Good Gig, Bad Gig.

Did a wedding on Saturday night -
I was left with only 30 minutes to set -up before my pre -arranged start time due to an earlier problem with the bridal car breaking down and everything running over time-wise.
Extremely stressed i managed to get up and running in 40 minutes.

The complete playlist was supplied by the couple and I had several people coming up to me asking if I could play some different music - advised that was using a playlist but happy to take requests
..."Oh, just forget about the Playlist"..said one, explained was not prepared to do this.
Anyway, just sporadic dancing until about an hour before the end when the atmosphere completely changed and the floor completely filled!
Also a first for me was being dragged onto the dance floor by a couple of ladies!
I've got to say I can't remember a better final hour than this - couple had choreographed a dance to Soul Bossa Nova which was like a scene from Pulp Fiction.
Got a huge round of applause at the end.
Its a funny game this!

Another good night at the Bricklayers arms , Midhurst.

No reason this time , just a disco , started at 7:30 , and ended at 12:22 , well there was one more track , but a couple of middle age ladies decided to have handbags at dawn , well that was that , I killed the music , still its a pub gig , these things will happen now and again , dancing from around 9:30 , at 10;45 it was a bit dire , only 7 people left , then at 11:10 30 came in , now the pub is very small , that packed it out , everyone dancing.
Played a lot of modern toward the end , dropped into a 90`s dance/trance set , then I tried some thing different , Robin S-show me love into jail house rock - Elvis , they went wild , not your normal smooth transition.....

Good news is , the landlord has booked me every three weeks for the rest of the year , disco, karaoke etc....:approve: .
The other good thing , the crowd don't like to much change , so I can basically use the same play list , with the odd new/different track throw in.

Still onwards and upwards , next week , charity event in Gosport...

Daryll

I had a good gig last night - a little different to what I am used to these days and what I would call a little 'old school'. Lots of mic work, getting people involved, a little singing, karaoke and lots of the old fashioned party tunes - YMCA, hi ho silver lining etc. Thanks to my friend Lee who posted the screen shot of me playing agadoo (requested) and the birdie song (which I didn't play in the end!)

It was a 60th birthday with lots of kids, so we started with a mini kids disco, then food, disco and karaoke with me doing my best holiday camp presenter impression..!!

Actually, I thoroughly enjoyed it as being interactive is something I thrive on but don't get to do very often.

I also got a £50 tip, which was very welcome!

Thought I'd share an interesting one we had the weekend just gone.
This one was a wedding at a venue that we have done several weddings before, so have the advantage how how things work - but you can never tell what can happen.

The disco was due to start around 7:30PM, so we arrive at 6PM for set up. The venue has a large room that can be divided in two depending on the size of the wedding, it's always an easier set up if it's a small wedding, because they divide the room making it a doddle to set up. In this case it was a large wedding and it was running late, so we did not start setting up unit about 7:45 - we actually started setting up just after speeches while guests were still in the room, we did this because the wedding planner was concerned about the over run times and asked us to go ahead, so we did very quietly. I was a little worried because we were due to start at 7:30 and had no choice but to get everything up and running as soon as we could for the first dance, we got it all working in record time, but had some power issues which I will come on to later.

The week before, we were also at the same venue, but at this gig I noticed that the floor had been polished and was very slippery. Also this week, I decided to use the venues DJ table instead of mine to save in space and carry time, the venue is large and you have to lug kit a long way from the car park to the actual part where the weddings are held.

So we set up, and I powered up the lights, I had with me some moving heads that I had DMX'd and powered together, there are only two plug sockets, so I used my 8 way serge for the laptop / Mixer and PA and a standard 8 gang switched socked for the lights, plugged the scanners in, switched on and nothing, just a dimming from the socket. Great.. Eventually managed to fix this, then found out only one channel on the PA was working, luckily it was a dodgy cable so phew, I then had a panic about the first dance as I could not find it, but in the end I did.. So panic over we were ready to go. (I think I was just panicking more because of the late start which did not help.)

When the booking form came back there was not much information on it song wise apart from the first dance a couple of other songs and a request for some Irish music, so I spoke to the bride and groom as I do prior event to check music and they were just happy to have a happy mix and some Irish up-tempo music for some of their Irish guests so I took some extra music from the likes of the Dubliners, the Chieftains and the Pouges etc and we mixed this in to set along with a mix of party and latest music, which seemed to go down well.

We did the first and second dances and they went well, so moved in to the party music and that went well then on to the Irish, but as the night went on the dance floor became less busy, I tried all I could to get people back, but it was no good, my partner went out to find most of the guests outside smoking or at the bar - eventually more people came back in and it picked up.

Later on an older lady comes up and asks for some more Irish music so I say OK, and stick on some Chieftains and that gets the floor going, but this lady is not happy with that and says she wants an Irish waltz, I ask her if she has any track names in mind and she says no, but she wants and Irish waltz, so I find one and play her it through the headphones and she tells me its crap, by this time, the current track had finished playing and I had no choice but to play it due to being distracted by her, this track rams the dance floor with even the lady requester dancing. What the hell?

Anyway she keeps coming up asking for these very bizarre Irish songs I've never heard of, we carry an internet connection so can get pretty much anything, but what she was asking for, even the internet had not heard of. I can see she is getting a bit edgy so I tell her that the bride and groom had requested Irish music but not specific tracks and the ones she was requested I could not find. With that she pushed the table (I don't think on purpose) I managed to catch it, but because the floor was so slippery it nearly went over with all the kit on it. Great!

The main power sockets are by one of the doors, an enthusiastic guest comes flying through this door and knocks out one of them, so the music dies. Luckily we had the gaffer tape so taped up the sockets - something I will do from now on at that venue.

At the end of the night after the last dance and we were packing down, the lady in question who nearly took the table out comes up to me and says, " I've remembered the song that I wanted played... Cotton eye Joe!" I never knew that song was an Irish waltz.. :daft:

The floor was a bit of problem as we had some of the merrier guests falling flat on their faces while dancing, so not good.

Bride and Groom were very happy which is the main thing, but we deffo had an interesting night, thank God for the internet connection, because it found songs that I would of never had.
:beer1:

Sounds like fun.#

Out of curiosity, what were the bizarre songs that were asked for and you got?

We wrote some of them down on the booking form so I'll dig it out later and post them up.

:thumbsup:

Found the form,
Destination Donegal
Galway Girl, we found this via the internet DJ database we use.
Jora Dolan - More 'n More ( I think)
there were more, but not written down..

You don't know Galway girl???????

& you may find it's possibly Joe Dolan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Corabar Steve

You don't know Galway girl???????

& you may find it's possibly Joe Dolan

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Yes - I do know that one, but did not carry it. in 10 years of Discos in Somerset have never been asked for it. The others I had no clue about.