The Stranglers covered it, but knowing Martin, it would've been the original that was played.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shakermaker Promotions
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The Stranglers covered it, but knowing Martin, it would've been the original that was played.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shakermaker Promotions
I'm now going to add the bad gig side of things (didn't want to sully the good bit with it - it's fair to say I was fuming at one point and really had to bite my tongue!)
I wasn't booked all day as the hotel told the B&G they could play CD's for them during the ceremony and background. As a favour I said I'd burn my B&G's ceremony music (entrance, signing and exit tunes) as there was a bit of editing needed on the entrance tune - took me a few minutes so wasn't a major job.
Popped it into the venue the day before and asked to check it played OK. They eventually found the player which was a scruffy portable CD player, and the CD jumped all over the place in it.
So the manager started asking all the staff if anyone had one they could bring in!
By this time I'm starting to be spectacularly unimpressed with the fact they were prepared to use a shabby, knackered CD player for someone's biggest day and even had the audacity to offer it as a service (I was at the meeting when they offered it).
So my choice was either walk away and let them get on with it or do it properly myself.
So next day I arrived early to be told they had bought a CD player, tested it and it all worked OK so I hadn't needed to come in (bite tongue time!). Had a quick look and it was probably the cheapest CD player I'd ever seen, if it cost more than £20 they were ripped off!
It was totally insufficient and sounded awful, there were about 70 guests and a long entrance walk though the dining room into the wedding room - so I quickly rigged one K12 at the back of the dining room. The Brides entrance tune was an instrumental version of Radiohead's 'No Surprises' and it sounded magnificent.
To be honest I totally saved the day (music wise), but not one word of thanks or acknowledgement from the venue manager that I helped them avoid a disaster.
Getting paid for the extra time didn't really come into it for me, my conscience wouldn't have let me sit at home knowing the ceremony music was likely to be messed up (or at best totally underwhelming). But lesson learned, no more favours like this and I'll be advising all B&G's to check the venue's own sound system if it's offered.
But the B&G did thank me and really appreciated what I did - and I also got a massive tip (which took me halfway to my full day fee).
Indeed it was, with a healthy dose of Standells, Creation, The Action and Fleur dy Lys as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Corabar Steve
Jonathan - Sounds like you had a harder time than I did.
As I said, mine was actually a lot, lot easier than I had expected BUT I was lucky I think.
At the end of the day, they were happy and that's all that matters but I am already working on how to word things regarding playlists etc for my website.
You should of came and said "Hello" Darren???Quote:
Originally Posted by Solitaire Entertainments Ltd
Just got in from probably the most enjoyable gig I've done in many years. 40th birthday in a marquee where the client wanted to go for it, and I've been looking forward to this job since the very first enquiry nearly a year ago. Brilliant clients, really looked after me and are obviously very well thought of by their friends and family (even their 7 year old came home from school on Thursday and immediately asked me if I wanted a cup of tea!).
The marquee had gone in early which meant I'd got plenty of time to set up so spread it over 3 days rather than 2 which was great as there was time to get it absolutely right.
Disco Divas theme, and all the guests had properly made an effort. Started with KC and the Sunshine Band - Get Down Tonight which filled the floor, and carried on with 70s disco classics for about 40 minutes before then going all over the genres, including a fair amount of slightly heavier than pop dance (Tomcraft - Loneliness etc). Music finished at 3am.
Rig in the dance marquee was a 6.4m x 3.8m truss 'cube' over the dancefloor (limited to that size by the marquee roof linings) with 8 x Martin Roboscan Pro518, 24 x LED par56 and 2 Soundlab Vendas (for the cheesy disco moments), then a 2nd truss frame behind us roughly 5.8m wide with 8 x 1m LED battens (one Pulsar Masterpiece per truss). Oh, and a 3m truss below the ridge of the marquee with 2 x 40cm and 10 x 30cm mirrorballs.
Also I put 9m of scaff bar into the roof of the main marquee with 5 x 4way pinspot banks and 4 x CCT Minuette profiles. And a fairly significant amount of outside lighting (roughly 2 x 400w MBI floods, 4 x 150w MBI floods, 30 x GU10 spots and 300m of cabling).
Sound was a Denon/C-Audio/JBL set up. Oh, and a 2nd audio system for background music in the main marquee).
Nice job, really enjoyed every moment but not looking forward to the de-rig this afternoon...
Will try to get some photos into the gallery but I'm not sure yet what pictures got taken.
Sounds a very impressive set up, I look forward to the pics, but how do you get 380 cm's of mirror balls onto a 300 cm truss? :)
Friday night: I was playing a few tunes at a large charity gig.
Bruce Foxton headed the bill, with support from the 5:16's (mod band) and The Skasouls (ska band funnily enough). Great fun and for a very good cause (Woking and Sam Beare Hospice)
Bruce played a lot of Jam favourites as well as his own excellent new tunes - the sound man (I was set-up next to him) showed me how he got such a large sound from a 3 piece band, pretty much everything was triple mic'd.
Skasouls and 5:16's sounded awesome though the PA - I've played with them both many times before, usually in much smaller venues and pubs, it's amazing what a pro sound man can do. My own sound check took all of two seconds, it sounded great.
Personally I didn't like how the venue had cordoned off the bar area so no one with a drink could get out, which resulted in only about a quarter of the audience going up to the stage, with a big gap before the rest behind the barriers at the back of the hall. I thought it killed the atmosphere a bit, but there were enough original Jam fans (that's a nice way of saying older, sweaty baldy blokes) bouncing around like mad at the front to make it feel like the gigs I used to go to back in the day.
Saturday - Wedding Anniversary and 50th birthday. Lovely couple, lots of Rock and Punk on the playlist, I also managed to get through pretty much every other genre as well, including Disco, 80's groove, Motown, Country, Rock'n'Roll etc. Big Lynyrd Skynyrd fans (they saw them live a few times) so naturally I finished with Free Bird.
In (late!) reply to post 2087 above, I'm most impressed that you noticed that at 20 to 7 on a Sunday morning! However, the answer is now in the gallery http://www.forum.mobilediscodirector...661#post606661 - the technique is to overlap the balls at different heights and widths (3 chords of truss to hang from).
had a great karaoke gig last night.
Very last minute booking, was sat on the couch looking forward to a quite night when the phone went at 7pm. DJ had let down a pub in St Andrews.
Manager told me i could plug into the pubs sound system, dont worry about lights or anything fancy. Got some gear together and arrived at 8pm, due to start at 8.30
I setup a basic system on a table against a wall, two swarm lights on the floor, one tv, cables safe but not tidy.
The pubs sound system was terrible, four small speakers, no sub, not loud enough, but nobody seemed to care.
From 9pm to midnight the place was busy, with plenty singers and some dancing between singers.
Goes to show, you dont always need good sound and lots of fancy lights to have a good gig.