Good Gig, Bad Gig.

My saddest gig ever.

Booked by a lovely blind gentleman and his friend (who has learning difficulties).
He advertised the party in the local papers (full page ads) and plenty of posters around the venue.
Hall holds 250 people (which he didn't realise because he couldn't see it and no one told him how big it was).
He put on a large buffet (decent quality too).

No one turned up, just him, his friend and me in the hall.

Quickly located to the venue's front bar where we had about 5 regulars and the bar staff who made the best of it they could.
Raffle prizes consisted of four dinner plates and a set of six sherry glasses - bless all the people there for buying tickets and not saying anything. (I didn't even realise he had advertised it as a charity event until I turned up).

Venue manager arranged for a local homeless hostel to have the left over food so at least it wasn't thrown away.

I actually did his birthday last year at a different venue and it was a similar scenario - I had hoped this was going to be different.
I think he does it just to get out and have some company.

Not ashamed to admit I was a bit teary both times.

He's booked me again for November (at yet another venue) - I'll be in contact with them to try and arrange a proper night for him.

That's sad to hear. Poor bloke (and you).

Last weekend was a 21st birthday party in a local WMC. Great, I thought, the more youngsters, the more dancing that goes on, normally. The birthday girl was going to send me a playlist but didn't get time in the end, but she just asked me to play modern chart music but also some classics. Fairly straightforward, I thought; I'm not really into modern specialist genres that I frequently get asked for at 18ths and 21sts, so this should be a bit easier.

I got set up and all was fine, people started rolling in at around 7:30. I introduced myself to the birthday girl and her family, and played background chart stuff until the food was done and dusted at about 9:30pm. Then I thought I'd get the party started, with around 100 people in the room.

I thought I was in trouble when I played 'Just Dance' by Lady Gaga and no-one moved. More modern floorfillers didn't cut it, so I put on a rather apt 'I Don't Feel Like Dancing' which got about 5 people up, and then went onto some 80s classics. People trickled onto the floor, including the birthday girl. Everyone else stayed stubbornly seated.

One guy kept coming up, who I think had learning difficulties. He wanted everyone to get up and dance, and thought I was the reason why they wouldn't. "Can't you play some 80s stuff, to get everybody up?" he asked.

"I've been playing 80s stuff for the last 20 minutes mate," I said. "Anything in particular you want?"
"Dunno, just something dancey, with a bit of oomph," he said. Bearing in mind I'd been playing the Weather Girls, 'Wake Me Up Before You Go Go,' and 'Come On Eileen!'
"Leave it with me," I said.

Tried changing periods and genres, nothing. Someone came up and asked for 'Oops Up Side Your Head,' which again got about 5 people up. 'Cha Cha Slide' bombed. 90s, 2000s, chart stuff, air guitar anthems, nothing worked. The middle-aged folk in the room were resolutely sitting in their seats, and the youngsters were sitting in a corner, playing with their phones. No-one seemed remotely interested in dancing or requesting songs. Whatever I played, there were only 3 or 4 people dancing at the most.

By 11pm I'd resigned myself to the fact that nobody was going to dance, so I just played what I wanted until I finished at midnight. I finished with 'We Are Young' by Fun, which got the youngsters up for a last-gasp arm-waving dance. Then I got whoops and applause (and not because it was the end!)

The birthday girl was perfectly happy with the night, despite the lack of dancing. I guess it was just one of those nights where people were happy just to listen to the music rather than dance. What didn't help was that there were plenty of tables and seating for everyone. I've always found that if there's room for everyone to sit down comfortably, it's very hard to get them up. If it's standing room only, people are more inclined to move!

Next weekend I'm doing another birthday party at a very small club right out in the sticks. Hopefully people will be more engaged at that one!

A cross between the previous two posts.....and very strange.

The gig was for a 60th birthday party. It seemed strange from the start that the birthday girl herself was organising and paying for it (it's normally someone else such as a partner/child etc.).

Anyhoo.....it was worth a LOT of money for originally a 3 hour gig. It eventually transpired that she'd made a mistake on the NaD forms and wanted me an hour earlier....and was obviously prepared to pay so why not ;)

The request for the gig mentioned 75 guests....in a hall which holds 250....Okaaaayyy, it's going to be a bit empty.

Got there and set up, she'd done a lovely job decorating everything in purple and white, including helium balloon table decorations etc. She'd even got outside catering in, and organised things like face painting for the kids who were supposed to be turning up. She'd thrown a lot of money at this one. This was going to be a good night I thought.....

Unfortunately only about 20 people turned up. Getting them to dance to anything other than the 6 UB40 tracks I've got was hard work to say the least (although I did eventually get a good Rock 'n' Roll/Jive set going which had at least three people on the floor).

I tried everything from every genre, decade and style of music I'd got. I couldn't have thrown any more at it if I'd tried. The ones that weren't dancing were tapping feet and nodding heads if I'm honest...but it doesn't do it for me like legs on the dance floor.

And even stranger - I closed down as always with old Blue Eyes and New York New York. Until tonight it's NEVER failed me, with guests linking up on the dance floor and doing high kicks. Tonight - made the announcements that they'd been a good crowd, safe journey etc.....they saw Frankie as their cue to start leaving! There should be a law against such sacrilege!

I've been paid, I got compliments and people asking for my card for their birthdays coming up. Is it only me that measures the night by the number of legs on the dance floor as to how well I've done the job? I feel disappointed that I didn't have the floor full like last week and that I've somehow not done the job I should have done.....

That's it now until next weekend, which is going to be a complete nightmare - but more on that one post event (if I live to tell the tale)

Last night I had my best wedding of the year so far. I've had a good run this year and I hope it continues.

It was a wedding for a lovely couple in their late twenties and the Bride was the spitting image of Emma Bunton.
120 guests all up for a party from the word go!

Didn't take the subs on this occasion as the venue owner and staff monitor the sound levels and although they've never mentioned anything to me about the levels on past visits, they have mentioned that they've had to tell people to turn down the bass on a number of occasions so I thought I wouldn't take them and risk any negatives whatsoever.

Turned up at the venue as arranged at 6.00pm to start at 7.00pm and finish at 11.30pm (they are strict on the finish time as all bookings have to finish at 11.30pm)
It's easy access and didn't take me long at all. I was set up in 30 minutes.
Timings were running behind schedule and I actually started playing some background music at 8.00pm after the (very long) speeches. They were supposed to do their first dance at 8.00pm. When the time came it was very emotional. A lot of people really got in to it and the Bride & Groom got very teary. I know it sounds bad but it was nice to see....(I mean that in the nicest possible way).

From after the first dance(s) - Ellie Goulding - How Long Will I Love You and John Legend - All Of Me (yet again), it was full on packed dance floor right until the end.
Lots of requests, lots of happy people and lots of compliments.
Last song of the night - Well, they didn't have one originally. They couldn't think of one when I had asked them in the pre-wedding meeting and said they'd leave it to me.
Judging on the crowd and their reactions to certain songs throughout the night I thought I'd go with McFly - All About You because it worked really well the other week at a similar wedding.
It worked wonders! Everyone sang along and joined in and it finished the night off perfectly. Lots of applause and even whistles which were deafening and probably louder than I had been all evening!

A lady came over to me at the end and said "That's the second wedding I have been to that you have done the disco for and it was amazing again. I just need an excuse to book you so can I have a card please" - That was really nice and as I was handing her a card another lady came over and asked for one too.

Packed down in super quick time with the thought of getting home earlier but unfortunately at this particular venue you have to wait until all of the guests have left before you can drive the van back round to the venue and start loading up so I was there an extra 30 minutes waiting but still got home before 01.00am.

A really good night.

I would never have thought of playing McFly as a last song, very brave of you to try it the first time.

The first time the other week, it was requested for the last song.....well, kind of.
The Bride was a big McFly fan and there were a couple of their tracks on the request list. When I met them for the pre-wedding meeting they also couldn't decide on a last song of the night so I mentioned it and they thought it was a great idea and it worked.

Last night was more or less the same. I'd asked the Bride & Groom during our meeting and they couldn't decide at the time. They said they'd get back to me but still couldn't think of one and again, there was a McFly track (Shine a light) on their request list. All about you worked again.

Not sure why you would think it's "brave" of me to try it? There are plenty of worse songs in my opinion. Brave would be me playing something like Closer by Nine Inch Nails!

Just remembered something else....

When I was standing there behind the curtain divider last night waiting for the speeches to finish, I was listening to them and heard the groom mention his love of Transformers. Apparently the tables were named after Transformers too. There were a number of typical middle of the road rock tracks on their request list too as he liked that stuff (Guns N' Roses, Bon Jovi, Queen etc...) and I started off with The Killers which packed the dance floor. I played Living On A Prayer, Sweet Child O' Mine, Sweet Home Alabama and Summer of 69 as requested and the dance floor was rammed so I thought I WOULD be brave and announced that the next song was especially for the Groom. Nobody had any idea that I was going to play it and he looked confused when I said it but as soon as it started he went absolutely mad on the dance floor doing air guitar and all kinds of stuff. All of his mates joined in and everyone stayed where they were and clapped and cheered him on. He loved it.
He came up to me straight after and said "How did you know I liked Transformers?" and I said "I heard your speech earlier and thought I'd try it"
It was one of those moments that I know he and a lot of his guests will remember for a long time........I know I will!

Brave because ist ususlly the last coupler of songs that are remembered, if it had bombed, then imho it would have been a disaster, however, it sounded like whatever you played would have gone down well. I used to end with Daydream Believer when I was based in South London, but now I am in Aberdeeen they tend to want Loch Lomand, although I sometimes play that 2nd to last and chuck in The Monkees or American Pie last. Doing somethin new would scare the pants off me, though I quite like riding by the seat of my pants :)

Each to their own mate. That's what makes us all different isn't it.

Absolutely, I think the end of a gig is like a signature.