Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Totally agree with that and I had someone asking the same thing last night.
Firstly, good review there Juski. Enjoyed reading that.

I've done 4 Christmas parties so far. 2 last week and also Friday and Saturday this week. The 2 last week and Friday....well, I couldn't have asked for better crowds, especially on Friday. It's quite funny (but encouraging too) when you walk in to the room and you recognise faces from parties that you've done in the past for those faces.
On Friday there was a table full of women who were attending the Christmas party sessions for the 6th year in a row. There was also a company that included 2 friends of mine that I hadn't seen for a while and a lady whose wedding I am doing in February and there was also 2 ladies from another company whose weddings I had done earlier on in the year. It's really nice when you're in earshot of comments like "We're in for a good night, he did my wedding" or "He's a really good DJ" (I don't mean that to sound egotistic by the way).

The group of ladies who were there for the 6th year in a row (I've done 5 of those years), invited me over as the background music was playing. I did get some interesting looks as they all gave me 'high fives' and poured me a glass of wine. I sat and chatted with them for 5 minutes but was concious of the fact that some may see a bit of favouritism going on. I looked at it as being friendly but there you go, that's the paranoia in me I guess?

This may be a bit of a strange description but it was as if everyone was greyhounds stood in the traps and raring to go for it. I could sense the anticipation and excitement from everyone (that might sound a bit OTT but it's true). Just like every party, when the lights go down and the dance floor lights up with the Disco lights, the tables cheered. I made my announcements and said hello to everyone, gave each company a massive shout and encouraged them to make some noise and told them I was up for requests and then as soon as I kicked off with the first song, it was a packed dance floor from start to finish.
My original idea was to start off all of the parties with 'Happy' as it's a floor filler but that hasn't been the case because it doesn't really have an intro you can loop whilst people are getting to the dance floor. I've started off with 'Shake it off' by Taylor Swift every time and it's worked really well and then I've followed it with 'Happy' and gone from there.

As I said, Friday was a great night, possibly one of the best Christmas parties I have ever done. The time flew by. Lots of happy people, lots of dancing, requests and a couple of cards asked for too. The lady whose wedding I am doing in February said she couldn't wait for her evening reception and looked forward to seeing me again.
A nice little round of applause at the end and I sincerely meant it when I said "It's been a pleasure" at the end.

Now, last night (Saturday) was a let down compared to Friday.
As mentioned by someone else in their review, I was also on a 'high' after Friday and I was looking forward to doing it all again last night. It was a slightly smaller affair with just under 100 guests. I had 2 x Discos on last night as there was also a surprise 50th birthday going on in another part of the venue. A quick few lines on that one first - It had the potential to be a great night but it ended up being a let down really. It had been booked for a year and the playlist was really good (lots of Indie and Rock). From what I was told, 35 guests turned up (60 invited) and 15 of those were children. The DJ packed up at 11.15pm as there were about 5 people left who were all sat chatting but I was told that they all had a great time. It was just pretty hard work and slightly boring for the DJ.

Saying that though, I think I'd rather have been doing that one myself than the one I was doing.
Just under 100 guests and I counted 5 guys. Now, in my experience, whenever I have done parties where the attendees are mainly women, they've been really good parties with lots of dancing to pretty much anything. Last night was hard work to put it politely.
Firstly, it didn't help that there was one table of 10 'ladies' (ahem)...that were fully tanked up before they'd finished their meals. They were loud, rowdy and not shy by a long shot. They were in their early 40's at a guess but the majority of them were dressed like 18 year olds. Some of them could get away with it and did look rather nice but the way they acted was just embarrassing really....again, to put it politely. We found out afterwards that they'd sneaked in a couple of bottles of vodka which were found under their table and it seemed pretty obvious that they were using the Christmas party as a warm up before they went out on the town later that evening.

I and the majority of the guests saw parts of them that should have been kept under wraps in all honesty. They attempted to dance on the tables and didn't seem too impressed when they were advised not to. Some of the male staff looked a bit embarrassed and uneasy when going near their table, probably through fear of being manhandled. It seemed like a bit of a laugh at first but then it just got a bit boring really. I'm no prude....far from it but I just couldn't look over in their direction at times and I was concious that they could possibly be upsetting a few of the other guests. One of them asked me for a number of requests and every one of them wasn't really appropriate for the occasion. She would come over when the dance floor was busy-ish and ask for something that I knew would clear the dance floor. You could sense that every time she thought of something she would trot over and see if I'd play it.

I'll be honest, I did feel uncomfortable with them around. When they got on the dance floor it seemed like everything was exaggerated. Their dancing, their suggestive moves with each other and you could (well I could) see some of the looks they were getting from other guests. They were pretty outrageous.
I tried to ignore their antics really and concentrate on everyone else who did actually seem like they were enjoying themselves. I got lots of requests and played as many of those as I could. When I kicked off the music after the meals everyone got on the dance floor but it was one of those on/off/on/off nights. One minute it would be packed and the next minute there would be a handful of people dancing. Totally different to Friday when it was packed all night and I could do no wrong.

I didn't get any negative comments but I felt that it could be a lot better. I thought that the main attraction was the table of 'ladies' mucking about and that it didn't matter what I played really because all eyes were on what they were doing.
At around 10.45pm the atmosphere totally changed and you know why?.......because the 'ladies' in question left to go out on the town. I breathed a sigh of relief and it was as if everyone else did too. We all got in to proper party mode and the dance floor was full until the end. Lots of requests came in and it was a much better night from then on.

Maybe I should have totally ignored what the 'ladies' were doing but it was hard not to notice what was going on for most of the evening. I'm glad they left. I wished they'd left earlier really but once they had I felt like I could really concentrate on giving everyone a great night. There were around 50 left for that last hour and they were mainly from one company (Marks & Spencer) and they all had a great time. The organiser thanked me and took a card and there were lots of happy people at the end.

That's it for this weekend now. A busy one next week with 5 parties and I am hoping that they are all like Friday was.

[Nakatomi]

I'll be honest, I did feel uncomfortable with them around. When they got on the dance floor it seemed like everything was exaggerated. Their dancing, their suggestive moves with each other and you could (well I could) see some of the looks they were getting from other guests. They were pretty outrageous.
I tried to ignore their antics really and concentrate on everyone else who did actually seem like they were enjoying themselves.

The DJ ... part entertainer, part anthropologist ;-)

It's as if some people saw the likes of 'Ibiza Uncovered' & took that as the gospel on how to act on a night out sometimes, isn't it?

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Too right!
It's quite funny actually as I was just replying to a message on Facebook and I got a notification that someone I knew was tagged in a photo from last night.
I recognised the name so I did a bit of a nosey parker impression and had a look and it turns out that I vaguely know one of the 'ladies' via a friend although I didn't recognise her last night. After a bit of searching I saw some comments saying how good a night it was.
Now, whether they mean the party was good or what happened afterwards when they were out on the town, I don't know but they certainly looked like they were enjoying themselves albeit a bit too enthusiastically. Nothing wrong with that I guess. Afterall, it IS the party season. I just find it slightly selfish that some people act like that and don't take into account that there are people around that could possibly be offended by their actions.

[Benny Smyth]

I swear, if yet ANOTHER panda turns up at one of my gigs again...

[DazzyD]

I swear, if yet ANOTHER panda turns up at one of my gigs again...

I take it you've been "panda-ring" to your clients again, Benny!!!

[Benny Smyth]

I take it you've been "panda-ring" to your clients again, Benny!!!

I think that was a pun, but not too sure. You'll have to bear with me whilst I try to work that out.

[dj foureyes]

I swear, if yet ANOTHER panda turns up at one of my gigs again...

You just have to grin and bear it mate......

[dj foureyes]

Beaten to it

[Benny Smyth]

Beaten to it

Sorry, mate. Wanted to get in there before the panda-monium started.

[funkymook]

I used to go out dressed like that, but I got too big to fit in the suit.....I’m an ex-panda

Ithankyew