Good Gig, Bad Gig.

Why would the owner be annoyed about that? Surely the food has been paid for regardless?

I did a very rare early set up yesterday partly because the venue isn't the easiest and partly because it was also a buffet type meal after the ceremony so if I'd gone in at the turn round for that I'd have been hanging around from 4 until half 8 twiddling my thumbs (no mcdonalds or anything or the sort in the vicinity of this particular country club :D )

Was a really good night save for the token end bell.

Going round at the start asking folk what sort of stuff they were into and this prat pipes up with "just get the wolfetones on." :rolleyes:

To which I replied: Sorry bud I don't play any football, religious or politcal tunes.

"Aye but I bet you'll play simply the best" (charmer he was)

As I said mate, I'm not going to play anything that will potentially get me punched in the face from a Rangers or Celtic fan so no, no simply the best either.


Everyone was having a blast, particlarly the bride and her pals and there was a good vibe in the room. She'd asked for quite a lot of off beat 60s and 70s 2 step type stuff.

End Bell comes over stinking of red wine at this point: "do you think this is a reggae crowd?"

Just playing what your host has requested mate and most people seem to be digging it.

"get something good on - my mum wants mo town"

I played plenty of mo town for her earlier on mate and she didn't dance.

"yeah she didn't feel like it then but play some now even if you just play the same stuff again" :daft:

Slipped in some different mo town and yet again mum couldn't be arsed getting up.

The bride then asked for quite a lewd r n b tune. I reminded her there were a lot of older folk in the room and she said just to go for it. Before dropping it I stopped th emusic and for everyone (and my businesses :D ) sake I asked the bride over the mic if she definitely wanted this next one played. Yup so on it goes

End Bell is over like a shot quite angry at this point: "why are you playing something that will offend folk and send them home?"

You just heard me on the mic pal - the girl that's paying me wants it, end of the day - it's her wedding.

He started ranting and raving away and at this point I was ready to tell him to :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored: off but an uncle came over, apologised to me for his prat of a nephew and escorted the gent away.

The last I seen of him he was up bouncing around to all the rubbish tunes I was playing in the last 2 hours :D


Bride and groom were very happy (:Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored: whoever that was when the bride got wind that someone had complained about the tune she asked for) rest of the guests were happy and a number of them apologised for the prat making me think he's got form. Just a shame people have to take time out of an enjoyable evening to try and make ammends for someone that can't hold their drink.

Off to stirling for another one tonight with a broad range of requests and my new moodlighting.

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Originally Posted by Jim - Scotland's Party DJ

Why would the owner be annoyed about that? .

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Cos the blighters were drinking bugger all, either. It's a certainty the bar wasn't covering staff wages.

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Originally Posted by Jim - Scotland's Party DJ

Surely the food has been paid for regardless?

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Waste of time, waste of effort, and waste of food if she couldn't find a good home for it. I'm not surprised she was cheesed off.

On the bright side, she was very impressed with me, and asked for a card. :)

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

I was booked till eleven thirty, the B&G left before nine...

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The B&G leaving seems to kill the party (unless you've been really lucky with the rest of the guests). I've been to a few weddings where the B&G have left at 11:00 and the party isn't set to finish until midnight, but in each case the big departure has started a mass exodus of guests, regardless of how much warning I've given them of the plan for the night.

On to my weekend... Friday night saw me at my local community centre for a 21st with Karaoke. The birthday girl at this one was clearly a bit of a party animal and her friends had her night planned, starting with a surprise limo from her home to the venue (meaning that she, and half the guests, didn't turn up until 30mins after the 7:30 start time). Bit of moderate dancing before the buffet and quite a bit more after to the supplied playlist of chart, R&B, reggae and dancehall, but the Karaoke stayed quiet until the last 45mins when I suddenly had a bunch of requests for tunes. However, I only got to the second set of singers when the police arrived...

Except it wasn't the police, it was just a guy dressed in uniform with a truncheon, a bottle of baby oil, some whipped cream and a banana, and we all know where this is going.... This was the birthday girls mates in action again and no-one else had a clue that they'd planned it. I went with the flow though, Sexy and I know it, followed by a bit of Tom Jones and Donna Summer to give him something to work with ;) This took me up to the last 8mins of the night so I had to can the Karaoke and very rapidly get into the last two requested songs - and then cut them short as a fight broke out between the brithday girls boyfriend and the girls who had booked the stripper and the venue called an end to the night. I'm back there next Friday for a 50th which is going to seem tame by comparison (I hope!) but I bet the venue staff have a few stories to tell...

Saturday night was a netball presentation evening and party at the bar attached to a Gym on the floating Harbour with lovely views across the Avon. And a footpath that runs right beside the floor to ceiling windows of the function room. A steady night with a good crowd and a 1:00am finish that got some use from the majority of the guests. Note to self : work out a strategy to deal with drunk locals deciding to camp outside the function room and watch the party through the window (the netball girls attracted some unwanted attention). I also need to sort out my AKG Mic - it hasn't been quite the same since it got dropped at a 30th a few weeks ago and now randomly makes loud popping sounds. It might have just come to the end of it's life from being abused in the hands of punters.

Julian

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Originally Posted by DJ Jules

. It might have just come to the end of it's life from being abused in the hands of punters.

Julian

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Blimey Julian, there's never a dull moment at your gigs, is there? Netball teams, Police, Baby Oil and whipped cream? I'm tempted to make a topical joke which might just cross the line re politics, so I won't. Otherwise I'd make it, then have to remove it, and severely censure myself, so it's probably not worth it. :)

Re microphones, radio microphones, and Karaoke, I know it's a fair wodge of money, but I'm currently very pleased with this Linky

Mine wasn't brand new, and initially I had issues with an annoying hum, which turned out to be caused by using a wrong power supply. I was sent the correct one, and it's working a treat. They're not Sennheiser quality, but the big plus as far as I'm concerned is that the transmitters can be replaced for a sensible sum.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DJ Jules

I also need to sort out my AKG Mic - it hasn't been quite the same since it got dropped at a 30th a few weeks ago and now randomly makes loud popping sounds. It might have just come to the end of it's life from being abused in the hands of punters.

Julian

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Funny enough - I got fed up of my (third) set of AKG's a couple of weeks ago and replaced them.

Don't get me wrong - they're fantastic mic's (OK - a little loud with barrel noise until you get used to how to hold them)....but taxis interfering a couple of weeks ago and the popping noise you describe....time to look elsewhere.

I went for these Linky Linky

They have a rechargeable battery in them and you can plug two at a time into the back of the receiver to charge whilst working. For KAM mic's...I'm actually quite impressed with the quality too. I now sound a bit like Barry White :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Imagine

Funny enough - I got fed up of my (third) set of AKG's a couple of weeks ago and replaced them.

Don't get me wrong - they're fantastic mic's (OK - a little loud with barrel noise until you get used to how to hold them)....but taxis interfering a couple of weeks ago and the popping noise you describe....time to look elsewhere.

I went for these Linky Linky

They have a rechargeable battery in them and you can plug two at a time into the back of the receiver to charge whilst working. For KAM mic's...I'm actually quite impressed with the quality too. I now sound a bit like Barry White :)

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I heard my voice via my trusty ancient Trantec last night.. with my bass bin for the 1st time. The assistant DM was waiting to talk to me & the look on her face was priceless when she heard my mic check with the new setup.. as was mine I think. Her jaw actually dropped :rofl:

Last post on this subject as I don't want to derail this thread...

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

Re microphones, radio microphones, and Karaoke, I know it's a fair wodge of money, but I'm currently very pleased with this Linky

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That's how much each of my AKG sets cost when I bought them 4 years ago :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Imagine

Funny enough - I got fed up of my (third) set of AKG's a couple of weeks ago and replaced them.

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I've been thinking about reworking my Mic/Wireless DMX setup for a while now as at present the two mic receivers, the mics and the USB/DMX box and wireless transceiver all live in the same flight case which is about to fail... I'm still on my first set of AKG's and they've lasted about four years now, despite frequent use at kids parties. I'm reasonably sure that the popping noise is due to a cable issue inside the handheld mic, as it met with an accident when the birthday girl at a party a few weeks back did a Mic drop and then a very drunk punter tried to screw the head back on (on a dark dance floor) which resulted in the cables between the head and the PCB being severed. It's either that or it's the power/mute switch or the battery contacts failing (could be either) as the bangs always coincided with the mic being put down on my stand.

I'm probably thinking 19" rack mounted with either a quad system (like the Kam or Chord sets above), or a pair of something with less handling noise (like Shure/Sennheiser) for speeches and the current AKG's for Karaoke. Add a drawer for Mic storage and the DMX kit and I'm done. Whatever I get needs to have a headset/beltpack option - I do too many kids parties to have only handhelds.

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Originally Posted by juski

I heard my voice via my trusty ancient Trantec last night.. with my bass bin for the 1st time.

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For us blokes with deep voices, there's quite a surprising amount down low that gets attenuated with a standard set of tops - makes you wonder what we're missing from the music ;)

Julian

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Originally Posted by DJ Jules

Last post on this subject as I don't want to derail this thread...
Julian

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Good point. I'll make a sticky over in Equipment discussion. I'll add to it later when I come back in.

So, I was double booked tonight thanks to my residency letting me know too late, so I got a friend of a friend to cover my residency for me so I could honour my private booking - a 30th birthday party with dance & RnB.

I'd never played this venue before so did a recce the other night after work. Easy loadin - straight out of the van onto my trolley & in. Woohoo! Setup-wise I had everything bar the kitchen sink. Two powerflowers, 2 scanners, gigabar, WashFX, hazer, equinoxy screen, alto ts115 active tops & my new (to me) subwoofer. Boom boom! Holy cow how did I ever manage without that bin?

Anyway, virtually no dancing took place (bar chair bopping) til after the food but when they got up, I had em up til finishing time. Bar staff & bar manager loved the setup & the music, as did the customer. Bar staff asked how much I was charging them. She gave me a look which told me I was too expensive but hey I'm not prepared to go out for any less.

So, after finishing at 11 on the dot, I literally chucked everything in boxes (I've got some real sorting out to do tomorrow), got loaded into the van & hightailed it off to my residency to pay my standin. O M :Censored: G :O

Sitting down DJ. Passive 10" speaker cabinets held together with gaffer tape. Lights on the table. ON THE TABLE! Spot boxes on the floor covered by black cloth. Really tinny sound. I spoke to the DM.. the venue are NOT at all happy & I can't say I blame them at all.

This, needless to say, was not the bloke I arranged to cover for me. I am FUMING. Still, a lesson learned.

Wow....just wow! That one took me back to my early days in this job.

People up for a party, lots of dancing, lots of appreciation, no drunken abuse....an absolute pleasure :)

Tonight saw me just 2 minutes from my front door in the village social club for a 40th birthday. Now this isn't your average run of the mill social club: it was built in 1990 by people in the village, holds around 200 people and has a huge low level stage. Access is an absolute dream, the staff are friendly....and I don't get to work in there much because I'm one of the dearer chaps in the area....hey ho!

Tonight - a 40th for one of my fellow villagers. This young lady was a bit worried about having a party initially as she didn't think she'd fill the venue or that people wouldn't turn up. It took quite a bit of persuasion to get this one off the ground.

Hubby took over the playlist during last week, and it suddenly emerged that it was to be an 80s/90s night....game on!
Email from hubby last week along the lines of "I see you have a lot of old fashioned lighting...could you bring those and come in fancy dress?". Do bears do their business in wooded areas? :o

So, hottest day of the year so far and I rock up with the full 16 feet of light screens. Boy...it was hot behind that little lot. I'd forgotten how much heat they generated. But I have to admit, they looked resplendent set up on the stage in their sound-to-light majesty.

Just to give a little more light to the event, I took along a brace of Dualizers (master/slave in S2L mode) and an ImpossiLED. I don't generally like "dots" but in for a penny. With a little haze the overall effect was impressive.

So to the music. What can I say? I had a 6 hour playlist for a 4 1/2 hour party, but the birthday girls' hubby was happy for me to use that as a guide only, realising that guests would want to make requests as well. I played a few from his list but to be honest, they were never going to be floor fillers. I soon went off piste and rammed the floor. It didn't matter what I played....these guests were well and truly up for a party.

Now I should mention here that I felt under more than just a little bit of pressure on this one. Most of the guests are personal friends, and to be working in front of people that I see and speak to on a regular basis to me, just adds to the fear of it all going belly up. I needn't have worried.

Eventually got to the end of the night and asked the bar to turn on the house lights at the end of the last song (we all wanted to go home and this lot would have definitely been "one more, one more" had we not have worked this way). They shook my hand saying it's one of the best nights they've ever worked.

Lots and lots of compliments from guests at the end of the night congratulating me on a job well done. I feel I may well be working locally a little bit more in the future.

Now finally unloaded (I'd forgotten how much the 80s kit weighed as well!), home and enjoying an ice cold beer or two before retiring....night all from a very happy DJ :)