Originally Posted by
Shakermaker Promotions
My gig last night was probably my best of the year so far. A Wedding with an Indie/Alternative/80's & Current Chart playlist. Booked from 7.00pm - Midnight at a lovely venue I do regularly out of town.
Very nice couple with a great bunch of guests who were all up for a party and it made the night go really well and pretty quick too. First dance was 'Is This Love?' by Bob Marley which was the first time I had played it for a first dance and it was really nice and chilled. Followed it with 'I'm Yours' by Jason Mraz and then 'The Lazy Song' by Bruno Mars before going into current chart stuff etc. The Bride was dancing to everything and knew every word to every song. She kept giving me the thumbs up.
The Indie/Alternative section was a mixture of old and new and it filled the dancefloor. There were cheers when certain tracks came on and it worked really well. The Groom commented that it was just what they wanted and it reminded them of when they used to go to an Alternative club in Kingston (where the Bride & Groom met and where most of their guests used to go).
REM - 'It's the end of the world' and The Smiths - 'This Charming Man' had everyone in the venue up dancing and I filmed it on my phone although the quality is rubbish so I won't be posting it. I was booked until Midnight and at around 11.25pm, the Bride & Groom came over and asked me if it was ok to finish at 11.45pm as they were shattered. They got married at Midday so it was a very long day for them and their guests. A few guests had left by 9.00pm as they had kids so it was more of an Alternative party for the older ones (around my age).
I still had quite a few songs to play off the request list but no time to play them so I made an announcement that I had 2 songs left. The final song of the night was already pre-arranged at our meeting and that was 'You got the love' by Florence & The Machine but I had to make a choice as to what song I played before the last one. I got on the mic and thanked everyone for a great night and said that there were some great requests left to choose and that I hoped I had chosen the right one? I played 'Smells like teen spirit' by Nirvana and the place went mad....it was great. Florence & The Machine followed it and it was all over. Got some great feedback and surprisingly an email in my inbox this morning (sent last night straight after the party) from the Bride & Groom saying that it was everything that they could've dreamed of. That was nice.
One negative though and I am sure there will be comments about this. People will have their own thoughts on this as to how it was dealt with etc etc and I don't really want a great review turning into a "you should've done this" or "you should've done that" thing.
When I had my meeting with the Bride & Groom, they were VERY adamant that they did not want any action songs etc. They detested them and they said (in the nicest possible way) that if anyone asked for anything like that to just not play it and if there was a problem, to tell them.
All was well...the dancefloor was very busy all night and everything seemed to work well. It was about 10.30pm when a woman came up with a right look on her face and asked for 'YMCA'. She was drunk and she said a number of things that were quite abusive to me when she asked for the song. I explained to her that it was not what the B&G wanted and she stormed off to where the B&G were dancing. I could see the Bride shaking her head and the woman walking off the dancefloor. The Bride then turned to me and mouthed the words "Thank you" and gave me the thumbs up.
5 minutes later the woman comes back with (what I assumed was) her husband. "I'm back" she said. The guy had a beer in his hand and was leaning towards me. He was very abusive and very childish. When I explained the situation to him and that the B&G didn't want any of that stuff, he became threatening. He was right up in my face and a few people on the dancefloor including the B&G noticed it. The Groom came over and took the guy and woman away. As the guy was walking away he was giving me the 2 finger signals. I ignored him. Around 10 minutes later he came back when the B&G were outside and he started giving me a bit of gob again. I kept my cool and once again explained the situation but he wouldn't have any of it. He actually said "Well, I'll dance to it anyway" and he and his wife went into the middle of the dancefloor and started shouting out "YMCA" and doing the actions!! The song I was playing at the time was 'Disco 2000' by Pulp and the dancefloor was busy. The couple got a lot of funny looks and then the couple both started giving me the 2 finger signals. As they were doing this, the B&G came back on to the dancefloor. You could see them having a go at the couple and then the Bride came over to me and couldn't apologise enough. She said "They will be told to leave now because they aren't going to spoil a great night!".......Within 5 minutes, they were gone!
It didn't spoil my night and I hope it didn't spoil the party for everyone either. I thought it was worth mentioning as it is a gig review.
