A twofer in many respects.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Imagine
Packed up and in the van in dead on 30 minutes (yet more Brownie points scored with the venue), unloaded at my lockup and home before 1am.
A perfect night in every sense of the word :)
Sore point Son, sore point. :Naughty: So sore that it's likely to be Supporters, PM, or even elevated to a phonecall! :eek:
OK, the bits I can publish here. Two gigs in consecutive weeks covering for Dave Jackson at one of his venues. This one wasn't on my favourites list, and it has slipped even further lately. Reason? If you'd met him, you'd know. ;):( The car park is awkward, crowded, too small and not fit for purpose. Access to the upstairs function room is either up the same amount of steps as the average Wetherspoons toilet, or a lift and a fire door, with added obstacles to make life interesting. I choose trolley and lift, which baffles the owner. :zip:
Gig 1, surprise 50th anniversary. They got the wedding rig, as it can be one of the smaller ones, and would suit room and access. Nice people, basically friends of a similar age group, and younger aged family. Basically a split, and they didn't really overlap much, except for Abba! ( Could have played that all night long to packed floors ).
The oldies didn't really come alive to the classics of their era, and the younger ones didn't really want Brightside and Sex on Fire. Bit of a damp squib, only lit sporadically by ABBA and The Usual ( cheese flavoured ) Suspects. The demon drink was involved for some, and it was one of those where you really feel it ran an hour too long. Guests of honour were delighted, and came to say so, which means a job well done.
Gig 2, small wedding. Early start, and again I arrive early, to try and find a suitable space in the car park. It's no good arriving with minutes to spare here, get in early and wait.
I upset the owner early doors, just to start things off in the usual manner, and get set up. Guests arrive, and we're on background music, until we have the grand entrance of bride and groom ( who have been in the room for half an hour previously, but we can suspend disbelief, can't we children? ) to cheers and confetti.
Then it's buffet time, except despite what I'm told, it isn't ready. Well actually, the cold bit is, but the hot food in warmers isn't, apparently. Buffet thus becomes a two tier effort. We have the first dance, then a wait for the Dad/Daughter, Mum 1/Daughter and Mum 2/Son dances. We then officially declare party time to a less than excited crowd. My big problem was people leaving and returning from toilet breaks, smoke breaks, bar breaks. Many people thus missed their requests, but at times I had a very healthy floor. Cheese/Children's songs seemed to be the way forward mainly, and then the dreaded wedding fatigue/children's bedtime hit. Another booking that was an hour too long, leaving me playing to a handful of stragglers.
Bride thanked me profusely, so yes, another job well done. All that was left was to get out without winding the owner up further, which I failed to do. I mean come on, why can't we get a full disco carried down steps in one trip in ten minutes? Is it too much to ask for? :confused:
Answers on a postcard to the usual address please. ;)
Refreshingly different in lots of ways
So last night then....the 19th hole of the local golf club and I'd been looking forward to this one far more than I should have been.
This was a wedding "after party", they got married 6 weeks ago with a very small ceremony. Even better, they were my age group as were 99% of the guests.
I always knew this was going to be good. I replied to the initial enquiry email to say yes I can do it for £XYZ and she was on the phone to book within a matter of minutes with a brief of "music from the 70s, 80s and 90s". OH YUSS!!
Last week the playlist came in and it was good to her word. No restrictions on what to play other than absolutely no Come On Eileen....no problem from this end :)
Even betterer, I'd offered the chance of using the Retro show seeing the age group of the guests and the musical styles, and they didn't have to think twice about that idea.
Now this was a bit of a silly idea on my part for several reasons:
* The retro show had been moved towards the back of my storage unit as it's not been out since Covid - it took a LOT of digging to get to it.
* Since it's not been out since Covid, I needed to bring it home and make sure it actually worked and wasn't going to catch fire
* The van's been off the road all week having open heart surgery so the light screens came home a couple at a time in the family Zafira. Because of this, the light boxes have annoyingly been stacked in my lounge all week because it was going to be too much of a faff to take them back to the store, and finally
* I've not USED the retro show since I got the NV200. Know what? For the first time since the poor old Hiace departed my driveway I noticed the smaller load space. It was proper Tetris getting it all in :o
Funny, there's been a Faceache thread on the local DJ group bemoaning DJs that have "multiple setups", "can't see the point", "the couples don't care"....etc...etc...etc. It actually appears to be some new kind of snobbery to only have a "one size fits all" setup. Count me out on that one chaps!
Well last night they DID care and it DID make a difference.
They've also been bemoaning those of us with multiple PA setups.
Last night, I took out the Yamaha combo...overkill for that venue but I need it for a tented affair on Monday night and thought I'd take the opportunity to blow the dust off it since it hasn't been used since last September (oh boy....that system still causes a tingling feeling somewhere very private when it's in full flow! :o ).
So the night itself....only around half (maybe a few more) turned up - I counted around 50 heads, mainly of the more mature generation. Background for the first 90 minutes whilst they got comfy and ate grub and then it's party time. I was promised a full dance floor and they didn't disappoint. Despite mostly being the wrong side of half a century old, they danced their socks off :)
The only problem is that there's no easy way to get photos in that particular venue of the dance floor - it ALWAYS looks a bit empty. The 1980s definitely won the night both with lighting AND music, including guest requests aplenty. I couldn't put a foot wrong apart from Mr Lewis and his News team which cleared the floor within seconds - strange for an 80s night.
The guests were so polite that they actually appreciated the midnight finish (like me, they were well past their bedtime) and instead of baying for one more, gave me a round of applause for my efforts. Many hugs and thanks followed as I was clearing away and even though I was working with heavier stuff than I've been used to of late, I was still out of the venue 30 minutes after I turned everything off.
The only downside of the night is that I'm now absolutely shattered. Although it's an easier setup to bolt together and take apart than the modern stuff, I'd forgotten how HEAVY it is. Thank Gawd I use digital sound rather than turntables, vinyl and amps.
Day off on Sunday, only to return to the store on Monday to sort out the mess I've dumped in there and switch over to the Rustic show for Monday evening's shenanigans which promise to be fun. It's an ex blank-canvas wedding venue which converted to a glamping site during the lockdowns, and he's now hosting the first of hopefully many two-day team building events (could be lucrative for he and me ;) ) The company holding this event wanted a "wedding DJ" (whatever one of those is) to do the evening entertainment and I was the first call the site owner made having done several weddings there in the good old normal days. Bad news, it's going to be wet and windy on Monday in this neck of the woods....it'll be a bobble hat for the night then :rofl:
