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My poor use of English. :daft: Yes Steve, they were two enquiries( although they were both very eager to finalise details ASAP) and one of them is now a booking. On the night I gave them my details and took their phone numbers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Corabar Entertainment
:approve2:
Not only poor English... poor eyesight as well. Steve's the hairy one....
...I'm Angela (as it says in BIG letters at the end of every post) :p;)
:sorry: I was having a Mr Magoo moment :doh::doh:Quote:
Originally Posted by Corabar Entertainment
Please provide your sort code and account number and I will compensate you for your hurt feelings of 300,000 Ugandan dollars. Roughly 26p :whistle:
:lol:
Not a great night tonight. This is a repeat booking for a Bowling presentation evening. Last year I had a good load of dancers to a whole range of 80's , 90's and cheese. This year I had a few line dancers (literally a few) and that's it. There's 10mins to go and there's so little going on here that I can write the review and finish the night at the same time :)
Bit of a learning curve tonight on a number of points...
1. Last year I got lucky because I had one very enthusiastic (or enebriated) guest who dragged others up early on in the night.
2. My smoke machine apparently needs more use - using it tonight caused so much electrical noise that all USB devices within a few feet of the cable hung up!! (which would be DMX, Sound and MIDI controllers alike!!)
3. AC/DC don't license any of their music for download (other than the odd live album).
4. Amazon have changed their downloader since introducing the cloud locker service, it now registers up to 10 computers for download, and it doesn't work over a Vodafone 3G dongle. Oops. Guess 7 digital and Play will be getting my business when I download on the road.
5. I need to learn how to use Freestyler properly.
Still, customer is happy and I've been booked again for next year's presentation evening.
Julian
A really good week for me this week and also a lot of mucking about too with a few strange things happening (I'll explain...it isn't that strange but...well, it is for me. Confused?).
Sunday was a Wedding Fayre at one of my residencies. Lots of enquiries and 4 confirmed bookings. 2 for this year, 1 for 2013 and 1 for 2014.
Monday was a meeting with the Bride & Groom for next weekends wedding. Had a really good chat with them and they decided to add Uplighting to the package too so a bit of extra income there on top of an already nicely paid job.
Wednesday was a strange day. One of the confirmed bookings from the Wedding Fayre was for a Disco Hire job for November. I was informed on the day that the Bride & Groom wanted to hire because they had a tight budget plus the fact that the family wanted to provide the playlist via an I-Pod so that they could have the music that they wanted without worrying about a DJ not playing their music. I thought at the time that it was probably more of the latter and not the budget and I was right. I explained the benefits of having a DJ rather than an I-Pod but they were quite adamant that the I-Pod was the way to go. Booking forms done and sent the same day via email and then later that evening I get a call from the Mother of the Bride who apologises for mucking me about and says that she'd like me to DJ for them and that they'd also like Uplighting too. Earlier that day I had received an enquiry for another Wedding on the same night. I quoted for it and 10 minutes before the other one called to say they wanted me rather than hire, this one booked too. Booking forms done for both and both paid in full via Online Banking. That doesn't happen that often to me.
Thursday was another meeting with a Bride & Groom for a wedding in a few weeks time. Nothing out of the ordinary here really apart from the fact that when they provided me with the request list, it was almost full of my favourite tracks. When we started going through everything and I started talking about music, they were really enthusiastic and I've never seen a couple so excited.
Friday was a task. I set up for Saturday's wedding (last night) in advance at my residency out of town and also set up another rig for my Request Fest night in my local. We expected a busy one because there were 2 birthdays and it was also pay day and it was packed. I felt quite ill all of Friday (aching and feeling sick) but the night went very well and made me feel a lot better. Lots of new faces there and I actually had 2 enquiries too on the night. 1 was a leaving party and the other was from a young couple who said that they were getting married in January 2016!!! I think it was probably the alcohol talking there!
Saturday I was up early and out of the door because I had a Disco Hire job on aswell at a residential. I was told it was for a wedding and my first thoughts were that it must have been a budget thing because it was being staged at the house. It was only a 5 minute drive from me and as it was a hire job, I hadn't met the couple because they were doing the I-Pod / Laptop thing (one of the family was to be in charge of the music). Now, I've driven past the house a number of times over the years and had no idea that it was so big with massive grounds. I turned up at the place and access was difficult. There was a massive starlit marquee with uplighting and chandeliers etc. It looked like no expense was spared so my thoughts of budget wedding went out of the window. I had been dealing with the Father of the Bride over the phone and as I said, I hadn't met the Bride & Groom as yet. I had to go through the house with the equipment which felt awkward and there was that buzz about the place where people were rushing about getting sorted. I set up pretty quickly and then asked the Father of the Bride to get his son who was the nominated person to look after the equipment so that I could show them what to do and how to work the equipment, power it on and off safely etc... I was surprised when the guy turned up and it was someone who I used to work with. It was his sister who was getting married and I knew her too. He called upstairs and she came down with rollers in her hair and her face half made up (still looked stunning though). The Father of the Bride had no idea we all knew eachother and then the son said "Why don't we get Gary to DJ?". I told them that I couldn't as I was doing another wedding that night. I went through everything with them and soundchecked and all was well. I got a text later in the evening at the wedding I was doing saying "This is awesome!".
I had another DJ out last night who I haven't spoken to yet but she text me too and said all was going well so I was happy.
The wedding I did myself was a success. The guests were up for it from the word go and it was really good. They had a very mixed playlist which included lots of Indie and Ska and it was the Ska stuff that got everyone up. They had a mix of original Ska, Two Tone and also some of the stuff that is better known as Ska/Punk etc... The likes of Save Ferris, Rancid, Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish went down really well especially Ska versions of Brown Eyed Girl, Take On Me and Come on Eileen. These got everyone up including the older crowd.
It was the first time I had used the subs in this venue. It has a wooden floor and they kicked big time. I went out front and listened for myself a couple of times and it was rocking. I was impressed by them. I also got asked if I'd play that PSY track. This was a first for me and it was a couple of ushers that asked for it. I didn't know what to expect and a handful of people danced to it. I still don't like it to be honest. In the last hour it was plenty of cheese and the track of the night was the Five Megamix believe it or not.
Last track of the night was a funny one. We had spoken in the Pre-Wedding meeting about the last song of the night and they wanted something that people would remember. It turned out to be a classic. At 11.45pm a coach entered the car park to pick up the majority of the guests for when the wedding finished. At 11.55pm I thanked everyone and then announced the final track which was to be..... Black Lace - The Conga. I announced over the mic that the Bride & Groom would like to thank everyone for joining them on their special day and that they'd like to say a few words. They took to the mic and said "This has been very special today but now we've had enough so please Conga yourselves out of here and on to the coach!" (it was all done in jest and everyone knew that but it worked). There was a massive Conga line going around the venue until the last few seconds and then most of the line went out of the door and in to the car park and on to the coach. I had got out from behind the rig to watch them and it was really funny. The Bride & Groom thanked me as did their parents and a few guests and then the music finished. I thought that was it and as I walked back to the rig to turn the equipment off, everyone that had got on the coach came back in and started clapping and cheering. It was a really good feeling.
The Groom then came over to me and handed me 2 bottles of Champagne and told me that he knew I hadn't had a drink all night and said "Have those on me, Thanks very much".
Apologies for the long review this week. It's been a good but at times, strange and tiring one. It's getting a regular thing now where come Sunday, I ache like I'm 20 years older than I am! I have a few things to do including making a visit to the house again to pick up the hire equipment and then it's chill day. Those bottles of Champagne will be empty later this evening!:p
Tonight ive been down with Peter to The New Walton Club in Hull. Now normally its easy to get in and out of the club car park. On Friday its Hull Fair which is on for 8 days on Walton Street. Its a massive funfair with about 200 rides on the land opposite the club. On the club car park its filled with rides as well and the entire stretch of walton street has stalls from top to bottom of the sreet.
So tonight is the time of year its absolutely hectic round there. I went to help Peter and it was hard for Peter to get his Van into a parking spot because of there been lots of lorries and rides in the way. The actual party was a Ladies Night for the funfair staff they expected about 300 people there tonight and there was a lot in.
There was 2 acts on. Steve Caprice - An Elvis Tribute. He was voted the best Elvis Impersonator in Europe in a European competition. Also alongside Steve there was a Blues Brothers act on as well.
Now the people at the party. I dont think they could have really been much more ruder than they were. Insulting one. I found myself been insulted by these idiots about five or six times during the night. As well as been pushed out of the way. They had been abusing Peters microphone as well. Diving all over a stage with Wires all over the place..... Total lack of respect. Tbh the area will be much more Quieter when they have all left a week on sat.
And first and froremost, may I say a huge thank you to John for his help last night. The lad was a trooper, liaising with staff, live acts, and punters. ( Though he got more than a little cheesed with punters by the end. ;) :D:D )Quote:
Originally Posted by Twinspin
It was hectic. First of all, we had to play musical chairs with vehicles to get to the entrance. I took a dinky rig because I'd been advised to leave the stage for the live acts, so set up neatly by the side. I only had two cabs, and wished I'd taken more, as the venue is huge, and the punters were a tad "boisterous". The live act that had brought a PA was struggling with it, as it sounded awful. Elvis ( who we've worked with before, and he's a great bloke ) refused to use it for vocals, and used my radio mic so that we had his vocals in my kit, and his music and monitors in the band's. Even though he was using my DJ mixer, he was far happier with the sound. All went well, until for some reason, the mic inputs on my mixer seemed to fade and die! I went out to the van and brought another one in, and somehow, we managed to rig it in without too much fuss.
I've never had so many punters telling me exactly which styles and tracks to play at one gig before, and each assured me that they were the one to listen to on this matter. Hard work indeed, with someone constantly at my side monitoring and vetting my music choice ( though in all honesty, I think I only picked three tracks all night!). Memorable for the game of musical chairs, where the contestants decided to dispense with waiting for the music to stop before sittting down, they just sat down and waited.
A night best summed up by the ancient curse: "May you live in interesting times "
"G'night John Boy...... G'night Grandpa" ? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Twinspin
Well done to both of you on what sounds like a real feat of phoenix-like proportions :thumbs_up:
:lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Kernow