Communication, miscommunication, and moving along.
It's been a funny old week. First up was being a guest at a wedding, shock horror!! :eek::eek::eek: Our very own Davesounds decided to tie the knot with the lovely Lily, after only twenty five years or so! Doesn't like to rush these important decisions, our Dave. :) They picked a beautiful little hotel in Ossett ( no mean feat in itself) and had a wonderfully relaxed and intimate occasion. No fighting broke out, no drink was spilt near valuable disco kit, as the music was provided by young Mattysounds, who plugged some pre-recorded stuff into the hotel system, at a perfectly discreet volume. Just a lovely celebration with friends and family.
The next day saw me revisiting a venue I'd been to three years previously, for another wedding, this time as the DJ. I'd had another Road To Damascus moment about the lights, and it would have worked very well, if the combination of a high stage and low ceiling hadn't hampered me. :( This one suffered from being a midweek wedding, and also lots of children, who tended to take over the playlist. I've had a lot of great playlists lately, and this would have been a corker if we'd had lots of adult bodies there, ready to throw some serious shapes. The bride was justifiably disappointed at the number of no shows, but more than happy with my efforts. Her kids said it was the best disco they'd ever been to, but that's no surprise as they chose 97% of the music! :D I got an early enough finish to find out that I could indulge my coffee habit at a Golden Arches nearby which I was totally unaware of. Made it with ten minutes to spare before they closed at midnight.
Saturday is where the title kicks in. I had expected to be at Matthew Western's residency, but due to a misunderstanding between us ( not the hotel, strangely enough ) We were one DJ surplus. This worked well, seemingly, as Dave and Matty Sounds were short of one. Problem solved, wonderful.
Except that they then had a cancellation, and we were still one DJ over. :(:( True Gentlemen that they are, they doubled up on their gig, and I went where I'd expected to cover for them. Lovely restaurant in Mirfield, with some interesting quirks. First time I've had to hand my power cable to a bar person to plug into a trailing socket hidden way under the bar, eek! :eek::eek:
This means that the disco has to go in a curious ( and quite frankly silly ) position in the room, although to be fair the only better place would be the comfy seating alcove at the far side, but no power exists across there. I got there ridiculously early, as usual, and was just about set up when the advance guard of the bridal party arrived. This bride was just another truly lovely one, I've had just the nicest brides lately, long may it continue. There were many Scots in attendance, lots of kilted ones as well, so I had great hopes for this one, with another splendid playlist, varying from full cheese, through lots of Proclaimers to top drawer Clubland again. It started sooo well, once the buffet had subsided, I initially had rammed floors, and hoped to build as we went on. Sadly, the reverse was true, and it was " steady as you go " until the end with 500 miles ( obviously ), my Usual Suspects, and finishing with the six minute version of Loch Lomond. My but that's a powerful piece of music.
Another happy bride, and compliments from guests as I packed up. And the best bit? Well I don't know if this was weekend only, or a sign of less supply issues, but many of Ronald's shops were back to 24 hour service. :banana: I knew that one such emporium was slap bang in Sounds territory, so I set the Sat Nav for there, but as I got going, I realised that I already knew where I was, and I was close to my road home. The nearest McD's turned out to be open, and despite the unbelievably long and slow queue, this meant that once loaded up, it was pedal to the metal time down the M62. ( And before anyone thinks I'm speeding, the Soul Banana has a 68mph limiter).
Next week sees a Hen Party in a Spa Hotel in L**********e. If I'm not back by Thursday, don't whatever you do send a search party. :D
Midnight at the Oasis (ish) gig
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Excalibur
It's been a funny old week. ...
Next week sees a Hen Party in a Spa Hotel in L**********e. If I'm not back by Thursday, don't whatever you do send a search party. :D
I've seen lots of your rig shots on the socials Peter & I can't help but think gawd I really don't envy that guy - surely one day he's going to catch a break & be given a realistic setup space.
As for a hen do.. as exciting as that sounds to a man of my age I don't think I'm made of strong enough stuff. I've turned down many an enquiry for hen dos recently. I used to DJ in bars in Whitley Bay & I've seen a lot of carnage, so it's gonna be a 'no' from me for a while yet. Good luck that man!
Right then my last gig was a very indie oriented wedding bash with no less than ten tracks by the scrapping Gallagher brothers. I'm not the biggest fan of that band, to put it lightly (bad experiences with some of their fans at my gigs loom large in my memory) but I couldn't have wished for a more lovely crowd.
Everything went great timing wise & the maid of honour was down to introduce the first dance once the cake was cut. The guests took next to no encouragement to make all the right noises at the right times & the floor was literally filled to brimming for the vast majority of the night save for hog butty time.
I had a short list of pre-requests from the couple that indicated tastes were going to be nothing if not eclectic (apart from the Oasis bias). First dance was a big success & I started picking from the list. Guest requests came in & most people were taken aback that I was actually taking them (where the heck is this surprise still coming from?!). Oh those requests. Definitely not tracks I'd have picked under most circumstances but given the general vibe I figured it was safe to trust them. I wasn't wrong.
One exception was a friend of the groom's dad who asked for An American Tale by Elvis right on the dot of 11pm. What? Do I risk derailing everything with this? Bah whatever, I'm sure I can rescue things if it bombs... pressed play. Cue the entire crowd looking daggers at me for about 20 agonising seconds while I thought "what the heck have I done?!". Thankfully then everyone cottoned on & one of those lovely wedding moments happened with the happy couple surrounded by everybody. Phew!
From there we made it to last orders time & I managed to shoehorn the remaining guest requests into the last 15 minutes. It was utterly epic!
As I packed down the couple came over & thanked me profusely. I thanked them back - that was far & away the best crowd & the loveliest couple I've worked with for ages.