Hi Shakermaker.Good interesting post as usual. I have got to say it really annoys me when drunks try to give us a hard time. Thankfully it doesn't happen that often, but when it does it can ruin what is usually a good night.
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Hi Shakermaker.Good interesting post as usual. I have got to say it really annoys me when drunks try to give us a hard time. Thankfully it doesn't happen that often, but when it does it can ruin what is usually a good night.
Interesting read gary. Sounds like a great night. Its a shame booze gets the better of some people. Im pretty sure he will feel like a right dick today, if he even remembers!!
Last night was the 3rd in a row of Weddings. The Bride has be a "Fan" on facebook since booking about 6 months ago and told me that every Monday she would checkout my pics from the weekends gigs, what the other Brides were wearing and last week when I put up the gig list for this weekend it dawned on her that it was really happening and it was her "turn" to feature on my FB page.
Really lovely couple. It was supposed to be an 8.30pm- 1am gig but inevitably it was running late. I finally got in the room at 8.45pm and was set up ready to go for 9.10pm (joys of be being DJ minimal ;) ). First dance went down at 9.30pm and off we went. Real mixed crowd played a bit of everything except early 90's, Boybands, Grease etc as these were banned :D
One lady did ask for some Take That but I told her sorry no boybands, she was adamant they they're now a Man band so it'd be ok to play it and just ignore what the Bride wanted :eek: Usual thing I said if the Bride personally told me it was ok then I'd play some. Guest went straight to the Bride and said along the lnes of "the DJ won't play any Take That he says it's banned" at which point the Bride looked across laughed and gave me a thumbs up for not playing it :D She did give in in the end and allowed 1 Take That track but no more :p
All in all a good night and there was a group of guests who had a special dedication of "Jump on it" by Sir Mix-a-lot it had it's own dance routine and was very entertaining.
Finished at 1am Bride really happy, guests happy, job done!
Interesting weekend for me...as neither event had a first dance. I always view the first dance as an indication to the crowd that "it's time", and it almost guarantees a reasonable start to the evening (I'm sue we've all had gigs at some point where the house lights go down, your volume goes up, and the crowd collectively turn to look at you with that "and.....?" stare).
Friday was a civil partnership at one of my regular hotels in Derby for a really nice couple of guys. Generally it was a pretty good night, with the dance floor reasonably busy throughout. I think that they got they event they wanted (well, they told me so afterwards), but I felt that I my performance was limited as they didn't want anything older than the last five years to be played. Specifically no cheese/action songs either. With a mixed age group including plenty of children, I had loads of requests for stuff that they'd specifically said no to in the pre-event meeting. I kept telling guests that if they get one of the grooms to ok it, it's fine by me. I could see a column of guests approach them during the night, like Oliver Twist with bowl in hand, only to be sent away.
There was also a longer period of background music during the buffet than I would've liked...the crowd were getting pretty restless through it. There were more guests than the room could handle, so the logistics of getting them all through the buffet was tricky. About 15 minutes before the end of background music, this really big guy, tattoos on his neck wanders over, leans on the stand and asks if I do karaoke. I say "sorry sir, I don't"...and he just stands there, staring at me, for a good 30 seconds or so....then says "no problem", shakes my hand and wanders off :confused: :confused: .
So, a good night, but I think it could have been better if I'd had a little more freedom. Clients were happy though, and that's the main thing.
Last night was a wedding in a hotel that I used to do tons of work in, but I think this is only the second time I've been there this year. Late last year, a new GM was appointed, who decided that she didn't want to recommend me any more, but wanted to book me herself and then sell me on to the client at a mark up. I had initial reservations over this; historically communication has always been poor from this hotel. I've had Xmas parties cancelled at 4pm on the day, and also had phone calls asking "where are you" when I haven't been booked. Further, and more importantly, I suspected that they wouldn't be able to charge a high enough rate for me to get my full fee and them to make a reasonable margin on it. However, being an amenable chap, I said I'd do my best to make it work. Last night was the first, and only, booking under this arrangement.
As expected, communication was rubbish. I'd been pestering the hotel for music requests for the last fortnight, asked for timings etc., but got nothing back except a start time of 1930-2000. I turned up, half expecting things may go belly up, fully prepared to point the finger squarely at the hotel. I arrived at 1840 for a 1930 start...to find a room full of guests expecting a 1900 start. Perfect. I managed to get sound up for 1900, but still a real mess, flight cases on the dance floor, cloth not on etc.
When I'd set up, I wander off to introduce myself to the B & G, knowing nothing - not even their names. It transpires that they'd emailed some requests to the hotel GM, who is now on annual leave. No requests then, but we have a chat so at least I can get a rough idea on pen and paper..again, no first dance!
Despite communication hiccups, this turned into a really good night, with a full dance floor for most of the night, despite me emptying it with Wham!. I had loads of requests, from Wretch 32 to Norman Greenbaum. I've given this a bit of thought, and I've worked out what made this such a great night....tolerance. I've touched on this elsewhere on the forum over the years. One of my greatest frustrations is that over recent years is that different groups within a crowd have generally become so intolerant of other peoples requests or tastes (I freely admit that there may be a touch of rose-tinted glasses), that was less obvious in years gone by. These days, it seems that largely people will dance to their requests or genre, then clear off. Well, last night, my faith was restored, with the majority of dancers staying on the dance floor for most of the night, dancing to stuff that clearly wasn't to their personal taste. Loved it!
Awful return from my holiday on friday evening.
I regularly do a traveller family and always have a really good laugh with them and of course they pay well, The event was from 6-12 so obviously I was 37,000 feet in the air at the time, So I sent one of my Dj`s to cover for me but they wanted me there sometime in the evening. Anyway I dropped the wife and the suitcases off and done the 20 mile trip to the hall, Everything going good till the drinks started flowing,( Now bear in mind I have never never had a problem with this family or any of their guests). To cut a long story short 1 guy came up to me and TOLD me to play a certain track next to which I replied it would be on in due course he then threatened to batter the hell out of me and started getting really aggressive, So down went the volume off went the flashy lights, the head of the family came over to see what I was doing so I told him I will not be threatend or intimidated by anyone no matter what and i`m now packing up.
He had a word with the guy to which an apology and a handshake came my way.
20 mins later one of the bar staff approached me to say he had thrown food and threatened to kill another staff member, And thats where it kicked off, Next thing 20 odd police run through the door just as I was being threatened again, The police got them all out and locked us in the building for another 2 hours. Needless to say because of one bad apple they are now looking for another regular DJ.
Sorry to hear that Hammy. You don't need that :Censored: :Censored:Quote:
Originally Posted by hammy
Agreed. Sounds like a nightmare.Quote:
Originally Posted by STEVE HANLEY
Wow, really sorry to hear, I feel for you. I did a gig a couple of weeks ago in a sports club and there were a few 'travelers' in. All was going well until about 30 minutes to go and it kicked off, no fisticuffs just finger pointing shouting and a nightmare of an atmosphere, until ..... I finished playing, the bar was shutting down and two women started fighting, okay maybe not that unusual but one was 60!!! http://planetsmilies.net/shocked-smiley-9490.gifQuote:
Originally Posted by hammy
I swear to God, at this very moment in time, I'm stuck in the middle of the wedding from he'll - and there's still an hour and a half left - I'm seriously losing the :Censored: :Censored: :Censored: will!
Ohhh, I'm interested.
Full report when you get back please. :D