Good Gig, Bad Gig.

Wayne, commiserations re your strict " suggestion list ", and laryngitis. Vectis used to suggest white grapes for that.

Funnily enough, I had a Playlist last night for a 50th Birthday. Mine bore the rider: " It's just a list of music we'd like to hear, none are essential plays, we'll dance to anything. Just add some current ones, or the young ones will lynch us". Can't say fairer than that, eh?

What was on the list? Well basically equal amounts of Cheese, Indie, 80's and Classic songs and artists ( Elvis, Queen, and the like ). Something for everyone in it already, so in that respect, I was happy.

The venue was a Rugby Club, one of the biggest buildings I know of this type. The room was divided into two by drapes, and looked like a high end marquee, with drapes to floor level, and uplighters behind them. Fairy lights overhead completed the picture.

I arrived early, got set up, and was paid, always a nice start to the night. The Maui 11s were just perfect aesthetically and aurally for the reduced room size, whereas had we been in the full size room, even the Proels would have been pushed to cope on their own!

The night turned into a game of two halves. The gravitational attraction of the bar in the adjacent room overcame not only the music, but also the buffet!!! :eek:I have never before stopped the music after every track and announced the buffet. No movement at all. :mad:

The worrying part was an eleven thirty finish, if they descended onto the dancefloor late, and wanted to keep going. Fortunately, they eventually came into the ( cold ) room with me, and slowly made use of the floor and buffet. Dancing was sporadic early on, with the floor filling and clearing almost song by song. I'd held back some Indie Anthems ( Brightside and the like ) and with the addition of loads of Cheese, the last hour was basically rammed, with the birthday girl among them all the time. Jump Around was requested, and like Kasabian-Fire caused the sort of sight to gladden a DJ's heart. People leaping up and down, having a great time.

Slow burner, but with a great playlist, and great crowd, gave a fabulous night.

Mine tonight was much like Peter's last night.....a very slow burner.

The occasion, a 10th wedding anniversary in the local golf club just 5 mins from my front door. It's a small setup in there and it's a lovely easy load in....what's not to like?

I'd been given a dozen tracks on the playlist and left to just the rest myself. The dozen I'd been given didn't really give away much information on what to expect, so I went in as always with an open mind and hoped for the best (bear in mind I'm long overdue for a quiet night).

The guests arrived and I settled into background music, which seemed to go on, and on, and on......

Eventually, it's time to crack on. One of the father in laws had asked for some Quo and Queen....seems like a good start to me. Unfortunately there were only around half a dozen out of the 50 or so assembled guests who enjoyed that sort of thing....so it's time to start switching a little bit.

Nothing looked like it was going to work....until I was asked to play "something we can dance to" (urgh....you can dance to ALL music!). When prompted a little further, this apparently meant S-Club 7.....Okaaaaay......game on. Well...for a couple of tracks at least.

And that was the way of the night right up until the last hour. Indie, Britpop and believe it or not, 80s/90s club classics rammed the floor right to the very end :)

So....not the absolute best of gigs, but certainly nothing to sit and worry about....it just took a little while for the inhibitions to disappear ;)

As for the voice....it just about made it. It'd been very croaky again all day, and finally went on the "thank you very much and goodni......"
Hey ho....a couple of weeks to rest it now :)

Yet another first for me last night - first time ever gigging in a part of the North East I've never been before & I've a feeling it won't be my last either.
An engagement party - no prescriptive music requirements, a nice guide though - keep it nice & upbeat background wise til after the food, then play the familiar stuff.. yay.

I rocked up to the venue with more than 90 minutes in hand - I'd done a recce but couldn't tell what lay beyond the club's gate. The function room wasn't upstairs, but it was UP STAIRS :lol:

Nah, loadin was a breeze & the venue staff offered to help. Pah & tish I said then got on with my job. 25 minutes after parking the van in their yard I was in & ready to go bar un-frosting my movers. Damn condensation! I switched them onto open white at full brightness & hoped they'd demist by the time guests started arriving. They did, thankfully.

I'd taken my ever present gigabar & gravity stand with me but I thought it'd be worth trying something different with my lights this time. 2 movers on my booth corner shelves, 2 slung from my mini t-bars on uprights attached to the booth (don'tcha just love scaffolding folks?) aaaaaaaaaaand.. I left the giga in the van on the offchance my experiment worked. What was the experiment? Ah, slinging the WashFX I sometimes use for booth backlighting from one of the mini t-bars & seeing if it gave enough output. OH YES! To heck with total symmetry for once I thought, hung a quad phase from the other side & there was more than enough light in the room - so much infact I had the washFX dimmed to 25% most of the night. I think I'll be rolling with this config in future for sure. Maybe not for weddings.. the low PWM frequency of the washfx means it produces banding on digital camera images & video, though a mate of mine has a top idea for that - it's pixel mapped so you can do different brightnesses without having to resort to dimming - just program scenes using different numbers of segments - simple!

So to the gig itself... bits of Boyce Avenue covers, some Greatest Showman tunes interspersed with good tunes til the food was over & done with.. then launched into tempting dancers up.. Blurred Lines came first, then Uptown Funk rammed the floor completely. From there I went 80s, 90s, 70s, motown, rock, cheese.. dancefloor numbers were sporadic & despite repeatedly mentioning I was open for requests only one came - Bon Jovi - Captain Crunch & the Beauty Queen From Mars (WTH?).. and I didn't have that. Ho hum no worries said the requester. All very nice & lovely. Mixed like a b'stard, breaking all kinds of rules (130bpm to 105bpm transition? HAHAHAHA go on!)

We were aiming for an 11.30pm finish, tops.. at 11.20 I noticed a lot of people making a beeline for leaving, so tastefully echoed out of the currently playing tune & went uber cheese.. Sweet Caroline. BOOM! Their coats went back on chairs & they joined the dancefloor throng again..

11.30pm.. after the last song a lady came up asking to borrow my mic for a sec. "for why?" I enquired. "Never you mind" she said. Well, they'd been no bother all night so didn't see the harm. I didn't see what happened next coming. She only went & got me a blimmin ovation! Could there have been an ulterior motive? Hahahaha. Maybe.

One more! ONE MORE SONG! Hmmm.. better ask the barkeeps.. they nodded & away we went again.. Superstition.. and another. Again the barkeep nodded & I played the final song to end all final songs.. New Yoik New Yoik. That seemed to sate everybody.

Packing down the client took me to one side & thanked me profusely for the job I did, then the lady who'd borrowed my mic interjected to tell me there'd been people from all over the country & I'd been a topic of conversation most of the night. What the.. ? All good.. they loved the music & couldn't speak highly of me enough. I felt really humbled by this - it's not often I get such praise in person.

Van almost loaded again the barkeep came over to ask for cards.... she used to work in nightclubs (the doof doof kind) & was impressed by every aspect of the gig from mic work, to the rig, to the music I played & the way I played it. She reckons I'll be doing a lot more work down that neck of the woods. That'll be nice.

Very happy with that result. That's exactly what it's all about - happy customers, happy guests & happy venues innit!

It's Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen From Mars. :p

Great song but as a massive Bon Jovi fan it's a. not something I have on my gigging Macs or b. something I would play at a gig

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Originally Posted by Nakatomi

Mixed like a b'stard, breaking all kinds of rules (130bpm to 105bpm transition? HAHAHAHA go on!)

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Originally Posted by Nakatomi

went uber cheese.. Sweet Caroline. BOOM! Their coats went back on chairs & they joined the dancefloor throng again..

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Originally Posted by Nakatomi

I played the final song to end all final songs.. New Yoik New Yoik. That seemed to sate everybody.

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Welcome to the REAL world of the mobile DJ :)

I know you're not a fan of mixing way out of BPM, and especially not a fan of cheese.....BUT...to 99% of us....that's how most gigs work! (I got lumbered with Oops upside your head on Friday and if the guest it was designed to take the :Censored: out of hadn't disappeared when he did...would have played it again on Saturday night)

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Originally Posted by Nakatomi

That's exactly what it's all about - happy customers, happy guests & happy venues innit!

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Peter - he's learning.....by George he's finally getting it :) ;)

BTW - my venue on Saturday night know me as the DJ who's the fastest to clear away and let them go home! My record? 20 minutes from last song to driving the van away and that's with all cables neatly put away and ready for the next gig! It makes a HUGE difference in their book because THEY'RE able to go home too!

Apparently there's some out there take somehow take nearly 90 minutes to get out :o

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Originally Posted by Imagine

Welcome to the REAL world of the mobile DJ :)

I know you're not a fan of mixing way out of BPM, and especially not a fan of cheese.....BUT...to 99% of us....that's how most gigs work! (I got lumbered with Oops upside your head on Friday and if the guest it was designed to take the :Censored: out of hadn't disappeared when he did...would have played it again on Saturday night)

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Ah mixing way out of BPM range is something I've been practising lately but last night was the 1st time I'd done it at a gig. Loop cha cha, hit SYNC on macaroni (BLASPHEMER!!!!!), loop the macaroni intro then head to VDJ's scratch screen, click beatlock on the deck cha cha is running on & gently adjust the macaroni loop speed nearer to its real BPM et voila! It was an experiment & it actually worked very well. It doesn't have too many applications so I won't be using it much. Previously I'd just crash macaroni in, which also seems to work. My guess is other playout software pretty much does this as standard judging by performances I've watched online & it took me a while to figure out how to get VDJ to do it.

I was in Leeds the other week for a night out with old friends & heard a cheesy party DJ doing amazing stuff with his controller BTW - he was actually ramming tunes alongside one another for comedic effect & it was pure genius.

As for being a fan of the music I play - I don't think I'll ever be. I've rubbed my hands with glee when handed requests I love to bits & almost cried when they flounder at the gig. I'd much rather floors be rammed & see happy crowds than play the kind of music I'd dance to & see it fall on its bum. The money is much better now than 4 years ago & it's continuing to get better but what really makes my day is a good review. 'Cheese' is a necessary evil where it's wanted & welcomed but it's really not what you'd see me dancing to unless I'd had way too many sherries. Actually maybe not even then because I don't know any of the dance moves :rofl: Don't ever confuse me not being a fan of it with refusing to play it when I know it's got to be done ;)

OH! Speaking of cheesy things.. I forgot about the one other request I had. Randy Newman - You've Got A Friend In Me. It went on next song & I laughed almost the whole way through it. Rammed the floor it did & there weren't even any kids there.

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Peter - he's learning.....by George he's finally getting it :) ;)

BTW - my venue on Saturday night know me as the DJ who's the fastest to clear away and let them go home! My record? 20 minutes from last song to driving the van away and that's with all cables neatly put away and ready for the next gig! It makes a HUGE difference in their book because THEY'RE able to go home too!

Apparently there's some out there take somehow take nearly 90 minutes to get out :o

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I've lived for glowing reports since I crawled back out from the rock I'd been hiding under 4 years ago I'll have you know! Learning wise there are some very subtle differences in what I do now compared to back then but they're mostly to do with how I communicate electronically.

Getting out wise.. if I'm in a real hurry I'll just chuck cables in their box but knowing I'll have to sort them out the next day is offputting. So everything gets wrapped properly & placed in its case.

Strangely, last night I only finished 15 minutes earlier than at my resi, had a longer load out path down steps, an additional 26 miles to drive & still managed to get home & unloaded 5 minutes shy of my usual resi time. And that included the blather with the venue manager & a quick visit to the loo. Go figure.

Covered a gig for a lad I met at another gig. Serendipity at its finest, he's running an agency as well, and has been bombarding me with offers of work. Until now I couldn't take him up on any, but as a result of cancellations, I was free for one in Hunslet last night, just a few miles down the road from a venue I spent a month in over a year ago. ;);):):). Anyway, enough nostalgia.

30th Birthday, with a less than promising remit: Mainly Chart, R&Bilge, Classic Dance, and a tiny bit of party music. Yippee. :( Venue was very close to the Motorway going in, and even closer coming out. Access was good, ground floor, and I arrived early, as is my habit, so was set up in good time. Venue was nice, with installed up/downlighters round the room. I'm seeing this more and more, and it transforms a room totally.

Birthday girl said hello, and told me she'd been at a party last week where it was " all old stuff ", and she didn't want that. Aw shucks, that's me in trouble then. :( Tamla was allowed, and a mix of mainly " modern" stuff. Blimey, I stretched the term " modern" to breaking point last night. :D

It's surprising how much decent stuff you can find if you raid the Now albums, and I did just that. For the first two and a half hours, requests were thin, and I was simply playing little more than background, until an odd track would get some action on the floor. Eventually, the sherbet started to take effect ( particularly on the birthday girl :wine: ) and requests started to come in. Northern Soul was requested, and a couple of those went down well, as did Tamla a bit later on. A fair smattering of Dance, mainly from the nineties and noughties worked well, as well as a few eighties here and there. What I found surprising was not one request for Bon Jovi, Killers, Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, or anything of that ilk. :confused: Nevertheless, a good time was had by all, and for an Old Git, I'd say I did a fair job of " Modern ". Best part was, the R&Bilge was conspicuous by its absence, bar one unbelievably bad track by Giggs-London Town.

Well there's a first for me tonight - told another supplier to :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored: off or I'd leather him :zip:

I don't even feel guilty about it ;)

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Originally Posted by Jim - Scotland's Party DJ

Well there's a first for me tonight - told another supplier to :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored: off or I'd leather him :zip:

I don't even feel guilty about it ;)

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I can't wait to hear the full story behind that one... :)

I've had a weekend of ever changing times. Friday's wedding had all of the times agreed up front with the couple. When I arrived I checked in with the staff and the events guy looking after my wedding had different times, not a big problem. 10mins later I then overheard the duty manager talking to the events guy, with another set of different times! In the end it was all academic as their planned times didn't work for the B&G and they all went out the window anyway (turns out they COULDN'T put the cake cut and first dance together because the bride had to go and change her dress between the two events!) I'm pretty sure that the timings were being altered because of the photographer. The couple originally wanted their first dance at 9:00 to properly kick off the evening party as they had the very high energy "Gravity" as their FD, but I suspect the photographer wanted to be off home earlier than that. As a side, I was surprised to see the photographer setup a tablet/ring light photobooth for the guests at around 6:30, and then pack it away and take it home with her at 8:30!! Doubly surprising because in that two hour window, there were 45mins of speeches and 30mins of buffet!!

Last nights wedding was one where the couple opted for a smaller package and I didn't meet them before the night. I checked in with the groom when I arrived and double checked all of the timings and plans for the night to get a look that said "why are you asking?" As the night went on both myself and the photographer were confounded by the constant changes in timings for key events. I'd been given 5:30 for the first dance, then told 7:00/7:30, then the photographer was told 8:00 and then suddenly they're clearing tables to make space for the first dance at 7:10. One of the best men was making announcements throughout the evening so I had a few "can I borrow a microphone" requests from him. I had a "moment" with him after the third request where I had to make it clear that he needed to stop just asking me for the mic and start telling me what was actually going on! I'm glad I did as otherwise he would have announced the first dance, and neither myself or the photographer would have been ready! The evening finished with the couple leaving under an archway, 10mins before the planned leaving time, meaning I got grief from guests for having to rapidly chop tracks to fit in all of the final songs as I only got a few minutes notice. Overall, a frustrating evening, compounded by a sound limiter that cut the power in the middle of the grooms speech and later on, right at the moment the first dance was supposed to start :Censored::Censored::Censored:. I recreated my settings later in the night to try and trip it as I was well within it's limits for the remainder of the night and I can only conclude that it was the guests cheering that did it as I literally couldn't push it into the red by myself (I only took a pair of 12" Alto's as I knew about the limiter).

It's going to be interesting to see what kind of feedback I get...

Julian

You know when you're on with a band, they do their bit & you play background music etc, then when it's your turn and the band start packing away (unobtrusively I might add)... Then a band member switches off one socket too many? Yeah, that! Thankfully no harm came to anything & virtualdj carried on from where it left off when my controller finished initialising. Even the gig recording came out unscathed bar a 5 second gap. Heh. The rest of Friday's gig was uneventful but jumping.

The band BTW were great, had loads of people up dancing most of the night and were nice guys to boot.

Saturday saw me weaving my way along fog bound roads to an army barracks for a late start (11.15pm) and a not too late (ha!) finish.

I arrived at the gatehouse 45 minutes before setup time, got signed in & was escorted to the venue. I'd be going on after a band.

I got nearly everything on my trolley & wheeled it over to the entrance. I knew because of the cold conditions condensation was going to be a possible issue so got my speakers in first & whipped their covers off to give them the best chance of acclimatising to the hot room.

Sure enough, beads of dew formed on the back panels. As luck would have it I'd brought a hair drier with me & set to work warming the amp panels of the cabs. All signs of condensation gone I set about rigging the disco up & was ready with 10 minutes to spare.

They were an easy crowd to please & it looked like there wasn't going to be any overtime. Wrong! Playing just one Oasis song to end on drew more guests into the room. OK then one more... Then another... And finally finished them off with Don't Look Back In Anger 15 minutes over time. The customer was full of praise, thanked me & told everyone they could continue in another room.

15 minutes later I was out & making my way back to the gatehouse to sign out & drive home.

The fog hadn't gone anywhere so I decided to take a detour onto some A roads for my journey back. Whoops. Visibility was even worse that way, limiting me to 20mph for ages. I finally arrived home & unloaded at 4am.

The last few gigs I've left the Gigabar in the van & tried my washfx for main wash lighting & it's proved itself to be very useful. I think I'm going to get rid of the gigabar soon & replace it with either a couple of big LED PARs or washfx 2s.