Good Gig, Bad Gig.

I'm now at the end of my "charity" Halloween weekend....

Friday night saw me at the Community Association in Kingswood playing to a packed hall full of 160 adults and children all dressed up as witches, werewolves and vampires :D Party games, Projected Halloween visuals and more than one slightly scared child thanks to Thriller! Lots of thanks, lots of applause and a good night had by all with quite a few £ raised for CLIC Sergant.

Last night saw me in the bar area at Bradley Stoke Leisure centre. It's been about three years since I've been at this venue as I used to do the monthly family night disco at the centre, but fell out with the catering company who organised the night as they weren't organised, they weren't interested and they weren't listening when I kept telling them that I needed to do more than just play music. Ironically I lost the gig when they arranged for someone else to cover and he came in and did exactly what I'd been telling them I needed to do for months without asking them - and they then proceeded to brand me as rubbish.

Anyway, last night was to raise funds for an operation for a children with Cerebal Palsy and was a typical charity function. 80 tickets sold, 40 of which were to people who came along to "show their support" and went home after the raffle, 20 of which came along to chat to their mates and the remaining 20 were actually interested in the disco. The night was full of requests for 90's singalong, R&B, Hip hop and rap and everyone was disappointed when we finished at midnight.

My total net take - £0.00 :eek:. The Friday night gig was a freebie and my very much reduced fee from last night went back into the auction at the first! But I've had two great nights with some great people and helped them to raise a few quid in the process.

Tonight I've got to go with my kids and watch someone else DJ and play Halloween party games :D

Julian

Last night i was out doing a party at the pub Green Bricks on Hull Marina doing an engagement party. It all started when i was loading up the equipment at home ready to go and do the gig.

My stomache become really unsettled and the next minute im running to the bathroom at home where i end up throwing up. I still didnt feel right after that. So i picked up my phone and tried to arrange emergency cover.

The problem is. I couldnt get hold of anyone i knew that wasn't already working. So by this point i had to get showered and changed and go out and do the gig myself. Alan my roadie was there at the gig.

So i start to try and help unload the kit. When we had got the equipment in. I started to feel even worse to the point where i couldnt even stand up. So My roadie Alan setup all the gear. I started to feel really sick again. So i go running into the toilets in the pub where i end up throwing up again in the sink.

So i come back out and My roadie Alan said do you want me to do the disco. Alan used to be a DJ. So i said yes please if you can. But because he hasnt done it for a while so i had to stay and give him a bit of guidance on tracks. I couldn't sit up or sit down. So i had to lay down across the seat at the back of the booth. Comes to the end of the night i get up and end up been sick again.

The people had a good night....

Ive never felt like that at a gig ever in the time ive been doing discos.

Hope you better soon John.

And that ladies and gentlemen is a true example of professionalism..........excellent

Daryll

Well done John for pulling that off. I am sure none of us ever want to be in that position.

That is tough. reminds me of a gig in a marquee. i thought i was going to pass out because of the heat
. then to top it off i had the squits

OK folks, get a coffee and settle down for a lenghty epistle. An event packed weekend helping the redoubtable Twinspin ( John )with fun, incident and the odd hassle. First up, we turned up at Anchor House in Hull for an afternoon of Karaoke. I'm not sure of the critria for entry to the place, but the residents obviously had difficulties of some sort. We went in, and were greeted by someone who didn't seem overawed by meeting two megastar DJ's, ( i.e couldn't care less ) and passed us on to someone else. Wearing full dress naval uniform! I have to confess, that at that point, I was convinced he was a resident, especially when he was joined by two "Pink Ladies" from Grease. Turns out he actually was staff, and we worked out the best way to get the kit in.
Having assessed the venue size, acoustic qualities, access, and other requirements, we left the lights, subs, monitors and assorted extras in the van, and put two 12" cabs on tripods. Worked superbly. The staff fed and watered us royally, and the time flew by. We had many songs from Grease, and a variety of others, and at four pm we started to pack up and head home. After we'd got the last of the kit in the van, we closed our access door, and returned via the fire exit we'd used for our egress, to fasten it and leave it in the correct state. As we went back in, a banshee like wail started up, cos the fire alarm was sounding. John and I filed out with the rest of the throng, and as we were going out of the door, a staff member remarked that it wasn't a drill, it was for real. Blimey. In time honoured fashion " we made our excuses and left ". ( And if you don't get that one, you didn't read the Sunday papers thirty odd years ago :p)

Saturday, and I picked John up again for a 50th birthday in a village hall. Because John had some worries about his PA, due to an apparent fault in it, ( more of which later ) and the fact that Thunderbird 2 ( it's big,slow, green, and carries everything needed to do the job :D:D ) was already full of kit, we opted just to take John's MC6000, Starcloth, overhead and EFX 500 as well as my kit. ( When I wasn't looking, he snuck in his beloved blue lasers as well ) We arrived at the hall in plenty of time, and joy of joys, it was already open!! :eek::eek::D:D This one was big enough to need the subs, and we started to bring the kit in. John set up the DSB and starcloth, and I started on the sound. Panic set in when our first sound check was truly agonisingly bad. The MC6000 was having a tantrum,as we found out when I picked up a mic, and my soothing, mellifluous tones filled the hall, proving that the fault wasn't in the PA. John rebooted something, and all was well. We were due to have a singer/guitarist as well, so the karaoke mixer was in use also. We got everything set up that we needed, and waited for the live act. More of that later.
I worked out how ( pressed a lot of buttons hopefully ) to link two EFX 500s and the effect of two together was superb. Add in a powerbar, and we were sorted. I must get a second EFX as soon as possible. John's lasers added variety, and we had a lightshow to be proud of. So all we needed was the singer, eh? She turned up over an hour into the gig, with a practice amp and a mic. Oh goody, just what I wanted, a soundcheck with the gig in progress. we consigned the preactice amp to the back of the room, gave her a mic channel and a DI box for the guitar. We then had to sort the sound while the guests had the hog roast. Far from ideal, but since the young lady was merely an ( exceedingly talented ) enthusiastic amateur, we're not allowed the pleasure of hurling brickbats.
So, she finished her set, and John took over, to a packed dancefloor most of the night. I did lighting, and we were firing on all cylinders. Until John picked up on an awful intermittent distortion in the sound. We'd had a suspicion that something wasn't just right with the MC6000, and when we switched to my Numark rig, that was evident. John again rebooted and altered some settings on it, and it seemed fine. And it also seemed a possible culprit for the apparent fault in his PA, rather than the cabs themsElves. More detective work needed by Sherlock Brown, methinks. Finished at 1am, packed up, and came home, seeing my bed at 3am.

Conclusions:
I'm getting too old for this game.
When I was trying to order our drinks at the bar, the music was exceedingly loud. Exceedingly.
Two EFX 500s beat the living daylights out of four MX4s. Bigtime. In spades.
Two EFX500s and a powerbar will light any venue, look impressive, and from only three fixtures. Fantastic.
McDonalds Mexican chili and cheese meal is very bland, and quite disappointing.
The MC6000 soundcard beats the Numark DJIO easily. Until it gets hot or something equally baffling to me, and throws a wobbler.
I hate starcloths. I kept telling John that the best effect was when he turned all the blighters off.

Well, if you've made it to the end without nodding off, or going to the loo, well done.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

Well, if you've made it to the end without nodding off, or going to the loo, well done.

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I did both - unfortunately simultaneously.

But a most entertaining read nonetheless.

Agreed, very entertaining.
Last night I was on the 4th Floor of The Aviator hotel in Farnborough in a room called the Sky Lounge. Lovely place, very nice and helpful staff but a bit of a pain (obviously) having to get a compact set up into the service lift and along the corridors and into the room itself. It looks out on to the airport.

So, it was a wedding that was unlike any wedding I had done before to be honest. Very nice young couple. No Best Man, No Bridesmaids and a very small (50 guests) affair.
I set up in the morning and took the Mackies and Starcloth (requested) as well as the usual lighting set up. It looked nice in the room.
The wedding was a low key affair and had a Black tie theme. They got married at 5.00pm and from 6.00pm - 8.00pm they had canapes and champagne outside the room with a jazz band playing. First time I had ever seen one of those Bose systems working and it sounded really nice. Just one stick (sorry) and one sub did the trick.

I arrived at 7.00pm for an 8.00pm start, the reason being was that I was working alongside a comedy acoustic duo. I took a small 12 channel behringer mixer with me with 2 Microphones and Stands. Acoustic guitar went through the mixer via 1/4 inch jack. They were due to go on at 10.00pm - 10.30pm. (More on them in a second or two).
As I said, the wedding was a bit different and the Bride & Groom wanted the first song of the night to be the first dance. They entered the room and stood in the middle of the dance floor. I had everything cued up ready for the first dance (Michael Buble - You're nothing til somebody loves you). One of the staff then announced that the Bride & Groom were ready and the guests entered the room and surrounded the dance floor. I made my announcements, welcomed everybody and congratulated the happy couple and was just about to start the track when the Bride said to hold on because her Mum wasn't there yet. Unbeknown to everyone else, she was down on the ground floor getting some fresh air because it was very warm. The delay felt like ages so I had to fill in for a few minutes.

Their timings were a bit strange because as soon as the first dances were done I had to announce that the food was available. It wasn't a buffet but the hotel's special 'Bowl Meal' thing which smelt lovely. I was offered some but I don't generally eat when I am working. Because of this, everyone sat down and ate their food. The night was a kind of stop/start/stop/start affair. I was asking for requests (didn't have anything to go on from the couple apart from what they didn't want. They just told me to do what I do). My announcements for requests were more or less ignored apart from a couple of older ladies who asked for some classics which got people up. There didn't seem to be any middle ground. The guests were split down the middle and either late teens or over 60's. When the chart was being played it was a handful of teens. When the older tracks were on it was the teens that were sat down.

Anyway, as 10.00pm approached I handed the microphone to the Groom. This was a surprise as none of the guests knew what was coming. Earlier on in the year the couple had been to a comedy festival and seen an act there called Abandoman - http://robbroderick.com/
They are a comedy duo that do improvised acoustic hip hop. It was absolutely brilliant. I have posted a link here as this is a good example of what they do - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=7KGANJZi7l0
When the Groom announced the duo, you could see the looks of some of the older guests faces. They were wondering what was going on. The guys instantly got everybodys attention and interracted with them. They were amazing with the guests but also at what they did. It really was clever. I'd say that what I saw last night was better than the link I have posted so that should give you an idea.
By the end of their set they had everyone loving them. It was great. They really appreciated what I did for them with the sound and that I stayed behind the decks to monitor it and tweak it where needed. They actually said that the sound was awesome and even included me in one of their songs.

Once they finished I kicked in with some 80's and it was more or less like that for the rest of the night. Some guests left early and I had around 25 people left by 11.00pm. These were mainly guests from Scotland who all wanted to hear some rockier stuff so I did an Indie/Rock set and they loved it. It was like this through until Midnight. By this time there were 8 people left. The Bride & Groom had gone off to bed at 11.30pm as they had to be up early to get a flight as they were going on their honeymoon.

All in all, a good night. The access is pretty bad obviously. I was chatting to one of the C&B ladies and she said that because it was a small wedding, it was ok for me to set up early. Most of the time apparently, Discos have to set up after the wedding breakfast which must be a pain in the backside because of people getting in the way etc.
Lovely place though. If you get time, check out the video because it's really good in my opinion.

I seem to be on a really good run at the moment and have had some really good gigs lately.
Friday was Request Fest night at my local. Lots going on in and around the town this week with a couple of gigs locally due to the fact that a friend of mine has just released a second album of local music and there were launch gigs. There was also a Jam tribute band playing at my mates pub and also another couple of friends of mine had their opening night for their new nightclub so it didn't look as if it would be a busy one - wrong!
It was a really good night actually, it always is.

Last night was one of those weddings where beforehand I didn't really have a clue what it would be like.
Here's some background to it - The Bride & Groom were very young and this booking came from the Wedding Fayre I did just around 6 weeks ago.
They don't live in town but their parents do so it was a lot of communication with them which was then passed on to the B&G....(they both work very strange hours?).
I never got a chance to meet with them. We had arranged a meeting but they cancelled as they both had the sick bug. We re-arranged the meeting and then they didn't turn up. I called them to see what the problem was and they said that they had got the wrong day. Due to their work commitments and 'other stuff', we never got a chance to meet. I ended up communicating via email and phone so yesterday I was very apprehensive as to what the night would be like.

Small affair with around 60 in attendance. Pink Uplighting included and it always looks good in this particular venue. I had it set up at the Wedding Fayre and they loved it with the matching DJ Screens. I had hardly any pre-requests. First dance was Foo Fighters - Everlong (Acoustic Version) which is great. I had a couple of Don't Plays (they couldn't stand Nicki Minaj or Justin Bieber and wanted me to steer clear of too much cheese). The Groom was a massive Muse fan and the Bride loved Motown, Soul, Funk, Current Chart and Dance which considering her age (20) was pretty cool. They both had big families so it was a gig consisiting mainly of family and very close friends. They said they originally just wanted 20 people but it spiralled slightly.

Anyway, I have to say that everything went very well and it was really surprising to me. I didn't expect it to be that great for some reason and I didn't expect it to last until Midnight when I saw lots of children in attendance. I was wrong.
The group of around 8 young girls were up dancing all night and asking for requests and they really encouraged others to get up. The Bride & Groom told me more or less to do what I thought would work so that made me feel a lot better. I announced I took requests and the response was great, this lot actually listened!
I also have to say that for the first time (yes, really....I haven't had to play it as yet believe it or not), I played PSY and Gangnam Style and the response was epic. That may sound OTT but when you have 60 guests at a gig and there are only 5 (I counted them) that aren't on the dancefloor, well...it's good eh!? The song went down very well, people were in hysterics. I actually got asked to play it again later on and was glad to in all honesty.

Despite the number of children in attendance, everyone stayed until the end. The time went really quick too. I really enjoyed the night and the feedback was great. I have 3 more weddings this year and I hope they are all like that.

Last couple of nights couldnt have been more different!
Friday night saw me doing an 18th Birthday in a small hall and floor was more or less packed all night as they are at 18ths with chart music and a bit of cheese (macarena, saturday night etc) and gangnam style was played twice again cos they absolutely love it.
Saturday night saw me in a small room at back of a pub doing a 50th Birthday party for about 40 adults and family.
didnt play one chart track all night and floor was packed only for second half of evening once they had the dancing juice down them with irish drinking songs.
never the less another couple of good nights.