Good Gig, Bad Gig.

Last night was... another anonymous wedding. Oh and it was being videoed in 4k. Yay! My intros etc were top notch this time though, and the crowd of supposedly 160 (160?! In that little room? HA! More like 100) were receptive.

One slightly annoying thing before I started though - the DC input socket on my ancient Trantec receiver had decided it'd had enough. Not to worry - I've got a gas soldering iron in the van & some screwdrivers.. should only take a few minutes to sort! Nope. Could I shift the screws holding the board inside the case? Nah! Still, I managed to wedge a part of the top of a pen in & get it to stay on that way, so my backup mic could remain just that. Phew.

The first dance was the utterly pedestrian John Leg End with 'All of me' & from there the room numbers were wiped out until after the buffet. I got things going nicely after that then a very cocksure gent decided it was time to harrass the DJ with a barrage of requests. For songs from the 1950s. They all went down really well & I filled the gaps nicely. Had he been more polite about the whole thing I'd have been happier about it. On a scale of 1-10 the drunkenness of the crowd was probably a 20. After about an hour of that they started to lose interest to I brought things back up to date.

11pm.. "Where's my other requests?! I asked you to play 8 songs & you've still not played 3 of them. I've been sitting down all night waiting for them". No. She hadn't been sitting down at all & the reason I hadn't played all her requests was either that I thought they'd go better later or not at all.

Onwards towards last orders we took in Griggs & a smattering of 90s dance including Set You Free & JX's 'There's Nothing I Won't Do'... and then wound things down.

Would it be too much trouble for a bride or groom to thank anybody when it's all done? Apparently yes. Ah well.

Onwards to the next production line McWedding.

Had a lovely time last night. Excellent weather and I was preparing for the worst case (everybody outside), but far from it!
From start to finish people were up dancing, venue staff were lovely, a nice chilled environment in a barn = my type of wedding, book me in all year round.

Had some lovely comments about my MR&MRS sign outside the barn and with no outside lighting I think they needed them to light up the field (not so fun packing it away with a torch).
And I didn't have some stuffy hotel manager come up to me and say "what if they fall over" despite being on uneven ground with twigs and stones trying to get in my way! It's days like this that make me wonder why I work in some hotels. Don't get me wrong, some hotels are great. I just feel so much more at home with specific wedding venue's like barns etc.

I just got one of these for those tricky dark derigging jobs
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251878423389

Blimmin brilliant. When I finished loading the van last night I spent a few minutes playing with it in the castle grounds. It easily outdid the installed uplights! Go for theRGB option, add wireless DMX.... :D

Further to the tale of last night I take my hat off to Sam who was on night porter duty at the hotel. He had to endure the crowds banter & portable speaker til godknowswhen o'clock.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by juski

I just got one of these for those tricky dark derigging jobs
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251878423389

Blimmin brilliant. When I finished loading the van last night I spent a few minutes playing with it in the castle grounds. It easily outdid the installed uplights! Go for theRGB option, add wireless DMX.... :D

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Now thats worth looking at for my sons Rodeo Bull business.

Any idea how long the battery lasts?

thanks

ALAN

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CRAZY K

Now thats worth looking at for my sons Rodeo Bull business.

Any idea how long the battery lasts?

thanks

ALAN

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Not had a chance to do a longevity test yet Alan. I doubt the internal battery is very hefty. The thing is light as it is bright.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CRAZY K

Now thats worth looking at for my sons Rodeo Bull business.

Any idea how long the battery lasts?

thanks

ALAN

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From the advert:
Working Time 4 hours (Built-in Li-ion battery, charging and discharging protection, constant current work.)
I'd expect that to be for the small one, as the laws of physics dictate that the larger ones will discharge the battery faster.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by juski

I doubt the internal battery is very hefty..

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And again, from the advert:
Built-in 4400mAh Li-ion battery support working time up to 6 hours.

Very reasonable size in my book.

From another seller Less choice, but keen price on the 20w.


Gary, wish I'd had your gig, that list's not particularly exciting, but I'd have been singing all of them. Nice.

OK, my review.
Like Gary, my venue was hot, very hot. 70th Birthday with a predominantly older mixed age group. I couldn't find anything to populate the floor reliably, and ended up all over the place. There was no forecasting the floorfillers, eg Wonderwall packed the floor, and a lady my sort of age asked for Sex on Fire, which also worked well, and led into a couple more in the same vein. Abba was well received, as was Elvis.

My, but it was hard work. :( Dancers were understandably reluctant in the heat, and no style of music stood out as the one to play. By the last song of the night, I'd actually run out of ideas totally, and had to fall back on NYNY for the final one. Just before that, the client asked for the mic to thank the guests for coming, and also me for doing a good job, which was nice.

Didn't feel like a rewarding night, and the journey home fighting the sat nav didn't help. There are three routes for this one, the long motorway one, the short one, and a middle one. Sat nav wanted to go on the motorway, and when I missed a turn on the short one, it became a battle of wills. Think I lost on points.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

From the advert:
Working Time 4 hours (Built-in Li-ion battery, charging and discharging protection, constant current work.)
I'd expect that to be for the small one, as the laws of physics dictate that the larger ones will discharge the battery faster.



And again, from the advert:
Built-in 4400mAh Li-ion battery support working time up to 6 hours.

Very reasonable size in my book.

From another seller Less choice, but keen price on the 20w.


Gary, wish I'd had your gig, that list's not particularly exciting, but I'd have been singing all of them. Nice.

OK, my review.
Like Gary, my venue was hot, very hot. 70th Birthday with a predominantly older mixed age group. I couldn't find anything to populate the floor reliably, and ended up all over the place. There was no forecasting the floorfillers, eg Wonderwall packed the floor, and a lady my sort of age asked for Sex on Fire, which also worked well, and led into a couple more in the same vein. Abba was well received, as was Elvis.

My, but it was hard work. :( Dancers were understandably reluctant in the heat, and no style of music stood out as the one to play. By the last song of the night, I'd actually run out of ideas totally, and had to fall back on NYNY for the final one. Just before that, the client asked for the mic to thank the guests for coming, and also me for doing a good job, which was nice.

Didn't feel like a rewarding night, and the journey home fighting the sat nav didn't help. There are three routes for this one, the long motorway one, the short one, and a middle one. Sat nav wanted to go on the motorway, and when I missed a turn on the short one, it became a battle of wills. Think I lost on points.

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Yes Sat Nav, I was running late for my THURSDAY job in DORKING which took me just short of 4 Hours -:daft::daft::daft:

-thank you M25 again--

When I hit a roundabout and the sat nav said take junction 3, as I got there I saw what I thought was another sign to rejoin the M25 -- no no no- if I do that I'm .............d

So my brain said go round roundabout again and take second exit--Nope :daft:

Missed the fact that the M25 sign ALSO had a sign below it for where I was going DORKING.

Another 15 minutes delay. I tried to ring my colleagues at the venue---NO :Censored: RECEPTION.

WHAT USE ARE MOBILE PHONES GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I was working on someone else's equipment and the speeches were 30 minutes late all ok.:beer1:

Bit too close for comfort though.:rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

From the advert:
Working Time 4 hours (Built-in Li-ion battery, charging and discharging protection, constant current work.)
I'd expect that to be for the small one, as the laws of physics dictate that the larger ones will discharge the battery faster.



And again, from the advert:
Built-in 4400mAh Li-ion battery support working time up to 6 hours.

Very reasonable size in my book.

From another seller Less choice, but keen price on the 20w.

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That's me told then, but with stuff like this it's best not to take the specs at face value ;) I'll give it a run-down test when I get time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by juski

I just got one of these for those tricky dark derigging jobs
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251878423389

Blimmin brilliant. When I finished loading the van last night I spent a few minutes playing with it in the castle grounds. It easily outdid the installed uplights! Go for theRGB option, add wireless DMX.... :D

Further to the tale of last night I take my hat off to Sam who was on night porter duty at the hotel. He had to endure the crowds banter & portable speaker til godknowswhen o'clock.

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Ahh I was daydreaming about one of those, and a head mounted torch! What power version do you have?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ukpartydj

Ahh I was daydreaming about one of those, and a head mounted torch! What power version do you have?

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10W. It's easily bright enough for all the jobs I need it for. First & foremost a little marquee gig next month where the staff helpfully pull the plug when they leave.