Good Gig, Bad Gig.

Night 2 of 3 Christmas Parties.

Different venue to the previous night.

This one had two different companies, but in two rooms. I had one company, and after the meal, the table on the dancefloor would be moved, with the other group being invited in to my room for the disco. However, the bar was down the other end of the venue! I was also told it was best if my room finished first, so they could get the room ready by the time the other room finished, so they didn't all go straight to the bar never to return.

Two very different companies - one dressed up all smart and sparkly in their best Christmas frocks, and the other turning up in fancy dress with an 'American Theme'!

Of course, my room were late to start eating, and the other room finished well in advance of my room.

10pm and even my room are raring to go (they even slide the table off the dancefloor themselves!!)

I'm then informed that there's to be no drinks on the dancefloor, and I must enforce this. Never enjoy doing that, but the venue is the client, so respect their wishes.

Also, the venue is in the middle of nowhere, and very few of the guests are staying over night. All the warning signs were there for me.

As it was, no problem at all. Music starts, and the guests in my room are away. It takes 20 minutes for the other group to realise the disco is on, but they're there in full force once word gets around.

Every time I ask people to not take drinks on the dancefloor, they happily put it down on the table and return to the dancefloor. What a lovely crowd!

Venue warned that the guests usually leave soon after the meal, and the midnight end is rarely reached.

Fortunately, a full dancefloor until 11:30, when it starts to drop a bit, but everyone left is on the dancefloor for last song - Fairytale of New York, and then they all give a clap afterwards, thank me, and start to leave. No nasty comments for being a rubbish DJ for not playing 'one more song'!

If I could bring these guests to every gig that would be amazing - they were the model guests!

What did interest me was that the venue seemed surprised that I had finished on time, at midnight, as requested. Surely there aren't that many DJs that disregard the playing time they're given?

A great evening - and hoping for more of the same these evening (fingers crossed that all those potential trip wires don't kick in tonight!)

For anyone interested, here's the playlist (100% requests by guests provided during the meal):

DNCE - Cake By The Ocean

Calvin Harris f. Big Sean, Katy Perry & Pharrell Williams - Feels

Robin Thicke f. Pharrell & T.I. - Blurred Lines

Mark Ronson Feat. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk

Walk The Moon - Shut Up And Dance

Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

Chic - Le Freak

Jacksons - Blame it on the Boogie

Aretha Franklin - Respect

Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock

The Beatles - Twist and Shout

ABBA - Dancing Queen

Bee Gees - Night Fever

Dexys Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen

Lionel Richie - Dancing On The Ceiling

Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris - We Found Love

Beyonce - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)

Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber - Despacito

Pharrell Williams - Happy

Haddaway - What Is Love

Theme - Baywatch

Los Del Rio - Macarena

John Travolta - The Grease Megamix (You're the One That I Want-Greased ...)

Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You

Wham - Wake me up before you go go

Bon Jovi - Livin On a Prayer

Kings Of Leon - Sex On Fire

The Killers - Mr Brightside

Queen - Don't Stop me Now

The Pogues feat Kirsty MacColl - A Fairytale of New York

Wayne: All 70's? That's you off my Christmas card list! :mad:

Gavin: Requests? Fingers of one hand.

Christmas party covering for Matty DJ50 at Holiday Inn, Doncaster. Humorously, although I've been there before, and know where I'm going, I ended up at the wrong one. :o:o:o Only ten minutes away, and I was wildly early, so no issues.

I had a party of fifty in a lovely little building, while Matthew had three hundred in the main hotel, and another lad had a party in the restaurant, so it was all hands on deck! I got mine rigged and running, in a very small room between the dining room, and the bar. To be honest, my lights were a tad excessive, but I saw what Matthew uses in there, so didn't want to let the side down. :)

When I saw his rig in the ballroom, well that was just something else. Wow! :bowdown: He had set up the day before, and with two in a row, could leave it in situ. Bloody good job, in my opinion, even though he said he could do it in an hour. The other lad and myself had to pack up as normal.

Mine were a lovely crowd, dancing halfway through the meal. My little room was the access point for the bar and the toilets, so I caught them quite a bit. Once the meal finished, we were away, and joy of joys, the action came from the " over 21s ", :):) We thuis enjoyed a selection of Classic tunes, and many of The Usual Suspects. Very few requests, perhaps five, I think, they seemed very happy with what I was playing.

I was down for a twelve thirty finish, and with low guest numbers, and only a hardcore of dancers, I was worried that they'd burn themselves out early. We had a slump, around last orders, and then a revival after midnight, with Xmas songs and uptempo sing alongs, Brown Eyed Girl, Sweet Caroline, Daydream Believer, et al. The requests for Mr Brightside and Sex On Fire had cleared the floor, earlier, surprisingly. :daft:

A great night for me, lovely appreciative crowd, nice venue and staff, with a very laid back attitude, thanks Matthew. ( PS, don't pass me any for the Ballroom, I can't match that lightshow. :o I do like the little room a lot though. :D )

So that's my three Christmas gigs all complete.

A short run of three Christmas Parties back to back, which was perfect.

Because they're away from where I live, I've enjoyed a rather nice hotel for the last 3 nights. Strangely, it's almost felt like a mini-holiday!

Party number 3 was at the same venue as party number 2, which meant the equipment could be left in situ overnight. That makes such a difference!

Observant readers will have noted some of the potential 'tripwires' this venue could provide in terms of ending up with no-one dancing.

This night sees 3 different companies, each with a separate room for their meal, and then the room I am in (which one company has their meal in) is where everyone comes for the disco after the meal (but a long way away from the bar!).

My room had a fairly typical business - they manufacture a product, so you have a mix of young muscle who do the hard graft, administrators, account managers, and senior management. A fairly youngish company. When I waled in to room number 2 to introduce myself to the guests, the smell of moth balls hit me. It felt I'd walked in to the Christmas Party of the local OAP home! Lovely guests, but I really couldn't see how they were going to 'mix' with the other company, and a few of them were hoping for some 1940s music!

And room number 3 had a small company of 16 people, who fortunately had more in common with my room of guests!

What I have found is that the company who are in the room I am performing in tend to be the 'biggest numbers' in the room during the disco. I fear that they feel it's 'their room', as they all have their seats from the meal - whereas other guests feel they can come in and use the dancefloor for a bit, but not 'make themselves at home' at a table.

My start performers were the 3 mid 20s 'young muscle' who were just as happy dancing to Chic and The Beatles as they were Calvin Harris. In fact, the older and the cheesier it was, the more they seemed to enjoy it!

A quick rattle through another 2 hours of big hits, with a decent smattering of 70s, 60s and even a little 50s rock and roll fairly early on seem to be very acceptable to some of the older guests from the other room, without pushing out the other guests!

Another great ending, and everything is packed away now for Christmas.

I have a longer gap now between this and New Year's Eve than I do between New Year's Eve and the first gig of 2018 (6th Jan!)

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Originally Posted by rth_discos

. When I walked in to room number 2 to introduce myself to the guests, the smell of moth balls hit me. It felt I'd walked in to the Christmas Party of the local OAP home! Lovely guests, but I really couldn't see how they were going to 'mix' with the other company, and a few of them were hoping for some 1940s music!

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Now hold on a cotton pickin' minute there, Musky! :no: I do so hope we're not going to have any stereotypical assumptions about age, musical tastes and general enthusiasm and staying power. If we were, be advised that certain mods who will never see 21 again, can be stereotypically crabby about such things, especially if they've had a bad gig. :mad:

Have I had a bad gig? Do you feel lucky? :confused::) Read on, and find out. :)

Oh, this one promised sooo much. And as you've doubtless guessed, failed to deliver. 30th Birthday, I got a request list the night before the gig, and it was a corker. Classics, forgotten Classics, Anthems, Cheese, Party and quality chart. Golf club in Lincolnshire, which I've effectively driven past so many times. Nice enough staff, who arranged access through a store room for me, making it a doddle. I set up effectively the same rig as the night before, but over a DSB, not a Micromax. Loadsa extra space, and far tidier.

Then the warning signs appear. Originally booked for 75 guests, now 35, and 15 minutes after we start, 17! At the height of the festivities, we maybe had 25-30. I had a hardcore of 3 or 4 adult dancers, and 2 children. I worked from the list, and considering we had so few guests, we had a good night, with a round of applause ( from the 8 people left ) at the end.

100 people in a darkened room awaiting the Birthday Boys arrival - around 10 Minutes of this before he showed up,
Disco was a bit of a middling one - up to date music was stipulated and enforced in a nice way by client - food was offered and accepted which made a nice change.
O to find something decent to play from to my ears - dross, around at the moment- really difficult to get any impetus going dancing wise.
Yes, client got what she wanted music wise but I think it would have been a better party with DJ input allowed .

Usual Party Night last night, last of the big ones, apart from Monday where I have 1200 people, but only the compere for the night so nice and simple.

https://youtu.be/EaLAQxxYggY

Last one of the year for me this afternoon.

It's a family oriented kids party I've been doing since they were knee high to a grasshopper and always a lot of fun. This is the first year where I haven't had to introduce the big fella in the red suit (they've all finally stopped believing in him :( ).

It's good to be home in front of the log-burner with the kit all safely locked away until the New Year though - this past week's wiped me out.

Highlight of the afternoon - well I'll just leave this here. The customer's always right and all that ;)

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Originally Posted by Imagine

Last one of the year for me this afternoon.

It's a family oriented kids party I've been doing since they were knee high to a grasshopper and always a lot of fun. This is the first year where I haven't had to introduce the big fella in the red suit (they've all finally stopped believing in him :( ).

It's good to be home in front of the log-burner with the kit all safely locked away until the New Year though - this past week's wiped me out.

Highlight of the afternoon - well I'll just leave this here. The customer's always right and all that ;)

Attachment 18490

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Well now you can say you're AWARD WINNING on your website! Last year I was up against Pete Tong & DLT at my ressie's awards thing - and I WON! :rofl:

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

Now hold on a cotton pickin' minute there, Musky! :no: I do so hope we're not going to have any stereotypical assumptions about age, musical tastes and general enthusiasm and staying power. If we were, be advised that certain mods who will never see 21 again, can be stereotypically crabby about such things, especially if they've had a bad gig. :mad:

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I agree, assumptions are very dangerous.

But their request forms did state 40s music, so far from an assumption!

On another note, 3 Christmas Parties back to back, and even today my feet and legs are still aching!

2 Christmas party nights at the weekend:

1st was in a fancy hotel in town for a corporate client. Last time I did a corporate Xmas night in there some muppet managed to dent the wall with his head and rip a very expensive decoration off the wall then nearly fall into my kit before being unceremoniously papped out. This one was much more civil and I got some nice feedback from the CEO.

It always amazes me when I do these types of event how the corporate world works. The girl who organised it was absolutely bricking it all the way through the booking process up until around 10:30 when she seen the CEO having a good time.

I don't get the pedestal thing. I grew up in one of the roughest parts of Glasgow but I've dealt with sheikh billionaires, high level (cabinet) MPs and some of the richest people in the country and never felt phased, nervous or like I had to act a certain way. Can't be very nice.

Anyhoo speaking about the great and the good - Saturday I was doing a party night for a local stable. Lovely couple and a great night. The young females hogged the dancefloor and the older ones were happy to sit and enjoy the free bar. Loads of nice, non drunk, compliments at the end of the night, the girls kept telling me I was awesome and asking for selfies :rolleyes:;) and it was 5 minutes up the road so I had everything in storage and a bottle of wine opened by half past 12. :D

I met my dad for a pint yesterday and when I mentioned the gig he said - there's only one farm up there, was it the XXXXX's party?

Yeah, why?

Turns out before they were bought out for a huge sum this farm was the biggest dairy producer for miles, employed hundreds of people and they're proper multi multi multi millionaires. There was me sitting having a blether with the guy about where I should go to watch the football when I go to Vegas later in the week...