Good Gig, Bad Gig.

well last night saw me take the van on its furthest trip so far to Minstead in the New Forest i have a few issues with the van that will be getting looked at this week but got there and back and one piece.

B&G got Married at St Pauls Cathederal and coached down from London of course the coach with the bridal party broke down and they were over an hour late arriving at 7pm

After a fish & chip supper very nice and seconds and the speeches and the cake cutting finally first dance time at 10pm.....

after the first dance i had the candy cart rodeo bull and photo booth to contend with so i was defintly the token disco till midnight.

a long day as we had arrived at 3.30pm to set up a lot of sitting around and then sadly an anti climax.

Oh dear. It had to happen. :( After a series of fabulous, hectic action packed gigs, I had a grueller. Ony three persons requested songs all night, I had a sound limiter display staring at me, ( although since it never moved once all night, I suspect it wasn't actually in use :confused: ) and a marked shortage of punters in a large venue.
It was an engagement party, and they had changed venues from the original planned one, because it was too small. I don't think they need have bothered. Whatever I played, I couldn't keep them on the floor for a whole song, and at the end I couldn't even keep them in the venue. :o:o

Clients were happy, promised good reviews, and being first choice for the wedding whenever that is. I just wanted to get home.

Now the "but for the grace of God" bit. I took the van up the road this morning to a mate's yard, and as I reversed into his yard in full lock, the track rod end fell off, at about one mile an hour. That meant that both front wheels were no longer connected to each other. On both Friday and Saturday night, I was clattering along the motorway at maximum velocity!! :eek:

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Originally Posted by wensleydale

Not sure if it's supposed to be down but the link to your "Indie/Alternative site" doesnt seem to be working.

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I checked on it earlier and yes, you're correct. I know why it is.
I've had a new debit card and it hasn't auto renewed so I'll sort it tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up though.

Had a good one last night that really could have been great.

Was an engagement party for a girl my girlfriend used to work with. It was nice for Jill to be able to see me doing my thing as the only other time she's seen me gig were crappy walk ins when I used to do boozers. Also meant she was on hand to take photos and video.

I picked up one of those Equinox screens earlier in the week. I was ready to spring for an XPRS but after seeing one of the equinox's int he flesh at a recent AmpDJ meet I was sold. It came in pretty handy right off the bat but more on that later on.

The do was in a rugby club which was just about in the middle of nowhere and my sat nav was playing silly buggers and it took us 45 minutes to get there (though it managed to get us home in 20 minutes taking a much more direct route!!!)

We were running a bit late but music was playing and I just had a few more lights to hook up by time people started arriving. It was a cracking big hall though the bar was off to the right in a seperate room so right off the bat I knew I'd be fighting to get people into the main hall and I wasn't wrong.

Bunch of girls up from the get go and then at the buffet I went around getting requests and there must have been 80 odd people in the lounge all very comfy and not planning on moving any time soon. A few of them asked me if I'd turn up so they could hear it. I politely told them that it was plenty loud in the main hall and I wasn't going to deafen everyone in there for the benefit of the people who were going to stay in the bar on their backsides all night. On the upside they obviously were enjoying the music even if they weren't dancing.

After the buffet the younger crowd started filtering through and by the end of the night we essentially had a handful of older folk and all of the 18-35s on the dancefloor and the rest of the oldies still planted in the bar as if they were out for a night down their local. Lots of great requests and to be fair, the clients that I'm gunning for and will be booking weddings and so on are the ones who I had up dancing which is good.

Couple were very happy and apart from a bit of light hearted banter from a few of the groom to be's drunk pals who were requesting all sorts of nonsense that I clearly wasn't going to play, the crowd were excellent.

There was one girl who seemed to think the Equinox screen was set up solely to keep her from falling on her arse. She was that horrible drunk way where it wouldnt have taken much to set her off the deep end. At one point she came up asking me to put an announcement out about a bag she'd lost. I pointed out to her that she'd sat it down at the front of the stage earlier on in the night then forgot about it. Crisis averted by I do like the fact the screen gives a decent barrier against folk like that when they feel the need to hang all over your gear.

Just got an e-mail from the girl from Saturday night:


Thank you so much for Saturday, it was brilliant!! Everyone loved the music!!

God…photo’s!! Cringe! Lol

I would be more than happy to recommend you to anyone because you made my night! The music was excellent, the lights made the room look more partyish, you got everyone up dancing!

Next time I’m having an event, I will be giving you a call!

It was lovely to finally meet you and hope to see you and Jill for a drink soon!

Thanks again

Steph x



Happy with that as since it came through my girlfriend, I think they maybe weren't expecting quite the level of service and effort I gave (the old "my mate's cousin's pal is a DJ you should book him" syndrome I suppose) so it's good to see that they appreciated it.

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

Now the "but for the grace of God" bit. I took the van up the road this morning to a mate's yard, and as I reversed into his yard in full lock, the track rod end fell off, at about one mile an hour. That meant that both front wheels were no longer connected to each other. On both Friday and Saturday night, I was clattering along the motorway at maximum velocity!! :eek:

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:jawdrop:

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

On both Friday and Saturday night, I was clattering along the motorway at maximum velocity!! :eek:

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20 mph? :D

Had a belter last night....Football club event just up the local village hall for me so no travel time and really easy access... I was booked 7 to 11 so arrived a bit earlier as i now invested in a Equinox Fold able DJ Screen which i have to looks very good and just wanted to get to know it sort of thing!
Background music until 8.30pm then outcome the cordless mic for speech`s etc then bang classic after classic all 70s and 80s because i knew i finished at 11 i knew i could use all the good ones to get people up sooner...They just rocked for 2 hours solid even giving the BBQ a miss outside!! Ended on dirty dancing dancing remix then the crowd cheered for one more (now 11.05) so i did a voice over thanking the crowd for constant support and dropped come on eileen which rounded the night off on a high,also picked up a booking for September....
I did find the fold able screen handy when packing up as i left up until last so no one could see the mess of de rigging etc... So all was left to do was hitch trailer up,drop off my roadie then head home......
Oh there is always one...When i played the last song some drunk kicked up shouted that on their ticket it states 11.30pm finish,after shouting and making a bit of scene i saw some someone drag the offender off.........

Yep! There's always one!

I have a good weekend this week. Both gigs are well paid repeat bookings.
Last night was a 50th Birthday at one of my residencies for a guy who booked me last year for his wifes 50th. I knew what to expect and that was the cheesiest of cheese. They all loved it and were dancing from the off to classics from the 70s and 80s. I kept getting asked when stuff like the Macarena and Steps were coming on and I kept them waiting. The dance floor was full all night anyway so I knew that the cheese wasn't going to deter them from dancing. When I finally did do a massive cheese section they went mad for it.
The only stipulation I had all night was NOT to play Gangnam Style which was fine by me.
Cheese gigs aren't my cup of tea really BUT they are quite enjoyable when you see so many people up for it. More importantly, up for a good old fashioned party.

Tonight I have another repeat booking at a venue I regularly do out of town for Waitrose. I do a number of bookings for them every year and at this time of the year it's their AGM. They usually have their meeting, do a raffle, have some food and then some dancing. It's a very easy gig and I am booked from 7.30pm - 11.00pm. I had a call from the organiser yesterday who was apologising in advance because she said the turn out might be disappointing and I could be in for an early night. We'll see. As long as they enjoy themselves whilst their there.

Well, just about the worst night anyone could ever ask for last night!

It all started with the load in... through the downstairs bar & up 2 flights of back breakingly steep stairs to a small function room.

Party was for a chap, and initially everyone was very friendly, had chatted with the partner (as it was a suprise party) & got a good feel for his taste in music. There was a small number of punters, but enough to have a good night - if they tried.

Enter Birthday guy to the most mediocre suprise birthday greeting, and then everything seemed to go downhill.
Greeted the chap with a few words on the mic & Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday, then knocked the music back a bit for a little background, choosing some songs from his birth year up to the 00's in the hope to stimulate a little foot tapping amongst the chattering punters.

No more than 3 songs in, every Dj's Favourite party attendee comes up with her pre drunk face (the sucking on a lemon or other sour alternative) - we dont like this, put some chart music on & turn it up. Unfortunately she appeared to be a close relation of the birthday boy, so dismissing her would be a bad move... So music goes up, music changes to chart hits and nobody takes much notice (here we go!).

Fast forward about an hour later, a couple of kids come up & make some requests for the usual dance along songs, Gangnam Style etc, and even the partner makes a request for YMCA for the birthday boy & they all got up (with scowling from old sour face in the corner). Relishing the chance to shake things up a little & throw in some party classics too, I had their attention span for about 5 minutes, before the floor clears for them to go back to their seats, singing along as they go. Up comes sour face, with her almost pre -recorded voice ''we don't like this, put some chart music on''.....so I made a slow decade crawl back to chart music, passing all the classics you would expect a reaction from on the way up - aaaaaand nope! And cue, a drag to the finish time, with an empty dancefloor and people dancing/singing along in their seats.

During this time, something had been stirring behind the scenes, a family/partner disagreement - and thus put an atmosphere you could cut with a knife in the room.
No requests, no complaints of music choice (apart from sourface naturally)... everyone either left early and a few stragglers stayed to the bitter end, probably just for the cheap beer. It was just wierd!

And I still had the back breaking stairs to negotiate, and a now full bar of punters downstairs to steer kit through & out.

On a plus note, the bar staff had a really good night, they agreed with the weirdness of party crowd and the presence of a nasty atmosphere, but expressed thanks & I recieved potential bookings from them.

Give me a Kids Party any day! :bang: