DJ Horror Stories

[Shaun]

I'm sure we all have a few horror stories to tell.

I'll start:

I was booked for a youth event (Private end of school term party for 16 year olds). As always, I asked if there would be adequate adult supervision for the duration of the event?, the client said there would be.

Fast forward to the night of the event. I get to the village hall to find over 100 'kids' already there...and no adults. Alarm bells in my head started ringing when it was obvious that the majority of the kids were drinking and well on there way to a hangover.

I gave the client a quick call to enquire about the supervision (or lack of), and my concerns that so many of the kids were drunk and rowdy, she assured me that she would be along shortly to handle things....and I was to just go ahead and set-up and start. Thinking things would be sorted soon I set-up the gear and waited for the adults......and waited....and waited. 5 minutes before the scheduled start time still no adult supervision so I called the client again. No answer!. I figured she was on her way so I started the party.

All was well for about 30 minutes, then I began to smell something familiar, GAS!. The hall I was in had an adjoining kitchen and it turns out the youngsters had pulled the gas cooker completely away from the wall severing the gas pipe.

At that point I really started to worry. I killed the music and made an announcement that everyone would have to vacate the building. I called the fire brigade (as I didn't have a clue where the gas cut of valve was) and eventually managed to get all the kids out safely. The Adult Supervisors finally showed up around the same time as the fire brigade, with no apology or explanation for them not being there earlier.

That was the end of the party for that night, I got paid, dismantled and headed home shaken. I learned my lesson. No adult supervision...no party!.






Let's hear your 'horror' stories :attn:

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Last week I bought new cables only to find out that.......
































































I'd run out of velcro ties to tie them with. :eek::eek::eek::D

[soundtracker]

You must have been shell-shocked! LOL

[Shaun]

Could've been worse. You may have had to use Gaffa tape. :D

[|DJChris|]

I'm sure we all have a few horror stories to tell.

I'll start:

I was booked for a youth event (Private end of school term party for 16 year olds). As always, I asked if there would be adequate adult supervision for the duration of the event?, the client said there would be.

Fast forward to the night of the event. I get to the village hall to find over 100 'kids' already there...and no adults. Alarm bells in my head started ringing when it was obvious that the majority of the kids were drinking and well on there way to a hangover.

I gave the client a quick call to enquire about the supervision (or lack of), and my concerns that so many of the kids were drunk and rowdy, she assured me that she would be along shortly to handle things....and I was to just go ahead and set-up and start. Thinking things would be sorted soon I set-up the gear and waited for the adults......and waited....and waited. 5 minutes before the scheduled start time still no adult supervision so I called the client again. No answer!. I figured she was on her way so I started the party.

All was well for about 30 minutes, then I began to smell something familiar, GAS!. The hall I was in had an adjoining kitchen and it turns out the youngsters had pulled the gas cooker completely away from the wall severing the gas pipe.

At that point I really started to worry. I killed the music and made an announcement that everyone would have to vacate the building. I called the fire brigade (as I didn't have a clue where the gas cut of valve was) and eventually managed to get all the kids out safely. The Adult Supervisors finally showed up around the same time as the fire brigade, with no apology or explanation for them not being there earlier.

That was the end of the party for that night, I got paid, dismantled and headed home shaken. I learned my lesson. No adult supervision...no party!.






Let's hear your 'horror' stories :attn:



your a hero!.
haha nice one, must of been abit of a scare.

[Dragonfly]

my only real horror story was a wedding last year where we got evacuated 4 times because the guests thought it fun to play the set the table cloth on fire game....... the grooms uncle kicked off and smacked one of the brides friends for allegedly nicking his drink...... and the evening ending at 10 pm with the groom and his new father inlaw nose to nose on the dancefloor with the words " i told my daughter you were bad news and i told her not to get involved with you or your family" ........ cue security.

oh and the gig where i went out before hand and got leathered with my mate and ended up marrying some bird :D :D :D ........ oh no wait a minute that was my wedding day.:cool:

[soundlad]

The fuse box was in the main enterance and the drunken teens kept turing the whole venue off!

[soundmaster mobile disco]

HI my horror story would have to be the night i lost my money.It was a wedding which turned out to be a good night gig wise but got worse for me.
As usual at weddings i wear a suit and tie and change into jeans and t shirt when loading up van.
It was at this point that i (misplaced )or was a victum of theft.
i left my nights payment inside the dj console and went to change out of my suit.It wasnt untill i arrived home looking for the money that i noticed it wasnt there.i even phoned the venue up to explain to them what had happened but there was no envelope with money to be seen anywhere.
I have to say that i will never make that costly mistake again.

[Candybeatdiscos]

i think mines has to bewhen i worked a pub in lochgelly and a massive bar brawl broke out (caused by some bird sleeping with some other birds fella etc)anyway i just carried on playing music as i was 18 and didn't know much better, basically it was my 3rd gig on my own, the boss was only half a mile away as he had just left me lol, well i thought carry on unless told otherwise or if a chair comes hurtling my way lol, anyway the very next track i had cue'd up was............Kung Fu Fighting lol, the bar manager raced in, split up the fighting and turned to me and said, its ok son you can F off home now, you will get paid up.....i got a nice early night :)

[Jiggles]

Mine was in a local pub when i came in to set up with the organiser the owner cam up to us and said that the room want booked, so 2 hrs later we resolved it and we were an hour behind!!!

[jaygees]

i have to say that i did a new years eve party that to this day when i think about it i still feel sick.

i was asked to supply a disco for a cleint that told me it would be open to the public for tickets on the door, i thought this would be great as i could also get some of my friends to come down.
that night i had two other people helping me so all was going well!!

that is untill the guest started to arrive, it turned out that the organiser had stopped anyone they did not know or like from buying tickets. so my friends could not get in. they soon made there way to another venue, job done


then suddenly from out of the blue the clients inside started to become a bit dodgy.
one women wanted to have a go at being a dj , i said that she could not. with that she went and came back with a bloke that told me i will let her have a go with the decks as he has paid for the hire of the disco and his words to me was(i own you and your gear for tonight so ill do what i want)

next thing i know is the women had grabed a knife from the kitchen and tried to threaten me with it.

at this point i told my helpers to go home and just to get out, on the way out they were attacked by members of the party, they did get away thank fully.

then one of the party members started to kick the speakers and punch the lights. at this point i called the police.

they turned up and the members of the party seemed to convince them that there had been a mistake, so they went:eek:

i was gob smacked as it was me that called them and they did not even come and see me.

once the police went the party members were going mad, i had just one member of the party that was trying to stop all the others from giving me a good beatin.
i got on the phone agian to the police this time i stressed to them that if they did not come in to the venue i might not make it out alive.

this time round they turned up in force and i had never been so happy to see them as this ment to me i might just make it out.

but no, the members turned on the police too and i was packing what i could away as fast as i could, more police arrived and formed a wall to keep the party members away from me while myself and other police helped chuck the gear into the back of the car. even the police wanted me out of the way.

at the end of all that some gear made it out alive but most did not,


i have never been back to that venue

that has to be my worst nightmare after that i needed plenty of:beer1: :beer1:

[spin mobile disco]

Ouch , glad I havent had them that bad (I hope ) what venue is it please as I play herts occasionlly? P.M if if you dont want to post location on pulblic

[Dragonfly]

i hope you managed to get your gear replaced/paid for by the client??? thats dreadful

thats why i rarely agree to do public events in pubs etc and at times like nye im picky with what i accept.

[jaygees]

i hope you managed to get your gear replaced/paid for by the client??? thats dreadful

thats why i rarely agree to do public events in pubs etc and at times like nye im picky with what i accept.

i did not get anything back, i tried but these sort of people are not very helpfull, i was just happy to be out unharmed. the gear i can replace.

since then i am very carfull as to not take on public events like that.

[RnGary]

We did a wedding last year for a couple who are new-age hippies.

The bride booked us at one of our gigs where we doing the usual party stuff. We did the pre-wedding get together, asked what sort of music and the response was 'anything, you know, the usual wedding stuff, like what you played before'

Turned up on a baking hot day and it was a very mixed crowd from straight looking suited people through to fairly bohemian. Mother of the bride did the usual and said - it won't be too loud will it? so we did not suspect anything at that stage.

They said they'd do their first dance to a CD they'd brought along after the band had played so we filled the evening with the usual wedding fayre and as it was early and hot most people sat outside and we had the odd couple of women dancing to the occaisional song.

The band turned up around 9 and they were grunge, somewhere between Motorhead and Hawkwind with a bit of trance and thrash thrown in for luck, and very very loud. We waited in the bar and our ears were hurting, the manager was whinging at us about the noise of thrash (not our fault mate!) but all i could think about was that 'Dance the Night away' by the Mavericks was probably not the best lead in track for this band.....

The band lasted about 40 mins (and had actually only played two epic numbers) before walking out.

We played the first dance CD - more of the same, interesting to see someone smooch to a beat of around 1000bps! After that we rocked it up a bit with billy Idol, Kaiser Cheifs, George Thorogood, Zep etc but I think it was all not quite heavy enough for the remainig crowd. Still some of the hippies danced for the last hour (as all the normal people dissappeared when the band were on.

If only the bride had warned us.......we could have arranged to be somewhere else that day.

[theoloyla]

I was working Woolwich Arsenal Sergeants Mess when it was bombed by the IRA. It was after midnight and we heard and felt the explosion even though the guard house that was bombed was several hundred yards away. No one in the mess was hurt but that wasnt the case outside. We were instructed to cease playing and everyone left but we couldnt leave until 6 am the next morning after the whole are had been cleared and we and all our gear had been searched. We then had a police escort to outside the police exclusion zone. I havent forgotten that night in a hurry!

[PropellerHeadCase]

I did a gig where the Bride was Chilean and the groom was Iranian or Turkish, or something. There aren't many Chileans in Auckland, in fact there are three major families. The Bride was from one, and all were present from the other two.

What we found after the fact, and what the venue needed to have been told was, that the two Chilean families in question (not the Bride's) were feuding. The eldest son from one of the families cold-****ed the eldest son from the other family in the men's about an hour into the dance. He then took off across the golf course. The cops were called, they had a chopper out over the course looking for the runner, the whole nine.

Meanwhile, back in the function room the matriarchs from the two families started going at it right in front of the cops.

I honestly couldn't believe it.

But here's the piece de resistance. Apart from the feud the reason for the contra temps in the men's was because the bride had slept with the guy that got decked the week before, so the other guy felt slighted (not quite sure how the groom felt, or if he even knew).

[Shaun]

There's a lot of new members since this topic was last active.

Let's hear your 'DJ horror stories'...

[Shaun]

Another horror story, I'm sure I've mentioned this before...
Edit* Thought I had, just noticed it's in my MDD interview.


I was once knocked unconscious by a flying chair for not playing a request.

[rob1963]

There's a lot of new members since this topic was last active.

Let's hear your 'DJ horror stories'...

And if they're not bad enough to go into this thread as horror stories, maybe they qualify for the similar thread about embarrassing things you've done at gigs.

:)

[Spirits High]

I once went to one of Tonys gigs :eek:


Does that count as a horror story :D :D

[DJWilson]

A couple of years ago at a NYE gig i was helping out, it was in a pub all going well up to 12AM then around 30minutes after the New Year had started fights were kicking off left, right and center, someone got thrown towards the set-up, some items falling off but managed to catch the top end of the deckstand without it knocking us on the head! 30minutes later the old bill turned up (the station was 5mins away). And too top it off someone stole my hoodie I got the day before!

[Shaun]

I once went to one of Tonys gigs :eek:


Does that count as a horror story :D :D

Indeed it does. You win!! I can't top that. :ph34r:

[notroubleclubber]

Only dodgy one ive had is in a big hall in swindon that they made in half with some drapes etc. The hall was big enuf for about 500 people then they halved it (one half empty,the other half party) and only about 25 people turned up for the party most middle aged. I was told by the hirer NO CHEESE so with an hour to go of playing what she wanted (dance music) and with everyone attending moaning and her crying coz no one was dancing i played my normal stuff which finally got them going for the last hour. However the worse thing was alot of the kids were playing football int he empty part of the hall and kept smashing the ball on the only dodgy power supply to my setup which kept dropping the supply off to me and the music,lights etc. Bloody glad to get home and at least i got paid.

[Shaun]

A couple of years ago at a NYE gig i was helping out, it was in a pub all going well up to 12AM then around 30minutes after the New Year had started fights were kicking off left

You've just reminded me of another one.

This was about a year and a half ago, at a club in Kinross. 18th Birthday party, at the end of the night fights were kicking off big time with pint glasses getting thrown at people all over the car park. It was all happening very close to the van so I got in and started driving off to get the van to a safe distance. As I was driving I felt the van rocking...idiots had jumped on the back bumper and started rocking and swinging around, trying to tip the van I guess. I just accelerated and they jumped off pretty quick.

I parked up round the corner and called the police, who arrived pretty quickly.

Thankfully, trouble at a gig has been pretty rare for me. When it happens though...IT HAPPENS! :D

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Only just seen this thread so sit back, get a cup of tea and I'll 'treat' you all to some classic horror stories that I have had in the past. (Firstly though, Jaygees...your horror story really sounded bad...blimey!).

I'll start off with this one ok.

It was about 7 years ago and I was asked to cover a regular karaoke night for someone for 4 weeks on a wednesday night at Yates's in Camberley, Surrey. For the first 2 weeks it was excellent, some really good singers and I got to know the people there quite well and got on really well with them all. Anyway, one week it all went horribly, horribly wrong.

I was up on the stage whilst this very nice young lady was singing and I noticed a group of about 20 guys walk in. All of them were pretty big and looked quite drunk and on a mission. I have to add that on wednesday nights the venue didn't think it was necessary to have doorstaff (they did after this incident!). My heart started to beat quicker as the group split in half...one lot went to the bar and the other lot came towards the stage where myself and the girl singing were. You could see from people's faces that something was going to happen but I wasn't sure what it was....

The group of guys that were stood at the front of the stage were led by a short, stocky looking bloke. He shouted something at me but I didn't hear him. I didn't know who they were so I made my way towards them so I could hear what he said... He got up on stage and shouted at me "I'm on next ok"... I said "Sorry mate but there's a queue so if you write down a song I'll get you on as soon as I can"...He didn't like that and he turned to his mates and gave me the 'five knuckle shuffle' sign with his fist. Just then the rest of the guys returned from the bar with drinks for the guys. They all had a couple of bottles of Smirnoff Ice each. The stocky bloke stayed on the stage and turned to me again and said "Right, get her off and get me on"...I simply said "Sorry mate but no"...He then said "Wrong answer!" and shook one of his bottles of Smirnoff Ice up and sprayed me and the girl singing with it. I wasn't impressed and she wasn't either when he pushed her out of the way. He was acting like an idiot on the stage, jumping up and down and swinging the mic around. I turned the mic off and he threw it to the floor before turning to his mates who were all shouting and he started the chants of "1 Para, 1 Para, 1 Para.."..Believe it or not it took a while to sink in until I realised that it wasn't the best idea for me to retaliate. A few more of them jumped on the stage and I started to get pushed about. One of them then kicked the monitor off it's stand and it went off the stage, crashing to the floor with sparks flying everywhere.

If things weren't bad enough already, little did I know that they were about to get a whole lot worse...big time! Whilst all of this was happening (it seemed to take ages), another rival group of Para's had entered the building. The guys that were giving me the grief suddenly heard the chants coming from the other side of the building. I can't remember what the chant was but it was pretty obvious that the two groups didn't get on (to put it mildly). Within minutes the whole venue seemed to make way for these two groups. It was like the parting of the seas as everyone got out of the way and these two groups of Para's made their way towards eachother. It seriously kicked off. Someone threw a heavy ashtray through the air and I saw it hit someone directly in the face. That wasn't nice and the guys face was a mess once he got off the floor. There were guys fighting everywhere you looked. Whilst it was happening, girls were screaming and things were flying through the air (bottles, glasses etc). I was stood on the stage and saw the manager behind the bar on the phone. I legged it across to him and said to him that there was no way that I was continuing. He told me that the Military Police were on their way and to stay put. I went back to the stage and up jumped this huge bloke. He made his way towards me and I thought the worst was going to happen but he actually apologised and gave me £50.00 from his pocket to pay for the tv monitor. As he did it, I looked across to see the stocky little bloke from earlier get a real pasting....that kind of made me happy (sorry mate!). Within about 5 minutes the venue was invaded by military police and both groups were arrested. After that the manager said to me to just play music whilst they cleared up the mess so I did that and then got paid. The venue was empty more or less. The following week I was really nervous about going there again and I called the day before to make sure that they had doorstaff...they did. I covered for the final week which was a disaster. People seemed to stay away and rightly so. Once I had done the job I vowed never to go back to the venue ever again and to this day I have never stepped through the door.


Another horror story worthy of a mention was when I was DJing at a wedding in a place called Peterlee near Newcastle. A friend of mine was getting married and the deal was that if me and my mate did the DJing for him, he would pay for our flights, hotel rooms and drinks on the night. He was a regular at one of my retro nights called 'Back to the Future' and wanted the night to be like that. The venue was Peterlee rugby club...a lovely place (NOT). So, we get to Newcastle and decide that before we go to the hotel we will have a beer. We find a Wetherspoons pub just around the corner from St James's Park and my mate nips to the loo as I go to the bar and order a couple of bottles of Budweiser. Once the girl behind the bar hears my cockney accent she gets a bit 'narky'. I look around the pub and the majority of people in there are all women....large women drinking pints of Newcastle Brown Ale. My mate comes back from the loo and sits down with me and we start chatting about the night instore. His phone rings and it's the groom so he nips outside to take the call. The girl from the bar walks past me, gives me an evil look and goes to speak to a bunch of women (about 8 of them) who are all sat at a table. She leans over and says something to them and they all turn around and look at me. I smile at them and then one of them gets up and walks towards me. She sits down next to me and says in a really strong accent "Finish your beer and leave you southern ****".... I replied "No problem, we're only having a quick one" and she turns around and goes back to her table and then they all start laughing. My mate comes back and says "Come on, we need to get a taxi as everyone is meeting at the pub". I didn't tell him that I had been threatened so we downed our drinks and left.

We eventually found a taxi rank and once inside the car we started chatting with the driver on our way to Peterlee. He asked us if we had ever been there before and we both said no. He said "A word of advice lads. Once your inside that venue, don't go outside on your own, especially with you being southerners!"....I couldn't believe this...I thought someone, somewhere was winding us up. Anyway, we eventually get to the hotel (haha...what a joke that was!) and the taxi driver says to us "Good luck!"...We book him there and then to take us back to the airport the next day.

We get changed into our white Saturday Night Fever style suits and make our way to the pub where lots of other people who have travelled up from Basingstoke are all having a few beers. This was like something out of Only Fools and Horses as we get to the pub and walk in the wrong bar dressed as we are. We walk in the side that has the pool table and two very big, evil looking blokes are playing pool. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. They stopped in their tracks and one laughed and said "What the **** are you two supposed to be?"...we stood there and didn't say anything until we recognised a voice from around the corner. "Excuse us" said my mate and we walked past them (Slowly) and through to the otherside where we were met by massive cheers and rowdiness from faces we recognised...welcomed faces too.

The afternoon went quick, loads of beers were consumed and it was straight back to the hotel for a quick wash and to pick up our CD's before going to the venue. We were told that it wasn't safe to walk so we'd have to get another taxi. As we approached the venue I could see what looked like a group of about 8 5 year olds jumping up and down on the roof of a shiny mercedes....things didn't good. We eventually get to the venue and are shown where the equipment is....oh my god! This stuff looked like it was from the 1950's. There were no lights either apart from a dodgy rope light and 2 Sony Walkman CD Players connected to a 2 channel mixer. It didn't affect us though...everyone had a great time....well, until the bar ran out of beer and spirits. None of the staff could drive as they were all drunk so they had to get someone to come down with some barrels from another place. During this time the party continued and it looked weird that no'one had a drink in their hands.

There was also a moment where some kids hanging around outside decided to try and gatecrash the party. A number of guests legged it outside and it was dealt with quickly...that was until they returned with some bigger kids! There were a number of scuffles during the last moments of the function but it was sorted quickly enough. Overall a good night was had...

When we got back to our 'hotel' and the alcohol had got the better of us, we were 'welcomed' by a couple of police cars. Apparently someone had tried to rob the place. We got our room keys and went to our rooms and didn't appear until the next afternoon. It was funny as it was 'Roast Dinner Day' according to the dodgy looking poster on the reception wall. There were people literally queueing out of the door and down the street waiting to have their roast dinners.

Anyway, that'll do for now. I'm sure that it's a lot better these days...or maybe it isn't? Who knows? All I know is I am never going back there again. I've been to Newcastle since and the people were lovely (even with me being a cockney), I guess we must have caught the geordies on a bad day!! (lucky we didn't go there on the last day of the football season then!).

[pdarnett]

Those of those who have met me will probably know the "DJ of Death" stories.

i.e. I have had two deaths at gigs.

The worst was one of those was a murder mystery night where I cottoned on a bit late that it wasn't part of the act.

nuff said.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

All I can say people is INSURANCE!

Thats two posts Ive read from you Gary! You have some bad luck dont you?

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Since 1989...that aint bad going really is it?

[rob1963]

I've metioned it before, but I've only had one thing which counts as a DJ horror story, and that was at a residency in about 1992 when I refused to play a record which someone handed me (due to it being crap), so the guy decided to smash a bottle over my head.

:shrug:

[Corabar Steve]

Rob, you DJing in itself is a horror story! :sj:

[rob1963]

Rob, you DJing in itself is a horror story! :sj:

Indeed it is...but fortunately for me, my clients don't realise their mistake until it's too late!

:D :D :D

[jaygees]

i must say shakermaker your nights sound very bad, lets just hope that things like this dont happen too much if at all in the future.
ill never understand the idiots that start stuff like this.:Censored:
still, what goes around comes around hopfully. :)