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Nice little gig for me yesterday. In the grounds of a rather large house in a tee pee. All 40-50 somethings, all jeans and suit jackets and some rather interesting shisha pipes...
Best thing was, it was 1.5 miles from my house! Finish at 12:30am and home for 1:10pm.
Thanks to Kane for giving me a hand setting up and packing down.
It took you over 12 and a half hours to drive 1.5 miles? Bloody Sunday drivers :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Solitaire Entertainments Ltd
:DQuote:
Originally Posted by DeckstarDeluxe
I did a wedding in a marquee in Hitchen last night. Bloody miles away but it was worth it. I got this booking just a week ago and had no contact with the couple before the wedding, only sent a short playlist.Good crowd, interesting requests and the first (and probably only time) I would play at a wedding Dj Deekline- I don't smoke!
The Bride kept on coming over and hugging me and saying, the music is :Censored: perfect. At the end of the night she was so pleased with me, she told me she loved me. I had to tell her that I was already married and perhaps she should be saying that to her new husband:)
Friday - Did a good night at my local. It was my Request Fest night and there were some classics. Lots of people were sat in the beer garden as it was hot and at one point....I was on my own with just the bar staff for company. I chucked on The Who - Baba O' Reilly as requested and nipped outside and you could hear the music loud and clear. Lots of people collared me and asked for tunes to be played which was cool. I was even talking on the mic to an empty pub, knowing that they could hear me outside which was a bit weird.
Saturday - 7.00pm - Midnight booking at one of my residencies for a 50th Wedding Anniversary. It was a family function and it was a big family with 100 attending. I had just 2 requests in advance from the customer...well, no requests as such...They said they loved the 60s, 70s and 80s and I was told that the Guy liked Michael Jackson and the Lady liked Elvis Presley.
I'd done 3 hours with no dancing and was starting to worry. The lights in the room were still on and the atmosphere was nice and chilled. I looked around and saw lots of people deep in conversation and laughing and drinking. At one point the guy came over and said he was really enjoying the music. Then a lady came over and asked me for a card and said that she was loving the music too. I was concentrating on the 60s, 70s and 80s and could see people singing along at their tables.
One lady came over and asked if I could get the lights turned down as she felt embarassed dancing with them on. I sorted that and it was almost like a switch had been pressed. Lots of people got up on the dance floor and that was it through until Midnight. I couldn't believe the stamina of some of them. They were really going for it and were getting very sweaty. I did laugh though when I saw a couple of very old ladies asleep at their tables at around 11.30pm.
I got everyone on the dance floor for the last song (I chose The Mavericks - Dance the night away) and they loved it. The couple thanked everybody for attending, there was a round of applause and then someone shouted out "One More!". I looked at the C&B Manager and he said "Go for it" so I played the song that was Number 1 on the day they got married which was Manfred Mann - Doo Wah Diddy. I announced it too and they said afterwards that they thought it was a nice touch.
More applause at the end and then people started to make their way out of the room. It was about 10 minutes later when I had unplugged everything and was packing stuff down when a guy approached me and asked if he could say a few things over the mic. I told him that everything was turned off and unplugged and getting packed away. He looked me up and down, tutted and then mumbled something as he walked off. It was 12.15am. Then a lady (his wife) came over and asked why I wouldn't let him say anything and I explained the reason. She was fine with that.
It was a bit surprising then that the guy stood up in the middle of the dance floor and started shouting for everyone's attention. They all listened as he did a small speech and thanked everyone for coming and said he'd had a brilliant time. It was quite an emotional little speech actually and really nice and he had a few people in tears but then right at the end he spoilt it and said..."Sorry I've had to shout, I wasn't allowed to use the mic!". I was ok with that and smiled at him and you could see he was joking. He came over afterwards and laughed and we ended up chatting. It was really funny because he was from West Ham and used to be a boxer. I mentioned that I was born in that area and one of my uncles was a boxer too at West Ham boxing club (Lennox Lewis and Nigel Benn boxed there).
Just as I was getting the last bits back to the van, the couple came over and thanked me again. The guy shook my hand and put £20.00 in my palm. "Have a drink on me" he said..."And don't worry about my silly :Censored: of a brother, he's piddled!" (they were both 71 years old).
Enjoyed it last night....
Haven't enjoyed this morning though...Twisted my ankle unloading the van and then squashed my fingers under my amp.....and finally, lost £100.00 out of my back pocket too! Arrgghhhh.....Cider and Olympics Closing Ceremony tonight I think!
Last night was a bit of a let down stunning venue at the Royal Bath Hotel, parking and unloading a complete pain in the :Censored: .
A few niggles with a couple of faulty sockets that we were using for up lighting.
Sadly only half the expected guests arrived (30 out of 60).
A great deal of effort and planning by the B&G and the hotel who said every thing looked stunning and sounded great.
Sadly not many dancers due to the low numbers, not the best of nights of but a good night.
2 good weddings this weekend, 165 on Friday, 110 Last Night lots of dancers and people having fun. Was really surprised as expected a poor show of dancing due to the heat. Nice tip on Friday too :D
Enjoyable gig last night - a wedding reception for a couple (friends of friends) who got married in Vegas a while back, had an Elvis act, roulette tables, room dressed, the works (and stupidly I forgot my camera!).
The groom liked 60's bands, 70's and rock'n'roll and was being very considerate to his older guests and relatives and asking them for their requests throughout the night and letting me know when they fancied a dance, which I didn't mind at all. Though it did result in some strange mixes, Mamma Do The Hump into Bonkers into Snoops Sweat (by this time the floor was heaving) then into Sinatra! But give the younger audience their due, they didn't leave the dance floor and danced as much to the older tunes, a really nice crowd.
And a few funny moments -
One very drunk guest started berating me for not playing the Clash, Pistols etc. and suggested I hadn't heard of them! (the groom had said no when I checked).
And one girl asked for Dancing Queen while I was packing my speakers into their bags! I explained the party had finished about 15 minutes ago and even if I wanted to play something I couldn't as everything was unplugged (and the room dressers were taking drapes down around us) - then she came back a bit later and called me a liar when the venue put some music on while they were sweeping up! On my instruction she then went and asked the bar manager to play her request, took him a while to explain to her :D
What's all this people getting tips? It just doesn't happen to me :confused:
I always get good feedback both on the night and afterwards but no tips :eek:
Probably should have said was the first tip in over a year :)Quote:
Originally Posted by WWDJ