Sounds like you had an interesting weekend...
I have a pair of those 705AS Subs and have only used them 3 or 4 times now but when I do they don't half sound nice...
Peter, you're kind of right and wrong when it comes to my gig last night being a good 'un.
The equipment was set up already from Friday's booking so I had a pretty laid back day just chilling out and continuing my painting of the house. I sauntered down to the hotel for the engagement party and arrived a good 30 minutes before I was due to start. On arrival I was met by the Manager who asked if she could have a "quick word". Firstly she handed me a present and gave me a hug and said thank you (I'd put in uplighting as a surprise for her dinner a couple of weeks ago and she loved it) and then she told me that the 'mother' had already had a bit of a moan about something that was actually very trivial. I reassured the manager that I was determined to not give this 'lady' anything to moan about.
Now, as I've mentioned beforehand already, I never got a chance to meet the couple or anyone involved before this booking. They didn't feel the need to. When I walked into the room there was a table of women already sat down chatting. I would later find out that one of them was the 'mother'. As I walked to my kit I looked over and said "Good Evening" and then did what I needed to get things up and running even though it was still early. I could hear them chatting in the background and then someone mentioned "DJ" which had me ears wiggling....."That DJ is amazing" said a voice...."We were here on New Years Eve and he was brilliant" it continued. I made out that I'd ignored it but it filled me with confidence and a minute or so later the 'mother' came over and said hello. I chatted with her to see if there was anything specific she wanted me to do during the night such as announcements etc but she said she didn't really want any fuss made and not to focus on the couple too much..........
:muppet::muppet: Hold on! Hold on!....."Not to focus on the couple too much..."??? So, an engagement party isn't focusing on them enough? Flyers saying "Save the date, 1st July 2017" isn't focusing too much?
Well, just before the start time of 7.30pm in walked a mass of young ladies and guys. All of the ladies were dressed up in the tightest dresses ever but the guys didn't look like they'd made much effort. I was still trying to guess who the couple were half an hour later. I asked the staff if they knew - Nope! I couldn't get to speak to the 'mother' as she was busy. The lights were still on in the room and as I walked over to the bar to see if we could get them off or lowered a bit to create an atmosphere I heard "Not yet, we're taking photos!!" bellowing from the other 'mother'.....(can you guess what's coming?)......The first 'mother' came up to me and asked if I could get the lights turned down. I said I was just about to do that but was told to hold on. She huffed and said "Ok"...... About 10 minutes later the lights were lowered and a little cheer went up.
So, judging by the look of the younger section of the crowd I guessed that the couple must be 19...possibly 20 at a push. They could have been younger than that....they probably were. I still had no idea who was who until a girl came over and asked for a song. I took the opportunity to ask her and she pointed them out....eventually!
I was trying my best here. I congratulated them over the mic, got everyone to cheer and told them to request away. For the first 90 minutes the response was 'ok' but I did notice the 'mothers' dancing to almost everything so I thought "You've got nothing to moan about with reference to me" (hopefully).
The dance floor started to fill with the younger brigade and then the moment came which in all honesty had me holding my tongue.....
Everyone was getting into it. I was playing the likes of Bruno Mars, Usher, Fleur East etc when a young lady came over and asked for Kanye West - Gold Digger. "The bride to be wants you to play this next" she said.....I told her that I couldn't play it just yet. I only had the explicit version anyway but there were a lot of older ladies (in their 70's and 80's by the looks of it) who were on the dance floor too at the time. A couple of songs went by and then a couple of the girls came over again and said exactly the same thing...."When are you playing Kanye West? She wants it on next"... I told them the exact same thing. I could see the 'Bride to be' dancing and every time a song came to the end and a new one started and it wasn't Kanye, she would just make a face...
She eventually came over and said "Why haven't you played it yet?" I told her what I'd told the other girls. I said that I had no problem playing it at all but I didn't want to offend or upset any of her family or guests.... She said ":Censored:them! It's my party, I'm the one that matters so just play it" - I said nothing but when I did eventually play it I covered myself properly, explaining with humour that the Bride to be wanted to hear it etc etc..... The looks on some of the faces in there as the girls all sung along.
Drake followed as did Fetty Wap and a few others along the same lines. The girls filling the dance floor in dresses that looked like they'd been painted on absolutely loved it but others didn't and I was wary of that. The lady that I'd heard big me up about New Years Eve at the beginning of the night came over and wasn't too impressed, telling me that there were others who wanted to dance but not to the "rap crap". I reassured her that the genre was changing soon but she still didn't look happy. She was back on the dance floor a few songs later dancing along to Abba, Dirty Dancing megamix and more.
So, if I were rating this booking on dance floor activity then it would be a decent score but it was definitely one of those bookings where you try your hardest to please everybody but deep down you know that you can't or haven't. When the older guests were dancing a handful of younger ones would. When the younger ones were filling the dance floor the older ones would sit there and you could see they were dying to get up. For the last 90 minutes I decided to go for it and the dance floor was packed with both as Queen, Blues Brothers, Tina Turner, Bon Jovi, DJ Casper etc all got everyone involved.
Just as I was playing Tina Turner as the last song of the evening the Bride to Be came over again and told me she wanted Black Street - No Diggity as the last song.... Ok treacle, you know best. Not the best track to finish a party on in my opinion but if you want it then fair enough....As I made the announcements and got everybody to congratulate them and they all cheered and the intro started, a woman sat nearby got up and almost ran over to me asking me what I was playing!? "Shouldn't you be finishing with something a bit more upbeat?" she asked... I then tried to explain to her that I would normally do that but the Bride to Be wanted it so that's what I was doing. The woman shook her head and walked off back to her table. When I'd finished and was packing down I made a point of speaking to her. I asked if she'd enjoyed her evening and she said yes.
It was a decent night but I never once spoke to the Groom to Be (if that's what you call them?). He didn't come over or even acknowledge me. Despite bowing to the Bride to Be's every request despite what others thought about her choices and knowing that it might be hard work, she didn't thank me at the end of the night either and the 'mother' who'd been on the dance floor for 99% of the evening got her stuff together and walked right past me without saying anything or acknowledging I was there.
I think this one was a classic case of 'Do what you're paid to do and do a good job'.... I'm sure if I'd done anything wrong then they'd have had no problem bringing it up and highlighting it. It wasn't one of those where I was going to get applauded or thanked because I did what I was there for.
I do find it annoying though when the couple you are bigging up all evening can't even be bothered to talk to you (well one of them anyway).
I also think that in future I will actually insist that I meet in advance so I know what is required and that they know the way I work. This is the first time in a very long time where I didn't meet the customers in advance and there were little things during the night that told me I should have insisted but hey, it's all done now and congratulations to them. The wedding should be interesting but it won't be me doing it.....
