Good Gig, Bad Gig.

I know if someone told said to me that they did a gig that was....

• An 18th Birthday
• In a local Football club
• Came in through needadisco
• Wrong date on the original enquiry
• Wrong age and sex as well (listed as Female 21st, turned out to be Male 18th which caused a bit of confusion!)

I'd probably think, low pay, rubbish night, trouble. But I'd be wrong :D Last night was pretty good in every sense - above average pay, lovely family, considerate guests, great crowd and a busy dance floor from 8:30 to midnight!

I could do with a few more gigs like this one! The pre-event request list was spot on with some tunes that I haven't heard in years (Gwen Stefani, Fergie, Estelle, BEP and a few others) and quite a few that were a bit left field (Nathan Carter, Pulp, James, Rusted Roots, Evanescence and more) but the guy had his friends spot on and they all went down a storm.

Julian

Wedding reception for a great couple last night - they'd chosen American Authors - Best Day of My Life as their first dance, and that I only got to find out on Friday. Turned up slightly earlier than my usual time only to find the speeches were still going. At 6.20pm they were still going. Still, plenty time to catch up with the staff who I'd not seen for a while and find out that several of the party had been utter pains in bums all day long. Ah deep joy, I thought... they're gonna be fun on a stick!

Eventually the room was cleared & I set about installing my gear. People started filing in at around 7.30 & we edged towards cake cutting time. The assembled guests took a lot of geeing up to produce any kind of enthusiasm - the intro for the first dance almost had to be repeated their reaction was so lukewarm. Thankfully once the B&Gs well rehearsed dance routine got underway the crowd were more receptive. Until the end, where they again had to be prompted to applaud & cheer.

Onwards to the task of getting people up to dance. Very few requests, and even then some were from very rude people demanding their song be on next... but after the carvery buffet (!) things eventually got nicely going. And then died off to almost nothing.. and then back to full-on again... and repeat until there was only an hour left to go. Mr Brightside by Green Day was one request and it absolutely decimated a full floor to little bits (Yeah I know who did it but the lady who requested it wasn't having it that it was done by The Killers). There was a slight incident on one edge of the dancefloor where somebody seemed to be threatening another guest with the cheese board sword (I kid you not - think knife for cheese but about 2 feet long) - I thought "Eek, somebody's gonna get decapitated with that thing".. but happily it was defused pretty quickly. Most of the requests were just off the wall.. I Can't Dance by Genesis (why the hell did I have that?!) - Walk Like An Egyptian - Walk The Dinosoar... pretty much definitely not standard fayre & all well received. Oh, and one for Black Lace's Conga.. What the heck.. I turned off all the safetys & I think we got away with it.

Gave the B&G another 'big up' near the end - this time completely effortlessly and then again just before the last song. Come finishing time I was so tired that de-rigging & packing up took an absolute age, but on the last trip back from the car I bumped into the groom who shook my hand & thanked me profusely. Which was nice.

Next weekend I'm doing something completely different - it's another one of those times I'm being let out into the world at large.. this time a rugby club not too far from where my day job is.

A joint 40th Birthday party on Saturday night whilst working with a band. Turned up a few weeks ago to perform a site visit, got an idea of how the room would be laid out and access. Of course when I turned up for the gig, I had to gain access via a different route, and the room was set out completely different to what I was told, and rather poorly thought out, to be honest. The main feature of the room is a large fireplace and it made sense to put the band in front of that, with me at a 90 degree angle to them. Turned up on the day and the venue decided that the band and the DJ should be side by side at the end of the room.

A six piece band and me fitting in that space? Yeah, that's not happening. Now don't get me wrong, I am somewhat of an expert in fitting big things into tight spaces, but even I have my limits! So after getting the dancefloor shifted, we all set up, but the band still had to spill out onto the dancefloor as there wasn't enough depth for them.

I received lots of positive comments about the setup from the venue and the band, and the band were happy enough when I gave them an orange wash whilst they were performing. It actually looked pretty good (although it did drown out their own lighting somewhat). They were using Alto Tops and Subs, which I was actually impressed with. I didn't get a chance to look more closely to see which Altos they were, and I would have liked a bit more bottom end, but it still sounded pretty good.

Overall an OKish night. Background music for an hour (so the laptop is on auto), followed by the band's first set for an hour, then me playing whilst the evening food is being served, then the band for another hour and finally me playing for about 45 minutes.

And it was lovely to drive home in the new van. Nice and comfortable. :beer1:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Benny Smyth

Turned up a few weeks ago to perform a site visit, got an idea of how the room would be laid out and access. Of course when I turned up for the gig, I had to gain access via a different route, and the room was set out completely different to what I was told, and rather poorly thought out, to be honest.

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Welcome to the glamorous world of the Mobile DJ, Benny. :bang:

PS. I see you're a resident Antagonist. From memory, I don't think we've had anyone else on here from Antagonia, but I seem to remember a couple of Estonians previously. :D:D

Weird one on saturday.
Access is a :Censored: , and a stair case at the end , you can set up Saturday between 11:30am and 1:00pm.
Disco is booked from 7:00pm.......er thats the time the club opens as well...:mad:
Disco is due to finish at 11:00pm , and the doors are shut and locked at 11:20pm....:mad:
So yet another journey on sunday , pick up gear from 12:00 mid day , not a minute earlier.
So onwards to the gig , 30th birthday party , I did his Mum`s 50th last year , so i new what to expect.
Playlist comprising of three songs , and anytghing from the 80`s and post 2007...:confused:
It was fancy dress , wish I had been told beforehand , the birthday boy was dressed as a stormtrooper (Star wars), as it happens I have the star wars theme on MP3 , that went down well.......
now a question , why do kids like to kick balloons at the disco , then get upset when they burst (accident....:p ) , one woman , who was dressed as a 80`s disco diva , danced to everything I put on, now and again joined by two other friends.
That made the evening bearable , as the bar and buffet were at the other end of the hall and up a few stairs , and that where people headed to , and stayed.
Hate to say this , but now and again , I want to take the money and get home , no real enjoyment, still that's life.

Daryll

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daryll

Weird one on saturday.
Access is a :Censored: , and a stair case at the end , you can set up Saturday between 11:30am and 1:00pm.
Disco is booked from 7:00pm.......er thats the time the club opens as well...:mad:
Disco is due to finish at 11:00pm , and the doors are shut and locked at 11:20pm....:mad:
So yet another journey on sunday , pick up gear from 12:00 mid day , not a minute earlier.
So onwards to the gig , 30th birthday party , I did his Mum`s 50th last year , so i new what to expect.
Playlist comprising of three songs , and anytghing from the 80`s and post 2007...:confused:
It was fancy dress , wish I had been told beforehand , the birthday boy was dressed as a stormtrooper (Star wars), as it happens I have the star wars theme on MP3 , that went down well.......
now a question , why do kids like to kick balloons at the disco , then get upset when they burst (accident....:p ) , one woman , who was dressed as a 80`s disco diva , danced to everything I put on, now and again joined by two other friends.
That made the evening bearable , as the bar and buffet were at the other end of the hall and up a few stairs , and that where people headed to , and stayed.
Hate to say this , but now and again , I want to take the money and get home , no real enjoyment, still that's life.

Daryll

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Ah well Daryll, at least its not like a club we covered where it was demanded the National Anthem was played at the end--- otherwise on pain of not death--just chairs being thrown at the Entertainer.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daryll

Weird one on saturday.
Access is a :Censored: , and a stair case at the end , you can set up Saturday between 11:30am and 1:00pm.
Disco is booked from 7:00pm.......er thats the time the club opens as well...:mad:
Disco is due to finish at 11:00pm , and the doors are shut and locked at 11:20pm....:mad:
So yet another journey on sunday , pick up gear from 12:00 mid day , not a minute earlier.

Daryll

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It really does my head in when venues ate like this! I remember taking on a booking about 60 miles from me last year (last minute) and the venue saying at the end of the night what time are you collecting tomorrow... Err I'm going now with all my kit... Grumble Grumble... Haha nutcases! Would never book a venue like that!

Tonight I was mere minutes from my day job premises for a 40th birthday party. I was covering this on behalf of another forum member (cheers Andy) and...

Yesterday I thought it'd be a good idea to drop round on my way home after work & do a recce. Mannah from heaven, it looked like they had double doors which open right onto the pavement from the room. Wrong! No, the load in was a good few metres. Wish I'd known that before I packed my Ultimax on the bottom of everything. Derrrr.

Even so I managed to load in & get going in just over half an hour.

Now then. This was one tough crowd. Requests ranged from the unsuitable to the unplayable. Jethro Tull would not have gone down too well, I fear.

Buffet time came with only kids having danced up til that point & very little noticable reactions from adults.

After that I achieved a full floor only to destroy it again 2 tracks later. Time marched on & the floor was rammed til I announced there'd only be time for 2 more tunes. What? Ah a request for Chubby Checker now. Still full. I announced the very last song & before I'd even pressed play the floor cleared again. Bah.

A few bars in & the dancefloor was rammed again. No "one more" ... Nowt.

Ok. How did I do? Very well according to the birthday boy & his partner. And a good few other handshakers.

You could've fooled me!
My exit was pretty quick & efficient using the ultimax as a trolley & only took two trips.

I really must fix those :Censored: castors though.

Last night I had a bit of a different one....
It was a wedding for an older couple plus a golden wedding anniversary for the groom's parents. I had visions beforehand of it being hard work. I was told during last week's meeting with the customer that it was a "more mature crowd" and not to expect too much interaction from them.... Excuse me missus...I do a couple of gigs a year for the "more mature crowd"...well, they're so mature they've got one foot in the grave.... Seriously though, it didn't bother me at all. I was pretty confident that I could get them involved at some point.

So, if the wedding and anniversary weren't different enough, so were the proceedings to kick the night into action.
Again, in the meeting the Bride & Groom made it clear that they wanted the whole evening laid back....not with reference to the music, they just didn't want a big fuss made, to be made the centre of attention and so on. They really weren't that interested in a first dance but knew that they had to do one (as they said). I told them that they didn't have to do anything they didn't want to. It was their day and it was up to them. You could tell they did really want to but just didn't want any fuss so they said they had an idea and asked me what I thought.

They said that they'd picked a really bad song (Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On) and they only wanted 30 seconds of it before inviting everyone else on to the dance floor to do.........The Conga!.... "Well......" I said..."That's a bit different". We elaborated on that a bit once I found out that they weren't having a photographer (I usually go on about giving the photographer plenty of time, more then 30 seconds too, to take photos and not wasting money etc).

I did something in Audacity at home and sent them it in the week and they loved it. They actually went from dreading their first dance to "We can't wait to do it now".
I started off with Celine Dion and the flute intro to the song and just as she started singing it slowed right down. Then the Countdown clock came in for 30 seconds before going into The Conga. It worked really well and they loved it.

After that, surprisingly it was a full dance floor for most of the night. It was more of a 'classics' night with not much newer or chart stuff being aired.
There were some children there (mainly young girls) and they were all dancers. I think 2 of them (twin sisters) went to dance school and they were excellent. Meghan Trainor and One Direction were requested quite a lot early on.

It was a really good night and I tried out a couple of different things too for the first time in ages.
I actually got the CA-8 controller out for the Dynamos and that worked well. I also used this wedding as a tester for the X-Moves which I bought ages ago. I took along my Chauvet Obey 70 controller to control them. The X-Moves were on the floor either side of the set up and I used them for the older couple that were celebrating their golden wedding anniversary. They probably didn't take much notice but I found it a lot better being able to control the lighting around them.

I'll start taking them along with me all the time now. It's only an extra 5 minutes set up time.

Attachment 17762

Tried uploading the attachment from my phone last night but it wasn't having it. Can you guess the song that was playing? :lol: