Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

I rarely post on these as they always seem to just go smoothly and fine (touch wood).

Wedding on Saturday at a nice local venue to me that I've not been to for a couple of years. Not much has changed but they have a nice built in wood burning pizza oven now so that's my evening grub already sorted before I've played a tune.

Nice couple but getting info out of them was like getting blood from a stone. Just a first dance with no abba was the message received the evening prior. I always like to get a couple of requests to position their music tastes at least (see playlist thread) but tonight I have no shackles.

Cake cutting and first dance over and we're into some modern classics and the floor is packed. We have a few Welsh in tonight and let's just say they weren't shy or retiring.

Night goes smoothly without being able to see the dancefloor much at all. I did think we might struggle a bit towards the end as we went fairly hard early on as I was told half were gonna be driving four hours back home. We arrived at the finishing time of 12.30 and I think we could of finished at 1 if needed. Finished on some classic 90/00's dance such as Dario G, Zombie Nation and Ultrabeat.

I don't DJ as much as I use to due to the hire business but enjoying it more this year than most of the recent years. Got two more this week and one is a plug into a Void system at a venue about ten minutes from home, lovely.

[Imagine]

So last night I was back one again like a Renegade Master in the venue that's just had a more than severe sound limiter fitted.

I went prepared again with full battery kit including a new Jackery power pack I bought during the week just for powering the Prime (that little battery's an AWESOME bit of kit in the arsenal I must say!)

I needn't have worried. Environmental Health paid a visit during the week, tweaked a couple of things inside the limiter and it's now working at a very sensible level . Damn I thought....should've brought the big guns with me instead of the Maui5's. In the event, those little Maui's did themselves proud and still had room left when they had the limiter just hovering under the danger zone. I can see I'm going to be using them for more and more events in smaller rooms.

As for the wedding, lovely couple, brilliantly polite guests, a sax player tooting away for the first hour and a hell of a lot of fun for the duration. I must admit, the limiter being less of a threat to proceedings made the night a lot easier as well.

As a bonus I was sent home at the end of the night with a load of Krispy Kremes and American candy from the sweet trolley - happy DJ

Next week is the last wedding of the season. Nice and close to home, a reasonably easy load-in, an early finish, and a playlist at the moment that's looking like it's going to go down a treat

[Excalibur]

I went out this morning to set up for a 50th tonight. My but it's breezy! Hope it calms down tonight.

[Imagine]

I went out this morning to set up for a 50th tonight. My but it's breezy! Hope it calms down tonight.

Must be a Northern thing. No wind here - just hammering down with rain since about 8pm last night. Even the ducks are wearing life-rings now

[Nakatomi]

I was booked to play a wedding last night & from the outset the couple were after me recommending a sax player for their reception to play along with me. For various reasons I hadn't yet worked with anyone I'd recommend so asked around. I passed details onto the client & they booked a guy who has, it'd be fair to say absolutely blown my socks off.

I took it as read that he'd expect to want to plug into my PA (no problem as long as I know ahead of time) but he texted a couple of days before offering to use his own speakers. Well, this level of unentitlement is very welcome. I sorted him a spare mic input on my controller, with a small PA desk in reserve incase of any issues with his wireless kit - but we sound checked after setup & it sounded great through my Denon.

Oh yeah the setup! How many other suppliers have you worked with been so helpful, holding doors for you to load in etc... he was a blimmin superstar & all this is even before either of us had played any music. No wonder he has such an amazing reputation!

We'd met & chatted in the venue carpark earlier on & I told him my cunning plan, since he was due to start his set just after the 1st dance I thought it'd be fun to launch into one of the couple's 5 requests - Martin Solvieg Itoxicated. Mr Sax laughed out loud & said "well that's a bold choice I'll give you that". Hmmm suddenly I had 2nd thoughts about it & decided to see what the mood in the room looked like first.

The rousing reception the couple got when they came back into the room needed very little encouragement & that basically gave me the green light to fly straight into Intoxicated after the 1st dance. Oh man. It went right off & stayed that way til buffet time.

Long story short, it was an absolutely amazing night & just the tonic after a few pretty lacklustre gigs lately. My customer was absolutely over the moon & has already left amazing feedback on my socials. Work with a sax player? Me? Well if they're half as gracious and talented as the player last night YES!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cyswh...RlODBiNWFlZA==

[Excalibur]

50th birthday, in a rugby club near me. It has a big function room with a bar attached, and a smaller bar upstairs. I was in the function room bar downstairs, for a customer who wanted to recreate college days as much as possible with the playlist. " We won't dance" she said " the room doesn't even have a dancefloor".
Playlist wasn't geared for dancing, but neither was it self indulgent leftfield stuff. Blimey, we even had Ruby-Kaiser Chiefs on, so .dancing was a possibility.

I'd cut the lights down a bit, no Spectrapix battens on the uprights, just the COB Microbars on top, and trusty Hadrons below. More than enough for a small room with around 40 people in. I'd set up in the morning, so sauntered in with laptop jauntily over the shoulder, and guests were in early. The playlist and similar stuff was going down well, until the unthinkable happened! Dancing broke out!

A group of ladies were insistent that we needed all the stuff I was trying to avoid, but at least they didn't ask for Abba, as that was the only thing on my banned list! I spent the rest of the night juggling Leftfield Requests, 70s Disco Classics/Usual Suspects, and Playlist.

The last two songs were from Soundtracks, Berlin- from Top Gun, which had couples smooching, and Time of my Life, which brought all guests bar two onto the floor for an impromptu Hokey Cokey ending.

So much for the cunning plan. Had I been trying to make them dance, I'd have called it a roaring success. Don't know what the client will make of it.

[Imagine]

Another one for the win

Last night, for the first time in what seems like an eternity, I wasn't announcing the cutting of the cake or the first dance. Instead it was a 60th birthday for a lovely young lady which I've been looking forward to for a very long time.

Why?

Because they'd specifically booked my Retro show and I knew I'd get the whole shooting match into the venue they'd chosen
After a busy week refurbishing the two "Fairy Light" screens due to the fact the lamps aren't actually made anymore , I'm happier than ever that the retro show is safe to use for a very long time to come. Long story short, those are the only two screens I've never actually been behind the bulbs into and what I found scared me enough to rip everything out and start again from scratch

Anyhoo....back to the plot. The playlist instructions were really simple: "The best of the 70s and 80s with a little bit of 60s for good measure and absolutely no birdie dance of Agadoo type songs". Game on

It went as most of these parties do with a lot of drinking and a sparse dance floor for the first couple of hours until I hit upon a very rich seam of rock through the decades. This wasn't to be an Abba-fest or a Tina tribute (although both made appearances). This folks was to be more along the lines of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Free, ACDC, Guns 'n' Roses and any other fair game of a similar ilk. Sadly the host relented to persuasive younger guests and Mr Brightside also made an appearance but hey-ho.

All in all, a very enjoyable night with guests as good as gold. I took my applause at the end and lugged the kit out just before the phone warned me of impending heavy rain. I even managed to drive it the 10 miles up the road to the lock up and unload it before the heavens opened.

I'm now home and enjoying a large well earned glass of red and listening to it hammering down outside, whilst bracing myself for today's little challenge....a Halloween party for 100 children . Wish me luck!

[Excalibur]

I see folks who tell clients they can have twenty requests, and they'll choose the rest, because they're the professionals, and they know what's best to play. I think to myself they must be operating in a parallel universe, because it isn't mine.

Friday was an engagement party for a lady who was bar staff at a previous gig, and booked me because " I interacted with the guests ". Another kick in the nadgers for those who " let the music do the talking ". ( Hmm, wonder how many more folk I can upset before the end)? She moved the gig from Saturday to Friday so she could have me, and the venue have now put me down as someone to call first.

Sadly, we were short of bodies and enthusiasm, with many of the guests leaving early , apparently for work the next day. Despite this, the event was declared a success by the hardy souls left waiting for taxis, bar staff happy too, so another slightly dubious win there.

Saturday was one for Dave Jackson in a venue which poses certain challenges, and thankfully one of the biggest ones, George, was nowhere to be seen. The car park is like Tetris with motor cars. After much sign language as to where everyone was aiming to be, I sneaked my Transit through a handy gap, did a ninety seven point turn, and parked it in the ivy at the entrance, ready to reverse up to the doors at the finish, and drive out forwards.

It was a joint 50th and 18th, with a short request list in advance, and request slips on the tables. At this point, all semblance of ordering an evening musically went out of the window, along with the rule book. Blimey, when the dance for eight and a half minutes to Paradise By The Dashboard Light, during the buffet, anything's possible. By the way, has anyone played " Would I lie To You " by the Rolling Stones, from the new album? That would be a neat trick, because it doesn't exist. I found " Don't Lie To Me " by them, and having shown the track listing of the new album to the guest, his son told him the track he wanted was called " Angry ". Quite appropriate really.

It turned into a request fest, and to be fair, although it got hectic at times, the floor was never empty, and once they'd unplugged the searchlights masquerading as eighteen and fifty, and turned off/down the static house lights ( there is Mission Control Houston running them, but only Dave Jackson understands it, and I couldn't get near it for lights and balloons ) we had a great time.

For my scruffy Fenland friend, I have this message:

[Imagine]

I see folks who tell clients they can have twenty requests, and they'll choose the rest, because they're the professionals, and they know what's best to play. I think to myself they must be operating in a parallel universe, because it isn't mine.

Friday was an engagement party for a lady who was bar staff at a previous gig, and booked me because " I interacted with the guests ". Another kick in the nadgers for those who " let the music do the talking ". ( Hmm, wonder how many more folk I can upset before the end)?

No upset this end - I do whatever it takes to make the party

For my scruffy Fenland friend, I have this message:

OK - now you've overstepped the mark my little Yorkshire terror! I WASN'T scruffy - I was supposed to be a 70s Flower Power hippy

[Nakatomi]

A short notice booking for a Halloween Disco at a social club not far from me came my way. An adult party ooooh!

So, armed with my carful of gear I made my way, announced my arrival at the bar & was shown THE CONCERT ROOM. I've worked in some big north east WMCs in my day but this one easily wins the prize for the biggest so far. Loading in was a piece of cake, with not even a step to get in. I weighed up whether to setup on the stage or not & decided if it got busy I'd best up a height.

It didn't get busy. About 50 turned up at 7pm, of which 2 were blokes & one of those men was on the committee.

I made an executive decision to not let the music speak for itself, as I thought the situation would benefit from more than my usual (minimal) patter. I had shoutouts & birthday dedications aplenty as well as music requests. Not to mention banter about some of the ongoing shenanigans (of which there were plenty - the ladies were hitting the shots hard by 9pm). I got on the mic between tunes more than once! I know, I almost had to go for a lie down after realising I'd done that! "Is anybody here drinking tonight?". YEAH! "Is anybody planning to get drunk tonight?". Even louder YEAH from the dancefloor. I stayed in tame territory - this wasn't a Bigg Market bar in the late 90s yknow.

The party lost its way after the fancy dress costumes were judged - the committee decided before the event to go with best male & best female costume and weren't budging. I went roving with my mic to get the entrants in a line on the dancefloor so the judges could see better. The prizes were a six pack of gin cocktails for the winning lady & a 6 pack of lager for the lucky bloke. Cries of 'fix' went out & people started to leave not long after that.

The remainder stuck around til last orders at 11.30 & I was out by midnight. The committee chair was over the moon with me & said she'll be in touch in future. I won't mind working there again & I hope next time they get more bodies in.

In all a very fun gig & couldn't have been more different to last week's.

But.. Halloween party.. surely Thriller etc would be floorfillers right? Um nope : I've still got strains of Penny Arcade going round my head now. Ugh!