Help, my DJ has cancelled/let me down!

[Imagine]

I still think that people are knowingly taking on gigs they can't cover at the time, and hoping to farm them out after skimming a bit off the top.

I'm seeing a LOT of this at the moment and it's really boiling my wee-wee
And the ones that really get my goat are where the DJ asking for cover at stupidly low fees is asking for pictures of nice rigs and you have to work under THEIR brand....what's all that about?

It seems too easy for those doing this a lot of the time as well to just say "Oh, I've got C19" and get away with it (whether they've got it or not).

And it's not just the lower paying pub/bar work either.

For instance, I have a wedding next weekend which only booked this Monday just gone because of an email pleading for help due to their DJ letting them down with less than two weeks to go. Thankfully the email came from the couple themselves, we've had a conversation and I've got a nice little 2 hour set after the band in a nice venue for my regular pricing scale.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

To be fair facebook is always the last place people go looking for their DJs so its always going to be low ballers. It happens in the photobooth industry and I suspect many of the other sectors as well.

[Excalibur]

To be fair facebook is always the last place people go looking for their DJs so its always going to be low ballers. It happens in the photobooth industry and I suspect many of the other sectors as well.

Correctamundo, Neil. An all day wedding I have in August is being organised by the bride's parents. They're lovely people, who are doing their utmost to make the perfect day for the happy couple. Methinks though, that the universe is trying to tell them something.

When they got in touch last year* they'd already been burned by some Singing Waiters, who had taken a hefty fee, then disappeared, apparently. Then, weeks before the event, their caterers ( who were on the venue's approved list, and had been for some time ) dropped a bombshell. The owner did a runner, due to his " problems" . Fortunately, the manager and rest of the staff were in a position to take up the slack, and provide the promised service after all. Phew!


* Why did they get in touch with me? Because the DJ who is preferred here was busy, and he passed them on direct to me. No creaming off, no commission ( although by now, I definitely owe him and a couple of other folk a big, big drink ) just pass on my number.

[Excalibur]

but is Covid suddenly the unassailable ally of the phantom DJ, the one who can't do the gig hours before it's due?

I've seen too many DJs here getting Covid to be statistically possible, in my very humble opinion.

[Imagine]

but is Covid suddenly the unassailable ally of the phantom DJ, the one who can't do the gig hours before it's due?

I've seen too many DJs here getting Covid to be statistically possible, in my very humble opinion.

It's definitely a "thing" at the moment.

Now at the risk of being contentious and a little bit political (what....moi?), I did a wedding three weeks ago with Covid. I'd had it during the week, I thought I was over it (I'd tested negative and felt OK), did the gig, and felt as rough as a badger's rear end the next day and tested positive again. Did I spread it? There have been no reports of anyone getting it from that particular wedding.

I caught it from a wedding a week beforehand....somebody there had it and carried on as per the current guidance.

Two years ago, Covid was a very different beast. We had no immunity to it and it sadly killed a lot of people (I was scared to hell delivering online groceries to positive customers during the lockdowns!). Today, it's rapidly going down the lines of a bad cold (shoot me down if you will but most people that catch it now are telling a very different story from those of a couple of years ago). Sorry - I'm a realist and the common cold itself is a Coronavirus.

The official guidance now is that you can carry on as normal if you feel OK to do so. So why are DJs pulling out of gigs because they've supposedly tested positive (are these particular DJs paying for test kits?). Would they have cancelled if they had a cold?

I feel it's more a matter of convenience than anything else sadly. It's just another excuse in the armoury of those that will happily let people down at a moment's notice and is probably more plausible than a relation/the cat dying on the morning of the wedding.

Sorry but not sorry...Covid isn't a scary thing in my book anymore. It's time for those who are letting people down to stop using it as an excuse.

[DJ Jules]

The official guidance now is that you can carry on as normal if you feel OK to do so. So why are DJs pulling out of gigs because they've supposedly tested positive (are these particular DJs paying for test kits?). Would they have cancelled if they had a cold?

I'm fairly certain I DJ'd a month or two back with Covid. The feeling of really not being right came on fast during the evening and, having been almost completely asymptomatic with it the first time round, it didn't even occur to me that it might have been Covid until I'd had a few more days of feeling really rough (about a week after the wedding).

I feel it's more a matter of convenience than anything else sadly. It's just another excuse in the armoury of those that will happily let people down at a moment's notice and is probably more plausible than a relation/the cat dying on the morning of the wedding.

"Crashed the car on the way" is the usual excuse around here. Heard many a time from customers when a cowboy hasn't been able to get someone else to cover and they're lounging in Portugal with no intent of trying to get to the gig.

Some DJ's are genuinely still being cautious with the fear that they might end up causing harm to the party guests.

Julian

[Excalibur]

It's definitely a "thing" at the moment.

Sorry but not sorry...Covid isn't a scary thing in my book anymore. It's time for those who are letting people down to stop using it as an excuse.

Wayne, I agree with all of your above post.

No wonder we get a bad name.

Julian, I've been fortunate that when I've known I had Covid, my gigs were at the end of a quarantine period, and I was thus ( fairly ) safe to go out and work. As Wayne says, I believe that officially, there's no quarantine required now, so it's not really a valid reason to bail.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

I'd be honest if I had covid I'd rather not knowingly go to a group of people and expose them to that risk. I haven't really noticed a massive surge in last minute enquries though recently.

[ppentertainments]

I haven't really noticed a massive surge in last minute enquries though recently.

Without sounding controversial or big headed, I NEVER get last minute enquiries due to how I am marketed.

I find the same people get these week in week out, yet I can count on one hand how many I get in a year (or more). By last minute I am talking within a week.

As far as covid being the new DJ excuse, I have a LOT of stories to tell about DJ excuses - almost 4 month now since I last worked (approx another 2/3 to go) but what I have learned has really shocked me and the standard of DJs is far far below what I thought, with even so called reliable ones not all they make out to be.

[rth_discos]

what I have learned has really shocked me and the standard of DJs is far far below what I thought, with even so called reliable ones not all they make out to be.

I'd be fascinated to understand more about what this looks like. As someone who rarely gets to see another DJ in action, it's hard to compare. And even when I do go to an event, I don't get to see what pre-event communication the DJ has with the client, which in my view is really important.

When you say the standard is low, is that down to their attitude to the job - time keeping/communication etc, or purely DJ skills (music selection, ability to communicate with the audience, interaction etc)?

I think it was Derek Pengelly who told the story of the DJ in the USA who worked as a videographer for a while, so he could go and video DJs in action, and was also shocked at the standard. I guess something similar hasn't been done recently, and certainly not in the UK, so it's hard to know what others are doing!

But I am often surprised how pleased people are when I do what I assume every DJ would do (but clearly they aren't). In many respects, this isn't a difficult job to do well...