Good Gig, Bad Gig.

I did a 70th which was organised by one of the womans daughters last Saturday and its the type of gig I like where they just say "Play abit of everything". I had everything set up and she has supplied me with a cd full of puctures of birthday girl for me to show on a slideshow (My latest extra). What was really special was not only was it a suprise party but family had come over from all over the world which birthday girl hadn't seen in years.

The night was going great and had a dancefloor all night even when I were playing slow songs while they ate. After they all had finished eating thats when I switched the slideshow on and the daughter who organised it did a speak and birthday girl got all emotional, the next minute the whole room was in tears :o I didn't lnow what to do so after the speeches I just carried on.

At the end of the night the manager of the venue asked for my number and another 4 people asked for my number. So I think the whole night was a great success

Good gig last night at my regular hotel. Big wedding with lots of "lundunners". Arrived at 6.30 as arranged but it was 8 before we could get in. Despite being a 2.30 church wedding they didnt sit down to the wedding breakfast until 5.30. Anyway we were loaded in by 8.15, running by 8.25 and changed and ready by 8.30. All the guests had vacated the room whilst we set up and the staff arranged the room for the evening. They started to drift back and the videographer came and asked me what time the first dance would be. I told him that I had spoken to the bride and told her I was ready whenever they were. He told me that they were going at 9pm and that if they didnt hurry up they would not get the first dance on tape. I suggested that he should talk to the happy couple as I was there till midnight; so it really wasnt my problem. The guests were very slow at coming back in (there were a lot of smokers) but we eventually did the first dance at about 8.50. It was "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" but sung by Leona Lewis. I had to download it specially as I had not heard of it before. Nice version. The second dance was for the brides parents who were celebrating their anniversary. After that it was into the usual well known favourites and a full floor which stayed that way most of the night. During the buffet I often play Sinatra but last night I plumped for Dean Martin which went down a storm with lots of people singing along and a few older couples dancing. Had quite a few requests from Elvis and Patsy Cline through Guns & Roses and Chake Khan to Mr Hudson and Kaiser Chiefs. The good thing about this wedding is that everyone danced and was tolerant of other people's musical requests.
Only thing that was slightly unusual (but not unknown) was that the bride and groom left completely unannounced at 11.30; so I simply finished the evening with some slowies which had been requested: Aaron Neville "Tell It Like It Is", Cars "Drive", Diana & Lionel "Endless Love" and Van the Man "Have I Told You Lately" (the request on the night was for it sung by Elvis but I have never heard that version let alone own it!). Anyway the audience were not at all bothered by the absence of the b & g who were apparently putting their daughter to bed. They were having a party and enjoying it. Lots of people still left at the midnight close singing along to my usual Vera Lynn (I am back in fashion again closing the show every night with a chart artiste!). Whilst we were packing up the bride appeared and was delighted with our performance. All in all an enjoyable evening.

Wedding last night at a nice hotel (Coulsdon Manor Hotel) near Croydon where I've worked a few times before. When I was last there a year or two back, I was in the smaller function room which is up a flight of stairs. Fortunately, last night I was in the main function room which is on the ground floor.

It was the usual story with things running late, which pleased me, as it would have been one of my longest weddings ever. It didn't finish until 1am, and the plan was for me to set up at 6pm and start at 7pm. As things turned out, I didn't set up until 7.45pm, and kicked off around 8.30pm.

The set up area was a bit like a stage. It was basically a raised carpeted floor at one end of the room, about 1 foot above the ground but with wood all round the edge to a height of about 3 feet and then about a foot of glass above that. At the sides there were sideboards containing cutlery & stuff and behind me was a door leading to the room where they'd had the ceremony.

There were two advantages to having a set up area like this. Firstly, there were none of the usual worries about people knocking into my gear, and secondly I didn't need to use my surround or worry about making my cables neat, because nobody could see them, as they were all below the level of the wooden surround.

The other nice thing was how friendly & helpful the banqueting manager was...often coming up ask how things were going & see if I was okay or needed anything.

The Bride was really bubbly and the crowd were nice people. Music wise it was my perfect situation..a list of 120 requests, but only enough time to play about half of them, and they were mostly the kinds of things I'd usually play anyway. The crowd were up for it, and the dance floor was busy all the time.

At the end of the night I asked the Bride if she was happy with the disco, and as well as the usual compliments, she told me that a number of people from the wedding reception in the room next door had asked her if they could come through to HER reception!!! I think that says it all!

Fantastic night on Saturday.

Private party at an amazing house/mansion. The customers were generous & thoughtful. They provided a 1st class playlist that wasn't too long, varied and not a bad track in sight. About 150 guests with a mixture of ages from 14 years to 70 years. They had hired a 7 piece band that were truly awesome and very professional. The band set up prior to my arrival but left me with plenty of space to set up. They offered me use of their mixing desk and enormous sound system which I gratefully accepted. We shared the lighting to cut down set up and take down times.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, the customers provided a chill out room for me and the band with food and drink! The band finished at 1am but as I was using their system their sound engineer waited around for me to finish at 3am and we helped eachother pack up.

Loads of positive comments from the guests and customers and probably my favourite night ever. I suppose I'll have to accept that I'll never have a night like that again.

Did I dream it?

Andy

Sounds quality. if only they could all be like that eh.

The band sounds really cool too.

I had a cracking weekend - Friday night saw me at the Bristol City Hotel (formerly Jury's) for a wedding party. The B&G had got married a month or so before in Vegas and this was their chance to get all of the friends together for a big party (180 guests in all!) The Bride and one of the bridesmaids' run a dance studio in Bristol, so I'd been told that a good proportion of the guests would be up dancing early on to the two CD's of music that the Bride had provided. This was the only downside of the evening because I was told to play out the two CD's in order, which meant playing a truly eclectic and really poorly ordered set for about 90mins, ending in playing some fairly fast Salsa and Latin music during the buffet!! However, a good number of them did get up and dance which set the mood for the rest of the evening with a good proportion on the floor for the duration (despite it being a Fri evening and pretty late) and the B&G came over and thanked me at the end for a fantastic night (what more can I ask?)

Saturday night I was helping out a DJ friend by providing parts of the rig for a Police Charity Ball for 450 guests - by far the biggest gig I've done so far and one which stretched the JBL's, but they did the job well. Nowhere near as well as the Band's 10Kw of D.A.S. rig, but they did it! The crowd were REALLY up for it, we actually had to keep on asking them to sit down for the entertainment and auction as we were really just supposed to be background music between the start, the main show, the band, the buffet, the auction and the band again from the Start at 7:00 until 10:15 or so when the band were supposed to finish their last set, but they were getting up even in the little 10min gaps between events, and when we finally did get our go proper (at about 11:15!) the dance floor was absolutely rammed! Credit for that though has to go to Charlie though as he was manning the decks for the evening with me deflecting requests and providing "technical support". The stars of the show though were these two (in the middle):

Attachment 6543

That would be Stavros Flatley and his son from Britain's got talent (with me on the left end, Charlie on the right) who were absolutely brilliant, plus incredibly down to earth and a good laugh back stage.

Anyway, a great night and not a bad weekend all in.

Need sleep now :)

Julian

Good piccy....:D :D :D :D ...these guys make me laugh so much.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by penmare42

Good piccy....:D :D :D :D ...these guys make me laugh so much.

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:agree: Awesome pic Jules ! Those guys are funny as. :D

Had a great night tonight. Was an 18th with dancing from the about 20 mins in right through to the end.

Played a lot of new music and a few dubstep tracks.

All in all, a really great night.


Was nice to get back in the swing after a few weeks of no gigs. Also cheered me up as I have a very rough last 8 weeks. :(

Onwards and upwards.

Mollington - (Nr, Banbury - Oxon) (*70th Party*)

Geoffrey always amazes me due to always trying to come up with any reason to have a party and this has to be the "biggie"

Held as normal in his palatial home "Longridge" in the sleepy village of Mollington which is located just outside Banbury well it is sleepy until we land!! It was Geoff's birthday on Wednesday 30th September so I gave him a call to check things were ok for his party and it seemed to me that the main priority of the day was drinking!! - "Good Man"

He also said that he was expecting around 90 guests at his party and judging previous parties this is going to be the must have invite for October 09!

Three of the team were on duty for this event and my goodness what a party,

We arrived at the house and reversed up the drive to unload and whilst chatting to the team Geoffrey “The Birthday Boy” opened my door to greet us and I promptly fell out my seat and ended up in a crumpled heap on the lawn!! much to everyone’s amusement.

We went in and helped move the furniture out into the garage and then got on with setting things up. I used my small system due to it being in a house and it was plenty and I got to finally use my new booth surround which I was very impressed with.

The timings were:

8:00 - 9:00 - Warm up silly stuff for the children first which indecently was infiltrated by quite a few adults who were there for a good time.

9:00 - 9:45 - Buffet time and the spread was fantastic

9:45 - 12:00 - Full on party mode and there was some fantastic requests like T.rex - Queen - Status Quo and a heck of a lot of late 70’s early 80’s disco stuff all in all a pleasure to play and the dance floor was never empty once.

Things ended just after 12midnight with everyone singing “Happy Birthday2 to my son Aaron who is celebrating his 21st.

What an amazing evening, and whilst packing away I was thinking that this was to be the last party with this fine family but …. No way!!!

We were booked for another 70th (Geoff’s wife) plus a golden wedding in Bournemouth and a 50th in Coventry that was one heck of a result.