:Censored: off.Quote:
Originally Posted by juski
YOU'LL HAVE TO SPEAK UP SONNY, I CAN'T HEAR YOU. :coat:Quote:
Originally Posted by funkymook
Printable View
:Censored: off.Quote:
Originally Posted by juski
YOU'LL HAVE TO SPEAK UP SONNY, I CAN'T HEAR YOU. :coat:Quote:
Originally Posted by funkymook
I don't get many difficult customers but when I do they tend to be women of a certain age. Certainly the ones bad enough to be memorable anyway. I'd have assumed it'd be much different.
Certain age, eh? Wouldn't happen to be mid thirties, would it? :whistle:Quote:
Originally Posted by juski
That tends to be mine, lately.
Maybe it's ageism all round then. Whatever it is, may it die a death of a thousand knives.Quote:
Originally Posted by Excalibur
Interesting one tonight. One day I'll learn to say no to my clients:
Labyrinth themed wedding so I'm performing dressed and int he persona of Jareth the Goblin King, eyeliner, mad feather mullet wig and all. :D
I can't wait. Music choices are quite eclectic and we might not see the 1am finish (I doubt aunty Mabel is going to hang around all night listening to the Editors and Joy Division) but I'm giving the client what they want.
Another early finisher last night. First dance was 'everything I do' which because I only have the 6.5 minute version I cut it short. Crowd took some geeing up but they'd been hard at it all day long - at least 2 of their number were doing lines of some kind of marching powder in the toilets (which the staff apparently put paid to quite amusingly by coating the toilet lids in a concoction of pepper & curry powder). I was given free reign but what was really needed was cheese - and loads of it. Things went well til around 10.15pm when guests started to trickle away. Those with young children left first closely followed by people apparently intent on heading into town. By 11pm very few if any of the remaining 15 or so were dancing but I kept plugging away as they seemed to be enjoying the music.
At the usual last orders time of 11.45pm only the B&G were left so it was called a night at that point. I was heartily thanked for my efforts anyway.
Tonight sees a smaller shindig - another wedding again, with a frankly awful playlist featuring lots of Coldplay & Ellie Goulding. Oh deep joy. I'm not quite sure how that'll fit in with 'anything from the R1 dance chart and nothing too cheesy' but I'll give it a bash. I always say I try to keep an open mind but right now it smells like the kind of gig I'd turn down.
I reckon I'll have a decent one tonight (he says with fingers crossed!)
It's a DIY wedding in a village hall and I had to have a slight laugh to myself. I am no snob at all but the place looks absolutely lovely (been there before) and they have transformed it really well. With the blue uplighting too, it looks great. Tables decs, chair covers...yep, all looks lovely but then there are bottles of red and brown sauce on each table place.
They are all having fish and chips and mushy peas for the wedding breakfast which I personally think is great and a bit different.
Last song of the night? - Black Lace - Superman.
Full report as usual tomorrow.
7.00pm - 11.00pm job too and a good payer so it should be a good one. Only 1 pre-request and that's the first dance (Aerosmith).
I know where you're coming from, Gary. I had one like that a couple of years ago. When I set up, the hall was bare, and friends and family turned it into somewhere to be proud of. The wedding " cake "? A three tier pork pie!! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Shakermaker Promotions
We had a great night, hope you do too.
Last night's wedding was umm.. ahhh... awful but I got to leave my gear setup because today's wedding breakfast was upstairs. So that's what I did, but there was a slightly earlier start than usual. A good 45 minutes early actually. So at 6.15 people started appearing in the room & then after 35 or so folks showed up that was it until way after half past seven. Loads of kids there & I called out on the mic to see if I could get some parents to do their rightful duty & stop their offspring putting their fingers into the cake. Oh dear. Too late. Notmyfault.com. As if by magic, the prescribed 80 chairs had bums on them & we were ready to go full tilt (ha!)
Cake cut & first dance were originally timetabled for 8.30pm but that was hauled forward half an hour. Played the nice Mr Sheeran's record & then absolutely struggled to get anybody but a small child on the floor until 10pm when I decided it was time to send the playlist to a fiery disco grave. The trigger track wot totally filled the floor? Oh just Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - December '63 (Oh what a night). 70s prevailed for half an hour while I avoided some of the right cheese of that era (cheese avoidance was my remit for the eve, but whose definition? I took it as meaning no actions songs & I had no complaints).
All bar 5 of the assembled people were dancing away happy as Larry when a harridan approached to castigate me for not having played Uptown Funk more than ten times (or something). Found a spot, played Uptown Funk.. cleared the floor. Back to 1970s disco stuff then. And then 1980s, then 90s... which didn't go down as well as the 70s so I went even further back in time. Ah 50s & 60s rock & roll. Almost overdid it with the continuous nature of the fast paced music (I just love mixing with that stuff).. then back to the present day for a while... then some of the recentish higher energy material like 'I've got a feeling'... As if by magic a dance-off had appeared so out came the Nevins remix of 'It's Like That'. Body popping ensued & a shiny suit or two polished the tiled floor nicely.
Approaching 11.30pm & mr Groom came over to ask for Uptown Funk to be played (that'd make the 4th time, maybe it'll stick this time!), Coldplay 'Sky Full Of Stars' and Ellie Goulding 'Starry Eyed'. I thought we'd had a good run & it was a pity to spoil it, but Coldplay's track didn't thin the dancefloor much, nor did ms Goulding. Uptown Funk however... flopped yet again - but at least this time the B&G were going with it.
From there we found ourselves in indieish land with She's Electric, James Sit Down & James' 'Laid'.
What? Uptown Funk AGAIN Mrs Bride? Ok, I'm breaking all of my own rules here.. and this time... it went down well. Wow. If you fling enough of the brown smelly stuff some of it's gonna stick eventually. Oh well done everybody. Next up, I stuck my neck out a bit & whapped out Basement Jaxx' 'Do Your Thing' which the groom absolutely loved (he did the running man non-stop for the whole track.. heh). followed by Morales' 'Needin' You'... Oh eek.. need to find a last tune. Somebody pops up out of nowhere with the bride & asks for The Doobie Brothers' 'Long Train Runnin' for the last song. I ask the bride if she's sure, and she is... so there we go.
A great save of what everybody thought was going to be an absolute downer of a night. I won't take all the credit - a couple sitting near the DJ pulpit actually did a lot of cajoling people to get up - but when they were up they were up :)
Oh and lest I forget.. before playing the last song I got the bride's name wrong! DOH! This was apparently doubly funny for the guests because Stacey is often called Tracey. Big thanks from all.
Only one wedding for me next week (phew) then I'm off to sunny Brum for the BPM show and a very well earned night out (I hope).
I did actually thanks and I am still buzzing and can't sleep.Quote:
Originally Posted by Excalibur
It was a good night.
When I got to the venue at 6.30pm for a 7.00pm start they were running a bit behind. I'd set up a separate Alto combo amplifier for their background music and wireless microphone for speeches. I'd shown someone how to use it in the morning but they decided not to have background music in the end. Luckily I was there earlier than usual as they left the batteries in the microphone and had it turned on all day and drained them. I quickly sorted that and then after that there was another delay whilst they cleared and moved the tables.
We caught up on a bit of time and I did about 10 minutes of background music before the cake cutting and first dance(s).
Surprisingly they didn't all get up to the likes of Marry You, Happy, Shake It Off, Black Magic etc but it was a healthy reaction. The 90's stuff did the trick with Five, Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, B*Witched, S Club 7, Peter Andre, Will Smith, Mark Morrison, Chaka Demus & Pliers and Montell Jordan filling the floor.
A few 70's and 80's tracks and the 'action' dances and the time was flying by.
I did notice that there were a couple of 'too cool for school' guys that were near to the front of the stage. I wish people would realise that although they may be out front and the music is loud, I can still hear what they're saying and I can also lip read too (somehow I have learnt that over the years). They weren't very complimentary about the music but I was playing what the customer wanted. These guys didn't come up and request anything but thought it better to just pull faces at almost everything I played and laugh. I'll be honest......it was really starting to :Censored: me off when usually it wouldn't. I guess it was the smarmy looks on their faces.
Come on.... It was a DIY wedding in a village hall and it was cheesy music. It wasn't Cream or the Ministry of Sound for gawd sake!
If the night's music hadn't impressed them so far.....well, the final song of the night would definitely be the final nail in their coffin.
I announced that it was the final song and asked everyone, even if they'd been sat down all night and even if they were 'too cool for school' to join the Bride & Groom on the dance floor for something different.....Yes, it was Superman and everyone apart from those 2 guys joined in. The looks I got from them were of total disgust.
It really was winding me up by now. Everyone else was having a great time apart from them.
When that final song finished there were chants of "one more" so I played Madness - Baggy Trousers and then that was it.
Packing down and getting everything out of the venue was a total nightmare. Kids running around, people standing in the way, people waiting outside for taxis so I couldn't get the van near the front doors....but then I noticed a side gate. I thought it was locked earlier but now it wasn't. Driving through that meant that I would avoid everyone else and I was almost right near the stage so getting the stuff to the van was very easy in the end.
But..... Guess who was outside in that area having a cigarette?.....Yep! Those 2 guys. I was right all along. One of them (the smarmiest of the two) couldn't help opening his mouth as I walked past them with some equipment. "Didn't think much of your music" he said...."Oh, really....why's that?" I asked....."It was cheesy crap" he replied...
"That's what the Bride & Groom wanted so that's what they got" I said...."You could've requested something instead of moaning about it all night"
"I wasn't moaning" he said...."Come off it, I could hear and see you mate" I said....He just laughed and said "Fair play" and it was left at that but to be honest, I was ready for a proper barney with him. It's been a while since something affected me like that but the way they were all evening was if they were belittling me and I didn't like it.
I'd just got the last bits in the van and the Bride came out and hugged me and said "Absolutely brilliant. Thanks so much"...
I looked over my shoulder at the 2 guys and just smiled at them.