Good Gig, Bad Gig.

As im having a hernia op tomorrow ill be sidelined for a month or so, nothing much happening till April so thats good.

Last night was a small Village Hall near Stratford ( on Avon ) I dont do the London one.

As I approached down into the cul de sac rammed with houses I suddenly realised that in my enthusiasm to squeeze a gig in after my holiday and before my op i had forgotten to ask the S word --yes Soundlimiter---doh!

A bigger problem loomed though--no offloading outside the Hall so I had to park between two vans at 90 degrees to the kerb--yes sticking out into the road with a red triangle strategically placed.

Anyway on enquiring they said--Sound Limiter--its so outdated here we havent even got proper wi fi--i think they meant broadband :rolleyes:

Ill take that as a no to Soundlimiter then!!!!

It was a surprise party for a 70 year old who loves Country Music --great stuff --usual surprise surprise entrance followed by a blast of Happy Birthday to the blindfolded Birthday Girl.:D

Not much dancing room and a load of nice Irish people included who were a bit lacking in the rhythm department but not so short on enthusiasm--a predictable request for Galway Girl and for someone who wanted Auntie Mavis to do some irish Dancing--but who hadnt asked her it seemed--so passed on that one.:D

A real mixture of all stuff that I have done over the years including Country, Party, Rock n Roll, Barn Dance, Line Dance and Square Dance and finishing with the inevitable ---

Auld Lang Syne (not Red Hot Chili Pipers) three cheers, Happy Birthday and a lively Country track.

Two bookings on the trot I have finsished with Auld Lang Syne--must be the age group.

A successful evening, even if i had to cajole people to join in---but hey thats what I get paid for:beer1:

Various helpers of all ages to lug out equipment before the hall was locked at the compulsory midnight--ah well at least I got out quickly.

Bonus travelling home is they have almost sorted out the junction of the A14/ M1/M6 near Rugby so its a smooth drive through instead of the usual mucking about for the last 2 years or so.

Time to do some catching up on equipment now including PAT testing.

Good luck with your op Alan. Hope it all goes well. I had an 80's themed 50th birthday party last night in a church hall in Ramsgate which went very well. Several in fancy dress which always helps. Birthday boy was known to me as he is a chef at a Michelin starred venue I work at but he opted to have the party for his friends and family in a humble local venue. Like you it was no sound limiter and an 11 o clock finish; so I was back home by midnight. :-)

Well that was different.
70th birthday in a village hall , 3:00pm until 6:00pm , music from 60`s and 70`s , volume was kept lowish , some members of the family had not seen each other for years , so no dancing , well not much.
It was such a change not to play modern stuff and full on cheese.
Played a few tracks that I had never played before , Dusty Springfield - Little by Little , what a great song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sstODCyoyoE



puppet on a string

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhLlXvkm65Y

telstar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B7ypA1fSwU

and the all time classic , The Avons - Seven Little Girls Sitting In The Back Seat . ( yea I know it`s the 50`s )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDYpr99FgEk

Great day.

Daryll

Bit of a busy week for me which was / is unusual for me at this time of the year.
Phone was going mad this week with enquiries and I had quite a few confirmed bookings with a number of weddings booked including 3 for 2017.

Friday I was at my main hotel residency for a retirement party. It was for a guy that was leaving his job as manager of a local company for 35 years. We'd previously met in October of last year when he booked me to provide the Disco for his colleagues 25th anniversary at the company. I clicked with the pair of them instantly back in October and remember that the party was a good one so I was looking forward to seeing them again, having some banter with them and more importantly giving him a good send off.

There were only 55 guests attending and I'd set up in the morning. For the first hour or so and as they ate I played a mix of 70's and 80's bands that he liked as requested.
The Jam, Rolling Stones, The Specials etc... it was a bit of a mix but I could see some of the guests getting into it although none of them ventured on to the dance floor.
After they'd eaten the main man came over and asked if I could "play some of that up to date rubbish that will get them on the dance floor" so that's what I did and it worked instantly. It stayed like that for the rest of the night until midnight with lots of people coming over and requesting songs. One of the most popular requests was Jason Derulo - Get Ugly. It's a shame that I only have an explicit version of this at the moment so I had to be pretty nifty on the Denon effects to try and cut the MF lines out especially when the main man was insistent that I join in the party with them and have a drink courtesy of the free bar.

This is something I would never normally do however, the function room wasn't being used the following day so I could leave my equipment there safely and I didn't have to go back out again until 4.00pm to set up for Saturday's booking. I didn't over indulge anyway but he was happy that I joined in. A good night!

Saturday saw me promoting again for the first time in years, this time at a small local beer festival. I was given the job following last years successful beer festival.
The organiser paid me to provide the acts, sound and lighting and once again it all went really well. There was a small stage in the venue so I uplit the back of it with 3 of the Equinox battens all linked together on a slow fade which looked pretty cool. I also controlled 4 x Kam RGBLED panels via my Chauvet desk for the front of the stage.
I compered the evening too and introduced the 5 acoustic acts and played music in between from 6.00pm - 10.00pm. A friend of mine provided the PA system as I didn't and couldn't do everything. I was home by 11.00pm so an early Saturday night for me.

Today (Sunday) I have a meeting with a Bride & Groom who are getting married tomorrow!! Yes, the meeting has been left until the last moment....why? Well, firstly because the Bride has recently had a baby boy so it has been pretty difficult trying to get hold of them and secondly, the Groom (a friend of mine) has suffered with a stomach bug all of last week. I am setting up at the venue tonight so am meeting them beforehand. This is a wedding which is an alternative / rock wedding. 7.00pm - 11.00pm on a Monday night in a venue just down the road from me where the ceiling is stupidly, stupidly low....you have to adjust the ultimax top bar so that the uprights are touching the floor and even then it is a squeeze so I have decided that I'll give the top bar a miss this time round and put some pars and a couple of moonflowers on a separate stand instead which should be adequate. It's been on my mind all night and I haven't slept that well because I want to get it right. It's just one of those venues that isn't really suitable for a Disco but hey ho, I've strangely got 3 weddings there this year so tomorrow will be a good tester. Again, strangely....there are guests attending whose weddings I am doing later in the year (different venues) and so the same kind of theme will be on the cards. A bit different to say the least.

Sounds like the ceiling in your venue today is as low as where I'm allowed to set up the disco at 'my' hotel. I'm only about 5'6 & I can almost touch the glass.

Anyhoo, last night saw me doing the first murder mystery night of the year. I set up in the afternoon & came home to eat & get changed etc before venturing back around 9pm. The players & the meal didn't get done until 10.20pm or so. I didn't have to worry about half the customers putting their coats on at disco time because they still had their coats on. It was blimmin freezing in there!

Dancefloor numbers were bad but I was catering to any requests I got no matter what. Hence, New Kids On The Block, Backstreet Boys, Vanilla Ice, a bit of 'rawk' and a smattering of 'soul'. A few nice points - there was a girl whose 21st I'd done there who came over to say hello & gushed about what a great time she'd had.. Then I spotted the photographer from the 80th birthday party at that huge village hall a few weeks ago. Oh, and then the woman who'd had two bands at her 50th birthday party. "I bet you don't remember", she said. "I sent you my whole iTunes playlist". Ah yes, of course I remember that.. all NINE HOURS OF IT :lol: Apparently she's going to get around to filling in the feedback form from.. er... November or something.

Not a bad night, but not one of the greatest either.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shakermaker Promotions

Bit of a busy week for me which was / is unusual for me at this time of the year.

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Alright for some.

Last night marked my last of FOUR consecutive Saturday nights off. Yup - not a single booking for the whole of Feb (and didn't have that many enquiries for Feb bookings either)......and it's been boring :(

A couple of other local guys have had exactly the same problem.

I'm thinking next year I need to look at doing something like reducing prices for February just to keep money ticking in (the "lower end" jocks have been rolling it in for the month). Some money's better than sitting and watching the god-awful dross that's on the telly on a Saturday night :rolleyes:

OK - I've brushed up on some of the admin/response emails/SEO/Website maintenance stuff that needed doing but it doesn't even come close to actually being out there and seeing people enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Hey ho...back out on the road next Saturday for a 70th (and by her own admission she's a young 70). Booked until midnight but she's already admitted I might be finishing as early as 10:30 <eeek!>

Hope it picks up for you.
I couldn't believe just how tight it was for room when I set up last night. I just have the ultimax base, equinox screen (which had to have some wedges underneath as the floor isn't flat) and the plinth with Spherion in the corner and a T-bar with some pars and moonflowers on it in another corner. The ceiling is that low that I had to take my speaker stands down 2 notches and even then it is tight. I feel sorry for the Groom, he is 6ft 6in tall, as is his brother (the best man).

Volume wise, I don't think I'll be above half way...but, the playlist is pretty good though and not a Bruno Mars, Rihanna or Whitney in sight for once!

Well, that's the first wedding of the year done and dusted and it was quite eventful to say the least.
It was good to catch up with a few old friends and see some faces I hadn't seen for a few years too. There were 3 couples in attendance whose weddings I have either done in the past or am doing later this year and a girl whose 30th I am doing in May so you could say I was under the spotlight, well...not really because they have all booked me because they already know what I am like.

So, I arrived at the venue for 6.30pm and on arrival the place was pretty busy already. I turned on all the equipment and got things prepared and then had a chat with a few faces and caught up on a few stories I've missed. I was told whilst chatting that the Bride wasn't feeling too great and had been throwing up during the day. That wasn't a good start. I caught up with the Bride & Groom shortly after and she didn't look good. She'd caught some kind of stomach bug overnight and they even told me that they might have to make an exit after the first dance at 8.00pm. I felt really sorry for them and also thought that should they make an exit, the many guests may do the same?

Well, during the first hour the Bride mingled with the guests a bit until she obviously couldn't hack it anymore. I saw her laid down on one of the sofas with a blanket over her and even though I felt sorry for her I did kind of find it slightly comical when the Groom had to wake her up to tell her that the speeches were going to start.
This was a really laid back affair which was nice. The 2 best men stood in front of the set up doing their speeches which were really funny and then the Groom did his. The cutting of the cake followed and then the first dance(s) followed and from then on it was party time.

As I said in my pre-review (does that make sense?), I doubted whether I'd have the volume past half way and that was exactly the case.
The majority of guests at this wedding (including the Bride and Groom obviously) were all into their Rock, Metal, Punk type stuff. The venue staff had not experienced this kind of thing before so when the likes of Nightwish, Within Temptation, Shinedown, Rammstein, Machine Head and Disturbed to name a few were being played, well...you should have seen the looks on their faces!! I refer to those that just don't get it as being 'scared of guitars'....some people need to realise that the music world doesn't just revolve around the likes of Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Bruno Mars!

Everything went really well actually. I was warned beforehand about one of the Bridesmaids being quite 'gobby' and that she'd give me a good going over about the music because she'd be really insistent....well, that didn't happen... I'd sussed out who she was straight away (she was described beforehand as 'orange' due to the amount of fake tan) and you'd have to be Stevie Wonder not to have known who it was. She came over early on and said..."Are you going to play Rihanna's new single?"
I replied "I bet you're the young lady who is going to give me a hard time aren't you" and she laughed....I told her that I would honestly try to get it on but it was unlikely that it would fit in with the requests I already had. She understood that and didn't bother me again...well, only when a young boy who was sat with he asked if I could play that 'Watch me ne ne" song... She said "Oh, he won't have that!!" and I replied..."I have got it...I play it nearly every week unfortunately" and she laughed. I think we both understood each other.

The Bride perked up a bit and was dancing almost all night. The atmosphere was great even though it was a Monday and from around 9.30pm the numbers started dropping as people with kids left and others followed. By 10.30pm there must have been around 30 left but this venue was small so it still looked healthy. Finish time was 11.00pm and the last song was Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd. As it faded out the ones that were left applauded me and I looked over at the young girl who had been working the bar and I could see the life come back into her. She'd looked bored all evening bless her.

As I said, the place was small and the ceiling was very, very low. When I go back for another wedding in July at least I know the score now. I think I'll use my JBL speakers (floor standing) and use the starcloth instead of the Equinox screens because the floor wasn't even and I had to make sure it wasn't going to go walkabouts as people either held on to it whilst chatting to me or bumped into it whilst dancing. Everything looked fine though and I was out within 30 minutes even though access was difficult.

As I left I joked with the staff that I'd be back tonight to do it all again and they laughed and said "Sod off, see you in July!"

Well, after a very dry February, tonight saw me just 5 minutes from my front door down at the local golf club for a 70th birthday bash.

It was also the first chance to use the new DXR8/DXS12 combo in a real life environment.....WOW!!!!!! (I'm sorry, they really DO break all the laws of physics....how can such small speakers have so much power?????:daft:). To add to the night of "firsts", it was also the first time I'd taken out a fully DMX'd light show (no pressure then).

Anyway, it started a little slowly as myself and the young birthday girl expected with loads of people there she hadn't seen for 20+ years. So, background music consisting of jazz, oldies, a little bit of soul and general non-dancy stuff for the first couple of hours then. No problem....it was expected so I settled in and got on with the job in hand.

Eventually, the buffet's cleared away, the speeches/toasts are done (I've found I need to replace my AKG mics AGAIN due to an annoying interference problem)....and we're off! Big time!

It was a mixed crowd from the very young to the very old. The very young as expected were taken home to bed shortly after 10pm leaving a core of around 40 people (mainly older), and boy were they up for a party. Mainly 70's and 80's, but a full dance floor for the duration and the Yammy's just kept pumping out the sound in vast quantities (the bass from those 12" bins is phenomenal!).

Unfortunately March is mainly kiddies parties until the end of the month when I'm doing the finishing up at a wedding for the final three hours (and THAT one's going to be fun....they're into disco and 90's.....that's it! It's going to be a good night of dancing from what they've said). So, I've got a couple of weeks to refine the DMX programming ready for that one (tonight was the first real test of what I've done so far and I've impressed myself so far).

Onwards and upwards :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Imagine

(I've found I need to replace my AKG mics AGAIN due to an annoying interference problem)....

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I would thoroughly recommend JTS Radio Mikes, had one ten years and the other nearly 5 years fantastically reliable and no issues in all locations other than Portsmouth with Naval Interference I think.

More than could be said for the EV I won in a disco shop raffle.:daft:

I believe the latest KAM are pretty good.