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Thread: Good Gig, Bad Gig.

  1. #4791

    Join Date
    Jun 2010
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    Yorkshire
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    489

    Default And Now for something...

    'Been there Done that' well that was until I got a call asking if I was interested in doing a three day Bike & Music festival. It meant a trip out to the centre of the known universe (also called Withernsea).
    Arrived Friday mid morning with booth and play-out system as sound and lighting all provided, no sign of life and very little room on the stage for me to set up, rechecked the info sheet '12.00 music from E Y Discos'. after an hour (11.45) a 'Sound engineer' turns up and helps me move a little stuff around so that my booth can be erected. quick set up and playing to around 50 people for 12.30. The first band arrived and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing in-between band change overs as the crowd size increased.
    All was well until around 6pm when I was informed the band due at 7.30pm had cancelled so I prepared my self for a slightly longer set only to then discover the headline act were stuck on the M1. DJ Dave to the rescue, Moved my booth to the middle of the stage and turned the place into an impromptu party night, we also had fireworks to finish on!

    Happy to say Saturday went without a hitch and despite a band not turning up Sunday the whole thing flew by.
    Top weekend with all food and drink provided, not the biggest of fees charged but booked again for next year!

    Sorry didn't get the full spec but it was a QSC speaker system with 2 subs and three tops each side, Led lighting galore and a couple of big moving heads.

  2. #4792
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Jul 2006
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    East Yorkshire
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by djdj View Post

    Happy to say Saturday went without a hitch and despite a band not turning up Sunday the whole thing flew by.
    Top weekend with all food and drink provided, not the biggest of fees charged but booked again for next year!
    Indeed. Not even enough to tempt an old superstar DJ out for the weekend! ( And for anyone who doesn't realise, Dave and I were both in on this one from the start. Logistics meant that it was a non runner for me, but Dave was able to have a weekend of fun, frivolities and freebies in return for a lot of hard work. Glad you had a good time, I'll try to get up a bus trip from 'ull next year.

    Last night:
    Surprise 21st local to me, in a " Marquee ", cough, cough. Just a perfect size for the Equinox booth and Proels on tripods. I'm beginning to think that they are much more punter-resistant than the Mauis. Glad they stayed in the van. Wondering if I should have used the DSB though, as the Equinox flexes alarmingly when attacked by the boisterous crowd. Tremendous, but tiring night, and due to a 1am finish, still didn't see bed before 2am.

    Fancy dress tonight, so should be fun. Haven't picked my outfit yet, theme is " beginning with "s". Santa may yet be the fall back position.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

    www.excaliburmobiledisco.co.uk

  3. #4793
    Imagine's Avatar
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    Feb 2014
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    Ely, Cambridgeshire
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    Default Another blinder in the bag :)

    That's wasn't too shabby

    Small-ish wedding reception for 100 or so in a local village hall, very few formalities, lots of cheese (music police come and get me....I played SUPERMAN! )
    Plenty of drinking and dancing once it started raining and brought those in the nice little garden inside to take part

    For the first time ever though (and I don't get it), Summer of 69 cleared the dance floor

    Next week's little shindig could be fun - it's in my most visited venue again and they've specified 14 hours of music for a 5 hour set, with no requests and no mic-work. I'll just press play and see what happens then

    Right - time for a beer or three!

  4. #4794
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
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    Default Fickle customers!

    Quote Originally Posted by Imagine View Post

    Right - time for a beer or three!
    When did Ronald start selling Old Sock Rotter? All I get is coffee, and the road stretching out before me. Do you only work a hundred yards from home or something?



    Right, enough of Young Wayne's drinking habits, my gig:
    Surprise 30th in a Rugby Club, Fancy dress beginning with "s". We had The Simpsons, Marge and Homer ( Marge got the prize for best outfit, fortunately chosen by Birthday boy ) Loads of Super Mario and Snow Whites ( including one with very hairy legs, and a tache. Think that one was a fella ) Smurfs, Shania Twain in a leopard print playsuit, Sumo Wrestlers, and I along with many others was a Sheriff. Next time, I need a cap gun, one sheriff was making a lot of noise with his.

    Also, like Dave Jackson, I too had a first. I've never had a shark asking for the Macarena before!

    We started slowly, there were inflatables outside, which saw a lot of use early on, and not surprisingly in a rugby club, drink was taken in large amounts. Once this lot switched on, we were cooking on gas! A large helping of Cheese set them off, followed by a bit of indie, a bit of Rock and Roll, various Anthems, and a rendition of Someone Like You by Adele with almost the whole crowd in a circle community singing. Then we hit true Gold. Trance and Happy Hardcore, Darude, Scooter, Sash, Cafe Del Mar, Hermes House Band - Country Roads sneaked in as a request, and brought the house down, Jump Around, Apache and finally, at a minute or two after midnight ( take note of that, it's there for a reason ) 2 Unlimited- No Limit.

    Now here's the thing. When I arrived, the venue insisted that the guests would try to extend the night, but music and the bar would cease at midnight, and the venue would be empty by midnight. I pointed this out to the client and " oh, that's absolutely fine ". Thus, as I said, I overran by about two minutes, in a storming ending, which I was very proud of. Powered down, and unplugged laptop and PA, house lights on full.

    Then I get a very drunk ( female and pretty ) client draped round me, with additional beauty for backup, asking for " one more. We'll pay you ". Money's not the issue , dear, time is.
    " We'll carry the kit out ".
    Not if I have anything to do with it. I've seen what you lot were drinking.

    Funny how the mood of euphoria turns to bitterness at this point. The bar manager was heavily pregnant, so I reckon she deserved an early night anyway. You go from being the best DJ in the world ever, to being the biggest in the world in thirty seconds. I know CJ in Sheffield was having issues with abusive punters, and it really takes the shine off the night. Mine I can live with, he was having serious grief, I believe.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

    www.excaliburmobiledisco.co.uk

  5. #4795
    Jim - Scotland's Party DJ's Avatar
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    Dec 2012
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    Glasgow
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
    Now here's the thing. When I arrived, the venue insisted that the guests would try to extend the night, but music and the bar would cease at midnight, and the venue would be empty by midnight. I pointed this out to the client and " oh, that's absolutely fine ". Thus, as I said, I overran by about two minutes, in a storming ending, which I was very proud of. Powered down, and unplugged laptop and PA, house lights on full.

    Then I get a very drunk ( female and pretty ) client draped round me, with additional beauty for backup, asking for " one more. We'll pay you ". Money's not the issue , dear, time is.
    " We'll carry the kit out ".
    Not if I have anything to do with it. I've seen what you lot were drinking.

    Funny how the mood of euphoria turns to bitterness at this point. The bar manager was heavily pregnant, so I reckon she deserved an early night anyway. You go from being the best DJ in the world ever, to being the biggest in the world in thirty seconds. I know CJ in Sheffield was having issues with abusive punters, and it really takes the shine off the night. Mine I can live with, he was having serious grief, I believe.
    I had a VERY polite crowd last night.

    Bus turned up early and the driver was gunning to go so I wrapped up about 5 to Midnight to cries of 1 more song. The bride and groom gave me the nod so I cracked on with the Proclaimers, they both come up "can we get the mic to sing please?"

    Usually a flat no but they were an awesome couple and their guests were great so I hand it over. At the end she says: "Right that's really it guys, get on the bus or you're getting left. I feel like I should drop this mic but it feels really expensive so I'll just put it down now. Night."

    At another juncture I'd gone to get some water and come back to find the 2 drunkest guys in the room perched precariously on the rickety stage beside my gear.

    "How you doing lads, very well behaved by the way, 9 times out of 10 guys in your nick would be behind the decks messing about with my stuff."

    REALLY? that's not cool we'd never do that. Anyways, could you possibly play....


    Honestly for it being such an inebriated crowd (they'd brewed 2 of their own beers for the occasion, one at 4.9% one at 6. something!!! and free bar all night, they were an awesome bunch.

  6. #4796

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    Jan 2009
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    Bristol
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    Default

    I've had a lovely weekend with guests as well - there must be something in the air

    Friday night saw me booked for a 50th birthday party at a private residence. I arrived in good time and as the weather looked like it was going to hold for another day, I was asked to set up in the doorway of the garage (facing outwards). In hindsight, I would have been better off on the patio by the house with the guests, roughly 40ft away (that admission came from the gent who booked me at about 10pm).

    The guests were lovely and I had a chat with a good number of them as they came down to get drinks from the freezer in the garage, but the distance proved to be too much and I packed up at midnight, 30mins earlier than planned, with only a handful of dancers all night. They had a singer as well who was on the patio (and was also a lovely gent) and he got a much better reaction!

    On the plus side, being setup in a garage door meant that I had the shortest load in possible without leaving the kit in the car

    Last night saw me at a wedding in Walton Castle in the party turret. Unfortunately the end of the good weather meant that guests congregated to either the marquee, the bar turret or my turret fairly early in the evening and then stayed put to avoid getting soaked (all of the turrets are accessed by the open courtyard within the outer castle walls and there's no shelter) so I had a fairly quiet night from the first dance at 7:30 until about 11pm, but the last hour was busy and the guests were lovely with only one exception (I had one guest who decided he'd stand and stare at me until I played his song).

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    I got a bit wet loading out (a 20m walk as the main entrance through the castle wall isn't big enough to get a car in!)

    Wedding tomorrow night in another local castle.

    Julian
    http://www.bristoldiscohire.co.uk - Quality Disco and Equipment hire for Bristol & Bath
    Weddings, Birthday Parties, Kids Parties, School Disco's and more
    https://julianburr.co.uk - Wedding, Family, Portrait and Product Photography

  7. #4797

    Join Date
    Feb 2015
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    Reading, Berkshire
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    Wednesday night was my third all day wedding in 6 days (having done Fri and Sat the weekend before). On my diary in DJEP it looks fine - it's on a different line. In reality, it wasn't much of a gap from the previous two events, so came round very quickly!

    It was a small affair - 36 guests, of which 8 were children.

    They wanted a laid back affair - not even wanting a first dance. Was a pleasant day, and the weather turning a little brought them inside. A little dancing, but there was never a huge amount of energy in this group. The highlight was the young daughter of the couple asking if everyone can play musical statues with her - of which I obliged and we had a lot of fun for that 10 minutes.

    End time of 11pm was agreed in advance, because of the number of young children, and were down to around 10 guests by then. Annoyingly, as I announced the last song, 4 of these decided to say goodbye, which I thought was a bit rude. Why not just see through that last song?

    Venue were a bit miffed that the client had barely said a word to them all day! Most of my communication was with the groom. Seemed a pleasant couple - but very shy, so didn't really interact much with anyone.

    Luckily had this weekend off to catch up!

    One thing I have noticed recently is that I'm being asked for less and less of my 'interaction' during the all day events - will see if there's any trend forming.

  8. #4798
    Imagine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rth_discos View Post

    One thing I have noticed recently is that I'm being asked for less and less of my 'interaction' during the all day events - will see if there's any trend forming.
    It's a DEFINITE trend at the moment.

    For some reason, I rarely get to meet my couples before the day now (and it's not for the want of trying), so one of the questions on my planning forms in DJEP asks about interaction with the guests. More and more of them are saying "Important announcements only".

    In fact my wedding next weekend has provided the entire playlist (and some....it's 14 hours long ), insisted no requests and no using the mic apart from last orders and time at the bar

    Looks like I'm a reassuringly expensive iPod for the night then

  9. #4799

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    Feb 2015
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    Quote Originally Posted by Imagine View Post
    Looks like I'm a reassuringly expensive iPod for the night then
    I do feel the same at times!

    I offer interaction such as Pearls of Wisdom, Mini Love Story First Dance Introduction, Mr and Mrs Game, etc - and many have chosen to have none of those at all.

    There's only a limited amounted more that I offer beyond the 'duty manager' lol when I don't have any of those aspects.

    Although interestingly, at the wedding on Wednesday, the photographer said to me in the afternoon 'If only more weddings had someone like you'. I guess we take for granted what we do - but even just minor details like getting everyone out of their seats and over to the cake for the cake cutting, and coordinating it properly, makes everything far better than if it's not coordinated properly.

  10. #4800

    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Doncaster
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    Quote Originally Posted by Imagine View Post
    I've announced the wrong names in the past
    Happened to me at my first wedding at my new venue. We were already running late and I had been frantically setting up in a room I had never worked before. So I never got chance to do a full check before. Looking at my wedding spreadsheet the venue had sent me I noticed that the names were all listed as "The wedding of" then the two names, which, reading down the list, were obviously we're bride first then groom. So, of course, my couple were Kerry Patterson and Jo Colton. Kerry and No. Mr & Mrs Colton I wrote down. So when I introduced them to take the floor as Mr & Mrs Colton I got some funny looks, but no-one said anything. At the end I congratulated Mr & Mrs Colton again, bit this time a guest came and told that it was Patterson, Kerry being the groom and No being the bride! Fortunately, no offence was taken and while the buffet was going down, I apologised to the B&G who were fine about it,especially later in the night when I made a big emphasis on Patterson as I closed the night out. Just goes to show that even after 48 years, it's still easy to trip up.

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