Good Gig, Bad Gig.

Interesting wedding yesterday.

B&G told me to help myself to the hog roast as I was there all day - it was quite informal and that was their wedding breakfast.

I went up and had a handful (literally, rubber gloved had scooping up the meat, no serving utensils) of watery rubbery pork put on my plate, as soon as the rolls had lost their freezer chill they went stale very quickly, not bad pasta salad though.

Then the photobooth arrived and set up in the corner of the dancefloor - metal framed with cloth covering, didn't look inside but he had a couple of flight-cases with the camera and printer in which he managed to carry in one go.

Once I announced it was open the guests formed an orderly queue and everybody went in and had their photos taken, the operator then came out and put them in a photo album, there were no props. It was more like a very efficient passport photo service - and the results were about as much fun!

Guests were a mixture of very nice people with a smattering of idiots. Got drunkenly abused by a lad who didn't like the song I was playing and wanted it changed immediately (it was a request and people were dancing) - I seemed to confuse him by asking what he wanted me to change it to, by the time he had thought of something the song had finished. And an older couple who gave the cut throat sign to every song they didn't personally approve of, even though they still carried on dancing and didn't once give me a request.

Most of the blokes disappeared outside for the whole night, the Groom's Indie part of the playlist wasn't working for the remaining guests but the Brides Motown choices with a fair bit of rock'n'roll and the usual party classics had people dancing - any newer chart stuff cleared the floor though.

Not a brilliant night last night was booked to play from 7.30pm till 00.30
had been a bit dubious about the gig since the initial booking as the groom had requested that he be able to bring a memory stick of tracks he wanted played (will get back to that later).

arrived to set up at 6pm was all set up by 7pm to be advised that they hadn't even sat down for the meal by then they finally sat down at 7.30pm and made their way up to where the evening was being held around 9.30pm.

The groom drunkly came over and again asked if i could play music from his dongle i explained that having received his 3 page list of tracks that he wanted playing i hoped i had come up with a list of music to suit all tastes to ensure everyone had a good night, i was then informed he didn't want any cheese, or anything modern or new etc. My thoughts were this is going to be along night and it was, playlist was fairly eclectic and very diverse with tracks ranging from Queens of the stone age to little Richard and meatloaf to the who and dexys midnight runners.

I must have had a maximum of 15 out of 50 guests dancing at the most cant remember what the track was and then the next track they started singing along to it only to disappear 30 seconds later.


was a long night was very glad at 2 mins to midnight when the owner of the hotel came over and told me that i was to finish at midnight.

will attempt to export the playlist that was played.

2 gigs this weekend..............:D

First was wedding at my local club , the barman was getting hitched , wonderful evening , not that many guests there but a great atmosphere, dancing from the off at 8:00pm , the first dance was supposed to be at 8:30 , yea right....:D , the B&G were still bringing in food to the hall at 8:45 , very much a DIY wedding , but you know , these can be the best wedding`s going , well the first dance was at 9:30 , and and the disco carried on until 12:15 , last dance was New York New York ( my choice) , a big circle and then into an arch for the last 45 seconds , funny , the B&G exit was only into the next bar , where it went on until 1:30 am , leaving me time to pack down , and then have a drink my self ( club is in walking distance).

Up at 8:30 this morning , drove the van to the club , loaded up ,picked my misses up and off to Angmering . st Wilfreds RC school for their summer gala , set up outside , near the hall , a because if it started to rain I had a bolt hole , and b because I need electricity , excellent afternoon , there was a belly danced and a troupe of junior Irish dancers , they both had CD`s , and I cant play CD`s on my laptop CD/DVD drive is iffy , so a cunning plan was devised , we used the school CD player , one of those small portable players and used my SM58 on a mic stand as you would mic up for a PA, sound was pretty good , great weather , no rain , but very windy , got to unload later and reload for a wedding this Friday , uplighting , the works , and then another gig next Saturday at Alton.....:D :D .
Have to admit this is the busiest month I have ever had.


Daryll

Just the one gig for me this weekend on Friday night. A monthly "Family night" disco I do on the last Friday of every month at a local community centre. I was looking forward to this one as the theme was "pirates" and the kids were supposed to all be coming in fancy dress.

The organisers are a funny bunch who insist on running a couple of games for the kids (but not until 9:00pm - and they're usually incredibly complicated).

So, 90mins into the gig the organisers step up and start the games and announce that they've had a last minute change to the theme of the night. It's no longer pirates, it's now Olympics. So I've been stood up the front running pirate themed games and handing out balloon swords and pirate hats for 90mins for nothing? Thanks a bunch!!

I was also being inundated with complaints from families as the organisers had brought out a load of balls (footballs, rugby balls, beach balls, etc) for the games and were letting the kids mess around with them. A few parents were none too happy as they'd had a few rounds of drinks knocked over by flying balls - and I was getting the blame.

From here on the night went sour for me. I had everything prepped based on Pirates (music, games, the lot) and the sudden change of theme completely threw me. It didn't help that there were a couple of kids there who were intent on spoiling the night for everyone else and continually interrupted every game, distracted the other kids and were generally utterly disruptive with their behaviour to the point where an hour from the end I gave up running games or trying to interact with the kids and left them to entertain themselves.

Not a night I want to remember. I'm interested to know how anyone else handles really disruptive kids during their shows?

Fingers crossed next month is better.

Julian

Last night I did a wedding at a golf club but I would prefer not to mention the area just in case someone reading this is able to work it out and pass on my complaint. The staff at the club were really helpful and kept me topped up all night with soft drinks. The problem I had was with the groom.
I had had a lot of dialogue with him in the up coming months and had a meeting with him at the venue to discuss things and my impression of him was he was a nice "geezer" into his "banging choons" but I wasn't expecting what I got.
It was a good night but it could have been a great night without his interference. As soon as I got people interested and dancing he would come over and insist I stop the song playing and play his request, even if the song was proving popular. There were a number of times I played 30 seconds of a song and then had to stop it to play a completely different genre. One time I just started playing Sweet Soul Music by Arthur Conley, which caused about 20 people to move onto the floor and he came over with a look on his face as if someone had just farted under his nose (a look I saw a lot of all night) and demanded that I play Starship's Nothing's Going To Stop Us Now. I thought, it's your party mate and put it on and about 40 people got off straight away. He then came back to me and complained about HIS guests being boring :Censored: . He didn't seem to realise that the songs he requested, although most of them were good, couldn't just be thrown in anytime AND would excite everyone as much as it did him. Speaking to a guest as I was packing away at the end of the night, I asked him if his mate was always this impatient and he replied "Only when he's on Charlie".
Nice way to mark your wedding:thumbs_down:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DJ Jules

Not a night I want to remember. I'm interested to know how anyone else handles really disruptive kids during their shows?

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Either ignore them & they'll soon get bored or award the well behaved children with goodies (they'll soon catch on as to why they're not getting bags of Haribo)

If it's really bad and they're making me look :Censored: , I whip out a fiver, pop it on the stage in a empty pint glass & explain that the child who behaves the best, will get a fiver at the end.

99.9 % of the time any of the above will work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Charlie Brown

Either ignore them & they'll soon get bored or award the well behaved children with goodies (they'll soon catch on as to why they're not getting bags of Haribo)

If it's really bad and they're making me look :Censored: , I whip out a fiver, pop it on the stage in a empty pint glass & explain that the child who behaves the best, will get a fiver at the end.

99.9 % of the time any of the above will work.

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Good I like that

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dj foureyes

Last night I did a wedding at a golf club but I would prefer not to mention the area just in case someone reading this is able to work it out and pass on my complaint. The staff at the club were really helpful and kept me topped up all night with soft drinks. The problem I had was with the groom.
I had had a lot of dialogue with him in the up coming months and had a meeting with him at the venue to discuss things and my impression of him was he was a nice "geezer" into his "banging choons" but I wasn't expecting what I got.
It was a good night but it could have been a great night without his interference. As soon as I got people interested and dancing he would come over and insist I stop the song playing and play his request, even if the song was proving popular. There were a number of times I played 30 seconds of a song and then had to stop it to play a completely different genre. One time I just started playing Sweet Soul Music by Arthur Conley, which caused about 20 people to move onto the floor and he came over with a look on his face as if someone had just farted under his nose (a look I saw a lot of all night) and demanded that I play Starship's Nothing's Going To Stop Us Now. I thought, it's your party mate and put it on and about 40 people got off straight away. He then came back to me and complained about HIS guests being boring :Censored: . He didn't seem to realise that the songs he requested, although most of them were good, couldn't just be thrown in anytime AND would excite everyone as much as it did him. Speaking to a guest as I was packing away at the end of the night, I asked him if his mate was always this impatient and he replied "Only when he's on Charlie".
Nice way to mark your wedding:thumbs_down:

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Lucky escape for me then :) Sorry to hear he the groom was such a berk...

Friday was a run of the mill Wedding for me. Lovely couple. An absolute pleasure to be involved in their day (despite some of the younger guests constant requests for the cupid shuffle, not ashamed to admit not having it in my collection either) These younger guests simply wouldn't allow me to make the musical transition from current chart trash (128 bpm) to wedding party classics. They would literally vacate the floor in protest. I had my wicked way in the end :D

Saturday - House Party - 40th Birthday in South Woodford. Huge house but a little too intimate for me with 40 odd guests. Mainly 80's with a little current chart. Contracted till 12am. Played until 2am... Average night.

Highlight of the weekend was the sunrise on the motorway this morning :)

Your crystal ball was working fine Mike:-)
Glad you had a good night. Your wedding sounds like my Friday night. It was a mother/daughter joint birthday fancy dress party in a marquee in Iver and although I was supposed to play for all ages, the 18 year olds just monopolised all the requests. I couldn't do anything about it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dj foureyes

I was supposed to play for all ages, the 18 year olds just monopolised all the requests. I couldn't do anything about it.

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I love a challenge. I have a joint 18th/50th coming up this week. I'll make sure I take lots of dubstep and massive bass bins ;)