My rather expensive (+£2k when I bought it) camera body shat the bed at last night's gig which kind of sums the whole evening up :rolleyes:
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My rather expensive (+£2k when I bought it) camera body shat the bed at last night's gig which kind of sums the whole evening up :rolleyes:
Ouch! :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim - Scotland's Party DJ
Funny you should mention photography though. Probably the only significant blot on last night's landscape was the photographer. I reckon he and I will never be best friends, although with the chaos he was treated to for the first dance, I did at one point feel genuinely sorry for him, although that soon passed. ;)
After wedding party in a lovely little warehouse in Sheffield. Very laid back, especially timings, so much so that I only got to play two hours in anger, due to live acts being late, and overrunning. My request was a totally cheese free zone, even to banning Sex On Fire and Sweet Caroline. No matter, as it was full of Classic tunes from Disco, Funk, Indie, Rock and even Northern Soul. ( We had some NS fans in, who were great. I played three for them, had a fourth requested, and found a couple of crossovers on my list. Mmmm, nice ). You get to park outside the doors, unload the kit, and park the van on metered bays, which due to being Sunday, cost me £2, rather than £5+. All in all, a great night.
I enjoyed last night.
It's a very local venue to me, slap bang in the middle of nowhere (literally....it's a barn in the middle of the Fens). No noise limiters, smoke allowed (although no need to take your own), very relaxed and nice to get the right lighting effects into as well.
There was a downside though. During the past couple of weeks the bride had been sending me screenshots from Spotify of tracks they wanted to hear....mainly hardcore clubland stuff (one of the genres I know least about), so well and truly out of the comfort zone on this one. This, added to the fact that there's no phone signal worth talking about so there's no chance of getting those last minute requests whilst on-site....eeek!
Know what though? It worked and worked an absolute treat!
We'd agreed on a phone call a couple of weeks that maybe not all of the guests would appreciate the selected music, so the first 2-3 hours would be "normal wedding music" (whatever that is these days). From the moment I pressed play, the dance floor was well populated (hooray!). But how to get from the usual fayre into hardcore house? Hmmmmm..... I cheated. I'd been doing a "normal" 90s club set (Gala, Rozalla and the like) and literally let the last of those fade to nothing before hitting the button on the hardcore stuff (there's no intro to those songs....it's straight in with the oomph oomph oomph at a million miles an hour). The dance floor literally overflowed as I kept previewing different stuff to see what'd fit next.
The only other main request for the evening's proceedings was to play Slap my b:Censored:h up at around 10ish "for the lads". This led me down the path of my other most feared genre....rap! (Kanye followed as a request for the groom with his N in Paris....cringe).
Eventually back to 00's and 10's dance tracks (still loving the DJ Beats stuff) and time to go home. A really good night that kept me well and truly on my toes for the duration!
Next week....same venue, VERY different playlist (I'm dusting off the Birdie Song as I type :daft:)
Go on, admit it Wayne, you love a bit of Bounce, putting a Donk on it. :D It honestly wouldn't be the first time I've finished a night at over 140bpm. I'd much rather play that than the garbage Kanye and his mates make. :(:(
OK folks, a double header of weddings again for me. Both at Forest Pines for Matthew Western, who is sunning himself in Greece. First one in my favourite room, low ceiling and fabulous access. There are basically three rooms at the venue, all with different characteristics, and Saturday's bride didn't like this one, choosing instead the least appealing of the three, in my opinion. I must remember to step up the lighting wash when working in there, as Saturday's tog was unimpressed with the options of Stygian gloom, or overpowering brilliance. One of the rare occasions when a set of Love letters would have helped.
Friday: A fairly comprehensive music list, with absolutely no cheese. :Stop: Nice couple, sadly with some guests who won't be on my Christmas card list. :zip:
Varied music requests, a healthy dancefloor all night, and a mass exodus after 11pm which saw a midnight finish, a whole hour early. We did have a lot of younger children at this one, so not too surprising. Weddings are long and tiring days, in this heat.
Saturday: Minimal request list, and I was assured by various folk that they would all dance if I played certain songs/styles, and would be dancing till 1am. Didn't really happen. Best received style was Cheese/Cheesy Pop. Floor alternated between packed and tumbleweed. The dedicated drinkers hung on till 12.30pm on this, and I think drink was the main focus for some.
A rest now, before the next two weekends, where I will be mainly doing weddings. Oh goody.
Sooo....second week in the same venue with a very different playlist (on paper).
The playlist contained more cheddary goodness than the deli counter at the local supermarket (and I'm talking along the lines of Black Lace, Los Del Rio, The Gap Band......you get the picture), but also a bit of everything else (the Groom LOVES Elvis and also Trance....)
So, off we go. Start off with the older 60's and 70's stuff to a good reaction. Move to the cheesier stuff....all good so far. And then they were tiring. A lot of chopping and changing between genres saw a rich seam being mined in the late '50s/early '60s...for around 20 minutes (I can't remember the last time I played a proper Rock 'n' Roll set :o )
To be fair, it was warm again tonight and many folks were going outside to cool down. A lot of them were also in full Scottish attire as well so the sweat was dripping off of them.
And then....we hit the trance bit. BOOM! We went for around an hour of this with yours truly looking like a true DJ God :)
Sadly, guests were starting to dwindle by 10pm (there were a lot of young children there) and by 11pm with an hour to go, we're down to about 20 hardcore survivors. A lot of changing between the years and genres kept them on the 'floor to the bitter end with a song about some lake North of the border to finish off (I wasn't as lucky as a certain old git will be bragging about tomorrow).
All in all, not a bad night. Just hard work trying to keep the dance floor busy without killing it off and over-doing things.
Wayne and myself were messaging each other at times last night, and to a great extent it seemed that we were doing the same gig! Mine was a wedding for two absolutely lovely ladies. To say it was casual and relaxed was an understatement. All they wanted was a party, and the attire of the guests showed this. My dancefloor varied from packed to capacity, down to tumbleweed! The guests were basically a little older, and apart from the requests from the younger ones, Ezra, Sheeran, Beyonce, Ariana Grande and the like, my best results came from Tamla and Disco, with a smattering of Cheese.
At the end of the night, both brides came to thank me for a job well done, and as I packed up, many guests showed appreciation. A good night, but Wayne, I think I must concede that your gig was marginally better, especially as you trumped my Superman with Agadoo! :D
And Oops Upside Your Head ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Excalibur
:bowdown:Quote:
Originally Posted by Imagine
Last night I had a wedding at one of my usual haunts (that has an unlimited 24x7 music license) for a lovely couple with a mixed Canadian/Irish heritage. The playlist had more Barenaked Ladies on it than I'd seen in about 20 years when I almost moved to Canada and the guests where literally the most lovely and polite group I have ever met (the venue staff echoed this when I arrived to set up). I have never seen people dance quite so politely ;)
Guests were lovely and did everything I asked through the formalities and then danced sporadically throughout the night. The playlist did have tread in less well known territory in a few places and you could tell that a few of the songs had special significance for the couple, but where completely unfamiliar to everyone else, but people went along with it regardless.
This couple are unusual in that they left the end time to me which meant I was allowed to call the finish at 12:30am to a good group of guests rather than trying to having to string the night out to 2am or 3am with a handful of people like I have had to several times recently at this venue at the insistence of the couple.
Handshakes and thank you's followed the finish and, while it was a small crowd and the dance floor was never amazingly full (or totally empty), it was a good night all round :)
Julian
Well done Julian, you deserved to come away from a gig with a warm glow. :) Don't mention finish times, at Mr Western's residency it's a source of concern ( to us DJs, anyway ) as it's usually 1am, and often we are left with six hardened drinkers for the last hour. Mr Jackson has sorted it by decreeing the finish times himself, at one of his preferred venues. I'm struggling there currently, next time I go I shall get a time before I start. The new bar staff seem to have different ideas to the old ones! :)