Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Excalibur]

Karaoke Monday and Tuesday for a bunch of lunatic golfers. The action's usually non stop, and last night we were visited by Osama, Colonel Gadaffi, Roy Orbison, Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, and Shergar!!

If that wasn't enough to cope with, I dropped an almighty clanger. In line with a policy of continual improvement, I've now got some active cabs, which are more versatile for this. The mighty Behringer 732 channel mixer was wheeled out, and a spaghetti junction of cables sprouted from it. After a while, I managed to get what I wanted. Vocals in the PA, and music in the monitors.

Then finally, I turned to the visuals. I went to plug the monitor into the newly acquired laptop.
I couldn't.
Some swine has only gone and removed the VGA port from my laptop, in the name of progress. I'm now royally stuffed, cos the backup one ( which has a VGA port ) hasn't got Karaoke on it. There's no HDMI port on the monitor, so I'm up the creek, sans paddle. Jump in the van, ring people up en route back home, and decide I'll have to pinch the telly from the living room!!

Suffice to say I was a tad frantic about the whole thing, and wondered how much Time I'd lose. Turns out I got back with the telly before they'd finished the meal in the main building, and was wiring up the last bits as they came in. Phew. I've now been out and bought a new monitor with all flavours of sockets on, and all is now tickety boo.

Mighty close run thing though. And before anyone asks, no I don't have a VGA-HDMI adaptor.

Yet. I've got a micro one for the tablet, but can't convert that to full size HDMI.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I once had a horrible, insensitive woman come up to me at the decks (I obviously didn't know she was horrible and insensitive until a couple of minutes later).
As Jim also said, I too ask the question "Is there anything that could be played that could upset someone?" It could be that a family member is no longer around or something like that and I obviously don't expect them to try and account for all of their guests, just them. I also think that if you have to stand (or sit) there and try to think about it then there aren't any problems.

On this occasion at this particular booking (a wedding), I was told beforehand (well, advised) that Celine Dion's 'Heart Will Go On' should be avoided as it was played at a family members funeral..... fair enough, that's the whole point of me asking the question in the first place.

So, back to Mrs (or Miss I expect) horrible and insensitive..... Ok, add rude and demanding to that too if you like.....
She just happened to ask for that particular song and as always I turned to my back up (my DJ sheet with all of the information on it) and before I showed her the sheet I apologised and said that I was sorry I couldn't play the song for her as the couple didn't want it played. At the time I didn't explain why. In fact, I never explain why because it shouldn't matter. If the customer doesn't want to hear a particular song then that's their choice isn't it.

She shook her head and looked at me and asked "Haven't you got it then?" Now, the easiest reply would have been to say "No, sorry" but the paranoia and pride in me doesn't let me do that kind of thing. Ok, so I would never have seen her again (thankfully) and in reality it shouldn't matter what she thought BUT it was the way she asked the question in a sarcastic manner so I replied "Actually, I have got it but the Bride doesn't want it played".
That answer was like a red rag to a bull..... Talk about lose the plot (her!). She effed and effed some more and I told her I didn't appreciate being sworn at and she said "I don't effing care mate!" It was then that I showed her my sheet and she grabbed it out of my hand, looked at it and then shoved it back in to my chest. I looked around and nobody was watching. Everybody was either dancing or chatting and then she said it............."I don't care what the Bride wants, why don't you just play the bloody thing!!?"

I just shook my head and said "Unbelievable". Funny thing is, if I'd have thought about it at the time I would've / could've caught her out and embarassed her because at the point she was effing and effing some more, the song that was playing (Scissor Sisters I think?) was fading out. The polite side of me actually, unbelievably said....."Excuse me a second please" so I could play the next track. What I should have done is stop the track or let it fade out so that everyone could see and hear her for what she was.

I know that once again I've gone around the houses as they say but (I've got time to kill before darts) it just disgusted me that she was a guest at someone's wedding and more or less said " the Bride!!"
I'd have loved the Bride to have heard what she was saying!

Brave juice....that's what it is and it's amazing how it affects people. It doesn't stop me from having a few when I am out away from DJing but if I knew I turned into a different character and akin to something like that......well, I wouldn't touch a drop.

[Benny Smyth]

She effed and effed some more and I told her I didn't appreciate being sworn at and she said "I don't effing care mate!"

By which point, I usually grab the mic and ask "Does this guest belong to anyone? If so, can you come and collect her please?"

[Benny Smyth]

Had a really nice wedding tonight.

Older couple who weren't originally going to have a disco and just have some background music going. Then they decided to book a DJ with lots of lights and plenty of sound.

This gig was always going to have minimal kit as the room access is awful. So the tops had to work on their own and I had the break out the t-bar. Yuck.

Got in an hour late due the usual over run (I'm sitting on the floor outside the room waiting like the orphan Oliver) and started off quietly and slowly (the B&G made a comment about how a disco they went to was too loud from the get go and people couldn't talk). Come the end of the night, I barely got to half volume. It was loud enough for the audience. I didn't even need my earplugs tonight.

Mostly 70s disco with some 60s, a tiny bit of 80s and what you'd imagine to be on Heart's pop playlist. Wasn't expecting dancers tonight, but was pleasantly surprised by how many got up to dance. Not swinging from the chandeliers by any stretch of the imagination, but healthy enough.

Bride and groom were really complimentary, as we're a few others. The best word to describe tonight's gig is 'nice'.

Except for the t-bar. I hate the ing t-bar. And it's getting three more outings this month.

[Nakatomi]

So, my longest coming gig in er.. a long long time tonight (last night actually).

This was a wedding, and the couple had booked me the week after seeing me play their friend's wedding in my residency last August.

I met the couple in June at the venue.. this was the one with the (DANNN DAAAAAAN DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!) ceiling speaker system!

Now, I'd asked around about this & heard varying reports ranging from "I've heard better" to "Hell, Utter, utter hell!". I did a bit of homework & found out the make & model of the inhouse mixer - from here I discovered that if you want to feed it line levels they've got to go in on jacks. Go in with XLRs & you just won't be able to set a good gain structure.

I arrived at just after 5.30pm having had a quick stop to puke my guts up on the way. Yup, I had pre-gig nerves. Can't imagine why - I've done one or two weddings - ok not all at 5* hotels for high fee payers (this was my biggest one yet FWIW), but come on .. what's with the ralphing?

Aaanyway.. I met the wedding coordinator & I was directed to drive my van around the back where I could park it pretty much right outside the marquee. Once there I was shown the inhouse PA. I'd seen it before on my client meeting day, but what I hadn't seen were the instruction sheets for it. Very illuminating stuff!

So, bearing in mind I've heard many a horror story about these directional sound systems, I set up my playout once I'd loaded in & fettled myself into the inhouse mixer using 2 channels from XLR at my mixer end to balanced jacks. I noticed when I was shown it they had background music playing & it seemed to be coming from everywhere in the marquee not just the ceiling. I copied the positions of the aux sends on those channels to those I'd plugged into.. and had a wander around. It sounded awful but it was more than loud enough, and the sound didn't seem to fall away as abruptly as some reports suggest (laws of physics & reflections have something to do with that). I suspect the 'pole' speaker amps were fed from the aux sends - if I ever go back there (unlikely) I'll check that out.

Anyway, even my mic was perfectly usable all around the marquee. Woohoo!

The venue were running early by almost an hour, so I got my lights up in no time & set about background duty.

At 7.30ish I was asked if I was OK about making announcements about the cake cut & first dance (WHA? Really? LOL), so then I did. Everybody seemed to have heard me then with the cake cut it was straight into the first dance intro. A massive ovation ensued - again thanks to Mr microphone, and off they went to God Only Knows. Marry You followed, but half way through everybody seemed to remember the weather was still nice so went outside again.

Not to worry - the groom kept popping in to say people were saying they were loving the music & just keep going with it. Woohoo again!

A hog roast was served (I saw none of this mind), then dancers started coming up sporadically til we had about 1.5 hours left. From there, the floor got full, empty, full, empty.. then just busy for most of the last half hour. Played the penultimate tune & did my "big up the B&G before the final song" bit at 10.55pm, to yet another ovation. As Take That's Never Forget faded out I gave my final announcement - that everybody was invited to the cellar bar in the main house but that they were to collect sparklers on the way there. Sparklers in the garden everybody! Yet more uproarious cheering.

I was interrupted in my packing down by a groom who was it's fair to say as pleased as punch. He thanked me profusely for everything I'd done. I said I was frankly relieved the venue PA wasn't as bad as I'd heard & he said he'd definitely heard better too but I'd done an amazing job.

Thank for that!

Oh, and my card holder seems to be a lot lighter now than before I started.. I think even a staff member took one (though maybe just to put me on the banned list I dunno).

Ah yes.. all those firsts - what were they?
1. First private wedding gig in many a year
2. First PROPER money gig in like EVER.
3. First outing for my new laptop
4. First outing for my Quad Phase HP

Gear used: 2 foot ultimax fronted by Equinox booth screen, backlit by WashFX. Equinox gigabar & ADJ Quad Phase HP.. and my playout stuff with FSM-400 mixer.



Oh so what did the ceiling PA actually sound like? Well, imagine playing music on your phone full blast right next to your ear. Worse than that.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

After Saturday and Sundays "incidents" with the token drunk bampots tonight's couldn't have been any more different.

Dutch Scots wedding with half the crowd over from the Netherlands.

It was a small affair and amazingly, despite the venue being on the banks of Loch Lomond (literally, the kids were swimming in it ) I didn't have to finish with it.

Bit of a mixed bag of tunes and not much forthcoming request wise so I tried to satiate everyone with the grooms hard rock, the bride's slushy numbers and the guests mega cheese.

The dancefloor wasn't rammed but everyone was so nice during the buffet background music and at the end of the night saying how great it had been. I didn't think I'd managed to pick up much footage because the dancing was sporadic but I've got plenty to work with and the video should turn out nice.

Had the wireless moodlights out and got to mess around a bit later on - they just wanted a mellow fade through various pinks and lilacs but come the end of the night I got a bit more colourful and it looked great.

Happy bride, happy groom, happy guests, happy DJ.

Got an agency gig tomorrow. Rubbish payer but the room is so small it's practically a walk in and it's only 10 minutes up the road. The bride got in touch with a list of tunes as long as my arm. I had to explain to her diplomatically that as this was an agency gig, I couldn't give her access to my online planner to pick her tunes as the agency wouldn't like me directing her to my website plus, and again as it was an agency gig, I'll hunt down your formal dances if I don't have them but that's it. I also won't be doing the photos or videos.

She wasn't too impressed but at around 1/3rd of my usual fee that's what she's getting - if she wants the platinum service she can pay the platinum price

Nice wedding lined up on Saturday. The guy is super laid back, the bride (who did pay the platinum price) went into incredible detail with the music and when stuff has to happen. Hopefully she'll be quite mellow but I'm going to spend the night with my head stuck in her plannign sheet making sure I drop song X at point Y as requested.

A cool thing that is happening - I met them in the venue and showed them one of my mood lights. On the spot she said she needed to have them. Same as tonight it'll be a pink fade but they're going out for surprise fireworks later on. I'm goingt o blackout everything (including the room lights) for them coming back in, kick in the Beyonce tune she wants with a big fanfare and the lights on rave cave strobe mode and then have them set to go ballistic from then on in until the last dance. I can't wait to see what it looks like.

[Excalibur]

Older couple who weren't originally going to have a disco and just have some background music going. Then they decided to book a DJ with lots of lights and plenty of sound.

But he wasn't available, so you got the gig?

Except for the t-bar. I hate the ing t-bar. And it's getting three more outings this month.

Seriously, especially for the type of crowd you describe, some form of Powerbar is ideal. It's the one which almost always goes in the van.

Got an agency gig tomorrow. Rubbish payer but the room is so small it's practically a walk in and it's only 10 minutes up the road.

She wasn't too impressed but at around 1/3rd of my usual fee that's what she's getting - if she wants the platinum service she can pay the platinum price

When I first read your post Jim, I was disappointed. Then I realised that I was doing something not dissimilar for two Friday gigs covering for a mate. It's only a matter of degree.

[DJ Jules]

She wasn't too impressed but at around 1/3rd of my usual fee that's what she's getting - if she wants the platinum service she can pay the platinum price

The problem I find with agency gigs is that she probably IS paying your platinum price, just you're not seeing all of that money (especially if it's a hotel booking an agency who are booking you) Out of interest, did she bring up the video/photos or did you? If you hadn't mentioned them, would she have expected them...?

Julian

[Nakatomi]

Re powerbars... I don't go anywhere without mine. I took both Equinox & Teutonic variants yesterday incase the gigabar wasn't enough but it was fine. There just wasn't enough ceiling clearance to use anything else I have. Black starlit roof lining & the black dancefloor kind of put paid to any kind of pattern projection anyway ruling out scanners (no haze allowed) & moonflowers (not enough distance to get a good throw).

So I think my lighting was perfect. Using something like a Wizard in there is tricky what with your inability to push hot lights right up to the lining (fire risk much?). So yeah good old fashioned washing was the order of the day.

Even movers on podiums would be a waste in that marquee. No haze, and everything at eye level or below?... Blech no.

Hotel staff commented my setup looked tidy & interestingly different to all the other booths they see.

The one downside with the white lycra screen I didn't forsee: flying insects attracted to the light. Not many but I spotted a few at various points during the night.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

The problem I find with agency gigs is that she probably IS paying your platinum price, just you're not seeing all of that money (especially if it's a hotel booking an agency who are booking you) Out of interest, did she bring up the video/photos or did you? If you hadn't mentioned them, would she have expected them...?

Julian

She must have googled my name or number and come across the site.

It's a hotel package so I doubt she knows individually what the DJ cost (I certainly don't) but for the fee, she'll get a bloody great night of music, if she wanted a really fancy dj / package, she wouldn't just go along with the hotels DJ. I know I'm not when I get married next year...