In all honesty, the end to a night in Scotland is very easy, they all demand, pretty much every time, 500 Miles and Loch Lomond. God forbid if I try something different, they wil just start singing them once I have finshed.
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In all honesty, the end to a night in Scotland is very easy, they all demand, pretty much every time, 500 Miles and Loch Lomond. God forbid if I try something different, they wil just start singing them once I have finshed.
When you say Take That, I am guessing you mean Never Forget? A great track for the right age group, mid 30s.Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ Jules
A tad disappointed with last night's valentines day wedding.
The Bride had booked me for one of my residencies following a chat at a wedding fayre 18 months ago. She really wanted the date and we'd kept in touch regularly and I guess I kind of got to know her really well over that period. She was from Manchester and the Groom was from my area and he'd later relocated to Manchester. They'd had their fair share of bad luck over the months and I really wanted to give them a night to remember.
One of the problems with them being from Manchester was that only a small number of guests travelled down so it was a pretty small affair for 55 people with 40 being there throughout the day. The couple got married at Midday so you know the score already, yes...when I arrived I could see that the oldish crowd were flagging a bit.
I set up the Disco and Blue Uplighting on Friday afternoon. They wanted Blue because it matched their colour scheme just in case anyone is wondering why it wasn't pink or red for valentines. I had a good list of requests in advance that covered the full range from the 50s to now with a few cheesy moments added in.
The Bride was a very bubbly character but I could tell she was tired and I don't know if I am being paranoid but she looked like she was a bit disappointed as the night went on.
When we had our skype meeting a few weeks ago and she told me that they were getting married at Midday I did say that it might be worth starting the reception earlier and finishing earlier but she decided to keep it as it was. I had a feeling it could be a long night and it did feel like it at times.
At the start I introduced myself and did the usual welcome routine, a massive congratulations to the Bride & Groom and a happy valentines to everyone else and everyone seemed up for it which was a surprise. Cake Cutting, a quick speech and thank you's and flowers to the Bridesmaids and Mother's of the Brides and then the first dance and it all went really well (first time I'd played Lonestar - Amazed for a few years) but after that it was pretty mediocre which is why I think the Bride may have looked slightly peeved?
No matter what I played, it had a luke warm reaction. There weren't many 'young 'uns' in attendance but even when one of them asked for Uptown Funk and I played it 5 minutes later, a handful of people got up and danced to it and then sat down straight afterwards. The song that got the best reaction was the last song of the night but also Sam Cooke - Twisting The Night Away which was one of the Bride's favourite songs. Most people got up to that and when I played other stuff in that genre it kept a few of them up. The cheesiness of Cha Cha Slide and 5,6,7,8 (all requested) got a few people up too but it was mainly a night of people sitting there chatting. As it was valentines day I thought I'd slow it down at one point and a few did get up to have a smooch.
The Bride did mention to me that they'd had an horrendous journey down in the minibus from Manchester on the Friday due to delays and accidents and that could be another reason why some looked like they just wanted to go to bed.
Last song of the night was Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now. It was my suggestion as the Bride & Groom couldn't think of one and it went down really well. I asked everyone that was left (about 30 of them!) to get up even if they hadn't danced all night and everyone listened and joined the Bride & Groom on the dance floor.
I got the usual thank you's and round of applause but again, it was one of those nights where I know it wasn't me that did anything wrong. It was classic example of guests just not being up for it. I wanted the couple to have a great time as they'd really been looking forward to it and I am sure they did but I am pretty certain that deep down they'll be thinking that it could have been much, much better. I just hope that they can see what I could see and put it down to their guests and the long day and not me.
Off out again today for a 3 hour family disco from 4pm - 7pm at the local football club for a charity event and then that's it, I'm chilling out tonight with the missus so we can have our own valentines party :p
If nothing else having to resort to audio backup 3 halfway through the first dance means the night can only get better :mad:
Similar one to Gary. Engagement party where a good number of people arrived early on, and once we'd done the buffet, the requests poured in for Macarena, Cha Cha Slide, et al. All played no problem, but I had a sporadic dancefloor, with many folk going in and out of the room as if they were on elastic! Guests then seemed to trickle away, and it died a death, until someone asked for some 80's, and we had a very busy last hour.
Somehow, I often find engagement parties don't seem to flow well. :confused:
Two very different nights....both belters.
Saturday night was a wedding reception. The happy couple (she's 47 he's 62) had gone off to South Africa to tie the proverbial in December, and decided to have the reception back in blighty (I've got several of those booked this year).
The gig was Emmanuel College Cambridge.....very nice venue to add to the portfolio. Tricky load in (across cobbled courtyards, through the kitchens and up in the catering lift). Set up the new wedding rig in a corner as instructed and set up the background jazz....and waited....and waited....
The buffet, toasts and cake cutting overran by nearly two hours in the end, leaving me just a 90 minute set....hey ho..it happens (had to pack up by 11:30 as they don't normally allow discos during term time), and had to be off site by 12:30 because the porters lock the gates.
Whilst the wedding brekky was in full swing, I left the rig playing background music and had a stroll around the grounds and a crafty ciggie. I thought I'd landed at Hogwarts!
I went past a large hall, massive table down the middle with fully gowned students sitting there having a formal dinner. It really did look like something from Harry Potter!
Anyway...back to the gig. Eventually got to the first dance (Fields of Gold by Eva Cassidy) and then kicked off the party. I'd been given a playlist by a relation (who was keen to tell me he was a trained sound engineer.....here we go....). Ignored most of it and went straight into 80's stuff (it's what the B&G had shown an interest in during the planning meeting a couple of weeks ago). Full dance floor for the entire 90 minutes....absolutely no cheese involved either (bonus!)
Eventually got out of the college (made friends with the porters and agreed I could pull up on the front forecourt and go out through the front gates...saved nearly an hour).
Tonight - a surprise 40th in a local village hall (literally 10 mins away). Had the advantage too that I knew the organiser so nice easy night and even got fed! Brilliant night although a lot of kids present and the order of the evening was cheese....by the bucket load. So, out comes the tried and tested collection of gorgonzola and off we jolly well. Packed floor again (not bad for a Sunday night).
Was booked until midnight but a lot of the guests started heading off at around 11pm (well...tomorrow is a work day). Bit of an awkward situation in that I was then playing whilst they started clearing away (I hate it when that happens). Took advantage of the situation and started derigging to the minimum I could get away with whilst they were clearing away to make the leaving time a little quicker.
So...a good weekend with two very different but equally enjoyable gigs. I've now got a couple of weeks off unless something else comes up in the meantime.
Onto the title in a bit...
Saturday night saw me at the posh hotel where the DJ must perform on a balcony, out of the way of all but the most ardent of requesters. I rolled up earlier than usual, on account of having 'a feeling', found out the happy wed couple's names & first dance.. which was supplied on CD. That was lucky because I didn't have it, but could either of my laptops read the disc? Nope. Could the crappy old Numark CD player belonging to the venue play it? Nope. Not that I'd have trusted it anyway mind. Could I use the hotel wifi to buy the tune? Nope. Thankfully I got it on my phone (thanks, Amazon Android app!) & mounted the phone as a disk on the main laptop. See, mister hotel man, this is why we ask for details BEFORE we arrive! On playing it out to test it though, one speaker sounded really bad. As in "uh oh, sounds like it needs a recone" bad. I tried other tracks I knew well.. anything with a beat just sounded like farting knackered speaker in need of a new cone. Rats! Oh well, it wasn't quite 7pm at this point & the room wasn't due to open til half past so...
Long story short, I decided to nip home & pick up my new (to me) Mackies. Hauled them up the stairs, carried them to the balcony & strung them onto the booth output of the mixer. Background music was playing all the while - and I counted my blessings that I'd made up long RCA to XLR leads on Friday to give the SRM450s a workout in my kitchen at home (we may now need to re-seal the bath upstairs). The parping seemed to have gone from the main PA, but to be on the safe side I kept the booth fader handy throughout the night. First dance went without a hitch, and apart from being a bit up & down the floor was mostly busy until the buffet. The groom came up for a chat & said he didn't want an 'ordinary' wedding disco. That meant knock the background music on the head now, get straight back into it with some 90s indie & dance. Roger that! I took a minute to explain that it'd have been better if the hotel had us converse BEFORE the event & he said he'd relay that back to the venue (we may yet get somewhere with this). I brought up the booth output fader later in the night to give my speakers a bit of a run out & turned the main PA down a bit to compensate.
Music-wise, indie went down really well with most people there.. I kept it accessible, but the dance music.. less so. The bride & groom were loving it though, so I didn't worry. I just wish I'd set up hotcues on Born Slippy to get it over with faster. Even the 7" version is about 3 minutes too long IMHO. The bar closed at midnight, by which time the happy couple had gone to bed - fair dues since they'd been dancing most of the night, but I pressed on til half past to receive a small round of applause from the 8 remaining people.
While I was being paid on Saturday I grilled reception for gen on the next gig, and it was forthcoming! This made a very welcome change. I had the full running order of the night printed out, and all the details I needed to get cracking.
... Tonight was another wedding (here's me thinking "who the heck gets married on a Sunday anyway?").. featuring a band. The band gaffer looked familiar to me, and me to him but neither of us could remember where our paths have crossed. It's only likely to have been in the short time I've been back in the game.. but then there've been a lot of gigs under the bridge since then.
Cake was cut, first dance was played.. then the floor was basically dead til the buffet was over & the band came on. Their first set got a lukewarm response too, but on picking up from them in their interlude I had people up. Further from Toby's earlier comment about old folks getting younger these days the majority of the people uptown funking & going for Blurred Lines were old enough to be my parents. As much sense as this should make it's still a surprise to see it.
After that, the band played more current material & had the floor packed out. After their encore (what is it about bands & encores? When did 'last one' start meaning 'penultimate' every time anyway?) the band cleared the way for me... but not before a good friend of the groom tipped me off about the couple's music tastes. 80s cheese, some more indie type stuff, and more 80s cheese. Yes sir! By the way, "MEN WITHOUT HATS, THE SAFETY DANCE, PLEASE" he yelled as he left. On it came, everyone got into a line & did what I imagine is the 'routine' for that song. I took that as being a good reaction.
I mixed (beat, chop or the good old fashioned segue) my way through the rest & come last orders at 11.45pm the floor was still going great guns.. then the bar closed at midnight.. and nobody disappeared. Changing styles towards the end I heard shouts of "Careless Whisper!" - so that kinda wrapped up what I was gonna play for the last song but before that, I whacked on Tom Jones' Delilah, then dedicated Nat King Cole 'Let's Face The Music & Dance' to the B&G.. which went down an absolute storm.. after the first chorus quickly crossfaded into Frank Sinatra NYNY.. and finally played.. Careless Whisper. I've heard people cheer the start of loads of songs in my time, but never anything by George Michael. "I *CAN* take a hint, you know", I joked over the intro, to laughs from below.
Definitely not an easy night by any stretch, but wow, what a lot of fun. Both nights. I'm still glad it's not my 'day' job though
Thanks guys for those reviews. Good reading and enjoyable.
Yesterday afternoon I was out covering another DJ. I've networked with this guy who operates on a large scale a number of times over the years and yesterday was the first of potentially many this year.
Anyway, it was a 3 hour set at the local football club for a charity day. It started at midday with various stalls from local businesses and that ran until 3.30pm. I was DJing from 4.00pm - 7.00pm and then there was live music from a few local acts (who I knew) from 7.00pm - 11.00pm.
When I arrived at 3.15pm to set up it wasn't that busy to be fair. I was set up and ready to go with 10 minutes to spare due to a few children running around and people trying to get out of the doors that I was trying to load in through (when there was another set of double doors down the other end which would have been easier for them and caused me less grief....D'oh!).
When I started playing the first song there were about 5 people in the place. The venue was split in half with lots of the regulars in the main bar watching the football on the big screen. It was packed round that side (as it always is on a Sunday at the football club) but round our side, well....it was dead. I felt like I was speaking to myself as I spoke on the mic and mentioned the charity, the raffle that was going on and that I was taking requests.
The first 30 minutes felt like a couple of hours and I knew then that the "it's a really easy gig" would in fact be a long and drawn out one.
As the time went on and I played predominantly current chart stuff, a few more people arrived. The thing is, the parents went to the other side where the football was on and let their kids join in with the others that were running around like nutters. I felt like I was a babysitter and a convenience for the parents.
So, I thought to myself "sod this!" and just as the little nutters were running around screaming as Taylor Swift's 'Shake it off' faded out I got on the mic and asked everyone if they were up for a few dances. I asked for a couple of volunteers to help out and for the next 30 minutes I had them in the palm of my hand with the likes of the Hokey Cokey, Superman, The Music Man, Cha Cha Slide, YMCA etc. They were loving it and it was a bit of relief. I looked at the clock after we'd done the last song with them (because they were losing interest towards the end) and I still had just under 2 hours to go. I decided to go back to current stuff and a few people started to dance and request songs.
Around 5.45pm the bands starting turning up and so did the guy who was running the PA for them. I knew all of them and I chatted as the music played which made the time go a bit quicker. Believe me, it really was hard work yesterday. As there were a few people that I knew there I decided to change the music a bit. One of the bands is a blues / rock band so I played some stuff along those lines. The other 2 were originals bands and luckily I had some of their tunes on my system as I play a lot of local stuff on a podcast show that I do regularly. I did this so I could advertise what was going on later and it seemed to work. The football had apparently finished and a few people came through to where I was so it all picked up a bit.
Originally I was supposed to set up (as I was told beforehand) right in front of one of the fire exits. There's been a topic on here a couple of years ago titled "Would you set up in front of a fire exit?" When I arrived and was told, firstly it wasn't possible as like I said, people were walking out through them and packing their stuff from their stalls in to their cars, Secondly, there was no room and lastly, I said that it was a fire exit and I couldn't set up there due to health and safety so I set up knowing that when it came to the bands and PA setting up I would be in their way. I mentioned this to the guy of the headlining band who I knew really well and we decided that I would finish at 6.30pm to give them extra time to set up and soundcheck. I don't think the whole thing was thought through properly anyway because they were due to start at 7.00pm with an acoustic act and I was supposed to finish at 7.00pm. They hadn't thought that I'd be packing down the rig as someone was starting their set.
6.15pm and I started getting as much stuff packed down as I could as the music played. I disconnected the laptop and packed that away (back up system) and turned off the lighting, packed the Equinox screen away and got everything ready. As soon as I'd played the last track I was packed down and had everything out of their way and ready to put in the van in 10 minutes as everyone else rushed around getting setting up. It was a mad rush.
Surprisingly, a lady came over just as I was getting in the van. She'd been one of the volunteers who had got up with the kids to do the Hokey Cokey etc. She asked for a card and asked if I was available in August to do her daughter's 21st at the same venue. She said she'd enjoyed the music and that her daughter had too.
Again, surprisingly....just before I drove off, all of the kids were up at the windows waving at me.
I chatted to the guy in the band online last night after the event had finished and he said that the turnout was disappointing all day and it didn't get much better in the evening either despite the quality of music that was on show. It was a tough afternoon but a definite learning curve and if anything I walked away thinking that the kids had enjoyed it.
I also forgot to mention something from Saturday night's wedding - I came up with a mix that I think I might try again. I might actually record it via VDJ and save it.
I actually did it on the fly on the HD2500. I was playing a few 70s disco tracks when someone asked for Uptown Funk so I thought I'd mix it in and it worked really well.
The mix was Chic's Le Freak. I extended it a bit and looped the beginning of Uptown Funk. The girl who requested it could hear it coming in and gave me the thumbs up. She came over afterwards and asked where she could get the mix from and I said I'd done it myself.
Whoa there, Sonny. :Naughty: Us over 21s still know how to have fun. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by juski
Well considering you can sing a load of old disco tunes over it, including Ladies Night, and Oops, I'm not amazed. Well done though. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Shakermaker Promotions
You should be bloody amazed ;) It's not often that I mix it up and come up with something!Quote:
Originally Posted by Excalibur