Good Gig, Bad Gig.

Eventful week for me. Very. Wednesday, primary school gig where I couldn't work out why my mic was feeding back. :confused: :confused: Turns out the kids had these sweets which double as whistles! Grr.

Friday night should have been extreme rest as I'd had a minor procedure in hospital which required strong anaesthetic, and driving was strongly discouraged. So when the phone rang at 8pm and Saturday's venue said they had no disco, I pointed that it was Friday, and I'd see them tomorrow. Turns out that I was due to see them Friday as well, but hadn't been told that!! :eek: :eek: Fortunately, the gear was still in the van from Wednesday, so I rushed off as calmly as possible, and set up the gear. Audience were great, I told them I was an emergency callout, and no tears were shed. I did however do something I've never done before: Sat down all night. :D

I've been working on a smaller rig for quicker and easier rigging/derigging, and this was used in all cases, and justified its existence a thousandfold on Friday. When it's finished, piccies will appear.

Saturday dawned nice and sunny, so when I arrived for the wedding, they'd opened the fire doors and let the punters outside. I managed to get the kit in, and decided that since they were all in with me, I might as well start as sit quietly. Thus I had the prospect of getting a crowd who had started drinking at 2.30 to stay till midnight, after I started at 6 pm. Guess what? They didn't. It was a fairly good night, with nice folk, and I would have had had "Court Of King Caractacus" as the first dance, except the groom hadn't got the hang of it, so we went with "Chasing Cars". We did in fact play Caractacus later, as well as a couple of songs from a CD which the bride had brought. Good job I had the optical drive built into the kit, eh Shaun? :whistle: :D :D
I played mainly modern stuff, and by quarter to twelve only had a handful of guests left, so packed up to the second round of applause in two nights. Nice.

It must have been the sunshine, Gary, because I too was kissed many times by one of the organisers on Saturday, and very pretty she was too.

On balance, perhaps the copious amounts of strong drink she'd taken may have had a bearing on that. :D

Next week there's no chance of using the small rig, cos it's an all day wedding in a marquee, with a strong probability of needing two PA systems throughout the day. I'll just load up the van with kit, and use what seems to fit.

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

Friday night should have been extreme rest as I'd had a minor procedure in hospital which required strong anaesthetic, and driving was strongly discouraged.

couple of songs from a CD which the bride had brought. Good job I had the optical drive built into the kit, eh Shaun? :whistle: :D :D

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Hope your recovering ok Peter--I have on my Galaxy dashboard an old style Walkman---the Tesco version that cost a fiver--:D :D :D

Plays CDs perfectly so im never caught out ;)

Possibly one of the most mental weeks I've ever had for discos last week. Tuesday - End of term infant school party. 1hr with 4-6yr olds and then 1.5hrs with 6/7yr olds. The usual fun, games and party hits were in order and a great time was had by all :D I'm still amazed at how many marshmallows a 7yr old can ram in their mouth - and was even more surprised that someone else might want to EAT them after a 7yr old has spat them out!!!

Wednesday - Leavers do for my son's school. 90+ 10/11yr olds for 1.5hrs. No games, just lots and lots of current chart and party dances. Surprise of the night was being asked for Papa Roach - Last resort!! I didn't play it.

Non-surprise of the night was being asked for "London Underground" at least five times (and having to tell the kids each time that "no, I don't play music that is only available on YouTube").


Friday night was a joint 60th and 80th Birthday party in a very respectable Holiday inn in Filton. Surprise of the night was turning up and finding out that the room wasn't 5m x 7m, but was in fact 15m x 21m. Some numpty at the hotel had done the conversions from feet into metres the wrong way and published the numbers on the website. Turns out it was a good job they'd got it wrong as they never would have fit a 16 piece brass band and me into a room 5m x 7m :eek: As it was they only just managed it!! Set up took 2.5hrs instead of my usual 40mins due to the band being a royal pain in the bum which meant I spent most of that 2.5hrs moving kit around to stop them standing on it or kicking it as the band members were all over the place.

Once the band got started (30min late) they were very very good and had quite a few couples up dancing. Looking around the room it was clear that there was some money in the audience and quite a few of them had been trained for ballroom dancing at some point - possibly because of the type of functions that they attended on a regular basis. After the band finished at 21:00 a BBQ meal was served (on fine china) and immediately afterwards all of the 80yr old's left, leaving me with about 70 people aged roughly 35-60yrs.

At 22:00 the birthday girl and two of her friends burst out of the side door to the room dressed in sequinned catsuits and mimed to two Abba tracks and her granddaughters danced to Call me Maybe and Domino to much applause and then the disco finally kicked off proper until 00:30. For me it was a long, event (over 9hrs on site in total) with only a little of 2hrs where I was actually playing... However, got lots of dancers with some classic Rock and Roll and Motown and zero current Chart, making a pleasant change from the weeks' school discos :D

Saturday night was a Wedding in a marquee in the gardens of a 17th Century house about 6miles from my house which I worked for Neil (DeckstarDeluxe). Beautiful gardens, well dressed marquee and all immaculately presented. The house is owned by a family who are resident, friends with the B&G and all worked the wedding as well (from the parents right down to the 12yr old daughter!) and they're lovely people. I lost count of the number of times I was offered drinks or dessert or other food! Function ran behind schedule and the first dance didn't happen until 21:30 (and that was only because me and the best man picked up the chairs and tables on the dance floor and dumped them outside the marquee). The guests were raring to go and I had toe tappers and requests even before the floor was cleared. First dance was Ella Fitzgerald, "The very thought of you" and the guests were on the floor before I got 90seconds in. Kicked off with Valerie (B&G's request) after the first dance and had a full dance floor until the B&G left at 22:30 with a mix of late 90's, early 00's and the odd party classic (Whitney, etc).... After the B&G left the party wound down quickly, mostly because the marquee was left open at the sides and the temperature dropped rapidly after about 8:00pm and I finished at 23:15 with a bit of Queen to a dedicated group of about 10 dancers who had made a point of re-arranging their taxi once I kicked off so they could stay ;)

Overall, great gig, lovely people, lovely venue and lovely staff and I got great feedback from both the B&G before they left and from the venue who gave me a card so Neil can pass on his details ;)

If I could do it again... the only thing I would change would be the level of pre-event organisation. When I do weddings I usually make a point of meeting the B&G and running through all the details for the day with them so when I turn up I know what I need and when everything is (supposed to be) happening and exactly what the plans are. Neil called them "Laid back, but not a nightmare" and he was right, but they were so laid back they were almost horizontal. There was some debate beforehand about the need for a PA for the speeches, but when I turned up the venue staff were adamant that a PA was needed and told me where to put it. I was handed a CD for background music during the meal when I arrived and asked to play it on a loop. The bride checked what track was going to follow the first dance, just before she joined the groom for the first dance (luckily she approved of my choice!) The best man had a grand plan for an arch with sparklers from the house to the car to see the B&G off, but no matches or lighters... I could go on... :D

At the end of the day it all went really well, but if someone with less experience of weddings had done the job they could have come unstuck as a lot of the requests & info I was anticipating came at the very last second.

The rest of July and August is quiet for me now except for my regular club night at the start and end of August. Good job too as I'm away with the kids 3 weeks out of the next 5!

Julian

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Originally Posted by DJ Jules

I was handed a CD for background music during the meal when I arrived and asked to play it on a loop.
Julian

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Ahem. You noticed this Shaun? :whistle: :D :D

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Originally Posted by DJ Jules

Non-surprise of the night was being asked for "London Underground" at least five times (and having to tell the kids each time that "no, I don't play music that is only available on YouTube").

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I know there'd be many other obstacles to playing this track, but just a heads up that it is available on iTunes. It's by a comedy/parody band called The Amateur Transplants. They're both doctors (one is an anaesthetist and one a gynaecologist)...seen them live a couple of times. Many of their songs were medically orientated to begin with, but less so now. I won't post a link due to the songs being very sweary and semi-pornographic, but if you were to search You Tube for "amateurtubing" you'd be able to try before you buy, if you so desired.

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

Ahem. You noticed this Shaun? :whistle: :D :D

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I did. They would have been bitterly disappointed if they'd handed me a CD. :)

I like to think problems like this can be avoided though (in most cases). Background music is something I also discuss with clients. By already having brought it up for discussion I would have known in advance if they had any specifics in mind, and made sure that I had their choices with me on the evening - thus negating the fact that they would have to bring a CD of their own. ;)

Pre-planning - Preparation - Problem Solved before it begins. ;)

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Originally Posted by Shaun

Pre-planning - Preparation - Problem Solved before it begins. ;)

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Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. :)

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Originally Posted by DJ Jules

Non-surprise of the night was being asked for "London Underground" at least five times (and having to tell the kids each time that "no, I don't play music that is only available on YouTube").

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Blimey, is that song still about? Remember that from my days of being a rebel :D

Surprised kids have heard of it, never been asked for it before down here

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Originally Posted by Solitaire Entertainments Ltd

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. :)

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In all fairness to Neil, he did try and get all of these details out of them - they just kept changing their answers (the first dance changed last Wednesday!)

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Originally Posted by lazersounds

Surprised kids have heard of it, never been asked for it before down here

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Blame Youtube :D I've been asked for it at all of the recent discos (and school fete's) that I've done that have involved year 6 (10-11yr olds). I think you might have hit the nail on the head when you say it's all about being rebellious (and rude words)...

Julian

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Originally Posted by DJ Jules

In all fairness to Neil, he did try and get all of these details out of them - they just kept changing their answers (the first dance changed last Wednesday!)

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I wasn't commenting on that - I was agreeing with Shaun.