Good Gig, Bad Gig.

Saturday was covering for the inimitable Mr Jackson at his residency. He had graciously put me a booth in, and ensured that I had access to not a single, but a double wall socket for electricity. :D

I arrived early, had a chat with Dave, and having got set up, walked all of a hundred yards across the road to a Spoons, where I had a filling meal for the princely sum of £4.50, including unlimited coffee. Beats eating a sandwich in the van on the way.

The function. Good news, bad news, it was ever thus.
Good news, it's people I have seen before, and I knew the company boss from my day job years ago. We had a lovely chat about old times.

Bad news: A free bar, lots of young folk. :( Not a sit down meal, but a hot buffet, so I was playing music earlier than I would have preferred. The company had provided request slips and pens on every table, and these were well used, and used well, if I'm honest. Lots of excellent choices, including my second in two nights for Lynyrd Skynyrd!

First up was a complaint that I was playing dance music too early, and would have to repeat Blue Monday later, when said customer was ready to dance. Blimey love, I've only got four hours to play, I've got to fit them all in somewhere. :daft:

I had to remind guests not to vape indoors, not to bring drinks onto the dancefloor, to go and eat the buffet ( seemingly, the bar held greater attraction than the food, the amount of leftover lager poured away at the end of the night was criminal ) and various other things.

It got really, really lively, to the point where I feared for my kit, the booth got walloped a few times, mainly by a young lady ( I use the term loosely ) who had imbibed a drop or two. I'd just about got into my stride for the last hour, and after various well received musical styles, we had hit 140bpm, and were romping into the home straight.
Cue the organiser telling me we didn't want a rave ( well the DJ, and quite a few guests were certainly up for one :confused: ) and we did an abrupt about turn to a bit of Westlife, Pink, and something else I've forgotten. Calmed things down a lot.

Midnight arrived, with the new default finish time of 12.30 looming. ( Always used to be at the discretion of the DJ, if we'd got down to one man and his dog we'd finish, but some entitled guests had got into the owner's ear about it one night, and now the bar staff have to give the nod. How pleased was I when said staff arrived at my side and said they'd all got taxis for 12.15, so I could knock off then. I had sixteen minutes of four Christmas songs ready, so Wham, Noddy, Mariah and Shane/Kirsty got me to the end.

If I'm honest, my Thursday crowd were good, Friday were far better, and Saturday were the best, all with the odd slightly difficult customer. If next weekend is close to that, I'll be happy.

OK, so last night was the last wedding of the year for me, and the one I was most worried about.

A venue that I normally think nothing of facing 100+ guests, with just 35 in attendance. Add to that it was Monday night, some of the guests had children that had to be in school today, and you can see where I'm going.

Know what? I was pleasantly surprised. Lovely laid back couple and guests, very few pre-requests, and the chance to do my own thing.

I won't deny it was hard work at times, but it was also a lot more personal. I had chance to interact with individual guests, to chop between Meatloaf and Abba without trying to make it sound slick, and a chance to play stuff I've not played in ages.

Because of the low guest count, it was never going to be a rammed dance floor. I was surprised that Fairytale of New York got literally every single guest on the 'floor though - that one doesn't normally work too well in these parts for some reason.

Round of applause at the end, very happy bride and groom, and very happy DJ to boot.

Talking to the venue at the end of the evening confirmed what I'm already seeing though. 2025's potentially going to be a brutally tough year. They're well down on bookings as am I. They (as do I) also have more bookings for 2026 than 2025. I think we're starting to see the effects of the pandemic stopping folks from meeting and getting engaged coming to a head.

Hey ho - a local youth group Xmas party on Wednesday in my local village hall with a request list that's going to need big PA (but won't get it due to time constraints getting in and out), and I'm done until the New Year :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

If I'm honest, my Thursday crowd were good, Friday were far better, and Saturday were the best, all with the odd slightly difficult customer. If next weekend is close to that, I'll be happy.

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To take a leaf from Wayne, " Small but hideously deformed " was more mine last night. Cover for a Multi op, at a very nice venue, for a company staff party. No expense spared. I had all the necessary information, but details of how it would work were " sketchy ". No " meat on the bones ".
I arrived later than I would like, but early enough, and liaised with the " Circus " of six performers, based on The Greatest Showman. I was given six tracks on an USB, and a running order. The whole thing was quite intimate, four tables in my room, twenty people, and, yes, you guessed it:
bar next door. See the danger signs already? :whistle:

Well, against the odds, the circus ran flawlessly, with no foul ups from me, and then the mic wasn't handed back to me, but the CEO for the presentation ( which as you will already have guessed, I wasn't totally informed about ). He was very good, very pleasant too. Once that was done with, it was meal time, so background. My choice of Xmas music was running out around the same time as the meal, so I moved into warmup style, and we were soon seeing some hesitant dancefloor action to tried and tested numbers.

Then, half the guests disappeared! :eek: It looked for all the world as if I was on for something like a 10pm finish, but no, I became a human jukebox, and we had a very good night of very decent tracks, covering a wide range of stuff I'd play on a regular basis. Half my half a crowd departed just after 11pm, and the five people remaining left at 11.30 ish, thanking me for a great night.

Not a great night, not a disaster, but one where I'd expect a very good review for my efforts. Can't all be golden, eh? I have high hopes for tonight, same venue as last Friday, worked well.

Last night was at a lovely hotel, with fabulous staff. I was there eight days ago for the best gig of the month, and that one still stands as that. Last night's crowd were fairly laid back, and the staff appreciated a more relaxed night than they'd had the night before. According to accounts of it, it was a fairly lively crowd, who were doing a roaring trade in shots at the bar!

When I went from Xmas background to normal warm up tracks, the table nearest me were singing along to what I was playing, and one chap was convinced I'd had a request from his table, cos I put one of his favourite tracks on, Silver Star-Four Seasons. It was a slow start, but once we got going, we had a healthy floor all night, to some of the less played classics. Until they all got requested much later. :D

Like Justin elsewhere, I had an age split, and while I catered for the older ones early on, the younger ones came into their own later on. Brightside, Killers, Arctic Monkeys, Bon Jovi and the like were requested, as well as Macarena, and other cheesy products.

All in all a good night, and just the way to end the run, a nice easy night, other than the horrendous drive up the A1 to get there in the high winds. When I go home, I use the old road, and it's much more pleasant along the A19.

Have a great Christmas everyone.

Egg on face time, for a start. Due to a breakdown in communications, I arrived at my NYE gig without Karaoke gear. A hurried dash home and back rectified this, and I was up and running only slightly later than planned.

That was my part of the deal, provide Karaoke and disco for the hordes of patrons, eager to celebrate the arrival of a new and exciting year, in a venue filled with party animals having the time of their lives.

All twenty one of them, scattered all around the multi room venue, with over fifty tables. I personally had two tables reserved for my " Posse ". :D:D ( Actually, it was really so no punters got in my setting up space ).

Damp squib? Well, I got thanks and praise from guests and management, job done on my part. Did I feel a sense of pride, fulfilment, and satisfaction? You can make your own minds up. :whistle:

I suspect that one slightly more compelling reason is the filthy lucre. Otherwise, why would I eschew the lure of a roaring fire and a stack of Christmas beer, in favour of heading out into a forecast blizzard* into central Leeds, parking on a pavement, carrying Karaoke gear up two flights of stairs, and paying a tenner to park on the blasted street? You won't need to send your answers on a postcard, thanks. :D

The lad I worked for on NYE rang to offer me this function, and the lure of being able to eat this week was too much to resist. Much like NYE, it didn't bode well, and had the potential to be an absolute nightmare, and even risk to life, limb, and Transit. Again, it went far better than I could have hoped. The side street where I parked had access to a side door at the venue, a parking bay fifty yards away was available ( at a cost :cry::cry: ) and weather conditions, while poor, were nothing to lose any sleep over. My guests were lovely, the karaoke was busy, and the venue itself was " cosy ". ( For cosy, read packed like sardines :D ).

Again, somehow a win, even if it didn't look promising.




* Yeah right. Hurricane? What Hurricane? Since that happened, the weather Lads and Lasses have never knowingly undersold any meteorological event
with their prophesies of doom. The driving conditions here were worse on NYE than last night.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

I suspect that one slightly more compelling reason is the filthy lucre. Otherwise, why would I eschew the lure of a roaring fire and a stack of Christmas beer, in favour of heading out into a forecast blizzard* into central Leeds, parking on a pavement, carrying Karaoke gear up two flights of stairs, and paying a tenner to park on the blasted street? You won't need to send your answers on a postcard, thanks. :D

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Slightly off topic.

Had the pleasure of visiting Leeds a few times last year. Lovely City and tons of record shops (think we did seven and didn't get to others).

Thankfully here in the Cotswolds we don't belive in venues without tons of parking :D

On Saturday, I had a sort of all day wedding with Karaoke for a couple where the bride was South African, but had lived here a long time. Lovely folk, in what was once the biggest function venue for miles around. Then Whitbread/Greene King/Hungry Horse took it over, and turned almost all of the function room into a restaurant. What's left still has excellent access, a stage, and a sleigh and a garden shed ( Santa's Grotto :confused: ) taking up most of the space behind the curtain at the rear of the stage. Also, despite them knowing the time of my arrival, the resident deckstand playout kit was still on the stage with me! After I'd started to set up round it, the staff appeared, and decided to shift it behind the curtain, meaning some of my kit was hampering this move, and then My kit would be off centre, and need moving itself. :mad: It also meant that the Karaoke screen was at the less handy side, but that turned out not to be an issue.

I was expecting less than fifty people, in a tiny room, so the Maui 5s were well up to the task, and we had the all white rig out for a change. Guests turned up before the planned 2pm, finish was originally 10pm, extended to 11pm in the site visit, if all was going well, shortened to 9pm if it really wasn't. More on that later.

The whole thing was informal ( but not as informal as I'd been led to believe. Smart casual to suit and tie seemed to be the code. ) The wedding breakfast was a buffet, and I played background before and during that. I then got a few ( silly ) karaoke requests, which sadly didn't galvanise the crowd into the frenzy of fun and frivolity the bride was hoping for, and the Karaoke was effectively a waste of time. Sporadic dancing occurred, and in some respects, the informality dampened the event. With a full sit down meal, over a couple of hours, it seems to build up anticipation for later, and tell guests that it's now time to party once it's finished. This seemed to just merge into not quite eating time, not quite dancing time, and was a bit of a damp squib. A second buffet came out for the evening guests, and that again put a bit of a break into proceedings. We'd had a first dance, and they'd cut the cake unannounced, until a determined guest got them back into place to do it as a photocall, and suggested I make a bit more of an event, which I did.

Well, we were sort of winding down, many guests had left, and at 8.30pm the bride suggested I put some background on, and start packing up for a flier. I sort of expected to give over at 9pm, and get away swiftly. Oh no, dear reader, oh no!

By 9pm I'd announced that the gloves were off request wise, and nothing was off the table. I'd already taken some leftfield ones, lots of Disney songs from Moana and the like for example. Snow Patrol-Chasing Cars was the first one after 9, and I sort of expected to head off into listening territory, like Chris Stapleton- Tennessee Whiskey which soon followed, and You'll never walk alone. .

Alcohol, and the South African party spirit kicked in.

Macarena, Oops, Ac/Dc, N Trance, all manner of Cheese and Dance got asked for, and I actually switched off just after 10pm, having stripped all the lights by now, the Karaoke, and anything that wasn't vital to the sound.

All in all, not the wild affair the bride was hoping for, it never really took off, but she, the groom, and guests were very happy with what I'd done. I wasn't too upset either, packed up by 10.30, and a twenty minute drive home, even with a couple of stops on the way, I was in bed by 11.30pm. :eek:

I was out last night with my good friends the FFN, Penfold's " Legslappers". Unusually for both of us, as they're based in Lincoln, we were in Leeds! :eek: A guest at a previous function had cottoned on to the fact that with their help, they could raise money for their chosen Charity, helping with MS.

The normal timeline for these events is 7-12, with a couple of venues crossing my palm with silver to persuade me to carry on till 1am. This one was down as an 11pm finish, with venue cleared by 11.30pm. The format of these nights is that I set up the kit, they drive it, and whip the crowd up into a frenzy by pouring wine down them, and getting them to perform various actions reminiscent of a German Bierkeller. There really is no one else doing this, it's a sight for sore eyes at times.
Last night for example, the Conga Lines crossed the stage behind us, and at other functions, they've gone round the kiddies playground outside!

Anyway, I got set up in good time, the evening started slightly late, as they tend to, the crowd were magnificent, and so receptive to the general feel of the night that I was left with only about forty minutes to play. Like I said, more of a kit hire evening than anything else. Half an hour later, the kit was in the van, and at 1am, my head hit the pillow of my bed. Later this year, I have one in deepest Lincolnshire with a midnight finish, and a two hour drive home, so it all evens out somewhere.

40th Birthday last night, in a nice bistro chain near Dewsbury. On the way there I had torrential rain, and lightning to contend with, good job I was early and could take my time to ensure safe arrival. It's upstairs, and not particularly handy, so I took the wedding rig and cut it down by two lights and one pole. It was still more than man enough for the job.

I got set up in good time, and was surprised and a tad apprehensive when no guests or organisers had turned up with still fifteen minutes to go, but they began to drift in, and we kicked off at 7pm as per plans. There was a big Albanian contingent, and I'd been told that the seven or eight songs I'd been given would be enough.

Shoemenders!

I'd checked Tidal for the tracks, and was delighted to find them all available, and that Spotify had a list of Albanian greatest chart hits to work from as well. The DJ booth resembled mission control Houston, with a PC over the Roland, the Prime GO at the side of it, Microsoft tablet loaded with Tidal and Spotify for reference, and an iphone for typing tracks into as a search engine. Pencil and paper even was used by some folks, as well as their own Youtube libraries on their phones.

The amazing thing is that Tidal only failed totally on two tracks, and got a wrong version on another. I must admit that at times I had no idea what on earth I was doing, just typing in as much of the track/artist names as I could remember ( one artist's songs tended to come up in the Greek alphabet, which wasn't helpful! ) loading them up hopefully, and pressing play on one or other player. It was beyond hectic at times, once guests had realised that I was open playing anything we could identify.

The Roland continues to amaze and impress me. I'm finding so many things that it can do, for instance I normally feed the Prime into the auxiliary front input, which has a choice of two 1/4" jacks, or a stereo mini jack. Having been asked multiple times for the correct version of the track I could only find an incorrect version for, I may have considered lashing the tablet into that and playing the one they wanted from a popular video site. I didn't of course, for that would be naughty. :innocent:

It does however bring it home to me why certain " DJs" seem happy to operate with only a WiFi connection and the site referred to. It basically has more tracks and more versions than Spotify and Tidal together!

With the blessing of management, we ran over by half an hour, thanks and handshakes were plentiful, and a good review should be forthcoming. So, with the aid of technology, we had a great night with satisfied guests. Without, I'd have been dead in the water.