Shakermaker Promotions
15-11-2009, 10:52 AM
Morning all,
Blimey, I feel like an old man today (not saying I actually fancy an old man if you know what I mean :eek: ), as I ache everywhere (probably a good thing?).
Yesterday I was booked to do an end of season Cricket Club Dinner & Dance at Camberley Heath Golf Club in Camberley, Surrey. The booking came from a lady that was at a wedding that I did in August. I remember her asking if I had availability on the night for yesterday and when I said "Yes", she said "You have saved our lives!"..Not quite sure what she meant at the time but over the weeks there was an email string going between myself, her and the chairman of the club and it worked out that the DJ that they used last year (at the same venue and who they had been using for the past couple of years), wasn't to their liking. Apparently, last year he wasn't very good (so they say). When I asked what wasn't good about it I was told various things which were as follows:
The first year he turned up with a huge screen on which he advertised his Disco. They asked him not to bring it the following year (last year) but he turned up with it again. During the meal and presentations he went off outside to his car and put on background music. The volume was too high and it took the chairman to go and get him to tell him to turn it down and stay put so that there was some kind of presence there. He had no radio mic for the speeches, raffle or presentations and even though he said he would play requests, he didn't play a single one and did his own thing (apparently).
So, I was booked and knowing all of this, I wanted to make a really good impression.
***This is another Shakermaker Special post ok...full details coming so make yourself comfortable****
So, I was told in advance that the party for 130 guests would be up on the first floor of the club. I was also told that there was a lift. I loaded the van up yesterday morning and made my way to the venue. It was only 25 mins up the road so I thought I'd set up in advance so that everything was perfect and lucky that I did!! As you know if you were in the south yesterday, the weather was terrible. On the M3 I had to drive at 50mph as the wind and rain was horrible. A lorry infront of me was snaking allover the road and at one point I was nearly blown off the road by a huge gust of wind. It was actually very scary.
I get to the venue, introduce myself to the lady on reception and then I am directed to where I can start unloading my equipment. Now, I have never really had to do the whole lift thing before as luckily most of the venues I go to have easy access and load in's. It will take me around 10 minutes at the most to get my gear in to a venue when the access is easy. I go into the unloading bay and get in the lift to go up to the room to suss it out first. When I get out of the lift I nearly have a heart attack. The room is at the end of a long corridor and in the way are 3 massive hot plates. I knew it would be tricky getting my gear through there so I search for a member of staff to see if they can be moved. There is no-one about but I can hear voices coming from the kitchen. I poke my head round the door and am greeted by a guy (polish) who's english isn't very good. In short, he says he isn't moving the hot plates... "******* great" I whisper under my breath. I then make my way to the room and am disappointed again. It's a big room and the tables are already laid out. The dancefloor is right in the corner and I can see that I am going to have little space to set up. It looked at one point as if my speaker stands would have to go on the dancefloor itself, something I really didn't fancy doing :bang:
Anyway (still awake guys??)...I proceed to get my gear from the van and into the little lift. It takes 3 lift journeys and lots of journeys up and down the corridor and over the assault course that is the hot plates before I get my gear into the room - this is 30 MINUTES later. I manage to set up as best I can and make it look nice and neat and tidy. I do my soundcheck and lightcheck and then go down to reception looking like a sweaty mess to make sure that the room is locked up and my gear is safe.
So, it comes to the evening and I am booked from 6.30pm - Midnight. I arrive at 6.15pm and the room is empty, not a problem. 7.00pm arrives and still no-one. I am beginning to think that something has gone wrong and I am in the wrong place (there was another party downstairs) so I start to get a bit nervous. I really want this to go well and to not let the lady down that booked me and has 'bigged' me up to everyone in advance. It's just gone 7.00pm and in walk a group of people just as I am putting request slips on the tables. It is the chairman and his wife and a couple of friends. They introduce themselves and one of the first things they say is "You must be Gary, we've heard a lot about you. No pressure but we are expecting a great night"... "You'll get one" I reply. The chairman's wife then picks up a request slip and asks "What's this?". I explain what it is and why I do it and straight away she says "Well, that's a gold star already for you. The DJ last year was rubbish and didn't even do this".. "Well, each to their own" I reply..."Everyone has different ways of doing things".
By 7.20pm the room was packed and everyone was seated. What I didn't know was that downstairs there was a professional photographer who was taking photos of the guests arriving and they were greeted with champagne and held downstairs until everyone on the list had arrived. I played background music (Ratpack, Michael Buble, Slowish stuff) as they ate their meals. The lady that booked me came over and gave me a cuddle and said "This is perfect already Gary, thank you" and even though I was bored and felt like a plank standing there, it made me smile. At 9.25pm they had finished their meals and the chairman came over to ask me if he could use a radio mic for the presentations and raffle etc. He was interrupted by his wife who said she wanted to do something first. Apparently it was Cricket Club tradition to have a game of Heads and Tails so she asked everyone to put £1.00 in the glass that was going round. Then the president of the club joined her on the dancefloor and she asked everyone to stand. They had to either put their hands on their heads or on their bums and he would toss the coin. If it landed on heads then everyone with their hands on their heads would stay in the game, those that were out had to sit down. This went on for about 10 minutes until there were 2 people left and the winner won the pot of £1 coins (£130.00).... I liked that and may use that in the future.
By the time the raffle and presentations had been done it was 9.55pm. I had tons of requests and made sure that I played as many of them as I could. The dancefloor was packed all night and at the end of the night I received a massive round of applause. It was a varied age group of people from 18 - 75 but everyone had a good time by the looks of it. I announced the last song (Don't stop me now) and it was a great ending. The chairman came over to me and shook my hand and thanked me. His wife gave me a kiss and the lady that booked me came over and cuddled me and then turned to the chairman and said "I told you he was good". I felt a bit embarassed to be honest. Almost at the same time, they both said "Same time, next year then" and I laughed. The lady is calling me on Monday to book me again. She said the feedback was brilliant and that she was send me an email today with some feedback for my website. All in all, everyone happy.
So, end of the night and now I know I have to go through the whole assault course thing again. I pack down as quickly as I can and start to get my equipment out, down the corridor and to the lift. There are a number of staff around all clearing the tables and one guy starts to dismantle the dancefloor. Just as I get the last bit of gear down the corridor and outside the lift I amazed to see a couple of staff members start to wheel the hot plates into the room and out of the corridor. My language (under my breath) was very blue. Everything was in the van and loaded up within 50 minutes and I was sat at home with the missus by 01.25am.
Woke up this morning and I ache all over but at the end of the day, I'm pleased that (a) I impressed a whole bunch of people by doing something I would normally do, nothing out of the ordinary just doing what the customer wants, and (b) I got another booking out of it and probably a regular gig every year. It was a good payer too. I just hope they choose a different venue next year or I may add on some extra for the difficult access and set up etc..
Sorry if I've bored you but I haven't done one of these for a while so I am making the most of it :beer1:
Blimey, I feel like an old man today (not saying I actually fancy an old man if you know what I mean :eek: ), as I ache everywhere (probably a good thing?).
Yesterday I was booked to do an end of season Cricket Club Dinner & Dance at Camberley Heath Golf Club in Camberley, Surrey. The booking came from a lady that was at a wedding that I did in August. I remember her asking if I had availability on the night for yesterday and when I said "Yes", she said "You have saved our lives!"..Not quite sure what she meant at the time but over the weeks there was an email string going between myself, her and the chairman of the club and it worked out that the DJ that they used last year (at the same venue and who they had been using for the past couple of years), wasn't to their liking. Apparently, last year he wasn't very good (so they say). When I asked what wasn't good about it I was told various things which were as follows:
The first year he turned up with a huge screen on which he advertised his Disco. They asked him not to bring it the following year (last year) but he turned up with it again. During the meal and presentations he went off outside to his car and put on background music. The volume was too high and it took the chairman to go and get him to tell him to turn it down and stay put so that there was some kind of presence there. He had no radio mic for the speeches, raffle or presentations and even though he said he would play requests, he didn't play a single one and did his own thing (apparently).
So, I was booked and knowing all of this, I wanted to make a really good impression.
***This is another Shakermaker Special post ok...full details coming so make yourself comfortable****
So, I was told in advance that the party for 130 guests would be up on the first floor of the club. I was also told that there was a lift. I loaded the van up yesterday morning and made my way to the venue. It was only 25 mins up the road so I thought I'd set up in advance so that everything was perfect and lucky that I did!! As you know if you were in the south yesterday, the weather was terrible. On the M3 I had to drive at 50mph as the wind and rain was horrible. A lorry infront of me was snaking allover the road and at one point I was nearly blown off the road by a huge gust of wind. It was actually very scary.
I get to the venue, introduce myself to the lady on reception and then I am directed to where I can start unloading my equipment. Now, I have never really had to do the whole lift thing before as luckily most of the venues I go to have easy access and load in's. It will take me around 10 minutes at the most to get my gear in to a venue when the access is easy. I go into the unloading bay and get in the lift to go up to the room to suss it out first. When I get out of the lift I nearly have a heart attack. The room is at the end of a long corridor and in the way are 3 massive hot plates. I knew it would be tricky getting my gear through there so I search for a member of staff to see if they can be moved. There is no-one about but I can hear voices coming from the kitchen. I poke my head round the door and am greeted by a guy (polish) who's english isn't very good. In short, he says he isn't moving the hot plates... "******* great" I whisper under my breath. I then make my way to the room and am disappointed again. It's a big room and the tables are already laid out. The dancefloor is right in the corner and I can see that I am going to have little space to set up. It looked at one point as if my speaker stands would have to go on the dancefloor itself, something I really didn't fancy doing :bang:
Anyway (still awake guys??)...I proceed to get my gear from the van and into the little lift. It takes 3 lift journeys and lots of journeys up and down the corridor and over the assault course that is the hot plates before I get my gear into the room - this is 30 MINUTES later. I manage to set up as best I can and make it look nice and neat and tidy. I do my soundcheck and lightcheck and then go down to reception looking like a sweaty mess to make sure that the room is locked up and my gear is safe.
So, it comes to the evening and I am booked from 6.30pm - Midnight. I arrive at 6.15pm and the room is empty, not a problem. 7.00pm arrives and still no-one. I am beginning to think that something has gone wrong and I am in the wrong place (there was another party downstairs) so I start to get a bit nervous. I really want this to go well and to not let the lady down that booked me and has 'bigged' me up to everyone in advance. It's just gone 7.00pm and in walk a group of people just as I am putting request slips on the tables. It is the chairman and his wife and a couple of friends. They introduce themselves and one of the first things they say is "You must be Gary, we've heard a lot about you. No pressure but we are expecting a great night"... "You'll get one" I reply. The chairman's wife then picks up a request slip and asks "What's this?". I explain what it is and why I do it and straight away she says "Well, that's a gold star already for you. The DJ last year was rubbish and didn't even do this".. "Well, each to their own" I reply..."Everyone has different ways of doing things".
By 7.20pm the room was packed and everyone was seated. What I didn't know was that downstairs there was a professional photographer who was taking photos of the guests arriving and they were greeted with champagne and held downstairs until everyone on the list had arrived. I played background music (Ratpack, Michael Buble, Slowish stuff) as they ate their meals. The lady that booked me came over and gave me a cuddle and said "This is perfect already Gary, thank you" and even though I was bored and felt like a plank standing there, it made me smile. At 9.25pm they had finished their meals and the chairman came over to ask me if he could use a radio mic for the presentations and raffle etc. He was interrupted by his wife who said she wanted to do something first. Apparently it was Cricket Club tradition to have a game of Heads and Tails so she asked everyone to put £1.00 in the glass that was going round. Then the president of the club joined her on the dancefloor and she asked everyone to stand. They had to either put their hands on their heads or on their bums and he would toss the coin. If it landed on heads then everyone with their hands on their heads would stay in the game, those that were out had to sit down. This went on for about 10 minutes until there were 2 people left and the winner won the pot of £1 coins (£130.00).... I liked that and may use that in the future.
By the time the raffle and presentations had been done it was 9.55pm. I had tons of requests and made sure that I played as many of them as I could. The dancefloor was packed all night and at the end of the night I received a massive round of applause. It was a varied age group of people from 18 - 75 but everyone had a good time by the looks of it. I announced the last song (Don't stop me now) and it was a great ending. The chairman came over to me and shook my hand and thanked me. His wife gave me a kiss and the lady that booked me came over and cuddled me and then turned to the chairman and said "I told you he was good". I felt a bit embarassed to be honest. Almost at the same time, they both said "Same time, next year then" and I laughed. The lady is calling me on Monday to book me again. She said the feedback was brilliant and that she was send me an email today with some feedback for my website. All in all, everyone happy.
So, end of the night and now I know I have to go through the whole assault course thing again. I pack down as quickly as I can and start to get my equipment out, down the corridor and to the lift. There are a number of staff around all clearing the tables and one guy starts to dismantle the dancefloor. Just as I get the last bit of gear down the corridor and outside the lift I amazed to see a couple of staff members start to wheel the hot plates into the room and out of the corridor. My language (under my breath) was very blue. Everything was in the van and loaded up within 50 minutes and I was sat at home with the missus by 01.25am.
Woke up this morning and I ache all over but at the end of the day, I'm pleased that (a) I impressed a whole bunch of people by doing something I would normally do, nothing out of the ordinary just doing what the customer wants, and (b) I got another booking out of it and probably a regular gig every year. It was a good payer too. I just hope they choose a different venue next year or I may add on some extra for the difficult access and set up etc..
Sorry if I've bored you but I haven't done one of these for a while so I am making the most of it :beer1: