Good Gig, Bad Gig.

Enjoyable weekend of gigs for me.
Friday night was a charity race night in Bookham, Surrey for the PTA of a school.
It went really well with lots of money raised for the school and there were only about 40 in attendance.
Lots of fun but a late starter. I left the house at 5pm to get there for a 6.30pm set up. Sat Nav said I'd arrive at 6.00pm so I knew I'd have loads of time to set up for 7.30pm first race. Stuck in traffic due to a couple of accidents and I arrived at 6.55pm. All set up and ready to go by 7.15pm and in the end we didn't start the first race until after 8.00pm. 8 races and an auction race plus a break for food and a raffle and it was 11.40pm when we finished (supposed to be 10.30pm).
Really enjoyable though and a nice change to do something different.
I was playing music whilst taking the bets and it was funny seeing people dancing at a race night. It's never happened to me before.

Saturday night was a 40th birthday at a local venue to me. I've supplied disco entertainment at the venue on a couple of occasions in the past although I have never been there myself as other DJ's have worked on my behalf.
I had another booking at one of my residencies too and that was being covered for me by my regular DJ. This was a wedding. My gig was a specialist Indie/Alternative party so that's why I did it.

Luckily I checked the venue out midweek as I was told by both the customer and also one of the DJ's that had been there previously for me that it was very tight for space and also that there were very low beams. When I saw the place where I'd be setting up I knew that I would have to make some ammendments to the set up. I was providing Photo Projection too. I used the base of the Ultimax stand with Starcloth and my JBL's. Monitors were on top of the JBL's. I took a light stand with t-bar and used 2 x ADJ Revo III and a Rainbow Beams laser. I also put 2 x Kam RGB Panels on the floor. It was plenty for the size of the room and 80 guests.
I had a great set of requests ranging from the more popular Indie/Alternative to some of the old skool and obscure tracks. There was also a smidgen of chart in there and quite a few 80s tracks. The list was compiled using the songs that the guests had requested via their RSVP's.

A nice easy start and I played some of the more chilled and slower tracks as the guests arrived. At 7.40pm I get a text message from the other half who says that she's had a lady on the phone in tears enquiring if I had anyone available to go and do her 50th birthday party as the DJ hadn't turned up. I felt bad because I had nobody to call upon and guests were starting to flood in. I texted the lady back directly as quick as I could and apologised that I wasn't able to help out. If I had thought about it quicker or it had been slightly earlier, there may have been a chance that I could have posted on here about it but my reception wasn't that great on the phone either to be fair. She texted me back and said thanks for getting back to her. I don't know if that got covered or not in the end? I don't even know where the gig was.

So, everything was going well. Lots of dancing and you could see everybody was having a good time. At 9.00pm I announced that the evening buffet was ready but I didn't see any food? Nobody seemed to take any notice so I announced it again and was told that it was a hot buffet and they'd need to go upstairs. Of course, this emptied the Disco area for around 30 minutes as all of the guests left to go and eat. When they came back we announced the cutting of the birthday cake, there were some speeches and then it was full on dancing through until midnight. Everyone was up for it and it was a really good atmosphere. I lost count of the number of times I had to move glasses of wine off my speakers and considering there were monitors on them too, it did make me wonder whether these people actually had brains in their heads. One guy actually looked me straight in the eye before trying to place a near on full pint of lager on the speaker. I shook my head and he moved it away and apologised. I also had one guy who thought he knew better and proceeded to stand next to me and tell me what I should be playing to get everyone up dancing (even though everyone WAS up dancing!). Every song he mentioned (B52's, Michael Jackson, Abba, Macarena) was on the DO NOT PLAY list. I even showed him it and he told me to ignore that as everyone would love it. I told him that they were on the Do Not Play list for a reason and that was because the birthday girl hated them. She told me this at the meeting beforehand. Eventually he left me to get on with my job and all was well.

The time seemed to go really quick after that and as Midnight approached, it was time for the last song of the night which was Wilson Philips - Hold On. It went down a treat and they were all singing along to it. Lots of applause at the end and thank you's and I had a lady ask me if I DJ'd at peoples houses because she was organising her birthday party for January. She took a card.
Another really enjoyable night with some great music.

On the downside, it is a bit of a pain in the butt to get access to. If you are in a car then it's a bit of a tight squeeze as you can pull up near the entrance but if you're in a van - No chance! When I visited the venue in the week and spoke to the owner, he said it would be easy to get the van to the entrance but it was very awkward. You had to drive across the paved beer garden which meant moving some of the seats out of the way. There really wasn't much room and I had a nightmare at 4.30pm when I was setting up. When I returned I parked in the car park and knew that I'd have quite a walk from the venue to the van at the end of the night. I made about 10 journeys backwards and forwards and it was raining too which wasn't much fun. Other than that though, nice staff, very helpful and nice and cosy. There was an open fire in the area that I was in and it was lovely and warm.

i had a karaoke gig for students. The venue was within student accomodation which seemed to consist of 10 about bedrooms with kitchen and a large communual room which is where i setup. I was told it would be busy so i squeezed into a corner keeping the rig as small as possible.
I was booked from 10pm to 11.30pm. Ive done simmiler events before without any problems so was expecting a quick and easy night.
Between 10 & 10.15pm the place filled up with people, a room about 20 feet x 20 feet with 80 students, all drunk. Theres free wine available all night.
They were all up for it, most joining in with whatever song was being sung, a few were getting too close to the gear and the tv almost went flying a few times but i survived with nothing getting broken.
I assumed that at 11.30, they'd all head into town, unfortunalty when i finished, someone turned on a hifi in the room, so they all carried on dancing & singing. Im trying to pack up the gear with a room full of people jumping about & spilling drink.
Not only was the room full of people, so was the hallway, so was the stairway, no one would move to let me get the gear out. It normally takes 25-30 minutes to pack up & get away, last night took over an hour, and that was with less gear than normal.
After finally getting the gear out, i went to collect the two karaoke books i had left out for people to use, both were soaking wet, completely ruined.
Thats the last student night i'll be doing.

I enjoyed last night - it was a 50th birthday.

I seemed to have all the 'great night' cliches at one go, normally I don't mention the odd being asked for a card, but this was something else.

Got asked for lots of cards, venue asked me to send them my details, guests kept coming up and saying how good the music was, someone asked 'why do your speakers sound so good? usually these things sound :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored:", people were Shazam'ing and then coming to check it was the right tune. Venue staff were lovely and a very easy load in.

I had a good one last night. A wedding at a hotel I had been to at least 30 times before. Drove right up to twin doors where I unloaded into the function room no more than 5 metres away to set up. I did this in the morning as it was only 20 minutes away.
Local couple who I was told when setting up had cancelled the children's entertainer to save money. There were to be a lot of children. So before leaving for the evening I threw the Limbo in the van and a small case with some magic tricks.
Not the best of venues as the disco was set up in an area to the side of the room where bands normally are. This was 5m wide and 5m deep so plenty of space. Even though the ceiling was 8ft there was a beam at the front of this area that came down a couple of feet and I had tp set up well back with this beam stopping the lighting entering the main room. I was in a room to the side of the function area. I could only see half of the tables but after playing for the children and the Magic Show they had the buffet. Things really took off after this at 9 right through until midnight.
Playing a great selection with lots of requests made in advance, 3 tracks from Guns & Roses it was a really good night and I received many nice comments as I was asked for cards.
Not the best place to work but a good night.

Well I'm sitting here, absolutely wiped out by a combination of late nights and early mornings. What a weekend I've had! :eek:
Thursday saw Me, Jeanette and my Dad heading into York to see a Sixties tour, featuring Ivy League, Hermans Hermits, Tremeloes and Union Gap. If I say I was one of the younger members of the audience, you'll get an idea of what sort of a crowd we had. It was a great night, thoroughly enjoyable.
Friday was a Karaoke gig in Hull, with assistance provided by John ( Twinspin ). The lad thoroughly deserves a huge vote of thanks for his efforts, and even more praise for his skills as a KJ host. The combination of John doing the technical bits and cueing tracks, and me giving it the verbals and shepherding singers seems to work well. We've still got a lot to learn, but we're getting there. We had a great night, loads of satisfied punters, Elvis again ( a different one this time ) and a Policewomn who took some of her clothes off!!!!! ( In all honesty, she didn't have that many on when she came in. :eek: The 60 year old birthday boy seemed quite happy with her attire, so that was fine. :D )
Saturday saw me heading South, into Penfold country, after a hard day grading spuds. I was delighted to find the venue fairly easily, and even happier when the keyholder suggested I drive Thunderbird 2 across the grass, round the back of the not overly large hall, and right up to a door at the rear. Two steps, and I was inside. Magic. It scared the living daylights out of the Legslappers to turn up and see no sign of me at the venue. I'm usually the "Advance Guard ", so they were mightily relieved to find me inide and all set up when they walked in. Our audience was heavily populated with punters of a similar age to myself, so when I got to do my bit, I was ecstatic to be able topretend to be eighteen again, as I played Stones, Free, Chris Montez and the like. The punters loved it, as did I. Only downside was an eighty mile trip home, though to be fair, most of it was motorway, so not too bad. I got home, and unusually for me, went straight to bed.
Sunday, I got a bit of a lie in, and got a few things done before heading all of five miles to my christening gig. It's a regular venue, and I don't need any lights other than the Powerbar, and no deckstand. Makes things easier. We had a somewhat boisterous crowd, and the bar certainly did some trade. I packed up at half six, and headed home, and I've just finished answering emails and the like. I'll get my tea now, and head for bed shortly. It's up early to grade spuds in the morning, and a similar weekend next week. I'm getting too old for this game. ( Only joking, of course ) :D:D

If you've made it to the end of this treatise, well done. I'm off to bed now, before I fall asleep at this keybzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Friday school disco - nailed it
Sat - one of thoose nights
Did a 40th - was requested no cheese /old music
most of the guest were 50 yrs
was asked for loadsa cheese - the woman whos 40th it was finally cracked at 11pm when no one was dancing
put on the oldies by this time everyone had left left me playing until 1pm to about 10 people who didnt care whats i played
felt like packing it all in by the end of the disco ................ hate it when this happens

Onwards to next week

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by paul1404

Did a 40th - was requested no cheese /old music. Most of the guest were 50 yrs. Was asked for loadsa cheese - the woman whos 40th it was finally cracked at 11pm when no one was dancing

---

Most of the really good nights I've had recently have been the ones where I've "exercised my judgement" with either the customer's playlist or the guest's requests and ignored one or both of them :D

I've generally found things go better if I specifically ignore anyone who says "put this track on - everyone will dance to it!"

Julian

Venue: The Crown, Ludwell Close, Barnburgh,Doncaster
Event: Wedding reception disco

Got this one referred to me by Mr. Excalibur (AKA Peter Fisher).
Eventually made contact with the landlady (or organiser) by email and received all the details in plenty of time.

Arrived at the venue at bang on 5:30pm (as arranged) to find the function room full of guests saying "where have you been - we've been waiting ages". Now the landlady stated that the start time was 6:45pm and end time was 11:45pm so I just said "I'm due to start at 6:45 so am here in plenty of time as it only takes me no longer than 45 mins to set-up". It was a fairly easy load-in and the guests seemed happy with my response and I had setup by 6:15pm.

The the landlady asked me if I was ready - I said "I thought it was starting at 6:45" to which she replied "well, as you're setup you can start now if you want and the bride would like the first dance at 7:00pm". So I gave her the invoice and she paid me so I was happy to start...

So far, no different to a run-of-the-mill disco really. I played a few modern tracks for the teens to dance to and then the first dance went ahead at 7pm as arranged - "Lonestar - Amazed".

After that I had a few up dancing to some old classics and then switched to more modern stuff (again for the younger guests as they were requesting songs one-after-another).
At around 8pm, I heard a lot of commotion coming from around the corner (where the buffet area was) and apparently a big fight had started in the car park, the bride was in tears and ran out of the room, followed by the bridesmaids that were trying to console her.
At this point the landlady asked me to turn the music off and that she was telling all the guests to finish their drinks and leave. Great, I thought, I've been paid and an early night lol.

I waited around to see what was happening and at around 8:30 the landlady came over and said "it's all been sorted now so you can start again". Damn, there goes my early night :)

After that it all went well with plenty of guests dancing and a mixture of old and new songs. I did get away slightly early as the landlady asked me to finish at 11:15pm so I was packed up and on my way home at around midnight.

It's the first wedding reception EVER that I've had trouble break out - luckily it was outside so not near my equipment but I do feel sorry for the B&G when this happens although they both seemed happy enough at the end and I got a £20 tip from one of the 'older' male guests who especially liked the mini rock-n-roll and Motown set :D

Did an interesting 68th birthday party on Saturday night at a football club in a small village just outside Northampton. It was right in the middle of nowhere, and when I arrived I looked for the club house, but all I could see was a run-down looking prefab building by the field. "Those must be the changing rooms," I thought - but I could see nothing else, so I went and spoke to a lady who was having a cigarette outside. "Are you the DJ?" she said. It was the client, the birthday girl's daughter!

The bar in which I was asked to set up was a real spit-and-sawdust kind of place - carpet tiles on the floor without any glue, stuffing coming out of the sofas - you get the idea. I nearly had a height issue with my rig with the ceiling only just being high enough at about 7'6". But being a 68th with nearly all the guests being 40+, I didn't anticipate any trouble, and there wasn't any. It was a really nice crowd, who danced the night away to 50s rock and roll, Elvis, The Beatles, etc, and the 'younger' crowd enjoyed the 80s stuff that I played. The most recent track I played was 'Dance The Night Away' by The Mavericks, and I didn't get asked for anything newer.

One old boy at the bar, who had had a fair few, kept asking for me to play Roy Orbison, and it was the kind of music that fit with the night, so I complied and he was happy. I did have to tell him in the end I would only play one more, and he was OK with that. The birthday girl had a couple of specific requests - 'That's What Friends Are For' which I had, and a slightly more obscure Irish one that needed a bit of digging around; thank goodness for my 3G dongle!

Later on, when I got to the cheesy party songs, where I would normally play Saturday Night, The Macarena and the Cha Cha Slide, out instead came Simon Says, The Locomotion and Wig Wam Bam, which they loved! Then I got asked for 'the boat song' (Oops Up Side Your Head) - and that was the highlight of the night. Seven or eight ladies aged 65+ got on the floor and did the actions, and at the end each of them had to be helped up!

It's the oldest age group that I've ever played to and it was great to play old songs all night long and not have some teenager come and ask for stuff from the charts the minute you put anything on that's not from this century. I finished with some slow dances and 'New York New York,' and got three cheers for the birthday girl. Then one of the guests shouted for three cheers for the bar staff and the DJ.

Several guests shook my hand and hugged me and I gave several business cards out, including to the friendly bar staff. It shows that first appearances aren't always as they seem and I'd certainly be happy to play there again.

Rock and roll and motown and a fight?? Could have been a traveller wedding?