent Disco for her 22nd Birthday Party.

Venue about 30 mins away. Did have a dubious reputation but on “googling it” has had a massive and expensive refit so things seemed fine.

He had already hired the equipment - 30 headphones and 3 transmitters. Admitted he had no technical knowledge and was worried about setting it up. Also, thought they would have about 50 guests, not a set of headphones for everyone! So agreed to play my channel at a background level through the Evox.

Arrived at venue to find about 10 steps between the car park and a perfect flat trolley ride 😒.

Got set up, all good and venue looked nice. Client bought in equipment with one playlist on his phone and another on his iPad.

So I had the booth output from my mixer as channel 1, his phone as channel 2 and iPad as channel 3. The headsets changed colour from red to green to blue to indicate which channel they were listening to.

Fun evening. The hardest thing was not knowing what was playing on the other channels when they were popular. Initially, I had a tendency to change the music quickly if I lost listeners. In the end you just have to accept you are not gonna please all the people all the time and stick to what you know works. I did gather the other channels had a lot of 90’s and 00’s dance on so I played other decades and genres to offer choice.

Client was really pleased and I got huge thank you and hug from the birthday girl.

Good stuff.

[Excalibur]

Surprise 30th Birthday on Friday, and 25th Anniversary on Saturday. Both family affairs, with main part of night dedicated to hatting, not dancing. Venues couldn't be much more different.
Friday had magnificent access close to the door, and Saturday needed a sixty yard trek with the Rock'n'Roller at full stretch.

Friday's audience had a fair few thirty plus guests, so I was playing some gentle pre-buffet aural wallpaperwhen the birthday girl comes up and utters the words which strike dread into every DJ's heart.

" This is no good, I don't want this old stuff. Haven't you got anything modern, so we can all have a dance" ?

She didn't actually have any idea what she wanted, just that she didn't want this.
I was urged to play Mr Brightside at 9pm, " cos everyone will dance " ( yeah, all three of them ) and basically couldn't structure the evening at all.

It came to life somewhat in the last hour, and with the aid of the slowest venue WiFi I have ever seen, I got hold of a track which meant a lot to Birthday Girl and her partner, my client.
This helped to end the night on a high note, and left me with a handful of happy guests, and a happy client, which was something I didn't expect early on.

Saturday saw me back in Wakefield again, at a large Hotel, with notoriously difficult access. Not only that, but I needed Karaoke as well. Yippee. Fortunately, I was able to enlist young Mattysounds to help, and he was his usual invaluable self. Fortune favoured us, as we had a ground floor function room, not upstairs as feared.
Parking in the overflow car park meant we had a sixty yard trek along a smooth hard tarmac path, so the Rock'n'Roller came to the rescue. We needed Karaoke as well, so we had a little more kit to move.
We were set up in good time, and looked tidy, with the DSB carrying a Powerbar and two moonflowers on the overhead, and TV monitor hung off the side.

The function manager had a word, and he was a great chap, very knowledgeable and helpful. Although our room was small and cosy, it was part of a sprawling venue, with the bar in another postcode ( serving multiple areas, so ridiculously busy and understaffed ) and toilets on another floor! This meant we could lose guests for ages at a time. I only got a drink on my fourth trip to the bar.

Again, three hours of very little action, lots of ebbs and flows with guests, and two Karaoke songs. Final hour, and guess what? Alcohol takes effect, Karaoke comes to life, and we're rammed with everything. Final karaoke request came during the final song, come on you've had four flaming hours to do this. Grr. Venue staff put on the house lights perfectly as I uttered the magic words " Good night and God Bless ", and we soon found out why. They were turning the room round for something else like persons possessed, and we had to keep on our toes as the dance floor disappeared, and projectors, screens and cables appeared everywhere.

So, two similar gigs, in wildly contrasting venues, both ending with happy customers, and satisfied DJs.

[DJWilson]

Had my first gig on Friday since starting back up following 5+ years of being out of the game.

It was a nice, small country pub about 20 minutes away in the car. 1 mile down the road from my day job.

Very low turn out which meant we had free reign to play anything. There was a couple of women dancing so we kept catering for them until they moved on elsewhere.

As I say quiet night but was good to get a decent test run before our wedding reception next Saturday.

A couple of people at the end of the night asked for cards and the landlady has said we'll be her first call for any upcoming functions.

Might I add, ADJ Mini Dekker's. WOW! Amazing lights.

[mattydj50]

Well, it seems that I upset a photographer last weekend as I received a "please explain" from the venue's Wedding Co-ordinator. Nothing at all from the Bride and Groom mind you.

As usual, all was running nicely and, as the buffet was drifting away, I kicked off with some chart stuff etc. which immediately got the kids attention who succeeded in bringing their parents onto, what is a fairly small dance floor in its own room, situated between the eating/sitting room and the bar (drinking room). Gradually, numbers increased until we were well up and running. All of a sudden, this photographer poked his head round the door, leaned right over and said "how do you fancy me getting the bride and groom for a dance off, so I can get some dance shots before I go home". Took me back a bit, as I had begun to structure a few tunes to keep the assembled populus on the floor. I thought for few seconds and declined, saying that I was on with my show and I was in the middle of something. He muttered something (by now, I had one ear on the next track, and wasn't really interested), so I then told him (I don't think he heard me) that I needed to get on. I had glanced at the timer and noticed I had 35 seconds left on one track, so Mr Silence would be making a sharp entrance unless I got my skates on. Next track mixed in, I looked over and he had gone. Bride and Groom were nowhere to be seen, so I thought no more of it and carried on with, what turned out to be a cracking night. I never saw the tog again. I did see some toys on the floor later, but the pram had gone.

I could have asked the B&G if they were happy with this but, as I said, they were nowhere to be seen and I was busying myself with entertaining their guests which, along with entertaining the B&G, is, I believe my primary function there.

On the night, nothing was said, not by the B&G nor by the venue's C&E manager, who is a good friend and always tips me off if there is something up, regardless of whether it is me (very unusual) or tog/cake/guests (quite likely)

Bride and Groom congratulated me on a very good night, groom suggesting that he would happily recommend me to anyone. A big round of applause at the end and numerous thank you's as the guests left. Thank you very much, good night, job well done. Or so I thought....

On Wednesday, I got this e-mail from the venue, saying that the photographer had marked them down as I was "unprofessional". This was from a photographer who had not even had the decency to introduce himself to me at any time and, if he had asked me earlier if I could help him get some dance shots of the bride & groom, I would have happily obliged. I'd not seen this tog before (he was from way out of town), so I contacted my 3 local togs who I have a good working relationship with and asked then what they would have done.

They all said that none of them would have done what he did, even if they were at a new venue. They would have come to me earlier, and asked me to work with them. All 3 have said that they consider me to be very professional and wish that more DJs were like me. I'm sure you all are. No doubt we have all worked with others who we would like to tell to "do one" but we wouldn't be in business for much longer.

So when I got this missive, I was a bit on edge, my first instinct wasto issue forth a full blooded rant. However, I decided that would be tantamount to handing in my notice, so bit my tounge. This Saturday, I spoke with the C&E manager who was there, and he confirmed to me that no-one had said anything to him last weekend and he was completely unaware of anything. He did say thatthe tog had been a pain all day, but that's not what I can tell the venue. He also said that the Wedding Co-ordinator had not asked him about this, which makes me suspicious.

I have had a reminder this morning telling me that I haven't yet replied. New phone, so e-mail problems abounded yesterday and laptop was playing up, so I was suffering from IT frustration.

I have drafted a reply that I intend to send tonight.

[funkymook]

I don’t see the problem in changing your music plans to accommodate something like this - but not organising it properly is an issue.

I would have told the ’tog to go and find the the B&G and make sure they were up for it, and if they were if they had any particular song they would like to ‘dance-off’ to and then come back and tell you when he’s sorted it all out and has the B&G are ready to go by the dancefloor - basically putting the ball firmly back in his court, he can’t expect it to magically happen.

[mattydj50]

I don’t see the problem in changing your music plans to accommodate something like this - but not organising it properly is an issue.

I would have told the ’tog to go and find the the B&G and make sure they were up for it, and if they were if they had any particular song they would like to ‘dance-off’ to and then come back and tell you when he’s sorted it all out and has the B&G are ready to go by the dancefloor - basically putting the ball firmly back in his court, he can’t expect it to magically happen.

That's exactly what I would have told him, if he'd hung around long enough to let me. My location there means I'm pretty much trapped in and, with one track coming to an end and silence looming, I wasn't in a position to go walk about and find him.

[rth_discos]

All of a sudden, this photographer poked his head round the door, leaned right over and said "how do you fancy me getting the bride and groom for a dance off, so I can get some dance shots before I go home".

I had something similar a week ago. Just before the cake cutting, the photographer asked me to get them to feed each other cake, as that gets a great photo.

I'm always conscious to never "surprise" anything on the to the Bride and Groom, so I went and mentioned this to them first, and they said they didn't want to feed each other cake. So I let the photographer know we weren't doing it.

In any situation like this, I always say that I'll ask the Bride and Groom if they want to do it. It's their day, they are in charge, and they are the ones that have booked us.

This could have been a great opportunity for you to create a "memorable moment", so I'd have checked with the Bride and Groom first. Had they wanted to do it, they'd have pulled all their guests through, and it could have kicked your evening off with a bang!

However, it seems a bit of unfortunate timing during the song and the approach of the photographer for this request had put you on the back foot.

I don't agree with the photographer making a complaint about you - I don't think you handled it badly, just there could have been an opportunity. But equally, the Bride and Groom may have been as likely to say no to the request as they were to say yes.

I have had a reminder this morning telling me that I haven't yet replied. New phone, so e-mail problems abounded yesterday and laptop was playing up, so I was suffering from IT frustration.

For anything like this, pick up the phone and have a chat with them, rather than sending an email. It comes across far better. You can even point them in the direction of the wedding co-ordinator and C&E manager to chat with them too.