Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[DJ Jules]

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!

Last nights gig started with a 1am finish that turned into a midnight finish as we got closer to the date and then finally ended up being 11:45pm due to the venues rules (why don't people pay attention to the contracts they sign?)

Anyway... 30th birthday party in a local RFC. The venue had been decorated admirably by a balloonist who had been working on them from 3hrs by the time I arrived to setup. Small rig in and I got started with a very broad brief of 'we love everything from UB40 to Chris Brown'.

The venue has a couple of 'features' that aren't great for parties. Firstly, the disco has to be set up in what is essentially a loft space which is separated and offset from the main room space. Because of the low ceiling in the space and the limited entrance into the main room, it's really hard to strike a balance between too loud on the dance floor and too quiet to hear in the main room. Secondly, the lights in the main room only have two settings, all on or all off. Funnily enough, the disco lights don't reach into the main room so the room is either fully lit or pitch black. I moved a few of the battery uplighters that I use at every gig into the main room to give a bit of light and that seemed to be enough.

Regardless, the dance floor was reasonably busy throughout the night. Requests were typically not forthcoming until the last 20mins, meaning that I left a few people disappointed at the end of the night and got some grief from one individual for not playing one more song. Luckily I got the venue on the ball with the lights and the other guests didn't pick up on the mood.

More hugs, handshakes and business cards handed out at the end of the night, so not all bad.

Julian

[Excalibur]

(why don't people pay attention to the contracts they sign?)

I think I'd run out of smilies answering that! Let's settle for

[Imagine]

I think I'd run out of smilies answering that! Let's settle for

Ooooh yusss! They sign without looking at what's involved 99.9% of the time (I have sooo many stories of where the venue expect me to end earlier than the client thinks that I could write a book about it)

Anyhoo...onto my gig for yesterday (because I had my FIRST Saturday night off since April tonight....and I may be a little tipsy )

I'm back to being Captain Chaos and doing kids parties. I still have two weddings still to come, both in the same venue where I always have a lot of success...the first of those is 5 weeks (including a well earned week in Cornwall) away. Until then, it's full on adrenaline packed party mode with those that are truly inspired by what I do at the rate of 2-4 per weekend

Today was a party for 30 x 6 year olds and it was AWESOME. No drunk guests pulling their trousers and underwear off, guests fully engaged and enjoying the party, a 20 min get in/out and home in time for a nice rare rump steak and chips. What's not to like? With these ones I also get a 15 minute break half way through for a quick ciggy and a coffee whilst they eat.

Today's was AWESOME though. I did my usual routine of a couple of songs, game, repeat. BUT, I got to the action dance marathon after the break (YMCA, Macarena, 5678, Cha Cha Slide, Agadoo, Superman, Conga mashup) and ALL of the parents filled the dance floor and took part as well (and this was one where I "played" to the parents as well as the kids because getting them involved makes one heck of a difference!)

Since the schools started back a couple of weeks ago, the enquiries for these parties have started flooding in again...most of them already booked sadly but it's a good sign.

It seems that good old Captain Chaos is going to keep the business running between now Feb next year when my "wedding season" kicks off again

[Excalibur]

Good luck with the anklebiters, Wayne. Rather you than I. I've been out of those for so long that I struggle with them.

Last night was covering a wedding for a lad in Wakefield, at a Holiday Inn. It also gave me the chance to meet a couple who were interested in my services for a wedding in that area in 2023, so a bonus there. ( And yes, I passed my audition for that one, so it was indeed a big bonus).

Smallish affair, I was able to set up early, allowing me to meet my couple mid afternoon at the Holiday Inn, and then go on to do the evening one without moving! They let the guests in to my room an hour early ( ceremony elsewhere, so they just had guests milling around in the bar on arrival, clogging everything up. Logical move) which didn't matter, as I was all set up. I just played background for an hour, no problem. It was a beautifully relaxed occasion, no histrionics from guests, staff, togger or anyone. Despite a power supply issue I was battling with, we all had a good time, and although I never had a rammed dancefloor, it was consistently busy to a varied range of music, and I was thanked at the end, so another win for the book.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Had an absolute cracker tonight just outside St Andrew's. I tend to be able to turn my hand to most things but golf is one I'm not picking up too quick. I have aspirations to play a round in the Old Course at a point I won't spend all my time in the dunes looking for squiffed balls. I live in hope.

Stupidly easy load in, didn't even need the rock n roller.

Pretty extensive request list but most of it really good so all was well on that front. Easy 80% of what I played was off their list.

Couple of tech gremlins - the one tune that VDJ wasn't finding despite it working flawlessly earlier today when I ran through the must plays happened to be the family song for their deceased gran. We got there in the end with back up number 3 (possibly my steam powered phone via aux and Spotify but who can say... 😬 )

A bridesmaid introduced herself early doors as one of my latest bookings (less than 2 weeks ago) for 2025 so no pressure there then

Only downside is they didn't want me to do photos or video. It would have looked amazing and it's a new venue so would have been nice to get something footage for potential couples.

Chucking the stuff into the new lock up after a 2 hour drive home is so nice compared to humphing it into the house and putting it under the stairs or leaving it at my arse in the living room to be out away on Sunday morning.

[Excalibur]

Chucking the stuff into the new lock up after a 2 hour drive home is so nice compared to humping it into the house and putting it under the stairs or leaving it at my arse in the living room to be out away on Sunday morning.

Can beat that Jim, didn't even bring my kit home!

Very close to home for a Cowboys and Karaoke night, in a lovely little shed. We had a Rodeo Bull for the first few hours, and he went home around eight. Round here we have few folk who love to have a party, and this was short of nothing. I was fed and watered handsomely, which made up for having to do Karaoke. That actually went quite well, apart from the s who ask for a song, and when I play it say " but I wanted to sing it". Well what do you think Karaoke slips are for? Grrr.

I called it a night at 2.30am, cased up the kit with cases, took the laptop and tablet home, and picked it up in the sunshine this morning. After last night, today has been declared a rest day.

[Excalibur]

Ain't it just! A wise old man once said " If it ain't broke, don't fix it"! I wish I'd listened to him.
In a fit of exuberance, I upgraded VDJ to accept the VMS5 which has been sat in the cupboard since before lockdown. Thus, not only did I have a unit with buttons in different places, but also a laptop screen I'd never seen before.

Well, the player is just a new version, and I've used VDJ for years, I thought, how hard can it be?

Well last night, at times, very hard! I've grown used to pressing buttons without looking, and last night, the number of times I hit Cue instead of Play were numerous. I even managed to shunt Kylie off onto deck 4 which doesn't even have an output channel assigned to it! She was very quiet.

The search feature seemed to be throwing up some odd versions of songs, and I will be a long time getting used to the fact that seemingly, I can't have a side bar for Automix, and one below the search bar for later.

Nevertheless, my guests last night were more than happy with my amateurish efforts. I was handed a short playlist, which included a varied selection, from Puff Daddy, through Bruce Springsteen, Killers and Arctic Monkeys, to Abba, Macarena, and Oops!! I didn't think we were going to get to Oops, given that the crowd weren't overly cheesy, but not only was it on my list, it was requested too! On it went, and rowers appeared from all over the room, and damn good they were too.

All in all, a good night, and a steep learning curve. Much tweaking needed before next weekend. Not only that, but I've got a Denon Prime to do battle with at some point. What have I let myself in for? Wayne, you're a fool for advising me to get one.

[DJ Jules]

The search feature seemed to be throwing up some odd versions of songs, and I will be a long time getting used to the fact that seemingly, I can't have a side bar for Automix, and one below the search bar for later.

This threw me too when I upgraded as it reset all of my options and I had to remember what I had set where over the years. I've had to remember a couple more times recently as windows has kindly "cleaned" my registry settings which has meant losing the settings for VDJ and Freestyler

The old version of VDJ used to use the album name as part of the search criteria, the new one doesn't, but it does include the folder name? Click on the little button by the search box and select the fields you want it to use as part of the search to fix that one. Automix and sidelist - Search settings for horizontal and there is an option to re-instate the horizontal sidelist (but you have to restart VDJ for it to take effect).

Back on topic and I had a wedding last night in another regular wedding venue about 25-35mins from my home. Small boutique venue with 50 guests for the day time and another 20 for the evening, giving me ~70 to work with. I initially thought I was in for a hard night as they just weren't listening as I tried to organise them for cake cut (cake stayed in another room which made it all the more tricky) and low engagement for announcements is often a warning that I'm going to get low engagement throughout the night. However, I got their attention for the first dance and then it was a busy dancefloor all night and I actually had to forcibly reign them in for the buffet at 9pm. October is now quieter with only a couple of gigs a week which is just surreal to be honest after the absolute craziness of the last 5 months.

Julian

[DJ Jules]

However, I got their attention for the first dance and then it was a busy dancefloor all night and I actually had to forcibly reign them in for the buffet at 9pm.

I forgot the best part - the couple supplied their first dance, second dance and requested two other songs for the evening (Stevie Wonder - Superstition and EW&F - September) and left the rest to me. I had a handful of requests through the evening (2 of them were from the bar staff), but people basically left me to it.

Julian

[Excalibur]

if I should emulate a colleague, who is basically using the same kit he's used for ages and ages. Last night was the first night out with the Prime GO, and to be fair, I used it far less than I could have. Much of that was down to coming to grips with the VMS5 a lot more, and an odd tweak on VDJ.

30th birthday in a golf club " marquee", which is basically a huge conservatory, with drapes. To give credit where it's due, it did look fabulous, and with all the white cloth, my lights were superb. The venue never turned their lights on at all, I had two Spectrapix battens vertically on the lighting stands as wash/eye candy, two Hadrons mainly as wash/derby, and two Chauvet intimidator scans which for once behaved perfectly. Often, they can get a bit manic, but this time they just swept slowly round the room, on a slow colour/gobo change. Perfect.

It's not often I come away from a gig thinking I got it right, but last night, the lights were superb. DJ was a bit iffy, but he's still learning. Faders on the Prime are very short, and very aggressive! VMS5 didn't start every time I wanted it to, but I think I'd pressed a cue button to advance, which may have been it. This new version of VDJ isn't as user friendly as the old one.

Birthday girl wanted no cheese, lots of 90's dance and pop. First requests were for Y.M.C.A. and other cheesy delights. Did we stick to the remit? No, dear reader, we headed of into R&B for a while, smooth soul, dipped a toe into the outer edges of the fondue, and generally had a varied and enjoyable night. 50th tonight, at a local Cricket Club for Dave Jackson, who will have to give me a tutorial on the kit this aft, to atone for spending my deposit last week in London!