Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Excalibur]

To be honest, the reason I've not told any tales in the last couple of weeks is because I can't be bothered.

And where would we be if we all had that attitude? A forum with no posts. Stop slacking man, and get reviewing.

I'm doing gigs where nothing standout is happening, so no tales to tell.

Sez you. Boring in your eyes, but perhaps your humdrum is our riotously entertaining. ( And just to prove me wrong, a report consisting of " turned up, played music, went home " will incur my distinct displeasure.

I am looking at a new van though.

So am I. Zero intention of buying one*, but always looking at a new van. Sigh.


* Conditional on a substantial cash injection from Camelot.

[DJColsie]

My Mrs was made redundant from work yesterday so promised to take her out to cheer her up.

At 7.30 get a phone call from Toby asking if I could do a gig for him in the New Forest starting now with a 40 min drive! Better get changed then!

Found the venue easily enough. Pot holed gravel/mud car park over flowing with cars and water! Anyway set up and playing before deserts served.

Cracking night. My abiding memory will be seeing 60/70 years olds with their hands in the air singing to Sex on Fire and Chelsea Dagger. A great stuff.

Could have played for much longer and rare situation where the majority of guests seemed to be staying at the hotel so numbers didn't dwindle and needed more room for people to be able to dance!

Been invited back next Friday to do it all over again!

[Excalibur]

My Mrs was made redundant from work yesterday so promised to take her out to cheer her up.

Ouch! Crap timing. Hope she is soon back in gainful employment.

Been invited back next Friday to do it all over again!

Well it's not all doom and gloom then. Onwards and upwards.

[DJColsie]

Ouch! Crap timing. Hope she is soon back in gainful employment

Sure she will be but probably on half her previous salary!

Oh well more DJing it is then!

[Benny Smyth]

Sez you. Boring in your eyes, but perhaps your humdrum is our riotously entertaining. ( And just to prove me wrong, a report consisting of " turned up, played music, went home " will incur my distinct displeasure.



So am I. Zero intention of buying one*, but always looking at a new van. Sigh.


* Conditional on a substantial cash injection from Camelot.

I never said boring. Just nothing standout. All my Christmas gigs have been rock up, wait for dinner to be finished and play to a fun bunch. They've been good nights, but no real anecdotes.

As for the van, I'm leaning more towards contract hire over buying. My account says it's the best option for me.

[Excalibur]

As for the van, I'm leaning more towards contract hire over buying. My account says it's the best option for me.

Interesting. There are all sorts of deals around nowadays. A mate of mine keeps explaining how I can have a brand new van for £100 a month or something, and all I have to do is put fuel in it. Much food for thought.

[funkymook]

I’m on hallowed ground tonight, playing at the Beat Club in London with a top notch Stones tribute band for a 50th birthday.

It was formally known as the Speakeasy and anyone who was anyone in music frequented the club in the 60’s and 70’s, here’s a short list of who's played there: Elton John, Cockney Rebel, The Rolling Stones, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Pink Floyd, The Marmalade, The Mothers of Invention, Yes, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, David Bowie, Deep Purple, Bob Marley, Jeff Beck, King Crimson Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Hawkwind etc etc.....(and I haven’t even touched on the punk bands).

[Excalibur]

and anyone who was anyone in music frequented the club in the 60’s and 70’s, here’s a short list of who's played there: Elton John, Cockney Rebel, The Rolling Stones, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Pink Floyd, The Marmalade, The Mothers of Invention, Yes, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, David Bowie, Deep Purple, Bob Marley, Jeff Beck, King Crimson Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Hawkwind etc etc....

Namedropper.

[funkymook]

Namedropper.

Sadly my name isn’t dropped by them in return.....

[Imagine]

1:10am and I've been driven to opening a bottle of Chardonnay.....today was a complete contrast from last night's NHS doo.

I'm long overdue for a bad gig....but two, yes TWO in a day.....unbelievable.
Weirdly, both were in a town just down the road from me where for some reason I never seem to have much luck at filling the floor.

So to gig number 1. A 6 year old's birthday in the town hall. Now this is a lovely hall, easy access, nice big stage (although didn't use that today being a kids party), and usually a problem. The last two I've done there (both 40th's) have had the guests leaving en-masse at 11pm when I've been booked until midnight. Nothing I've done (and the chap that runs the bar at both this and tonight's venue will bear witness to that). Both times I've had fairly healthy floors for the night until 11pm. Something click's in the guests heads that it's home time and off they go. I actually stood nattering to the bar manager the last time this happened and he couldn't believe his eyes. It's something we joke about every time we see each other....it was just strange.

Anyhow...back to this afternoon. 44 kids invited, SIX turn up. This was always going to be a strange one. Mother rang me during the week, can I turn it from the original two hours into 4 hours, starting earlier and finishing later. No problem starting earlier, but the finish time is set in stone....I have to be elsewhere this evening.

It's a big hall capable of holding between 100-150 people depending on what's going on.....what in the name of all that's holy am I going to do with 6 kids (all with big time discipline problems). Grit teeth, do the best I can (which wasn't helped by the fact that my trusty snow machine decided it wasn't going to play ball) and count the minutes to home time. Obviously due to the distinct lack of numbers, it was never going to get going in the way my kids parties normally do and I left there well and truly deflated. Adult parties occasionally fail....that's life. Kids parties are always guaranteed winners in Wayne's World!

Back in the van by 5:15 (the mini 80's rig I use for kids parties is soooooo quick to wheel in and out), and I've got an hour and a quarter to go to the lockup on the way home to change my kids rig over for tonight's rig, quickly nip home, freshen up, shovel food in my chops and back out again to just down the road from where I'd come from by 6:30 (phew!).

Again, another venue I've done several gigs at with varying levels of success. Both function rooms are upstairs (it's a leisure centre), but happily there's a lift (albeit only just big enough to fit a Rock 'n' Roller R8 into....I have to send the cart up and run up the stairs to meet it!), even if the corridors between the lift and the function rooms are full of doors which open the wrong way and are never wide enough to get through, I can get the rig up there in around 15 minutes.

Back in room 2 where I was on Halloween for a wedding which never really got going, this time for a 21st with a playlist which looked like it had come from a wedding to be honest....hey ho - I aim to please.

Set up in good time, background music on, and in come the guests. Now I normally keep things low key for the first 30 mins or so as I'm sure most of us do whilst the guests get settled, get drinks etc. I stood talking to the bar manager (yes, he from the place down the road) and his words were "this one's not going to last long". To be honest, one look at the massive age range and I could see what he meant. Loads of under 10's meant that this one would fizzle out from around 10pm....and fizzle out it did.

8pm, we kick off with happy birthday, a couple of Minion characters making an appearance, and straight into cheese. A bit early for my liking, but when you've got a full floor that early (well, 20 out of 60 guests), who's to complain? The problem was, this was Stinking Bishop type cheese (we're talking Superman and Agadoo!!!!!).

9pm, can you announce the buffet please? Great - there goes the floor, and back I go to background music as the house lights come up on full. Why can't they do the buffet earlier and I'll just stick to background until it's over? 9:30, guests sing happy birthday as the cake's cut, and then half of them as predicted, put their coats on

So, I'm down to about 30 guests, ranging from the very young to the incredibly old tapping their feet and fingers, and a core of around 8 who are the birthday girl's mates on the floor. OK, only two hours to go.....we can get through this. How can two hours take so long????

Gradually, those with kids disappear as you'd expect

I couldn't persuade the toe tappers to leave their seats, and every now and then, half of the 8 dancers would nip outside for a ciggy break (me...I was happily vaping at the moving heads I had on the floor ).

11:30, I'm into single figures in the room. The bar's all but packed up and they're clearing the tables. Can we go to modern club music please comes the request. Urgh....it's really not my thing (mainly because I don't play much of it) so I'm out of my depth, but luckily have all the CDPool club tracks in a handy folder and manage to muddle through and keep the remaining 4 on the floor happy.

Midnight ticks in and I breathe a sigh of relief.....for now......
The birthday girl made a bee-line for me, hugged me and thanked me and has promised a good review on my Facebook page. I was apologetic as I felt I'd done something horribly wrong, but she was adamant that most of them were never going to dance and that I'd done a good job. Why can't people be upfront when they book you and say that the guests are unlikely to be dancers....it'd save so much stress, panic and sense of failure on the night if you knew beforehand that you're not meant to be packing the floor

This is the venue I'm doing on New Year's Eve until 2am.......it could be a REALLY long night if past history is anything to go by

That said, reading the Facebook groups during the evening, it looks like everyone I know on there across the country has had a similar night.

What did make me smile though...there was another party going on in the other function room (the one I'm in on NYE). This one had been a posh sit-down meal of some sort and is a bigger room so more guests. As I was lugging stuff down the corridors after my midnight finish, I looked into the other room where they're going until 1:30. Completely empty floor! At least I had at least a couple on the floor all night

So, tomorrow is sorting out the kit which was launched at speed into the lock up on the way home, then two kids parties and an 80's Christmas party between me and the big Ho Ho Ho! (thankfully, all of them using the nice easy to wheel in 80's rig).....it's time to start winding down