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Big bad minuses for the venue on every count there.
Allowing people to drink way too much past the point where they really shouldn't be served anymore. Licensing act of 2003 should have put paid to that.
Taking their sweet time about what to do with unconscious customers, whether they're drunk or not... Christ on a bike.
Oh wait, they're probably going to be called out on the first thing when the emergency services come along so they likely won't be in a rush for that to happen. :muppet:
Hmmmm good night last night all said and done
Did this Birthday party at a local pub (less than 1 mile) as it was the land lords birthday - Big audience, very mixed ages
All in all it was a very good night - despite a constant barrage of requests to 'stop palying my mums music and play something recent' and 'stop playing this chart :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored:, no one is interested, play some 70s and 60s soul'
However My best critic. Mrs Dicky, was in the audience and she tells me that folks were 'bopping in thier seats' even if not dancing (though they did later in abundance) and that the set I played was very very good a kiinda mashup of old classics, charts, RnB and the future house tracks we danced to when we were on hols in Gran Canaria a week or so ago :o
Basically I had a pub rammed of about 200 folks, of varied ages and musical tastes so I kinda tried to keep everyone happyish knowing that it was never gonna work for them all
Night kinda went....
8:30pm - 9:15pm - 70's/60.s Soul/Motown
9.15pm-10pm - Charts
10pm-10:30pm Old Skool House - Rhythm Is A Dancer, Sandy B 'World Go Round' - now you talkin'!!!!'
10:30-pm-11pm 80s Dance
11pm - Ska/80 - Town called malice was mega!!!
11:30 - should have finished but no chance
Last 45 mins on overtime..... Bit of everything....
Charts
Cheese (S Club 'Reach', Take That 'Could It Be Magic'
Old Skool - 'K Klass Let Me Show You'
Mr Brightisde etc
Finished up - Uptown Fink and DJ Otzi ' Hey baby'
Crowd wanted more but I decided nope - end of night!
Anyway a good night in the end, if not a lot of hard work trying to keep folks happy, but hey ho. Glad I didn't take this on when I started back last November, I couldn't have handled it and there is a confession for you
Upshot of the night - well at the end I took a booking for next March on a 40th Birthday saturday night. Lady in question asked to book me (at a quite large and well known local club/venue that I have not played before)
I quoted her £150 and she said "actually they have a house DJ and they charge £135 (now I assume this is with their own cut/take from the DJs pay so what does he get????) but she said she loved what I was playing on the 80s/90s set and didn't mind paying a lttle bit more as she knew what she was getting. But one wonders if I went in at £200 would I still have got the gig?
Off topic I know - but does this evidence/info add something more concrete to this feeling I have about there being a glass ceiling on what you can actually charge for a Saturday night disco and still get booked?
Rich
If you change the question to 'Saturday night disco in a pub and still get booked' you are probably right, pubs generally don't pay well, but there are decent paying gigs to be found around SOT, you need to search them out though, and you are unlikely to find them while playing in a pub or WMC.Quote:
Originally Posted by dicky
4 gigs Thursday through last night and they were all great.
Thursday - wedding, lovely couple I met with and booked over a year ago. Just up the road so that was nice for a change. great crowd, asked to play an extra hour and they were still going hard at 1m.
Friday - wedding in Dunfermline, couple were married abroad so this was just a party. Lots of cool music choices from them (funkadelic, sly etc...) which was good for dancing but not totally conducive to having the young team ram the floor, ramped it up with the cheese and indie after the buffet and it was great. Asked to stay on again.
Saturday - 30th in town. Probably the easiest possible load in you'll find anywhere int he middle of Glasgow. My brother has done a wedding here a while ago and the owner got in touch with him and then me since he's drinking himself stupid in Vegas just now. Great night, they wanted me to stay on but the bar shut at Midnight, home for before 1 and the owner got in touch today saying she's not even going to bother looking elsewhere for DJs in the future as she's seen how good a job both of us do :thu: As someone was piling out they came over to me and went "YOU'RE A :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored:ING EPIC DJ MATE!!!!" and gave me a big hug. Not going to put it up on the website but it's some pretty cool feedback if you ask me.
Yesterday - Wedding, Sloans in Glasgow which is a notoriously bad load in but I got there in plenty of time and got my stuff up the stairs. By this point I'd worked out that I'd have been DJing (not taking into account loading, unloading, driving etc... for a ball hair shy of 24 hours in the last couple of days if this one made it all the way through so I was running on vapours but put on the game face and powered through. Couple were really nice but she was really nervous and on edge about the whole thing. Chilled out after the first dance and although I was a bit skeptical, her Nirvana, QOTSA, Stone Temple Pilots etc... list of requests went down quite well with her and the bridal party. I was meant to be on until half 12 but it was an older crowd and quite a lot of them had trains to catch as they'd travelled into Glasgow for the day so we wrapped it up at 12 with a small contingent left and everyone went home happy.
Got a client meeting tonight and there's a couple of nice rural pubs nearby so I'm going to take the missus out for dinner since she's been away to a hen do then I'm coming home to sit in my hot tub and drink myself into a stupor :D
A great weekend all in but I honestly do not envy any of you guys who are out 3+ times week in week out.
Nope. As has been mentioned, for direct pub bookings you're always going to be fighting against low prices but for private bookings, whilst there's always going to be £150 gigs out there, there's also £250 gigs if you're providing value for money and quality, what you can charge for weddings... how long is a piece of string.Quote:
Originally Posted by dicky
Up your prices and see how it goes - ifi you're doing a good job, are legal, paying tax etc... there's no reason why you should be going out for £150.
Wedding last Thursday, started setting up at 5:30pm. Played my first song at 10:30pm. Finished at midnight. Easy!
Wedding on Friday - sour faced miserable gits.
Saturday, barbecue and beers.
Sunday, my 30th birthday.
And now we wait until Thursday where I'll have 8 in a row...
:D details?Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Smyth
I've only had one wedding fall flat this year and it might have been the same crowd. :zip:
Monday night, roasting room, very little dancing (for my liking anyway) yet when I went round the tables everyone said they were enjoying it and no one had any requests AT ALL which suggests to me they were enjoying the tunes but just not in the mood to party and there was some family drama involved too. Not heard anything back from the bride which I'm taking as she wasn't overly impressed but there's only so much we can do if the guests just aren't up for it.
Saturday was a wedding which had been a task getting the happy couple to do their bit. Pre event meeting before booking, then not signing forms, and generally being lackadaisical. Request list arrived after the singer ( singer? Where did he come from? Nobody mentioned him! :confused: ) had given me his set list, and timings.
Venue was lovely, marquee in the grounds of a family member's house. Access to the marquee involved driving across the lawn, and down the narrow alley at the side of the marquee. Bar van, Disco van, and two catering vans meant a game of musical vans at one point.
True to form, the layout of the marquee had been altered because of everybody deciding they couldn't manage in their allotted places ( I was originally given a pitch blocking the catering staff's access into the main area. ) so we all found a spot we liked, moved the power round to suit, and all made friends with each other ( eventually. Initial negotiations were " less than cordial " at times. )
Bride had asked for " no flashy lights everywhere", the Tasteful Rig. She was blown away by my uplighters and Cheetahs, and said that was fine. So, I got eight uplighters in the lining of the tent, and the powerbar and cheetahs on the overhead. Impressed a lot of folks, me included.
Background music through the meal, started doing the playlist some damage, and the singer turned up. Really nice lad. Two Behringer 15" cabs, Yamaha desk and two KAM partybar efforts. He was to do two half hour slots, and the last hour. First two half hour slots were semi acoustic guitar, and wired mic. Sounded absolutely lovely, and I was wondering about a pair of those cabs for myself. Final set was backing tracks and radio mic. Sounded awful. Really awful.
The dancefloor was sporadic, and as often happens, the last 90 minutes were when it all kicked off. With ten minutes of my slot left, I got a request for " 70s Disco ". Had I time to play any? No. :mad:
Handed over to the singer, and started packing up discreetly. I left all my lights in action, and the effect was fabulous. A really good day, despite the odd hiccup early on.
Last night and tonight are Karaoke for a bunch of golfers at a golf hotel nearby. The karaoke was so well received that I never played a song after the first singer did his bit. We had a few special guests, and I believe we'll have more tonight. Osama Bin Laden, Colonel Gadaffi, many Elvises anjd a few I didn't recognise. My but that lot know how to party!! :eek: I'm told that they'll be less inhibited tonight!
First outing in anger for my headworn PG58. Apart from an intermittent noise, it was a real boon. I had both hands free to switch mics, shuffle papers and singers, and press buttons. Wouldn't have been possible on my own without it.
Unfortunately, Rule 12 clearly states that:Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim - Scotland's Party DJ
Furthermore, Rule 16 asks us to:Quote:
Insults, flaming, personal comments, abuse, harassment and threats will not be tolerated.
So it would be very difficult for me to give an accurate account of the evening. :pQuote:
Please refrain from using profanities or bad language.
May I applaud the Honourable Member for Brum in respect of his diligent reading of the rules. :claphands::claphands:Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Smyth
( And don't forget, Children, we're all supposed to have read, learned and inwardly digested them ) :Naughty:
You are doubtless now wondering if:
1) The Old Twerp's had a wrong tablet in his tea this morning
2) He's demob happy cos he's going on hols, or
3) You need to Google the phrase. Here's a clue. It's from The Good Book. ( No, not the CPC Catalogue ) :)
Benny, sorry to hear you had a bad one, here's hoping the next ones are stormers.