Good Gig, Bad Gig.

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Originally Posted by juski

on Sunday I'm doing a marathon 50s & 60s set outside in the grounds from 10am-4pm.

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Wanna roadie? :)

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Originally Posted by juski

Gonna need plenty of slick in my hair that day :lol:

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Not a problem I face on a regular basis. ;):D

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Originally Posted by Imagine

A little weird at the end however. I was booked until midnight. Bar staff come over at 11:30 and ask what time I'm playing my last track. Well....erm....midnight was the reply. Apparently not the case though. The midnight bit is the time the client has to be OUT of the venue and the doors locked. "

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Oh, I've had that before. More than once. More than once.:(

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Originally Posted by Shakermaker Promotions

....and then left me with this gem..... "I really enjoyed the music you played and that's a rarity because I don't often say that about you type of people"

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DJ's? :whistle: It's well known we're all a set of charmless oiks. :)


OK, to mine. This game has a habit of evening things up somewhere along the line. Recently, I've had a run of great gigs, with different music, and great responses.

Well, that's the third grueller in a row. In one week. :(:( Last minute booking for another 65th/retirement do. Started well, got to the venue early to find that I was parked next to the fire doors, it was three paces from there to the stage, I had almost total control of the venue lights, two ceiling fans over the dancefloor, and two tower fans on the stage. :eek:

Well that was about as good as it got. People mainly wanted to talk not dance, finished half an hour early, and was praised for my efforts. Didn't go home with feelings of a job well done. ( Mind you, the steward and his wife were absolute diamonds. He had a background in DJ'ing/Singing, so knew how the room should be lit and set up, it was one of the best set ups I've ever seen, and his wife said how nice it sounded, so not all bad. )

Roll on next week, and a sudden influx of Arctic weather. I hate summer. :mad:

50th in Univetsity of Chichester Student Union.

Only booked on Moday after being let down and just a walk in as PA and lighting already installed 😀.

Well PA doesn't really do it justice. Two Mackie dual 21 inch subs with two Turbosound twin 15 inch tops, each side! 7kw RMS per side, 14kw RMS total! All the controls on the back were taped over so no adjustment, just XLR plugs from mixer to XLR sockets on wall.

Well coundn't get the mixer above 1/10 without it being uncomfortable. Spoke to the caretaker at the end and said wasn't the PA overkill?

His reply "No you had 100 middle aged guests in here. We have 700/800 students when the DJs play in Oct/Nov and they like it loud and bouncing!"

Wow, loud and bouncing!

Friday night was for a wedding that I had booked from a wedding fayer last year. Really nice couple and one of the first things they said to me when I met them at the fayer was that they had a budget. Well, whatever I said to them must have worked because I got booked full fee!

Got to the venue and it became apparent very quickly that the service from the hotel was less than desirable for the bride and groom. I was set up facing 90 degrees away from the audience (they're all sat to my right whilst I'm facing the buffet). Whilst I was setting up, the bride was asking questions to the duty manager, wondering why there wasn't two bottles of wine on each table like they have paid for, or the jugs of water etc. Then, after I set up, the bride asked me if she can start bringing the guests in?

"What do you mean can YOU start bringing the guests in?"

So I told her to hold fire as I called over the duty manager and asked him to bring in the guests. He gave me a look of "Huh?", by which point I explained to him that this is their wedding day and it would be unfair to expect them to essentially work on the happiest day of their lives when there is a duty manager here who should really be co-ordinating everything and guiding the guests through the day. He went off in a huff, but the bride was appreciative of it. I couldn't believe that the bride was having to be the one that moved things along all the time.

I've said this so many times and I do believe it to be true - weddings are incredibly easy to organise. The only problem is people.

Not a bad night. I think they were more talkers than dancers, but as people were leaving, I think about 90% of the guests thanked me on the way out. B&G were happy too, so I'm happy enough.

Saturday night was a 40th birthday party in a social club. Did the site visit about a month ago and came to the conclusion that if the place burned down whilst I'm there, the most expensive stuff that'd need replacing would be my kit! :p

I was given a playlist of 5 and a half hours to run through and was asked to not take requests. During the consultation, I did say that I would start with the playlist but if it's tanking, I'm changing things up and the birthday girl agreed. Believe it or not, it was actually a pretty decent night. Certainly not one that would go down in the hall of fame, but definitely better than I was expecting - and I stuck to the playlist all night. Her father in law wanted to borrow my mic at the end of the night. I usually hate doing that sort of thing (mic and headphones are usually the first thing packed away whilst the last song is playing!), but he was a really nice guy so I let him use it. Why did he want to use the mic? To thank me and say what an amazing job I did working within the confines of the playlist and everyone gave me a big round of applause.

Excellent evening.60th birthday at a semi permanent marquee in a golf club, with five meter square dance floor
Load in dont come much easier , find out where they want the disco , park next to the nearest opening.
great staff and power points everywhere, mind you they are the three pin round industrial sockets , but they have plenty of three pin round to four gang extensions.
Quite a few dancing all night, I have been recommended to the golf club , and every one had a good time , even got a tip.
Not my usual music , I had around 10 requests from the birthday girl, the rest was me , and it worked.....:banana:

Play list

Artist Title Length Last Played
The Velvelettes He Was Really Saying Something 03:30 6/27/15 7:05 PM
The Commodores I Know I'm Losing You 02:59 6/27/15 7:09 PM
The Chi-Lites Oh Girl 02:58 6/27/15 7:12 PM
Barbara McNair Baby A Go-Go 02:48 6/27/15 7:16 PM
Jimmy Ruffin I Know How To Love Her 02:43 6/27/15 7:22 PM
Jr Walker And All Stars Riding High on Love 02:36 6/27/15 7:25 PM
Tammi Terrell All I Do Is Think About You 02:59 6/27/15 7:27 PM
The Contours I Like Everything About You 02:53 6/27/15 7:30 PM
The Velvelettes Ain't No Place Like Motown 03:19 6/27/15 7:33 PM
ABBA Thank You For The Music 03:51 6/27/15 7:38 PM
The Walker Brothers Burn Our Bridges 03:31 6/27/15 7:42 PM
Dave Clark Five Over and Over 01:59 6/27/15 7:45 PM
Beatles Eight Days A Week 02:42 6/27/15 7:47 PM
Elvis Presley Guitar Man 02:19 6/27/15 7:50 PM
Del Shannon Keep Searching 02:11 6/27/15 7:52 PM
Tornados Telstar 03:17 6/27/15 7:54 PM
Elvis Presley It's Now Or Never 03:16 6/27/15 7:57 PM
Glenn Miller Pennsylvania 6-5000 03:15 6/27/15 8:00 PM
Glenn Miller Chattanooga Choo Choo 03:26 6/27/15 8:03 PM
Blues Brothers Shake Your Tail Feather 02:47 6/27/15 8:04 PM ( two guys dressed as the blues brothers, went down a treat)
Booker T & The MG's Green Onions 02:52 6/27/15 8:07 PM
Nancy Sinatra These Boots Are Made For Walkin' 02:45 6/27/15 8:10 PM
Diana ross and the supremes Stop in the name of love 03:00 6/27/15 8:12 PM
Helen Shapiro Walking Back To My Happiness 02:32 6/27/15 8:15 PM
Martha & The Vandellas Jimmy Mack 02:52 6/27/15 8:18 PM
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles The Tears Of A Clown 03:00 6/27/15 8:20 PM
Martha Reeves & The Vandellas Dancing In The Street 02:37 6/27/15 8:23 PM
Mary Wells My Guy 02:51 6/27/15 8:26 PM
Supremes You Can't Hurry Love 02:45 6/27/15 8:29 PM
Diana Ross & The Supremes Reflections 02:50 6/27/15 8:31 PM
Isley Brothers This Old Heart Of Mine [Is Weak For You] 02:45 6/27/15 8:34 PM
The Velvelettes Needle In A Haystack 02:30 6/27/15 8:37 PM
The Chiffons Sweet Talkin' Guy 02:24 6/27/15 8:39 PM
The Beatles Get Back 03:07 6/27/15 8:41 PM
Herman's Hermits No Milk Today 02:48 6/27/15 8:44 PM
Cilla Black Step inside love 02:23 6/27/15 8:47 PM
Blondie Sunday Girl 03:05 6/27/15 8:49 PM
Judy Garland Anything You Can Do 02:40 6/27/15 8:52 PM
Chicago (I've Been) Searchin' So Long 04:28 6/27/15 8:54 PM
Dennis Yost Everyday With You Girl 02:34 6/27/15 8:58 PM
Johnny Nash I Can See Clearly Now 02:44 6/27/15 9:01 PM
Michael Jackson Rock With You 03:40 6/27/15 9:03 PM
Dusty Springfield You Don't Have To Say You Love Me 02:48 6/27/15 9:07 PM
Ingrid Dumosch Happy Birthday Dear... (With Space To Sing Name) 00:52 6/27/15 9:10 PM
Perez Prado Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White 02:27 6/27/15 9:11 PM
Middle Of The Road Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep 02:59 6/27/15 9:13 PM
Roy Orbison Oh, Pretty Woman 02:56 6/27/15 9:16 PM
Bee Gees Night Fever 03:33 6/27/15 9:19 PM
Bee Gees Stayin Alive 04:45 6/27/15 9:22 PM
Boney M Rivers Of Babylon 04:20 6/27/15 9:27 PM
Lionel Richie Dancing On The Ceiling 04:30 6/27/15 9:31 PM
Elvis Presley Jailhouse Rock 02:37 6/27/15 9:35 PM
Elvis Presley Hound Dog 02:15 6/27/15 9:37 PM
Chubby Checker Let's Twist Again 02:22 6/27/15 9:40 PM
Mud Tiger Feet 03:44 6/27/15 9:42 PM
Bette Midler Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy 02:19 6/27/15 9:45 PM
Eddie Cochran Three Steps To Heaven 02:22 6/27/15 9:47 PM
Village People Ymca 03:44 6/27/15 9:50 PM
The Foundations Build Me Up Buttercup 02:57 6/27/15 9:53 PM
Jeff Beck Hi-Ho Silver Lining 02:52 6/27/15 9:56 PM
Sheena Easton 9 To 5 03:16 6/27/15 9:59 PM
Jimmy Cliff Wonderful World Beautiful People 03:15 6/27/15 10:02 PM
UB40 Red, Red Wine 05:20 6/27/15 10:05 PM
UB40 I Got You Babe - UB40 with Chrissie Hynde 03:09 6/27/15 10:10 PM
Ike & Tina Turner Nutbush City Limits 02:56 6/27/15 10:13 PM
Elvis Presley (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear 01:48 6/27/15 10:15 PM
Elvis Presley Devil In Disguise 02:23 6/27/15 10:17 PM
The Beach Boys I Get Around 02:07 6/27/15 10:19 PM
Sandie Shaw Puppet On A String 02:26 6/27/15 10:21 PM
Tony Christie (Is This The Way To) Amarillo 03:12 6/27/15 10:24 PM
Tom Jones It's Not Unusual 02:04 6/27/15 10:26 PM
Stevie Wonder Part Time Lover 03:42 6/27/15 10:28 PM
Wham! Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go! 03:54 6/27/15 10:32 PM
The Monkees Daydream Believer 03:07 6/27/15 10:36 PM
Boney M Brown Girl In The Ring 04:03 6/27/15 10:38 PM
Mamma_Mia Dancing Queen (Meryl Str 04:08 6/27/15 10:42 PM
Mamma_Mia Mamma Mia (Meryl Streep) 03:34 6/27/15 10:46 PM
Michael Jackson Blame It On The Boogie 03:30 6/27/15 10:50 PM
Stevie Wonder Superstition 04:24 6/27/15 10:53 PM
VA Heartbeat - Buddy Holly & The Crickets 02:11 6/27/15 10:57 PM
Elvis Presley A Big Hunk O' Love 02:15 6/27/15 10:59 PM
Danny & The Juniors At the hop 02:36 6/27/15 11:01 PM
Blues Brothers everybody 03:19 6/27/15 11:04 PM
Blues Brothers everybody 03:19 6/27/15 11:04 PM
Ferrer La bamba 03:45 6/27/15 11:07 PM
Elton John Crocodile Rock 03:53 6/27/15 11:11 PM
Bucks Fizz Making Your Mind Up 02:41 6/27/15 11:14 PM
Kenny Loggins Footloose [April 1984] 03:49 6/27/15 11:17 PM
John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John You're The One Tha 02:49 6/27/15 11:20 PM
Rolling Stones Brown Sugar 03:48 6/27/15 11:23 PM
Stevie Wonder Sir Duke 03:52 6/27/15 11:27 PM
The Tremeloes Even The Bad Times Are Good 02:36 6/27/15 11:30 PM
Sandie Shaw Always Something There To Remind Me 02:37 6/27/15 11:33 PM
Petula Clark Downtown 03:08 6/27/15 11:36 PM
Dean Martin Memories Are Made Of This 02:15 6/27/15 11:38 PM
Frank Sinatra Come Fly With Me 03:18 6/27/15 11:41 PM
Herman's Hermits I'm Into Something Good 02:33 6/27/15 11:47 PM
The Kalin Twins When 02:26 6/27/15 11:51 PM
Shirelles Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow 02:33 6/27/15 11:53 PM
Frank Sinatra Theme From New York, New York (Remastered Album Version) 03:24 6/27/15 11:56 PM

Cheers

Daryll

Really Really good one last night at the 'Clubbers Wedding'

Still on a high today , and humming choons!!

Broke down the gear this morning and the cleaner said it must have been a really good night from the clean up work he had to do this morning, plus mentioned a little bag he found in the loo's.... Ahem!

Videos here
http://www.forum.mobilediscodirector...l=1#post647000

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Originally Posted by dicky

Really Really good one last night at the 'Clubbers Wedding'

Still on a high today , and humming choons!!

Broke down the gear this morning and the cleaner said it must have been a really good night from the clean up work he had to do this morning, plus mentioned a little bag he found in the loo's.... Ahem!

Videos here
http://www.forum.mobilediscodirector...l=1#post647000

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A little green bag? I was looking back, on the track for that last night.

This weekends greatest mix included Liberty X, Got to have your love - Man 2 Man, Male Stripper - Patrick Hernandez, Born to Feel Alive

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

:youdaman:

Can't top that. :)

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We the Salsa Karaoke Wedding lived up to its billing.

The shadforth plough has to have the easiest set up ever.

Attachment 17294

The karaoke went down well and I got a lot of nice comments on my ever improving singing as I warmed them up.

Then the dancing. There must be a local dance school as it was all immaculate. Music worked a treat and a happy bride and groom. For a small affair there was quite a crowd and they all seemed to have fun.

Friday night was a School Prom at Shrigley Hall for 260 school leavers.
Started loading up around 1 and on the road by 1.45, quick stop for a sandwich on route are arrived at the venue for 2.50, I was due to arrive at 3 so timing wise it worked out perfectly.

The function room is a good walk from main reception so I drove straight to reception to sign in and inform the event organise for the hotel that I have arrived.

I met with the event organiser in the function room to discuss the room layout and my setup area, (unfortunately on the site visit a few weeks ago she had been unavailable), and after a quick chat and a check of my PAT and Public Liability (already emailed over but she couldn’t remember seeing it) I was underway setting up.

The load in was reasonably easy, a straight 100m run from the van to the dance floor with only a few steps in-between, 2 hours later and I was all setup.
As well as music I was also providing 18x LED uplighters for the prom, I made a slight error when surveying the room a few weeks ago, I noticed each wall that was going to be up lit had a radiator in the middle, to the right of the radiator were 4 outlets, I then wrongly assumed that to the left would also be 4 outlets, luckily I had enough spare leads to make it work (lesson learned)

I have recently changed my playout system so tonight was the first run for it, I gave it a good test during the setup, luckily it all worked successfully and was plenty loud enough, I’m more than happy with the changes I’ve made to the system.
I did have a couple of issues during the setup, my lighting controlled failed (no power) so I set my dance floor wash lights to pink and nobody knew any differant. The second issue was the uneven floor behind the DJ booth, this ment my T Bar had to off set, again not a massive problem but it looked odd.

Once setup I managed to get 10 minutes down time sat on the grass outside with a cold drink (the venue was really warm so glad of a rest), it was then time to go for a shower and get the old suit on. I had organised with the venue in advance to use their facilities so I could shower before the prom. I had been working the day job from 6am until 1 then straight home to load up and off to the prom, with the temperature on Friday I was more than glad of a cold shower.

The school rock band then arrive with all their instruments and a sound desk/microphones, this was a last minute addition but I offered to connect there sound desk to a spare input on mine so I could amplify the band for them (providing I had overall control of the sound to reduce the change of damage to my speaker), Luckily as a semi pro sound engineer this was no problem and with a bit of messing got the band sounding great.

Onto background music when the students arrived, mainly chart music from the last 2 years, played at a healthy volume, this continued during the meal.
The meal was over by 8.25 and the band played 4 songs then it was over to me from 8.45 until 11.
The dance floor was full all night long with the students dancing to all genres of music, I started the night with chart music, then onto some 80’s/90’s (to my surprise this went down really well) then into the cheese for 30 minutes followed by some indie/rock and ended the night with’ Killers – Mr Brightside’ into ‘Bon Jovi – Livin on a Prayer’ and then ‘I’ve had the time of my life’ as the usual 1 more song.
I struggled at times to fit in some of the requests but with a bit of chopping and changing got most of them into the set.

Got a round of applause from the students at the end a few cards given out to staff, I’ve already been booked for next year’s event.

The only negatives from the night were after the band played nobody cleared the instruments / drum kit off the dance floor, At first I was going to leave it in place as it wasn’t my responsibility but then when people started falling over it towards my equipment I decided to shift it.

The other issue was the venues air con not working, the room was uncomfortably hot, both myself and all the dancers feeling the heat.

All in all a good night, was home by 1am. I was really impressed by the mature attitude of the students, they made the night a pleasure.

Attachment 17295

Attachment 17296

Another prom tonight.. a local comprehensive school leavers party with 160 lads & lasses all baying for a good dance.

Don't get me wrong, but the guy who came before me cursed the proms on more than one occasion saying the kids were hard work, asking for this, that or the other, being rude & wanting to plug phones in etc... so I wasn't sure how this was going to go. The previous prom was for a 'special' school, and the one before that a small affair for an OFSTED outstanding rated place that's one notch away from being private. A local comp? Hmmm.. batten down the hatches guys!

WRONG.

Slapped some background music on, but not on autopilot. I was watching and listening. People were singing along with gusto & I made notes to consider those songs for last song incase I came up short for ideas later.

There were requests for things I didn't have, or that wouldn't be suitable... but I learned a lot tonight by listening to what people wanted. I got request after request for Beyonce - Drunk In Love.. I didn't know it, but knew I'd bought it so had a listen. Nah, I can't play that, I thought. More requests came in for it... hmmm.. and more... jees they've got like 30 people to ask me to play it.. There were also requests to play stuff off Youtube, but I just said I can't. Not legal to play YT in public, or "hotel wifi's not good enough".. & they swallowed it. I probably could if pushed, play from YT.. but nah.

So the night peaked & dipped a little, then peaked again.. then I dipped into an RnB set - with the Beyonce Drunk track.. You could hardly hear the PA for the singing.. safe to say it went down brilliantly.

One lad just kept coming over & asking for "Wigan Pier", which I now understand is a form of dance music not to be confused with a branch of Northern Soul. Ahem. He couldn't name any artists or song titles & thought maybe he's confused it with the casino instead.. Man, you can only be so in touch with youth.

Peak of the night arrived & out came all the dance tunes. Loads of 130BPM EDM-ish things, Black Eyed Peas, Kelly Rowland, Kelis.. Cha Cha Slide eventually, Dirty Bit, Bounce, CRX Uptown Funk remix, with a naughty bit of Alice Cooper slung in the middle of a breakdown (to big question mark over the crowd's heads - just aswell I only gave it the one line eh).. along with some of my old samples from when I was a lad. Oh yeah, and I didn't half like to tease the tracks in so they knew what was coming up soon. Apart from Cotton Eyed Joe.. I only got em singing along to the intro & went into something else.

The atmosphere was absolutely buzzing & the young folks were literally bouncing up & down. I seasoned the mix a couple of times with some participation samples (put your hands up in the air, put your hands up.. in the air! and my infamous "Somebody screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeam!").. and we came to a crescendo... just intime for 2 confetti cannons to go off (brought in by teachers), then a short speech from the head.. and a quick happy birthday song for the head boy.. and then... 4 more songs from me til coach time.

Or three, as I told them. Nakatomi - Children of the... ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Then ScoooterAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH .. then Hermes House Band - Country Roads.. and then the long version of Bill Medley & Jen Warnes.. you know the score. Absolutely boat loads of silly lifting up & spinning around going on.. and massive cheers..

11pm arrived.. it was almost as if I looked up & the room was about empty suddenly. What, just like that, with no fuss or moaning? Heheh. Teacher wondered how I knew what to play considering I didn't put a foot wrong all night. "Mostly just gut feelings", I said.

Got de-rigged & back home & unloaded in less than an hour... Plotting my next couple of outings - a wedding on Saturday followed by a car show gig on Sunday.