Good Gig, Bad Gig.

Alan was telling me about the interfering mother at last nights 18th birthday party.It was origanally booked by the girl who was 18,she had been to a few other parties that alan was the dj at and said how good they were,thats why she wanted to book alan.

So a price was agreed for the hours to be worked.7.30pm-1.the booking form sent out and deposit returned,anyway i get a phone call the day before the party from her mother saying it wont be starting till 8 and finishing at 12 so she wont be paying for the extra hours.

That was just the start,all through the night she kept interfering suggesting her style of music to be played and not just her daughters .remember this was an 18th birthday,so the young ones probably dont want a lot of 60s 70s&80s.It was a shame for alan because some of the birthday girls friends had also been to some of alans other 18th parties and were looking forward to another great night,which sadly due to the mother did not happen.Lets just say that most left around 11pm to go elsewhere.

I know this family,they are mega rich,run there own business,but they wanted to pay the dj cheaply.I bet they paid more for the decorations.You often find this with these rich people,they think they are better than us and know it all.

At the end of the night alan had to go and ask for paynment,she wasnt one for coming forward and paying.

I make sure I always have the booking form with me when I go out. It doesn't matter whether it's a venue around the corner, one that's miles away or one that I have never been to before. I have all of the venue details on there including mobile numbers etc and on one occasion in the past about 4 years ago, it came in handy as the road to the venue was flooded and I had to go a totally different way and arrived on the time I was due to start. Unavoidable.

Anyway, last night's gig was a wedding at one of my residencies. Met them both last week and very nice, laid back people. It was a small wedding for 60 people and when I arrived last night and saw a few oldies and lots of young kids, I thought I would struggle. I had no song requests in advance apart from the first dance(s) - Lonestar - Amazed and Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now and that was it!

The customers didn't really have a preference and said to let me just do what I do. I started off playing current chart stuff etc to get the kids up and said that I would play requests. I was inundated with requests from the kids and they loved it. They were dancing and entertaining everybody else. I started to get guests coming over and requesting songs for their kids and it worked.

I soon sussed out that 70's Disco wasn't going to work and for the rest of the evening it was mainly current chart stuff, cheese and action songs and it was enjoyable. Everyone seemed to be getting into it. By 10.30pm there were around 20 people left and those people were the Bride & Groom who were both absolutely slaughtered and their younger friends. It was more of a club atmosphere until the last song and I really enjoyed it.

Last song of the night was Michael Buble - Save The Last Dance For Me. It was funny as it was one of those occasions where it was a really good atmosphere all evening and I thought it went very well, yet when the last song finished and I said goodbye and all the usual stuff.....there was silence and everyone was out of the room within 5 minutes. A quick hug and thanks from the Bride & Groom and it was allover.

Funniest thing of the night was when a huge bloke came over and asked for a song for his little boy who had been dancing around on the dancefloor to everything. His name was Evan and he was 6 and he loved Sex On Fire by Kings Of Leon. Funny thing was.....the bloke said "Can you play 'My House Is On Fire' by Kings Of Leon whoever they are!!?".

I made an annoouncement (it was just gone 8.00pm) and said "Ladies & Gents, I have a special song for Evan which you will all know. When we get to the chorus, I want everyone to sing "My House Is On Fire" as it's Evan's favourite song".....Loads of people laughed but they all joined in and the smile on the little boys face was brilliant. The bloke came over again afterwards and shook my hand and said..."That was ace mate. Thanks very much!".

Enjoyable night. Now off to set up for tonight's 40th Birthday gig.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shakermaker Promotions

I make sure I always have the booking form with me when I go out. It doesn't matter whether it's a venue around the corner, one that's miles away or one that I have never been to before. I have all of the venue details on there including mobile numbers etc and on one occasion in the past about 4 years ago, it came in handy as the road to the venue was flooded and I had to go a totally different way and arrived on the time I was due to start. Unavoidable.

Anyway, last night's gig was a wedding at one of my residencies. Met them both last week and very nice, laid back people. It was a small wedding for 60 people and when I arrived last night and saw a few oldies and lots of young kids, I thought I would struggle. I had no song requests in advance apart from the first dance(s) - Lonestar - Amazed and Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now and that was it!

The customers didn't really have a preference and said to let me just do what I do. I started off playing current chart stuff etc to get the kids up and said that I would play requests. I was inundated with requests from the kids and they loved it. They were dancing and entertaining everybody else. I started to get guests coming over and requesting songs for their kids and it worked.

I soon sussed out that 70's Disco wasn't going to work and for the rest of the evening it was mainly current chart stuff, cheese and action songs and it was enjoyable. Everyone seemed to be getting into it. By 10.30pm there were around 20 people left and those people were the Bride & Groom who were both absolutely slaughtered and their younger friends. It was more of a club atmosphere until the last song and I really enjoyed it.

Last song of the night was Michael Buble - Save The Last Dance For Me. It was funny as it was one of those occasions where it was a really good atmosphere all evening and I thought it went very well, yet when the last song finished and I said goodbye and all the usual stuff.....there was silence and everyone was out of the room within 5 minutes. A quick hug and thanks from the Bride & Groom and it was allover.

Funniest thing of the night was when a huge bloke came over and asked for a song for his little boy who had been dancing around on the dancefloor to everything. His name was Evan and he was 6 and he loved Sex On Fire by Kings Of Leon. Funny thing was.....the bloke said "Can you play 'My House Is On Fire' by Kings Of Leon whoever they are!!?".

I made an annoouncement (it was just gone 8.00pm) and said "Ladies & Gents, I have a special song for Evan which you will all know. When we get to the chorus, I want everyone to sing "My House Is On Fire" as it's Evan's favourite song".....Loads of people laughed but they all joined in and the smile on the little boys face was brilliant. The bloke came over again afterwards and shook my hand and said..."That was ace mate. Thanks very much!".

Enjoyable night. Now off to set up for tonight's 40th Birthday gig.

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Sounds like a great night, well done. New thread idea...

I was playing at a beer festival/charity fundraiser in a pub yesterday (and there again today).

Early on, before it really got going one of the barmaids came over to me and said 'the Chef has asked for everyone to go to the kitchen' - 'mmmm' I thought, 'maybe it's a tasting session' , as they were doing hog roast and various BBQ's,

So I followed the other bar staff in to find sinks piled high with washing up that needed doing!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by funkymook

I was playing at a beer festival/charity fundraiser in a pub yesterday (and there again today).

Early on, before it really got going one of the barmaids came over to me and said 'the Chef has asked for everyone to go to the kitchen' - 'mmmm' I thought, 'maybe it's a tasting session' , as they were doing hog roast and various BBQ's,

So I followed the other bar staff in to find sinks piled high with washing up that needed doing!

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:lol: so did you get your fluffy marigolds out ?!

My equation to sum up last night... nightmare + nervous + brilliant night = not a bad evening.

When I was loading up the car yesterday evening I realised my spare back up mixer had gone walkies. A quick phone call to the last venue I visited confirmed I'd left it there. Damn! I start feeling a bit sick because I don't have anything to fall back on should anything happen.

This is also the first time I'm using my sub since it's been 'repaired'

Anyway, we set off to the venue and I'm in a foul mood. Setup and everything is working fine. I start playing some background music, anything and everything from Dire Straits to Dean Martin to U2 to Doris Day to Bill Withers to Beautiful South!

It's time for the first dance...I make my first announcement and encourage the guests to grab their cameras etc. I then welcome the Bride and Groom onto the dancefloor and start their chosen song - Adele, Make you feel my love. Everything is going well until there's a big crackle and bang! I turn bright red and everybody stares at me. The song carries on and then another horrible crackle! I've got no idea what's going on so I say 'Guys, I'm really sorry but can we start again' - Brainflash, I whip the XLR's out of the sub so I'm going straight from my mixer to the mackies - ahhh, it works fine.

As you can imagine, I was feeling pretty nervous for the rest of the night 'will something else go wrong?'

It turned out to be a good night. Really random tunes. I tried to make them flow but with the amount of obscure requests coming in, it was impossible!

I struggled with what songs to play after.... (because I was nervous, my mind kept going blank)

Come on...what was I thinking?! 'Baggy trousers' followed 'Could you be loved - Bob Marley' ...

I took two and had a quick smoke outside and reassured myself everything would be fine....brilliant night after that. I really enjoyed myself and so did the guests.

There was a guy who kept staring at me all night. I reconsied him from town, he's one of the bouncers. It turns out he also does discos at my local pub (enormous setup, blue lasers, video screens - the works) called 'DJ ****' He came over and had a chat. Loved the booth so much, he's going to treat himself next week.

All in all, a good evening. I'm pleased to have the rest of the weekend off and next week too. I'm just covering reception at work today...computers don't work, phone won't stop ringing and people are in and out the office. Arghghgh

So, firstly...What was the problem? (You mentioned the crackles etc but didn't say what it was - Sub?).

Secondly, how did you get the time to go outside and have a smoke? I'm quite a heavy smoker for my sins but I never leave the rig alone. If you were worrying if anything else would go wrong, the last thing would be to go and have a smoke.....wouldn't it?

At least the night turned out ok.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shakermaker Promotions

So, firstly...What was the problem? (You mentioned the crackles etc but didn't say what it was - Sub?).

Secondly, how did you get the time to go outside and have a smoke? I'm quite a heavy smoker for my sins but I never leave the rig alone. If you were worrying if anything else would go wrong, the last thing would be to go and have a smoke.....wouldn't it?

At least the night turned out ok.

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1) No idea what was wrong. It's being returned to the guy who fixed it. Didn't half stress me out though!

2) I was directly behind one of the doors which leads to a courtyard. I practically stood behind the rig but closed the door. 3.45 of Valerie gave me enough time. It was steping outside and taking two which did the trick IMO. I've haven't done it before and probably won't again.

Well, I had the much awaited "Trance set" Wedding last night which ended up really good.

Bit of a slow start after the first dance....ah, the first dance. Before the first dance the B&G were going to cut the cake and make their way to the dancefloor etc. I welcomed everyone to "Christina & Andrews" big day said they were about to cut the cake if you want to take pics etc. Cake was duly cut so I asked people to make some space for "Christina & Richard" :eek: :eek: "Richard" :eek: I've no idea where that came from but luckily managed to make a joke out of it saying that "Richard" was last nights groom and in fact Christina had married as they all knew Andrew :daft: The guests laughed at this and I got away with it. I did speak to the groom after the first dance and he fortunately saw the funnyside of it aswell ;). I make a point of always having the B&G's name written in big letters behind the booth but for some reason the wrong name came out of my mouth :daft:

They had some fireworks at 10pm and at approx 1030pm the groom came over and asked for the glow sticks he's given me earlier. Time for some Trance!

The venue doesn't allow smoke so there was no point to lasers or strobes so the powerbar got directed towards the ceiling and off we went. Most of the guests were on the floor and were proper giving it some. After about 25mins the Groom asked me to turn off my lights, so we did about an hour with the only light being from the bar and the venues starlight ceiling, it looked really good with the glowsticks.

It was a 1230 finish and I tried to get a bit more mainstream with 15mins to go and this worked well and got the remaining guests up.

They'd ask to finish with NY NY but with a twist. NY NY was to be used to get everyone on the floor (all ages etc) then after about 30 seconds I got on the mic and said along the lines of "hang on, you didn't really think we'd finish with this, did you?" and dropped in William Orbits Adagio the Ferry Corsten remix from just before where the 2nd big bit of bass comes in and the place went mad :D

Really enjoyed it and it was good fun to actually do some mixing properly again.

Wayayayayay.

Where was the wedding Paul?

:lol:

Trance set! That's it! Shottle Hall right? Jon and I have a story to tell. This has just reminded me to send £50 back to Andrew.