I'll be performing at my nephew's prom tomorrow night. The plan is to go through their requests during their meal, then show them who knows best during the party. ;)
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I'll be performing at my nephew's prom tomorrow night. The plan is to go through their requests during their meal, then show them who knows best during the party. ;)
Don't you go showing young Spud up with the Cha Cha Slide and Agadoo.....he'll set the dog on you!Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Smyth
Agadoo, at a prom? Good God I'd expect to get (deservedly) lynched if I played that!Quote:
Originally Posted by Imagine
YMCA is on my play list. Also on their list is System of a Down - Chop Suey, followed by Bohemian Rhapsody and someone or something called Asap Ferg.
These are Year 11's, so aged 16. Not a Bieber, Sheeran, Ora or Perry in sight.
I shall have a Plan B (not him) list on standby too.
I can assure you that I can show up Spud without having to resort to that! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Imagine
This is my first year dealing with Proms in earnest. Around here the schools typically buy up Prom package deals from local hotels, the hotels go straight to agents, and up until the last year or two, I haven't been taking bookings from agencies. I've had two this week in a particularly tricky venue. Big spaces split into two, poor acoustics and a town center location. Both have ended early as the kids announced the after party within 10 mins of starting the disco and the night has then turned into a count down with lots making excuses to leave early! By contrast, the other one I've had this week has been in a remote hotel in a single function room and the kids were up and moving from the start with the vast majority still there at the end.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nakatomi
Yup, I have the same view. Lots of really awful requests last night for stuff that would bore the hind legs off a donkey. Biggest hits of the night, Cha Cha slide, Macarena and Cotton eye Joy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nakatomi
Sixth form prom tonight in a hotel function room that is all of 50m from one of Bristol's major night clubs and even less distance from the main road of pubs. Let's see if this one makes it to midnight...
Julian
Well then, last night was a pretty decent Prom night.
One of my movers had been off for repair for the last couple of weeks and arrived back to my humble abode yesterday afternoon. After a quick test to make sure that all was working as it should, it was back to having all four plinths again instead of the two that I've been using due to one bloody light not working!
Having all four was a blessing and a curse at the same time. A blessing in that it's a bunch of 16 year olds and being able to give them a more authentic nightclub experience with the full show was always going to put me onto a winner. The curse was the enemy of DJs and Darleks - stairs! More kit to lug up stairs and I was sweating like a mofo.
I played through the pre-requests and they either worked really well or bombed. Some of the requests on the night was more of the same but I had a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. Normally I play the clean version of any song I have but if I only had the explicit version, that doesn't stop me playing it. Last night, it just didn't sit right with me and a lot of the requests were left unplayed because of that. I think, for once, I was a responsible adult. I didn't like it.
Very rowdy night, which also ended up with a speaker stack being knocked over and the Subsafe breaking (I'll be looking at mending that and if I can't, there'll be an invoice for repairs on it's way!). With the exception of that, they were all fine - they like to jump, cheer, scream and while there were some fleeting moments here and there, they weren't too cool for school. I posted a video on the socials that The Spud took and it pretty much shows in that short vid what the night was like (although I would have loved someone to have filmed a couple of other points of the night as I'd have loved to see them).
I may even end up blogging about this one. :approve:
Now that's what I call LIT! Which is a lot like the proms I did this week would've been if I'd been able to get their crap requests out of the way when they were eating. I didn't take any prom video this year or last. Can't be too careful is all I'll say ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Smyth
"Take me O Lord....I'm ready" came the SMS from a grey haired Old Git a couple of hundred miles further North up the A1, but who shall remain nameless for the purposes of GDPR compliance.
I had every sympathy. As the message came through, I was saying my goodnights to the final bars of Mr Sinatra.....an hour earlier than planned!
OK - it was always going to be 50/50 this one. The unofficial temperature recorded by my garden weather station hit 32 degrees today...it's been scorchio in this neck of the woods. Add this to a hot village hall for a 70th birthday (with guests in the main all in the same age range)......
Got in, set up the Retro Show (sooooo glad that's now running on LED with the heat today) and slapped on a Motown Grandmaster whilst I waited for the promised 70 or so guests and the arrival of the birthday girl. Well....I think the most I counted was 40 - I hate it when that happens....so rude! :(
This is in a hall which will happily take 150 adults! Yup....it seemed a little empty :(
The bar staff and hall manager were already gearing up for an early night. It was obvious looking around the room we weren't going to make it to the allotted end time of midnight.
The buffet was uncovered, and I go into a mix of none other than Glenn Miller (he's one of the birthday girl's favourites so why not) as background music. Eventually, cake cutting was done and happy birthday was sung and it's time to get cracking....it's 8:30pm. Normally with these older ones I find that the guests are up and dancing fairly early doors, but go home early....so in my mind there isn't time to waste.
The brief was for a lot of 50s Rock 'n' Roll, Motown and 60s music with maybe just a smattering of 70s disco. I was looking forward to this one.
Everything pretty much bombed, with a maximum of 6 at a time doing a couple of tracks then sitting down again. I even had one chap who requested and actually danced to, The Snake (he sat down halfway through Do I Love You Indeed I do :( ). He had all the moves though....very impressive!
Requests were very thin on the ground despite me keep asking for them. The ones that did come in (mainly 50s Rock n Roll) didn't do much for the dance floor, but I could see heads nodding and feet tapping....it's going to be one of those then :(
OK thinks I - I'm going to push it out to Abba. Boom, a dozen of the remaining 30 guests are up.....Nolans....Whitney....Spice Girls....we're cruising at last!
10:39pm the birthday girl asks if I wouldn't mind ending at 11pm (I'd had most of the guests on the floor for the past 20 minutes, but could see it wasn't going to last). OK - no worries :(
We wound out with a Elvis Loving Me Tender as a "smoochie" followed by New York New York (haven't played that in absolutely AGES!).
11pm....I'm de-rigging and looking forward to the couple of cold beers in my fridge when I get home.
My colleague further up the A1? He's playing at being a human jukebox until midnight and no sign of an early bath.
Next week a triple billing with a school disco (juniors) on Friday, another Retro 80s night on Saturday (with a playlist which if played end to end would last around 12 hours!), and a wedding on Sunday in a venue which either rocks, or dies.....time will tell dependent on whether this weather breaks and whether the guests need to be at work on Monday.
Wow, what a wedding yesterday. Despite it being a marquee wedding and scorching temperatures, everyone was up for a party!
This was during the wedding breakfast between main course and dessert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv43wOrtAN4
An older couple getting married - and as I tend to find, much more interested in having fun and having a party that their friends and family enjoy, rather than getting hung up on the small detail no one notices. They definitely spent the money in the right places.
String Quartet for the ceremony, who went on board a boat with them, which was where the drinks reception was held (going up and down the River Thames). Then I looked after Master of Ceremony role throughout the day.
They had a magician working the tables during the wedding breakfast, and then one of the best bands I've seen for a while - 7 piece soul/motown band, and they sounded amazing. My phone battery was rapidly dying, so this was the only clip I got from them very early on in the evening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFJ3wvZb7MU
With the band doing 2 x 1 hour sets, I only had to do 2 x 1 hour sets myself - from 9-10pm (during the evening buffet), and then to finish off the night between 11pm and 12 midnight.
Only disappointment with the band was that they weren't ready for their second set. I'd timed Mr and Mrs perfectly, so that everyone was on the dancefloor ready. They were due to do their second set at 11pm, and I finished Mr and Mrs at 3 minutes past, to look round and see only 3 of the band members in place. It's a shame that so many bands are so blasé about what they are doing.
But the night finished on a high with New York, New York, and lots of very happy guests.
One guest even came up to me after the wedding breakfast saying that she'd never seen a wedding like it and didn't realise weddings could be do fun! Am really pleased that my investment in training over the last 2 years has pulled off so nicely, that I can now add so much interaction and fun in to the wedding breakfast and really control the atmosphere of the entire day.
It's absolutely knackering doing the whole day, but totally worth it!
After 8 continuous weekends of weddings, I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks rest now!