rob1963
03-09-2007, 01:02 AM
I had an interesting gig last night...quite eventful & a few things which went a bit Pete Tong.
It was a wedding in a local golf club where I've worked quite a few times before, but not for a few years, so I printed off a map which showed I had to turn off a main road into a side road, and then turn 1st left into the road where the club was. I turned off the main road, but there was no road on the left, even though it was clearly shown on the map. After about a mile, I decided to turn back & checked my A-Z to see if there was a different way into the road where the club was...which luckily there was! I've never had a problem like that before with a map I've printed off the internet...only when I'm using an old A-Z. The road shown on the map simply wasn't there, or at least one end of it, which the map clearly showed as joining another road...weird!
Although I've worked at the golf club before, this time I was in a different room, so I was instructed to drive round the back, through a gate and down to the back entrance. I drove round, and you've guessed it - the gate was padlocked shut. I drove back round the front & had to wait ages until they eventually found someone with a key to unlock it.
Started carrying in the gear, and had my tripods upright leaning against the wall. Heard a mighty crash...and one of the tripods had fallen...and landed on my 2 main lighting effects. When I'd set up & tested everything, one of the lights worked, but the other one didn't...and it was the one night I'd run out of spare bulbs for that effect...typical!
I was booked from 7pm until 11.30pm, and as always I spoke to the manager to confirm the finish time...and he told me it was 12.20am. :eek:
Told him I was only booked until 11.30pm, and when he told me the bar closed at midnight, I said I'd finish then. I thought this was reasonable, as I'd only been booked until 11.30, but finishing at midnight would be a total of 5 hours...which is the maximum time allowed for my set charges.
I did the first dance, then a guest gave me a karaoke CD of "Your song" which she sang over (very well, too), and then it was a surprise for the bride...an Elvis impersonator who did a 1 hour set. He had driven down all the way from Leicester to Surrey for the gig and was very entertaining.
When Elvis finished, I kicked off, and after about 10 minutes I was asked to announce the buffet, which I did. A few girls kept dancing, and one of them came up to me & asked "Is it ok for us to dance?" I told them yes, and then mentioned on the mic what they had asked, which seemed to have the intended effect of embarrassing them!
When the food was out of the way, the evening went pretty well, except for a few CD problems. One CD was playing & suddenly just stopped half way through for no reason, another time I started a track, forgot which deck it was playing on & pressed the pause button by mistake, and when I played "I'm a believer" the dance floor cleared, as it did when I played "Dance the night away"...which has never happened before!
At about 11.15 the groom came up, said they were leaving now & asked me to announce it, which I did. I then went into "Congratulations" followed by "I've had the time of my life"
After the bride & groom had left, lots of the guests also left, so I called over the manager & told him that in view of this, I was going to go back to plan A, and was thinking of slowing it down & finishing at 11.30 as originally booked, which he said was fine, so I did.
I was home around 12.15.
All in all an interesting night!
It was a wedding in a local golf club where I've worked quite a few times before, but not for a few years, so I printed off a map which showed I had to turn off a main road into a side road, and then turn 1st left into the road where the club was. I turned off the main road, but there was no road on the left, even though it was clearly shown on the map. After about a mile, I decided to turn back & checked my A-Z to see if there was a different way into the road where the club was...which luckily there was! I've never had a problem like that before with a map I've printed off the internet...only when I'm using an old A-Z. The road shown on the map simply wasn't there, or at least one end of it, which the map clearly showed as joining another road...weird!
Although I've worked at the golf club before, this time I was in a different room, so I was instructed to drive round the back, through a gate and down to the back entrance. I drove round, and you've guessed it - the gate was padlocked shut. I drove back round the front & had to wait ages until they eventually found someone with a key to unlock it.
Started carrying in the gear, and had my tripods upright leaning against the wall. Heard a mighty crash...and one of the tripods had fallen...and landed on my 2 main lighting effects. When I'd set up & tested everything, one of the lights worked, but the other one didn't...and it was the one night I'd run out of spare bulbs for that effect...typical!
I was booked from 7pm until 11.30pm, and as always I spoke to the manager to confirm the finish time...and he told me it was 12.20am. :eek:
Told him I was only booked until 11.30pm, and when he told me the bar closed at midnight, I said I'd finish then. I thought this was reasonable, as I'd only been booked until 11.30, but finishing at midnight would be a total of 5 hours...which is the maximum time allowed for my set charges.
I did the first dance, then a guest gave me a karaoke CD of "Your song" which she sang over (very well, too), and then it was a surprise for the bride...an Elvis impersonator who did a 1 hour set. He had driven down all the way from Leicester to Surrey for the gig and was very entertaining.
When Elvis finished, I kicked off, and after about 10 minutes I was asked to announce the buffet, which I did. A few girls kept dancing, and one of them came up to me & asked "Is it ok for us to dance?" I told them yes, and then mentioned on the mic what they had asked, which seemed to have the intended effect of embarrassing them!
When the food was out of the way, the evening went pretty well, except for a few CD problems. One CD was playing & suddenly just stopped half way through for no reason, another time I started a track, forgot which deck it was playing on & pressed the pause button by mistake, and when I played "I'm a believer" the dance floor cleared, as it did when I played "Dance the night away"...which has never happened before!
At about 11.15 the groom came up, said they were leaving now & asked me to announce it, which I did. I then went into "Congratulations" followed by "I've had the time of my life"
After the bride & groom had left, lots of the guests also left, so I called over the manager & told him that in view of this, I was going to go back to plan A, and was thinking of slowing it down & finishing at 11.30 as originally booked, which he said was fine, so I did.
I was home around 12.15.
All in all an interesting night!