They warmed up.....eventually
I really must look at getting some uplighters for my own stock (my MegaTripars seem to have found their way onto various T-Bars as part of the main show).
Anyway - tonight was a LOT better than last weekend's disaster. Well.....anything's got to be better than that one....at least this lot were in the same room as me :daft:
A combined wedding vow renewal and 40th birthday party.....with a couple of complications.
It was in a theatre complex in the next city, which in effect is only 30 miles across the Fens from me (although it's an hour's drive :o). I was told there was a lift (I was upstairs), and indeed, the client was correct in this fact.
And here comes the first complication.What he didn't realise at the time he booked me (or indeed, until he himself arrived today) is that to get to the lift you had to go through the main downstairs function room. Normally not a problem except there was a HUGE Bangra wedding going on in there.....stairs it is then :( (I don't know what sound system their DJ was using but I had to really crank my Yammys up to warp factor 9 to drown them out!)
Trollied the gear across the car park (the wedding lot downstairs had set up a huge gazebo/field kitchen affair in the car park where I needed to be and were happily cooking up I don't know how many different types of curry on open stoves....smelled wonderful), and into the fire doors, and then up two, yes TWO flights of stairs. Luckily from a little research I knew the room wasn't huge so I was travelling fairly lightly. I've also been doing one of those fitness DVD things during the week....believe me carting the disco up two flights of stairs is a walk in the park compared to that!
So, got set up, met with the clients (we hadn't done any pre-event meetings as they were insisting it was more 40th than wedding reception....happy to go with that) and settled in on background music to await the first dance. And waited, and waited some more. Evening guests were supposed to arrive at 7:30. They were still coming in at 9pm (why can't people turn up on time these days :( ).
Eventually kick off with the first dance, plenty of couples joined them on the floor, then sat down afterwards. I think I may have naturally entered panic mode at this point after last week and could foresee a repeat performance coming up.
Now for the second complication....I was on a strict playlist and for good reason. Their son is severely autistic and reacts to an awful lot of songs/artists. Requests were run past the happy couple/birthday girl before being accepted because of this.
So, I settle into the playlist whilst everyone sits and chats...could be a long one. To be fair, there was a mix of 70s through to chart but not necessarily the type of stuff that gets people up....hey ho!
Then a young girl comes up and asks for "Love won't be denied" by Len Boone. Birthday girl nods approval and I load it up.....BOOM! Full floor.
Now, I'd heard of this phenomenon in the past and forgotten about it (I don't work in Peterborough that often as it's literally infested with Sids. There's literally more cheap DJs there than there are Ratata's in this Pokemon Go thing that's apparently a bit of a popular sensation at the moment), but this track is something of a local delicacy and there's a proper line dance that goes with it. They enjoyed it so much, they asked for it a second time just ten minutes after I'd played it. Who am I to argue if they're going to get up and dance.
On to some 70s disco with little success, 80s...nope, rock (and we're talking Bon Jovi, Europe and in particular Mr Meatloaf), and we're off (thank God!)
Sauntered off somehow into 90s club stuff (Faithless and the like) and kept the few remaining dancers going until the end.
So - not my best by a long chalk (that one's coming on 6th August....I'm looking forward to reporting on that particular wedding), but at least I got them going eventually.
Just the local primary end of term gig this coming week for me, then a couple of well deserved weekends off drinking beer and chilling :)
