Good Gig, Bad Gig.

Had one of those hard ones tonight.

Was doing my pal's parent's Ruby Anniversary that I mentioned in the mates rates thread.

My mate himself isn't exactly the most extroverted (seeing him trying to pull is hilarious) party animal so I was a bit wary ahead of it.

Gig was 2 minutes up the road in a golf club which was nice and they had a lift which was a bonus. Got set up in record time :thu: and got to kick back and play some Sigur Ros at full blast waiting for everyone to turn up.

The guy at the bar head told me they weren't expecting many people and I'd say there was maybe 50 people max, if that.

I really struggled to get people up dancing or into it at all. Even when introducing the couple to do a speech, they barely cheered :rolleyes: and it is literally only the 2nd time I've played 9 to 5 and no one got up.

The women all dug the line dances but I'll be :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored:ed if I'm playing that sort of guff all night. Later on more people got up but they were few and far between and even at the end for the last dance, I had to coax everyone to get up to circle the couple during Loch Lommond, it's very rare you have to do that.


Despite that, my mates parents were really happy with the music and I got a handful of people telling me I'd done great while I was tearing down and I overheard a group talking about how much they enjoyed the music so everyone seemed to be happy. Just feels a bit like an anti-climax, would have been a great night if more people had danced.

On a completely unrelated note, a girl came to work in the bar at around 8 clock and she was absolutely stunning. Seriously one of the best looking girls I've seen in a long long time. :muppet:

Jim, mine wasnt much better.

Promised 200 guests, got 60, in a large hall. Very few dancing and hardly any requests. Just one of those nights that dragged on. Had just 20 people from midnight to 1am.

Easy access and short trip home made things a little better.

Dave

Ouch.

My night actually flew in but you always want people up dancing I mean the set was nothing but bankers (9 to 5, Brown Eyed Girl, Young at Heart, Motown, ABBA) and they were a very standard crowd but they just weren't up for dancing. Even my mates 85 year old gran was going around asking folk what was wrong with them :D

To be honest, I really should have expected it. i get a lot of stick from my mates about the Scotland's Party DJ name and when I told one that I was doing this gig he text me back something like: "Scotland's Party DJ strikes again. When I think of hardcore partying I instantly think of Squaty (a strange yet very well deserved nickname btw :muppet: ) and his family :rolleyes:"

Last night I surprisingly I made my first visit to Warbrook House. I say surprisingly because I have had many enquiries in the past for the venue but had never been before.
Got on really well with all of the staff (made a point of doing that).
Set up Disco and Pink Uplighting in the Disco area, breakfast room and also bar area in the morning and it looked great.
This was the wedding with the playlist that contained some explicit music as I mentioned in a previous thread. That was all sorted beforehand so no worries there.

To be honest, it was one of those nights where it was pretty much on/off/on/off all night with reference to the dance floor.
It was frustrating at times because most of the guests were in the bar area all evening. I couldn't see them from where I was situated but was told by the duty manager that they were all dancing in the bar. Ok, that's good but it's not great when you have an empty dance floor and wonder what you can do to get them from the bar and on to the dance floor.
I played almost everything from the request list (obviously bar the dodgy stuff) and also requests that guests were giving me but there was never a busy dance floor. It may have been that Sunday feeling?

On arrival I met the groom who said he was knackered and wanted to go to bed (later I found out that he'd been out on a session the night before).
Despite all of the above, at the end of the night I received a massive round of applause and a £20.00 tip from the Grooms Dad.
The Bride & Groom said that they had a great time and that's all that matters.

I came away thinking whether there was anything else I could have done to get people on the Dance Floor but there wasn't really. I played what they wanted and the majority just wanted to stay in the bar and dance in there. I also came away slightly disappointed because it had the potential to be a cracker. Maybe they all thought it was?

I would have loved to have gone to the venue for the first time and had a brilliant one and left a great impression. Maybe it's my paranoia? We've all been there and I have in the past and I am sure I will again. If the guests aren't up for it then they aren't up for it. I said to the Duty Manager afterwards that it was hard work and they were quite a hard crowd and he said that he thought it went well and that he'd not really seen people dancing in the bar before.

A strange one but as long as they were all happy then that'll do I guess.

Was doing a 60th in Ayrshire tonight.

Note the fact that "shire" appears in the location name. Some of the maddest gigs I've done (e.g. 8 o clock walk in and you literally had to step over people who had passed out in the bar) have happened down in old Ayrshire. It's no coincidence Lord of the Rings had a shire.

Luckily tonight was one of the less interesting ones.

I got down in plenty of time and messed around with the set up a little. I've been thinking about going for a tripod free lighting set up for the last few weeks and tonight has convinced me that it's the way to go. It didn't take any more than an hour to get set up but with what I have in mind, it'll look so much better and be much quicker to set up plus mean less trips from car to stage and more space in said car. It's a no brainer really.

I got a KAM Gobolaser 550rb off of Teeny Pops just delivered this morning (about 10 minutes before I went to the depot to pick it up since the card said they don't redeliver on Saturdays!!) and got to try it out tonight.

The thing is ridiculous. I'm glad I've got PLI because even when aimed squarely at the ceiling, the spread is so wide that people were still getting hit with the peripheral beams at sitting height.

Strangely enough, the venue had the red and green KAM gobolaser and the RB kicked the :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored: out of it. So much more vibrant and the beams seemed much thicker. I'm kind of annoyed that the RG one was on since it's ended up in the photos.

They also had a Jellydome in the ceiling and it's convinced me that I need some of these. Such a simple but awesome light.

Anyways I got started and there were a tonne of brat kids around with no parents watching them. They kept :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored:ing around with the lights I had on the deck and my table scrim so I eventually had to get the guy who'd booked me to tell the parents that the shiny toys their kids were poking and prodding cost £500 a pop (well they might be collectible in time :P ) and my contract states that any breakages are paid for by the person who'd booked me.

Started off before the buffet playing a mix of up to date music just to get it out of the way. The brats were all dancing so I was hoping to tire them out.

When the buffet went out I went around asking for requests. I got a tonne and it was pretty much standard stuff though one person did ask for 68 Guns by the Alarm. I considered playing that for a while but decided it wasn't the time or place.

Cake got cut, the guy whos birthday it was did his speech and then I was up for a 1 hour vocal set.

When I was doing the rounds during the buffet a lot of people were asking for 60s and 70s stuff. I kept having to explain to them that it was coming but I had an audience from 3-83 so had to cover all of my bases and I might as well get the modern rubbish out of the way first.

My vocal set was very much 60s and 70s based. One guy had asked me to sing Brown Eyed Girl and dedicate it to his wife. I did that which surprised me because I'm usually useless at remembering stuff like this. Halfway through the 1st verse some guy on his way to the bar grabbed me and started dancing around with me. I must have sung that tune 500 times and :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored: me if I didn't lose the plot. It took me until after the chorus to suss out where I was and get back into it.

Wasn't my funnest singing set, I really like people to get up to dance, sing down the mic etc... and it's all quite tongue in cheek but a lot of them were quite reluctant to sing along or get involved apart from dancing on their own.

The rest of the night was by the numbers party bangers. I had a few drunks come up asking for "something good" like? "I dunno, just something better than this." cue the drunk stumbling off the stage and then dancing to the very tune they want changed. I also got the token "can you play....." nope I've been telling you all night to get your requests in so don't come up with 15 minutes to go when you've sat on your arse all night.

Quick load out and I gave out a few cards. I overheard the bar staff and guy who runs the place saying they really liked me and I was much better than the usual guy (who i think it just the dude in the village with a PA) so we'll see what happens. It's not the most local or ideal location but it could be quite a nice little earner if it brings in a few gigs.

I think the next gig on the books is an early morning pre Scottish League Cup final party for the local Hearts supporters club. Done one last year for the Scottish Cup final and it was brilliant fun. We've not discussed a fee yet but I'm considering just asking for a whip round since it's apparently going to be rammed and if the Scottish Cup final is anything to go by, they'll be hammered.

Interesting read Jim, Cheers.

My gig last night was at another regular venue of mine where they recommend me. It was a birthday party for a guy in what I guess was his 50's? (He didn't actually tell me when he booked me, he just said that he fancied a party).
It was a bit of a strange one to be totally honest with you.
When he originally enquired over the phone he appeared very apprehensive about the whole thing. He said he had invited 100+ people and had lots of people say that they couldn't make it already. He said he'd be lucky if he got 50 and asked about Karaoke too to see if that would break up the evening a bit. At this particular venue, once the equipment is on the stage there isn't much room for karaoke stuff too so I advised him of this and said that as long as the music was good and everybody was able to request stuff that they liked, it should be ok. He also took advantage of the discounted price as advertised on my website for a 4 hour Disco during February. (I did this to get the work coming in during January and February and it worked. This January and February have been my best for a few years).

Anyway, I was booked from 8.00pm - Midnight and at 7.45pm he and 3 family members turned up. No buffet or anything. He walked in with 2 boxes of crisps! I introduced myself, did a soundcheck (one of his guests said "I hope it isn't going to be that loud later as we do want to talk") and thought "Oh, here we go".
By 8.30pm there were 9 people there (I counted them) and by 9.00pm it had risen to 15. That first hour seemed to take ages and I was playing the more chilled out requests from his playlist at low level volume. It was just after 9.00pm when a number of people turned up and there must have been around 50 in total. I noticed a table of youngsters (16 year olds?) and thought I would try and get them up. The majority of people at the party (and I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way) didn't seem to be the type of people that would get up and dance the night away. The volume was still pretty low so I increased it a bit as I could hear the people talking despite me being quite a way from them and up on a stage.

There wasn't really any kind of party atmosphere at this point and I had yet to introduce myself over the mic. I decided to give it a go and more or less got the reaction I expected.
"Good evening ladies & gents. Thanks for joining us for Marks birthday. I have lots of requests from Mark and will be playing his favourite tunes but I want yours too so if you have any requests, please pop up and see me and let me know what you'd like to hear"....It fell on deaf ears. I said it a number of times during the evening and didn't get one person requesting anything. Another time after I had managed to get at least 10 of them on the dance floor, I said "Let's have a massive round of applause and congratulations to Mark on his birthday" and you know what - This was a first for me...NOBODY clapped or cheered or anything. It was embarassing!

It must have been around 10.30pm when there actually started to be some continuous dance floor action. Before then it had been mediocre at best with people walking on and off the dance floor. I actually had a request for Gangnam Style from one of the young girls and I put it on. All of their table (8 of them) got up and then half way through the song they sat down again. I thought I'd give it one more push so I told them all again over the mic that I was taking requests and it was then that they actually listened. I was asked for Motown and 60's and played it and the dance floor filled up. I was asked for Ska and the same happened. Disco and 80's had the same effect and so did the cheese section (Macarena, Cha Cha Slide etc.). Within no time at all it was close to Midnight and what had originally been a pretty dire party in all honesty had turned into something half decent.

I announced the last couple of songs (Rockin' All Over The World and Don't Stop Me Now from the request list), thanked everyone (there were about 25 people left) and received a round of applause and thank you's and that was about it. The birthday boy said he had loved it. He said he was going to make it an annual thing and would be calling me again next year. It really was a bizarre evening from my point of view but at the end of the day, what I think doesn't really matter. As long as he and his guests were happy then that's fine with me.

I think we can be overly critical.

Bearing in mind, we're basing our night on whether we think we did a good job, everyone else is drunk :) The homer I did for a mates parents the other week was very similar.

For situations where you get a very muted reaction I make a joke of it.

"Welcome to Joe's birthday ladies and gentleman can I get a round of applause for the birthday boy?

*crickets*

"Don't make me do my red coat schtick folk, CAN I GET A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE BIRTHDAY BOY?!?!?!"

or

"Joe in the x amount of years you've been around, this is the best lot of pals you could muster?"


That usually works but it can be a bit cringey.

Looking back on it, I think last night went a lot better than I'd initially thought and I did wake up thinking that maybe we are all overly critical of ourselves. At the end of the night I do a can we get a big cheer for the bar staff, a wee cheer for the DJ and a massive cheer for XYZ. Last night I considered leaving out the DJ part because I wasn't sure if I'd get any reaction but I went with it and I got a decent one (more than the bar staff for what it's worth :) ) so the folk (a few drunks who wanted some hardcore 90s techno excepted) must have enjoyed it.

Took part in a charity 80's night last night for a local disabled charity and we raised loads of money.

As I used to maintain the gear in most of the local clubs in the 90's I was designated "Head of Leads" and had the job of connecting everything up. House system is pretty pants as it is due to be replaced in a couple of months time. Numark C3 USB Mixer, Peavey Active Crossover and two underpowered amps driving two Peavey 15" subs and four ADD 1 x 12 + HF Bullet. We added one of the other DJs sound systems into the setup Yamaha powered sub and Yamaha 10" tops which gave the power we needed for the gig.

Playout consisted of a laptop running Virtual DJ feeding into channels 1 & 2 of the Numark mixer and TWO Numark iDJ Pro's feeding into channels 3 & 4.

The DJs consisted of 8 of us who were DJing around the pubs and clubs in the town in the 80's plus we had a live band "More Madness"

Combined age of DJ's - over 400 years
Combined experience of DJ's - around 240 years
Combined weight of DJ's - unknown as the public weighbridge wasnt open.
Hair - variable - 5 with, 3 without (although one of them stole the Janitors mop and put it on his head!)
Span of music - strictly 1980 - 1989

We did 4 one hour DJ sets each with two DJs. I was in the "Early Doors 7-8" set so it wasnt overly busy but we had people on the dance floor throughout the set and it was picking up nicely from 7:45 onwards. The event was strictly ticket only and all 300 tickets sold out well in advance with a waiting list on the Facebook page for any cancellations. Some great 80's outfits worn by the guests. From around 8:15 the dance floor was full until we finished at 12:05

Because I was going to be using someone else's laptop I wasn't certain that what I wanted to play would be on there so I took along a USB stick with 162 carefully chosen tracks. I must have selected well as there were only about 5 songs in the entire evening that weren't on my USB memory stick :)

Use of microphones had been approved and both mics were well used during the first three sets, restricted mic use only occurring during the final clubby set after the band :)

All in all a great night enjoyed by all and lots of memories shared by the DJs who have all know each other for 25 or more years. Already working on another event during the summer possibly in a larger venue :)

Last night I did a corporate gig in Farnham. It was a 90s themed fancy dress party with Disco / Karaoke as the Consultancy firm were celebrating their 20th Anniversary.
I was booked by the MD as I had DJ'd at his wife's birthday party last year.
I was booked from 7.00pm - 11.00pm but couldn't get access to the venue until 6.15pm as there was something else going on in there before.
I knew I would have to rush around as the addition of Karaoke meant that it would take longer than usual for me to set up.
At 6.55pm I finished setting up and just had to gaffer down cables etc. There were 5 very nice young ladies who were dressed as the Spice Girls putting up decorations when one of them got a call. She called over to me and said "There's no rush, they're at the pub and will be here around 7.45pm".

I decided to soundcheck the Karaoke and asked them if they wanted to try out a Spice Girls track. They loved it. We did a few songs whilst waiting for the other guests and then I started playing 90s tracks. Around 8.00pm about 50 people walked through the doors and it was great to see. There was Mr Blobby, Buzz Lightyear, Baywatch boys & girls, Men in Black and Pulp Fiction characters to name a few. The atmosphere suddenly went up a few notches and it really was party mode.

The Karaoke worked well throughout the evening although I must admit, I don't really like doing it.
Despite telling everyone both in advance, throughout the evening and also when they were on stage to leave their drinks on the table to the side, only a few took notice. There was one point where the MD and Owner of the business were singing together and both of them had drinks in their hands whilst singing. I must admit that I had to think twice before I politely asked them to put their drinks down. Both looked at me as if to say "Excuse me?" but I thought I did the right thing. To be honest I thought "I don't care who you are. This is my equipment". There was also a couple of moments where the MD carried on singing down the microphone when the song had finished and I was playing a 90s track. I turned the mic down, he looked around as if to say "Oi! What are you doing?" and I nipped round to him to get the mic off him. They were all fine to be honest, just drunk and it was one of those annoying things but I didn't let them know that.

The only time something did get to me was right near the end. This is a bit funny because there was a thread this week titled 'Did I Do The Right Thing?'.
The plan was to finish off with a Karaoke song. I had timed it just right and it was 2 guys who were going to sing 'Don't Look Back In Anger'. Once it was finished there would be around a minute left. This would give me enough time to thank everybody and then shut down. I had heard lots of people say that they were going back to the pub afterwards once we'd finished at 11.00pm. I was also told by the venue that the music had to stop at 11.00pm because everybody had to be out at 11.30pm.

So, the guys are singing and one of them starts swinging the mic around. I nip round to him and ask him to stop which he does for all of 2 seconds and then starts again. The other guy continues singing and he's really good but the other guy keeps swinging the mic around. I take him to the side whilst the song is playing and ask him to stop and he just laughs so I take the mic off him and turn the volume down. I take out the XLR lead and put it down behind the console. He comes over and tries to grab it and I stop him. Whilst this is happening everyone else is singing along to the song and not taking any notice of him. He gets the hump and tells me to "Chill out man. If it gets broken I'll buy you another one. I'll buy you another 10". I didn't like that comment at all. I thought he was taking the mick big time. I could see he was getting slightly heated now and he had a half full bottle of Champagne in his hand. I asked him to keep the bottle away from the equipment and he started swinging that around too. I just smiled politely, nipped round to where he was and asked him to get off the stage which he did. No problem at all.

Once the song had finished there was a massive round of applause. I thanked everyone as usual and was about to turn off the equipment when the guy who had been swinging the mic around came back over. He said "Mate, you HAVE to play 'Never Forget' for us". I told him that I couldn't as I had 1 minute left, had to finish at 11.00pm and that the track was 6 minutes long". He started to get in a right strop and kept trying to put his arm around me and was pleading with me to play it. Everyone else started shouting "One More!". I thought "Here we go". I noticed the person in charge of the venue standing next to me so I quickly asked her if I could play one more. She said "Yes, no problem". I knew it would take me a while to get all of the gear packed down and out so I got on the mic again. I said "Ladies & Gentlemen, I don't normally do this but I will play one more if you don't mind me packing down whilst the song is playing as I need to be out of here by 11.30pm. Is that Ok?"...Everyone cheered. I then said my thanks again and also dedicated the song to the bloke who had been swinging the mic about. As soon as the first notes began everyone went wild. Apparently it was their song. Why no'one had requested it earlier so I could play it last is beyond me. It went down really well. The guy came over afterwards and said I was a legend and couldn't thank me enough. The Spice Girls came over and asked me to have a photo taken with them. All the time I was thinking that I really needed to start packing down. The MD and Owner said thanks and that they'd book me again for their Christmas Party...Depsite all of that, I ended up with everything packed in the van by 11.37pm - Not bad going.

Looking forward to tonight. It's one of my regular gigs for Waitrose. I do around 3 for them every year as well as Christmas and they are always great occasions with a good turnout and good atmosphere.

Sounds like you had a couple of potentially awkward moments and you handled them well
Theo