Last week on Friday I was filling in for someone.. a wedding where a DJ making a 'thing' out of the cake cut & first dance were apparently new concepts to the happy couple but they seemed very pleased with the result.
After the first dance the floor was rammed for all of about 20 minutes, then people sat down to chat again. It was at this point I met the bride's creepy 'uncle'. "Nobody's dancing! You need to be playing Dancing Queen next!" he said. I rolled my eyes & said "because everybody LOVES Abba, right?". Right! Off he went. I decided it might be fun to humour him. Nope, nobody liked Dancing Queen enough to dance to it. I saw him running around tables, motioning for people to get up dancing again. Nobody budged. In the meantime I saw that whenever he spoke to the bride he had a wandering hand. "Come On Eileen!" he barked at me next time he came back "That'll definitely get everyone up!".I humoured him again... hmmmnope. Still nothing. I saw him coming storming over again. Hey here's an idea I said.. why don't YOU get behind there & see if you can make a difference? "ah no you're alright". I wasn't bothered by him again.
When the buffet had been going a while I spotted that plates were being emptied & people didn't seem to be going back for more so I changed gear & oh look - rammed floor right til the very end pretty much. The groom asked me to announce they were heading off just after I'd annouced last orders so I decided to play a 'last song' after rousing the crowd to give them one last hurrah... which turned into 4 last songs. A decent result. (Devil's advocate.. but was it what they really wanted?)
Saturday saw me back in my usual haunt, but under the guise of a private booking for a teensy bit (cough) more than the venue pay me. Originally booked for a different venue which I dare say thankfully went under last year. It had easily THE most awful loadin I've ever experienced - a rickety garden path which even my souped up rock n roller struggles to navigate. Phew!
It was all so-so. I always know I'm in trouble when Michael Buble fills the dancefloor but managed to cope. Bathtime came at 10.45pm when I was asked to annouce the happy couple would be retiring (I've never heard it called that before) & things took a massive dive after that. 11.05 I had 7 guests remaining, who weren't being collected until midnight. Shoved some background music on, went to the loo then a guest messed with my gear. Music off, sent em packing.
Thursday - on arrival at the venue I was taken to one side & appraised of the situation. It didn't sound like it was going to be a very fun night. But it was! And how! They danced to just about absolutely everything I could throw at them from the first dance til the bitter end (buffet time was brought forward - cake & first dance wasn't til after then). Dean Martin's That's Amore was the FD, followed by Frank Sinatra Fly Me To The moon (requested). I felt cheeky & launched into Nat King Cole's Let's Face The Music & Dance.. and won. I aired some absolute corkers throughout the night, managing to avoid most of the worst of the bog standard wedding fayre.
Come the end it was the long awaited return of the 'one more song' chant. If the woman who decided to remonstrate with me hadn't been quite so abusive I might have conceded.. but nah.
Last night - a bride from August booked me to play her sister's 40th birthday party at a local rugby club. Nice place, less than 15 minutes from home, dead easy loadin. Jostled between motown, 90s dance, more motown, 90s dance, 90s cheese and yet more 90s dance it was an absolute blinder. I even got to crank the RCFs up a fair bit. Yet again, cries of one more, or two more came from the crowd - even the birthday girl. I said OK but only if the barstaff agree. Bar staff had told me last orders at 11.15, music off 11.30 on the dot. Yes, we're good for one more song. I played it quietly & people started to file out.
I packed down & was out in under half an hour - bar staff thanked me for a great night & commented how neat my setup is as well as how smartly I was in & out, which was nice.
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Yes, such a thing exists there. Reasonable access, but the stage was very tall, and the steps were narrow, which didn't help. In front of the stage were the biggest, brightest LOVE letters I have ever seen! Absolutely blinding. Totally washed out my Hadrons. 
If I had used the Crossfires, that would have helped, because they would have swept the unlit areas a bit. One of those nights where the ambient light is just too much. 
Originally Posted by Excalibur
To be fair, I wasn't razor sharp, and didn't give them perfect support, although as usual, we/they managed well enough. The night went really well, and as is often the case when that happens, they overran massively, leaving me less than forty five minutes to play. They handed over to me, and while I was changing the laptop over for my music, an organiser asked for a mic, to announce they'd need to remove the tables from the dancefloor, if they wanted to dance!
Photo booth lady said she was bordering on rude! Really needlessly unhelpful, as I had to hurry for no reason. Best part the the tog. No coloured lights, in fact no lights at all. Fair enough, nice lad, so no problem. 
