Shakermaker Promotions
07-12-2007, 11:30 AM
Hi all,
Some of you may recall me saying that I originally had 14 christmas dates booked at my hotel residency. Over the past couple of months they have cancelled a lot of them due to lack of...well, I don't want to be rude and as someone else said a while back, I shouldn't be telling them how to do their jobs but..I think personally that they haven't pushed them enough. No advertising in the local paper when all of the other hotels have done it etc etc..
Anyway, the parties have been scaled down from 14 to 6 now and last night was the first one. I set up in the morning and asked how many guests were attending as I didn't want to go over the top with bass bins and a big set up etc if there weren't many people there.....there were 40 booked!! I met the sales manager for the hotel, a girl who seems to think it's normal to talk to people like dirt (including me), it's her first christmas and she was going well over the top.
The guests were supposed to go through to the room to sit down for their meal at 7.30pm, by 8.15pm they were still in the bar (as it was a free bar apparently). The sales manager popped in to see me and one of the first things she said was "Well, where is everybody? Why haven't they come through yet?" as if it was my job to get them in!! Eventually they came through around 8.30pm and as they took to their seats I got on the mic and introduced myself, said welcome to the hotel and got ready for the rest of the evening.
I said over the mic that I wanted everyone to get the music they wanted to listen to rather than the usual stuff and the general feeling was that it was a great idea. The boss came over and said that it was a good idea and more people should do it so I thought..."This could be a good one!"....well, read on.
The request slips came flooding in and they were an eclectic mix which was great. There were some wind up's in there for a certain guy who took it all in good humour...tracks like Carly Simon 'You're so Vain', Beck 'Loser' and Electric Six 'Gay Bar'. It was when I was playing 'Loser' that the sales manager came back in and stomped up to me "Gary, what is this rubbish!!?" she asked... "It's a requested song" I replied. She didn't look impressed and asked "Where are the christmas tunes?". I tried to explain to her and was in the middle of explaining when one of the guests came up to me and said "Great track mate, thanks for playing it"...That was just what I needed and the look on the sales manager's face was a classic, a huge false smile to the guest and then an embarassed smile to me before she walked off around the tables asking if everyone was ok.
Now, it all looked good but once they had finished dessert and I pumped up the music and put the rest of the lights on, that's where it went a bit downhill. Most of the guys and a few of the girls headed straight for the bar and there were around 6 or 7 girls and 1 guy left to dance the night away. In this group was the party organiser and assistant boss of the company. She was dancing away and having a great time but then I saw her being comforted by the other girls as she was in tears. It was now about 11.15pm and she came over and said "I'm having a fantastic time but I think we better call it a day at 11.30pm as there is no'one here". She called her fellow guests who were in the bar a few choice words and I gave her a cuddle and told her not to worry. I was booked until 1.00am and as long as she was enjoying herself then that's what counted to me.
I decided to play on and at around 11.30pm everyone came back from the bar and on to the dancefloor. It was very wierd and almost as if word had got back to the people in the bar that the party was finishing early. The thing that really cheesed me off was when a feisty young blonde girl who was very drunk, stomped up to me and started hurling abuse at me. She said that I was paid to be there until the end no matter how many people were there and wouldn't let me get a word in edgeways. She obviously thought that it was me who had said we were finishing early and wouldn't let me explain that it was her boss!! I was quite angry after that but kept my cool but then almost immediately I was set upon by another girl who asked why I was playing what I was playing and could I put something more dancey on. I said "Yes, no problem" and she then said.."Well, go on then..I want to hear it NOW!!" and shouted at me. I kept my cool again and explained that it wasn't on next but would be on shortly. 5 minutes later she comes back with a big guy..."How can I help?" I asked..."She says you won't play her song for her!" he said to me. "Excuse me!!??" I said...and I explained that it would be on shortly. (it came on about 2 songs later and cleared the dancefloor!!).
As we got towards the end of the night, things got better and people danced to everything but all in all there was a gap where people were at the bar (which is outside the function room and as you know, this can be a problem), for about 2 hours. The overall feeling from the guests was that they had a great time and I even overheard one of the girls that had given me grief say "This is the best christmas party I've ever been to"...I couldn't work them out. To top it all, at the end the sales manager came up and said that the girl who was drunk and wouldn't let me get a word in had said to her that I had been aggressive to her??? I had to explain everything allover again and it wasn't very nice.
I'm really sorry to those that don't like my long posts/essays etc on here but I wanted to tell you everything in order to answer any questions that some may have. I kept my cool all night when it would've been easy to lose it. I endured people trying to take my microphone in order to sing a long to the songs, I endured drunken blokes and girls bumping into my decks all night and at one point when I played the song for the girl that was moaning, I had to put up with a couple of other girls shouting at me and doing the 'up middle finger' salute. Funny thing is, I gave out 3 business cards and the organiser loved it and complimented me but I hated every minute of it last night. Most of them were rude people who just didn't have the courtesy to stay in the function room for the party which had obviously cost a lot of money and time on the organisers part. I doubt if many of them even knew she was upset about it and would have rather stayed in the bar.
I left a note for the sales manager telling her the situation as she left just before the end and I am expecting a call today about it. I really don't want to do anymore as I have had enough already but on with the show etc etc
Thanks for reading and once again, my apologies for the long post.
Some of you may recall me saying that I originally had 14 christmas dates booked at my hotel residency. Over the past couple of months they have cancelled a lot of them due to lack of...well, I don't want to be rude and as someone else said a while back, I shouldn't be telling them how to do their jobs but..I think personally that they haven't pushed them enough. No advertising in the local paper when all of the other hotels have done it etc etc..
Anyway, the parties have been scaled down from 14 to 6 now and last night was the first one. I set up in the morning and asked how many guests were attending as I didn't want to go over the top with bass bins and a big set up etc if there weren't many people there.....there were 40 booked!! I met the sales manager for the hotel, a girl who seems to think it's normal to talk to people like dirt (including me), it's her first christmas and she was going well over the top.
The guests were supposed to go through to the room to sit down for their meal at 7.30pm, by 8.15pm they were still in the bar (as it was a free bar apparently). The sales manager popped in to see me and one of the first things she said was "Well, where is everybody? Why haven't they come through yet?" as if it was my job to get them in!! Eventually they came through around 8.30pm and as they took to their seats I got on the mic and introduced myself, said welcome to the hotel and got ready for the rest of the evening.
I said over the mic that I wanted everyone to get the music they wanted to listen to rather than the usual stuff and the general feeling was that it was a great idea. The boss came over and said that it was a good idea and more people should do it so I thought..."This could be a good one!"....well, read on.
The request slips came flooding in and they were an eclectic mix which was great. There were some wind up's in there for a certain guy who took it all in good humour...tracks like Carly Simon 'You're so Vain', Beck 'Loser' and Electric Six 'Gay Bar'. It was when I was playing 'Loser' that the sales manager came back in and stomped up to me "Gary, what is this rubbish!!?" she asked... "It's a requested song" I replied. She didn't look impressed and asked "Where are the christmas tunes?". I tried to explain to her and was in the middle of explaining when one of the guests came up to me and said "Great track mate, thanks for playing it"...That was just what I needed and the look on the sales manager's face was a classic, a huge false smile to the guest and then an embarassed smile to me before she walked off around the tables asking if everyone was ok.
Now, it all looked good but once they had finished dessert and I pumped up the music and put the rest of the lights on, that's where it went a bit downhill. Most of the guys and a few of the girls headed straight for the bar and there were around 6 or 7 girls and 1 guy left to dance the night away. In this group was the party organiser and assistant boss of the company. She was dancing away and having a great time but then I saw her being comforted by the other girls as she was in tears. It was now about 11.15pm and she came over and said "I'm having a fantastic time but I think we better call it a day at 11.30pm as there is no'one here". She called her fellow guests who were in the bar a few choice words and I gave her a cuddle and told her not to worry. I was booked until 1.00am and as long as she was enjoying herself then that's what counted to me.
I decided to play on and at around 11.30pm everyone came back from the bar and on to the dancefloor. It was very wierd and almost as if word had got back to the people in the bar that the party was finishing early. The thing that really cheesed me off was when a feisty young blonde girl who was very drunk, stomped up to me and started hurling abuse at me. She said that I was paid to be there until the end no matter how many people were there and wouldn't let me get a word in edgeways. She obviously thought that it was me who had said we were finishing early and wouldn't let me explain that it was her boss!! I was quite angry after that but kept my cool but then almost immediately I was set upon by another girl who asked why I was playing what I was playing and could I put something more dancey on. I said "Yes, no problem" and she then said.."Well, go on then..I want to hear it NOW!!" and shouted at me. I kept my cool again and explained that it wasn't on next but would be on shortly. 5 minutes later she comes back with a big guy..."How can I help?" I asked..."She says you won't play her song for her!" he said to me. "Excuse me!!??" I said...and I explained that it would be on shortly. (it came on about 2 songs later and cleared the dancefloor!!).
As we got towards the end of the night, things got better and people danced to everything but all in all there was a gap where people were at the bar (which is outside the function room and as you know, this can be a problem), for about 2 hours. The overall feeling from the guests was that they had a great time and I even overheard one of the girls that had given me grief say "This is the best christmas party I've ever been to"...I couldn't work them out. To top it all, at the end the sales manager came up and said that the girl who was drunk and wouldn't let me get a word in had said to her that I had been aggressive to her??? I had to explain everything allover again and it wasn't very nice.
I'm really sorry to those that don't like my long posts/essays etc on here but I wanted to tell you everything in order to answer any questions that some may have. I kept my cool all night when it would've been easy to lose it. I endured people trying to take my microphone in order to sing a long to the songs, I endured drunken blokes and girls bumping into my decks all night and at one point when I played the song for the girl that was moaning, I had to put up with a couple of other girls shouting at me and doing the 'up middle finger' salute. Funny thing is, I gave out 3 business cards and the organiser loved it and complimented me but I hated every minute of it last night. Most of them were rude people who just didn't have the courtesy to stay in the function room for the party which had obviously cost a lot of money and time on the organisers part. I doubt if many of them even knew she was upset about it and would have rather stayed in the bar.
I left a note for the sales manager telling her the situation as she left just before the end and I am expecting a call today about it. I really don't want to do anymore as I have had enough already but on with the show etc etc
Thanks for reading and once again, my apologies for the long post.