Good Gig, Bad Gig.

Last night I did a Christmas party for a very well known supermarket. I knew it would be a good one as soon as I knew who it was as they've been to the hotel for the last 3 years and every time they've been they've had a great time. This was no different.
11.30pm finish as it was a Sunday and by the time they'd eaten, the manager had done some speeches and then co-ordinated a mass game of heads and tails, it was 9.25pm so I had just over 2 hours of music to play.

To say this bunch were rowdy would be the wrong description. They were most definitely up for it would put it better because they were no trouble whatsoever, just very enthusiastic and in the party mood. When I entered the room whilst the background music was doing its thing and they were just getting their desserts, I was met with a cheer and then something that put a big smile on my face. The table nearest to the Disco set up noticed I was wearing my West Ham scarf. As I took off my coat I could hear a couple of the guys say "The DJ is here, time to party" and then "Looks like he's a West Ham fan". I plugged in my headphones, cued up my first track ready for later when they'd finished their meals and as I was just starting to make my way back out of the room the whole table stood up and started singing "I'm forever blowing bubbles", it was a nice touch.

At one point I went outside to get some air and a number of the guests had gone outside for a cigarette. As soon as they saw me they started singing 'bubbles' again and it was quite funny. I chatted to them about the music and the manager said "This lot love the cheese. The cheesier the better!"
Ok, if they wanted the cheese I would give them the cheese. I wanted to test the water first of all so when I eventually started with the music after the game of heads and tails, I kicked off with the Five Megamix. I had planned to start with Taylor Swift as usual but changed my mind and I'm glad I did. Nearly every single person in the room got on to the dance floor, young and old and it was a great start. From then on it was request after request for cheese and it got to a point where it seemed like they were trying to outdo each other and come up with the cheesiest songs ever............and they danced to everything.

Seriously....I started off with some mild cheddar in the shape of Steps - Tragedy (as requested) and Cha Cha Slide and then moved on to some mature cheddar with the likes of The Timewarp, Macarena, Grease etc.....(all of these were requested by the way) and then in the final 40 minutes it had gone full scale premiership stinky cheese. Honestly, some of the requests that came in.....Well, I'm glad I have these tracks but it's a long, long time since I played them and I said over the microphone "You wanted the cheese, you're getting the cheese"....they clapped and cheered every track and absolutely loved it. I stood there watching with a big smile on my face as they really didn't care, they just wanted to have a laugh. Agadoo (requested), Superman (requested).....the bloody Birdie Song (requested loads of times). When the night came to an end and I played Mariah Carey, Shakin Stevens and then finished with Tina Turner - The Best, they were clapping and cheering and the manager came over and said "We'll see you next year most definitely"

The only track I didn't play last night which was requested a couple of times was Smokie with Roy Chubby Brown - Who the **** is Alice? I didn't think it was the right thing to do and when I explained to the guy who'd requested it that there may be other people in the hotel who would hear it plus the fact that everyone always joins in with the chorus, it might offend. He was totally cool with that although I knew it would have gone down really well had I played it.

Sat with the staff afterwards and had a couple of pints and a chill out before I left as we all needed it after a hard week.
3 more parties this week and then on to the parties and stuff at my local on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and New Years Eve.

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Originally Posted by djdj

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I was informed that the group had a serious issue with the DJ from last year so was a little on edge.

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Wasn't me Guv. :D
The event company were an absolute pleasure to deal with. Client couldn't praise them enough, either.

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Originally Posted by Shakermaker Promotions

The only track I didn't play last night which was requested a couple of times was Smokie with Roy Chubby Brown - Who the :Censored: is Alice? I didn't think it was the right thing to do and when I explained to the guy who'd requested it that there may be other people in the hotel who would hear it plus the fact that everyone always joins in with the chorus, it might offend. He was totally cool with that although I knew it would have gone down really well had I played it.

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Funny you should say that. My diving club had it as Karaoke. We had quite a few children present, so before it started, one of them requested that we use the word " heck " instead of :Censored:. They did.

OK, to last night. Big room in Hull University, helping John ( Twinspin ). We used mainly my kit, as it was already in the van, and I can't get to his storage facility, it's too narrow/twisty for it. Arrived in good time, my native guide directed me across town, and we arrived on campus. Having found the room, and a handy fire door, all we had to do was get the van there. Tee hee. I'm not sure we didn't go through two tree lined pedestrianised areas on the way, and a tight squeeze or two, but we got the van where we wanted it.

As John had warned me, it was a big room, so we took the LDs, my DSB with John's starcloth, and a powerbar, two EFX 500s, John's blue cluster laser, and my two coloured animation ones. We were set up in reasonable time, the organisers came up at the start, and said hello, and we were ready to go. John had put request slips out, and they were a roaring success. We were inundated. So far, so good. Kit was working well, John was playing the right songs, all good.

Until a chap came up and asked to use the mic, around 9,30pm. Turns out our audience were all from an under 18 year group at College, and we thus had a soft drink bar. Yup, they were smuggling booze in, and he warned them if it didn't stop, the party was over. We were down for a midnight finish, and at 11pm, the shutters went down on the bar. We were then told to shut down at 11.15pm, because the venue were understandably worried about having drunk teens on the premises, so it was an early finish.

To make up for this welcome bonus, it was raining very heavily outside, and we got wet. Ah well. Couple of trips to a bakery now for me, staff Christmas dinner. Graveyard shift tonight, 11.30pm to 1am, and back tomorrow for the dinner and tea ones. Stay overnight Thursday in Sheffield for Friday's office party, which promises to be good fun.

As Peter said it turned out to be a good night at the Hull University Staff House. Always a shame when the guests can't follow the rules. The management of the venue did what they had to do though and shut the party down. It's a real shame for the guests that were sensible.

I haven't worked there for a few years. It's a nice venue though

I seem to be getting the wrong end of a few sticks lately. Office party from NaD, at a nice bar in Sheffield. My daughter lives in Sheffield, so things fell into place for me to arrive Thursday night, have a meal with her and hubby, and spend Friday Xmas shopping.

Arrived at the venue ridiculously early, as parking and unloading wasn't ideal. Except it turned out to be great. There are three bays in front of the venue, on a ticket machine. Wonder of wonders, the best one was free, and it cost me the princely sum of £2 to park there all night. Result. :D

Really minimal kit ( and even that was far too much, as the venue lights were so bright, my powerbar was effectively useless. ) so I was set up in good time. The MD's secretary, who I'd been dealing with, turned up and we got her projector set up. They were having an " awards ceremony ". Just an excuse for a good laugh at staff members various exploits through the year, very funny.

Got that finished, packed away, and it was my turn. They were real party animals, and the floor was sporadically packed, but I couldn't really find any one style to keep the floor full. I had a small request list, and a copy of last years, and I cherry picked from those. I had a request for Punjabi music ( I appear to have three tracks, and although I could have downloaded a fewmore, I had no idea what to get. :confused::o:o ) Went down a storm, and we played a few more from a young chap's phone who was a fan, and an amazing dancer.

Anyhow, with an hour and a half to go, the secretary pops up again. Frightens the crap out of me. She says: " Can I give you a tip " ?
Here we go, I thought. Any or all from play more/less xmas stuff, turn it up/down, talk less/more, play older/newer stuff, etc etc. Brace for impact. Well it was a very soft landing. :D
" No, no, I mean can I give you this tip in my hand? Everybody loves you " I refused once, but accepted it with mild protest. It was a significant sum of money, on top of a very reasonable fee. I was a happy little bunny.

Then the wheels fell off. :( Contract was midnight finish, venue wanted a strict midnight finish for the music, no worries. Announced last orders at ten to midnight, announced Fairytale as the last one, thanked them, house lights came up, and I shut down. The laptop's powered off, the speakers are unplugged, and all kit's switched off, and I'm derigigging. Cue MD asking " Err, what's happening? We want to go on, everybody's just getting warmed up ". Well it's a contract to midnight, the venue have told me in no uncertain terms it's midnight, and your secretary who's organised it all has confirmed all this with me at the beginning of the night. Off he trots to negotiate an extension with the venue, and I reconnect some kit. Venue allows half an hour, but insists that I make it abundantly clear that at 12.30, they all leave sharpish, as obviously that's when they wanted them out, ie bar closes midnight, music finishes, half an hour drinking up.

So, start to power up the kit again, and I forgot that I'd turned all off at the wall. Laptop started up on battery, and controller tries to power up on USB. Won't work. Oops, switch on at wall, and wait for lappy to reboot. It won't, cos it's taken the hump at having to drive the controller as well. The lad with the phone comes back, and we get sound from that until I get the laptop sorted. How many more songs do I get to play before half past? Two. MD is now happy.

Seaside tonight, not a playlist I'm looking forward to, I must say. Ah well. :)

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

Office party from NaD, at a nice bar in Sheffield.

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Peter, If I knew you were in Sheffield last night, I would of popped over to say "Hi" :)

:bang:

Why do people turn up to weddings to be boring? Just have some fun, for gawd's sake!

Last night, the bride and groom are getting ready to cut the cake, followed by the first dance. I grab the mic and start on my intro:

"Ladies and gentle, welcome to [venue]...[bit more of an intro]...as we celebrate the union of X&Y, ladies and gentlemen!"

Usually, at this moment, is a cheer. Last night, dead silence. Ok. Try again...we are British after all and it sometimes happens that we need to be asked a second time to show some enthusiasm, so I tried once more...semi cheer appears. This is gonna be fun, thought I...

So I give the rundown on how the cake cutting will happen. Pretty much a standard script for me:

"What's gonna happen is that X&Y are going to start wielding a knife, we'll give them a countdown from 5 down to zero, the bride and groom will plunge that knife into the cake, we'll give them a great big cheer and I'll play a little bit of background music and leave our hosts to get papped for a few moments."

Ready for the count...here we go...5...4...3...[oh, just me counting then?]...2...1...

No cheer. I actually had to prompt them again. Nobody came around to take a picture, and I cracked a joke about how it was the groom's first job as a husband and he didn't :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored: it up, so surely you'd want photographic evidence of that?

At this point I have the photographer and the duty manager shaking their heads in disbelief, with both telling me that it looks like it'll be a long night for me...

Intro for the first dance. I like to think that I do a big intro, searchlights for their walk to centre stage, stab of music...I try and make the B&G feel like stars. Always works very well, especially when our audience cheer and clap too. But I'm clearly asking too much...

Rest of the night was fine. Consistent dancing, drinking, bit of banter. B&G were chuffed with the entire night and I had a fair few thank yous at the end with some business cards handed out, but seriously - it's somebody's wedding day. Why not just let loose and have some fun, join in and make it a day to remember?

So, to reiterate:

:bang:

My first Christmas party after turning down a 'lucrative' residency at a hotel last night. Earlier in the week the hotel were going to run two rooms but by Thursday had cancelled one - and the remaining room wasn't exactly full. That, on the last Friday night before Christmas? Nah. If I'm going to lay out a grand setting up my own business I might aswell put it towards gear rather than be in a position with no contract & no guarantees of work and *then* still have to buy equipment. Judging by the amount of food left on plates at the end of the meal maybe things aren't going too well at the venue.

Anyway, the party itself went well in general. I got loads of good requests & everybody was very polite about it (unusual in this venue) bar one. They knew how to push my buttons & I figured out how to push theirs. The one who wasn't polite wanted newer stuff, but seen as the dancefloor seemed to be all about eating up a barrage of oldies at that point I gave it a while before getting back onto more recent tunes.

Initial reactions to Slade's 'Santa Claus is Coming To Town' were brilliant but as soon as they got into the track proper its appeal waned rapidly. 'We Go Together' from Grease fixed that right up. I held off on any more Christmas songs until the bitter end - The Pogues followed by Maria Carey did the business although 'Fairytale of New York' produced a loud groan from a large section of the crowd.

All in all the night was proof that you can't please all of the people all of the time, but going by the amount of people who wanted to shake my hand as they left it must've gone better than I felt.

Only one more Christmas party left this year, and that's tonight.. followed by a birthday party on Sunday where the set is intended to be 60s, 70s & 80s. That should be the most musically interesting party I've done since the gothic/biker wedding a couple of months ago :)

Another 3 Christmas parties this week and all very good and very different.

Thursday - This was another 70s & 80s Christmas party night for around 80 guests. There was another group of 30 in another room who were having their meal separately but they also had the option of joining in if they wanted to, and they did. Lots of guests in fancy dress and I picked out tracks for people in costume. There was Adam Ant, Madonna, Grease, Michael Jackson and would you believe it.....someone dressed as Gary Numan!
It was a busy dance floor for 99% of the evening. The only song that didn't really make a mark was The Weather Girls. A handful of women danced to it.
A guy came over at the end and asked for a card. He told me he'd had a great time and was celebrating a landmark birthday next summer and wondered if I could do what I did at his party. I told him to get in touch. Apparently the hotel had great feedback the following day.

Friday - Back to the usual Christmas party stuff and a party for 100 guests. Packed dance floor from the first song to the last song. This one was probably the best out of all the Christmas parties I have done so far this year. Loads of requests flooded in to me and people really appreciated the fact that I played their requests for them which was really nice. Nods of thanks or actually coming over to me to say thank you. It does make a big difference in my opinion. It was one of those nights where the time seemed to go so quickly and it could have gone on for a lot longer.

Saturday - Well, what can I say? It was a party for 130 guests. It was originally for 110 but apparently more people wanted to join in. It was a party for South West Trains and I was really tempted to get on the mic and say "Sorry for the delay"....etc etc. I didn't have to because it seemed it was a running joke (more on that in a moment). It was a late starter for me. Guests were late arriving and by the time they'd eaten and then done their stupidly long raffle, it was around 9.45pm (Midnight finish). The organiser borrowed my microphone and he was quite good with it actually. He did the "Sorry for the delay" thing and everyone cracked up. It set the atmosphere nicely because he also introduced me and everyone cheered and clapped. You could sense that they were dying to get up and have a boogie.
The guests were an older crowd than what I have had previously but I sussed out what they liked within 15 minutes. Started off with Olly Murs - Dance With Me Tonight which filled the floor. Followed it with 'Happy' and lost a few people. Scissor Sisters filled it up again, then Amy Winehouse and as soon as I hit 70s and 80s mode, it was rammed. Dirty Dancing megamix had them all singing along.

I'd been playing about 40 minutes when this very nice young lady came over. "Are you Gary?" she asked. When I replied yes she grabbed me and started hugging me. I wondered what was going on and then all became clear. "You're doing my wedding in May" she said and once she'd told me her name I realised what was going on. We'd spoken on the phone a couple of weeks ago and she'd booked me although we'd not met as yet. She told me that she was so glad that she'd booked me because she was having a great time. She also said that the organiser had said he was really impressed with the whole evening and for the first time ever, had already said he was booking again next year.
So, the night was great..................BUT............there was one incident.....a memorable one too. It's a long, long time since I'd seen anything like it, especially at a party I was doing. I can't remember what song it was but there was a point where I thought I could see a guy arguing on the dance floor. He was an older gentleman, probably late 60s. I looked away for a second and when I turned around again, he was storming off the dance floor and a glass had been smashed. A member of staff was nearby and was on the case straight away, clearing the glass and mopping up the liquid.
Not a big deal you may say.......Well, as the song was fading out and people were dancing around the member of staff who was clearing up, back came the older guy. He walked straight in to the middle of the dance floor (obviously on a mission) and started pushing a younger guy about. There were no fisticuffs....nobody had time to do anything as a couple of other guests kept them apart.

I'd not seen anything like it for a long time. The older guy, well.....it was embarrassing to be honest. He put up a struggle and was kicking out and someone got him in a headlock and he was removed from the venue. The organiser came over to me and apologised and I told him he didn't need to. As long as it hadn't spoilt people's enjoyment then all was ok. I didn't mention anything about it. The last songs of the night had the same reaction as everything else....packed dance floor. A round of applause again at the end. Organiser asking if he can borrow my mic. I hand it to him only for him to get everyone's attention, big me up and thank me. Lots of cheering and clapping but I find it embarrassing. It's almost as if I have given him the mic so that he can praise me (which in reality it is....I don't know, I just find it embarrassing).

It's been a really good Christmas season for me and I hope everyone else too.
My first Christmas party was on 15th November but it seems like it's gone really quickly. From 29th November all of my set up has been at the venue. I've had to move it a few inches on one occasion so that the room can be split so it has made my life really easy this year and for once I am not feeling like I am absolutely knackered.
Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and then New Years Eve to go and then it's a very quiet January where I will be going over all of my equipment and giving it a good clean and possibly upgrade some stuff.

Have a good one you lot!

Saturday had me playing another Christmas party. Roughly half of the audience were on a big works do & the other half were smaller groups & family gatherings. While the crockery was being cleared the MD of the big firm asked if he could make a short speech. I saw no problem with that, so let him have my radio mike. He thanked his staff & everybody for their work throughout the year, yada yada. Oh but then one of his managers asked for the mike. He said he'd be as quick as he could - I'd hate to think how badly one of his longer speeches would go. He talked about how great a company the firm are, and the lengths they'll go to to support employees - all good stuff, but then veered off into rather dodgy anecdotes. I half expected a mother in law joke to appear but no. It wasn't all far off though & the once attentive audience tuned out.

Once the tables were cleared proper it was onto the music. the crowd were mostly youngish, so out came Uptown Funk & recent chart hits. So far so good. Then I turned the clock back & got older folks up too. And then the crazy requests started. The peak of the cheese was Aqua's Barbie Girl - I felt it was a bit of a risk but no! They loved it. I backed off a bit, went onto slightly less smelly cheese like YMCA, Macarena etc to mixed responses. By 11.15pm the audience had thinned out when people went to board their coach home leaving mostly the younger crowd so took a punt on Slade, which went down a storm - then ploughed into a load of pop/dance from recent years. Kept everybody going til last orders when I brought out The Poggles' Fairytale (blech) followed up with Mariah Carey being last song again.

Last night I had a birthday party to play at a different venue. In this place the DJ setup is up on a balcony which is a fair trek from the dancefloor & depending on how the tables are set out can be a nightmare to read the crowd when they're not dancing. I hate how disconnected the setup is from the audience but I know other DJs who prefer it that way because they get 'much less hassle'. Meh.

Anyway, I was billed to play '60s, 70s & 80s' .. little did I know but it was a surprise SEVENTEETH party. I also didn't know in advance of the event that they were going to do a 'this is your life' type roast on the birthday lady. Had I been given enough notice I would've had the theme music AND I'd have taken my radio mike with me so they wouldn't have to use a pitiful guitar amp/toy radio mike combo.

The meal was served pretty quickly & after that they roasted the subject of the party, which was very well done indeed - only let down by their awful PA. Then it was my turn. Having walked the tables & tried to canvass opinions on music it became painfully obvious to me that the majority of people weren't interested in the disco. Somebody asked that I play Mariah Carey.. but that didn't fit into the strict 60s/70s/80s music policy. Ah well.

I managed to get a handful of people - maybe 10 or 12 at times up on the floor & pretty much kept the dancefloor around that number until around midnight - when with half an hour left on the clock.. TA-DA! There wasn't a soul sitting down anymore & the birthday lady looked like she was having the time of her life. That's what it's all about, but good grief it almost killed me getting there. So, a completely blind night & nobody was up for giving me any sort of hint how to play. There were no requests all night until after the last song, where the audience shouted out STEVIE WONDER HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I felt utterly stupid for not playing it earlier but I've always found it to be a marmite track. Maybe it's a generational thing I've missed. Anyway I played it & it worked like magic. Thankyou & goodnight.

That's it for the pre-Christmas parties now.. I'm doing a wedding where a vicar is the groom on the 27th. Their first dance is The Beatles' Here There & Everywhere.. second dance is Heavy D & The Boyz' Now That We Found Love (WTH? It's gonna be interesting to see how that works since I don't know the context yet).. oh and "it'll be a dead easy night cos there's a band on". A guaranteed easy night? No such thing!

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Originally Posted by Benny Smyth

:bang:

Why do people turn up to weddings to be boring? Just have some fun, for gawd's sake!

....
Rest of the night was fine. Consistent dancing, drinking, bit of banter. B&G were chuffed with the entire night and I had a fair few thank yous at the end with some business cards handed out, but seriously - it's somebody's wedding day. Why not just let loose and have some fun, join in and make it a day to remember?

So, to reiterate:

:bang:

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One of my first parties this year was a wedding where the majority of their guests apparently disappeared after the post-ceremony meal. They didn't even hang around for the speeches! The bride, it's safe to say, was not a happy bunny :cry:

There's only so much we have any control over. We can't employ mind control devices & make them participate, more is the pity.