Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Excalibur]

Unusual to gripe about a great gig, but I left last night's feeling a little flat. Let me try to explain.

An FFN gig at a new venue, which happens to be well South of Lincoln. In itself not an issue, but it means choosing to go the " short " way, A15, Lincoln/Lincoln bypass, and the minor roads Lincolnshire has in abundance, or use the A1, which I much prefer. Many more miles, but only five added minutes!

Arrived at the venue, and was greeted by an absolutely lovely keyholder, and equally lovely organisers. The venue turned out to be one of those we all love, fairly well designed, good to work in, and all was set fair.

I got set up in good time, and the FFN did their thing, to a fabulous crowd. ( It was evident as they came in, they were going to be great ). You're all wondering what's to gripe about, aren't you? Well, only that with raffles, speeches, and everything, I played for 45 minutes, and in the last 15, people were leaving/preparing to leave.

Time then to pack up, and head home, feeling I hadn't really done my job, even though many folk as they left were praising the music and my performance. Grumpy Old Git, aren't I?

[djdj]

. Grumpy Old Git, aren't I?

YES

[Imagine]

Grumpy Old Git, aren't I?

YES!

[rth_discos]

An FFN gig at a new venue,

What's an 'FFN'?

[ppentertainments]

What's an 'FFN'?

Fun, Fit Nurses

[Excalibur]

YES

YES!

Hmmmm, two more folk off my Christmas card list!

What's an 'FFN'?

Fun, Fit Nurses

Nothing so stereotypically sexist, chaps.

These wonderful lads raise lots of money by entertaining folk in their inimitable style. If you book a venue, and guarantee sufficient numbers ( optimal is 80-120 ) they will run a wine tasting with authentic bierkeller style entertainment. Twelve wines, and if you drink them all, that's the equivalent of a bottle. ( Each)! The FFN fee goes to good causes, ( including The Excalibur Real Ale Fund ) your organisation has fun and makes money. Everybody wins.

Penfold christened them " The Legslappers", as by the end of the night they have the fellas stood on chairs with trouser legs rolled up, while the ladies beat out The Radetsky March on their legs!! When that fun stops, I get to play tunes to a bunch of hyped up, well lubricated guests till midnight. Great fun.

[Imagine]

Hmmmm, two more folk off my Christmas card list!

I didn't realise I'd even made it ONTO the list in the first place....or is there a massive delay in the postal service from Yorkshire to Cambridgeshire

[rth_discos]

Penfold christened them " The Legslappers", as by the end of the night they have the fellas stood on chairs with trouser legs rolled up, while the ladies beat out The Radetsky March on their legs!! When that fun stops, I get to play tunes to a bunch of hyped up, well lubricated guests till midnight. Great fun.

It's interesting to look at the pictures from that night. It looks like one of those events where there is plenty of entertainment BEFORE the disco, and it almost feels like the disco is there to gently bring them back to normality - rather than being *the* entertainment.

Not too dissimilar to the gig I had a couple of weeks ago.

[Excalibur]

I didn't realise I'd even made it ONTO the list in the first place....or is there a massive delay in the postal service from Yorkshire to Cambridgeshire

No delay. Just a two year probationary period.

[Excalibur]

Turned me a shade of pink, it did. What was the epithet? Well you'll have to read to the end, to find out.

Midweek wedding in a small but perfectly formed WMC in Doncaster. I'd met the happy couple previously on site for a chat, and they were lovely. Some of the info about the quotes they'd received were illuminating to say the least. Seems that some DJ's think a sixty head midweek event in Donny has an exceedingly healthy budget, just cos it's a wedding! Exceedingly healthy. ( My quote was for a figure I was very happy with for a midweek evening only, I had trimmed a shade of the weekend figure, and added karaoke).

Although it was evening only, I turned up early to be set up in good time. " My that's a big one " said a member of staff, on seeing the Equinox booth taking shape. I have to say that the staff to a person were absolutely lovely, splendid folk. I got the karaoke kit rigged, and the radio mics of which I'm so proud only had a 50% functionality. Fortunately, when my Tech Ops, young Mattysounds arrived, he repaired/re-paired the poorly one, and put batteries in the correct one, as opposed to the spare I'd been cursing.

Background music initially, buffet ( hot and cold. Lovely curry ) was taken shortly after guests arrived. I was urged more than once, in no uncertain terms to help myself to the food. Some guests were keen to boogie, and wanted party songs before I'd even played the first dance! With an early cake cut, and no speeches, it was nice for a change to find the Bride and Groom to get the first dance out of the way, so once we'd done that, the dance floor was immediately rammed. Well, a bloke can dream. It seemed that initially, the hordes of ill-disciplined anklebiters were inhibiting my chances of filling the floor, and once they had gone, it was a case of " steady as she goes, Mr DJ ". Best results came from very MOR tunes, nothing too left of centre.

The Karaoke? I'm glad you asked me that. Matty thought it hilarious that I'd hired in help, taken the big karaoke mixer, and was wearing my headset mic to enable me to herd punters about easily for the huge number of three songs!! Had I known it was going to be three songs, I'd have used a lot less kit. Ah well.

We were down to low numbers by 10pm, for an 11pm finish, but the last few hardy souls were here till the bitter end, which became a lot less bitter when a lady asked for " a bit of Northern Soul", in particular one which wasn't the first one you reach for to start a NS set. That opened the floodgates, and we did the NS folder some damage right till the end, only slotting in some indescribably poor remixes of songs we had better versions of, for the obligatory punter with a phone.

End of the night, and Bride and Groom were very happy bunnies, singing our praises, and shaking my hand. We got packed up, and loaded the van, and went to give the bar staff some cards, as we'd been asked to do earlier. They too were pleased with our performance, and called us ....................



Professional. I'll take that, thank you very much.