Shakermaker Promotions
18-05-2008, 02:13 PM
Hi all,
Last night's gig was the charity breast cancer function at a local hotel (not my residency), that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.
What can I say?....a VERY good night but disappointing in the same way. The reason being... I was booked from 8.00pm - Midnight. I had the itinery a week ago and spoke to the organiser yesterday morning when I was setting up and I knew all along that there would be times where I would be standing around feeling like a spare part. I knew that according to the plans, I would start DJing at 10.00pm and had it in my head that I would do classic party floorfillers....(more on that in a second).
Anyway, as I am sure a lot of you have experienced, these things never run exactly to plan due to one thing or another but blimey o'riley!!...They were due to sit down for dinner (150 guests) for 6.15pm, this ended up being 6.45pm apparently (I turned up at 7.40pm)...After coffee etc there was a comedian / magician (actually very good...name was Wayne Magic or something?)..By the time he had finished it was getting late but they still had an auction to do so on that went...and on and on and on etc...No joke guys, it was half way through and the time hit 10.00pm and there was still a raffle to go aswell.
I was set up in a different room (they called it the disco room) so rather than stand in there on my own waiting for everything to finish, I went and joined in with the guests in the other room. I had a joke on the mic with the guy doing the auction and the atmosphere was brilliant. Earlier on in the evening I had put request slips on the tables and just as the auction was finishing, the organiser collected them all up and gave them to me. I left as they started doing the raffle at about 10.45pm and made my way to the 'disco room' which was now filled with haze and looking really good. There was a huge net above the dancefloor whish was filled with 100 red balloons (one of them contained a star and the lucky person to find that one when they were let loose won a massive bottle of champagne)...
I nipped outside for 5 minutes for a quick cigerette and when I came back in I noticed some of the guests in reception. A very nice looking young lady said to me that she was dying to have a dance so I said to her and her friends that we had waited long enough so I would just start playing now (it was nearly 11.00pm). About 6 girls followed me to the disco room, went straight to the dancefloor and I pumped up the music and started going through the requests I had been given. The first song was 'Let's go round again' by the Average White Band and they went mad (it was a great sight!!!). I made some comments over the mic that we were having our own private party and they loved it and screamed out loud. At around 11.15pm the other guests started joining in and there wasn't one single person in the room that wasn't dancing. Every song I played, they all went mad for. The organiser came over to me at around 11.30pm and commented that I was doing a fantastic job (which was nice). He also said that they were going to let the balloons loose so I played '99 Red Balloons' by Nena and the place erupted...no joke.
After that it was a mix of 80's and the usual stuff with the last songs being 'Chelsea Dagger' and 'Don't stop me now'....I finished at midnight and they screamed for more but the bar manager came over and said that I HAD to finish on time. I wasn't allowed to play an extra song but luckily the guests understood and I didn't get any hassle whatsoever....very nice people. I got a hige round of applause and there was cheering and screaming etc...it was great BUT I felt that I hadn't really earnt my money. I know I was there all night etc but the hour and a bit that I played was excellent and they were all up for it. I really enjoyed the night and they said that they are going to use me again for all of their functions in the future.
One more plus point. For the first time this weekend at both of my gigs, I decided to use the Denon on it's own and I didn't take any backup CD players etc or CD's...everything went perfectly.
Last night's gig was the charity breast cancer function at a local hotel (not my residency), that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.
What can I say?....a VERY good night but disappointing in the same way. The reason being... I was booked from 8.00pm - Midnight. I had the itinery a week ago and spoke to the organiser yesterday morning when I was setting up and I knew all along that there would be times where I would be standing around feeling like a spare part. I knew that according to the plans, I would start DJing at 10.00pm and had it in my head that I would do classic party floorfillers....(more on that in a second).
Anyway, as I am sure a lot of you have experienced, these things never run exactly to plan due to one thing or another but blimey o'riley!!...They were due to sit down for dinner (150 guests) for 6.15pm, this ended up being 6.45pm apparently (I turned up at 7.40pm)...After coffee etc there was a comedian / magician (actually very good...name was Wayne Magic or something?)..By the time he had finished it was getting late but they still had an auction to do so on that went...and on and on and on etc...No joke guys, it was half way through and the time hit 10.00pm and there was still a raffle to go aswell.
I was set up in a different room (they called it the disco room) so rather than stand in there on my own waiting for everything to finish, I went and joined in with the guests in the other room. I had a joke on the mic with the guy doing the auction and the atmosphere was brilliant. Earlier on in the evening I had put request slips on the tables and just as the auction was finishing, the organiser collected them all up and gave them to me. I left as they started doing the raffle at about 10.45pm and made my way to the 'disco room' which was now filled with haze and looking really good. There was a huge net above the dancefloor whish was filled with 100 red balloons (one of them contained a star and the lucky person to find that one when they were let loose won a massive bottle of champagne)...
I nipped outside for 5 minutes for a quick cigerette and when I came back in I noticed some of the guests in reception. A very nice looking young lady said to me that she was dying to have a dance so I said to her and her friends that we had waited long enough so I would just start playing now (it was nearly 11.00pm). About 6 girls followed me to the disco room, went straight to the dancefloor and I pumped up the music and started going through the requests I had been given. The first song was 'Let's go round again' by the Average White Band and they went mad (it was a great sight!!!). I made some comments over the mic that we were having our own private party and they loved it and screamed out loud. At around 11.15pm the other guests started joining in and there wasn't one single person in the room that wasn't dancing. Every song I played, they all went mad for. The organiser came over to me at around 11.30pm and commented that I was doing a fantastic job (which was nice). He also said that they were going to let the balloons loose so I played '99 Red Balloons' by Nena and the place erupted...no joke.
After that it was a mix of 80's and the usual stuff with the last songs being 'Chelsea Dagger' and 'Don't stop me now'....I finished at midnight and they screamed for more but the bar manager came over and said that I HAD to finish on time. I wasn't allowed to play an extra song but luckily the guests understood and I didn't get any hassle whatsoever....very nice people. I got a hige round of applause and there was cheering and screaming etc...it was great BUT I felt that I hadn't really earnt my money. I know I was there all night etc but the hour and a bit that I played was excellent and they were all up for it. I really enjoyed the night and they said that they are going to use me again for all of their functions in the future.
One more plus point. For the first time this weekend at both of my gigs, I decided to use the Denon on it's own and I didn't take any backup CD players etc or CD's...everything went perfectly.