Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors.
Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.
Page 528 of 564 FirstFirst ... 28428478518526527528529530538 ... LastLast
Results 5,271 to 5,280 of 5634

Thread: Good Gig, Bad Gig.

  1. #5271

    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Durham, Co Durham
    Posts
    3,157

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim - Scotland's Party DJ View Post
    Never explain, never complain - no apology required on your part for playing a song you had no idea the bride didn't want to hear.

    I was more interested in making the point that I could very easily have been told

    I might end up bumping into them again the amount of cards I was asked for during the night

  2. #5272
    Imagine's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Ely, Cambridgeshire
    Age
    53
    Posts
    2,450

    Default

    Another week - another kids party.

    After last week's was cancelled due to you-know-what affecting the guests, it was good to be out and about again. A venue I've worked in before meant I knew it was just 20 minutes either side to get in and out, so it's just a case of entertaining the little cherubs.

    It's still tough getting them going - they're really not used to partying again yet. Get there we did though and lots of praise earned from parents and grandparents alike who by all accounts have been to many kids parties involving a DJ, but have never seen one as interactive as me. I thought we all did the job the same way?

    Next week's already been cancelled due to the guest of honour being under house arrest/quarantine.

    I did pick up one new trick this week though and I'm surprised I've not done this before. In the past, I've given winners medals out like sweets. They're getting harder to get hold of in any quantity and even worse, are now double the price they were before lockdowns. The new trick? Get Vistaprint to make me some nice shiny branded certificates which I stick a medal to and give one to each child at the end of the party.....everyone's a winner, it's greener (less plastic) and my stash of medals will last a hell of a lot longer.

    Oh...and hopefully it'll work exactly the same way as giving everyone a business card

  3. #5273
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    East Yorkshire
    Age
    68
    Posts
    26,833

    Default Bad news, Good news.

    Well, slightly disappointing gig, which started in a promising manner. A 60th birthday which had been in the book for ages. Came to me because someone the lady enquired with initially gave her my number. Can't beat networking.
    Bad news:
    Set off in really dismal rain, and arrived very early, as I often do.

    Good news: I was followed into the car park by a convoy of motor cars carrying the buffet, and the lovely venue staff with keys! Nobody was going home hungry from this one, including me! Excellent and varied grub, by the way.

    Bad news: Still raining.

    Good news: I could reverse up to the fire doors, next to the lovely stage. Headroom was a little low on stage, so I left the spacers out of the Polars, so I could get the lighting t-bars over them easily. Worked well.

    Bad news: Guests ages ranged from four to eighty four. Couldn't find anything which inspired more than a handful to dance, and I had virtually no requests for anything party/dancey. Plenty for totally unsuitable or unspecified ( Believer. Think I found four different artists for this track. ).

    Good news: Finished on time, packed up quickly, and drove past Ronald's only a mile away, and on the way home. Totally coffeed up, it was a pleasant drive home in dry weather. Best part of the night, really.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

    www.excaliburmobiledisco.co.uk

  4. #5274
    DJColsie's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Portsmouth
    Posts
    452

    Default

    Two contrasting Xmas parties for me this weekend at my regular venue.

    Usual operation is set by 7pm (6.30 in my language) when guests start arriving. Call them through for dinner about 7.40. Back ground/Xmas music while 3 courses are served. Party usually starts 9.15 - 9.30 and finish by 11.45.

    Friday great crowd, dancing to the background music before the meal. Really friendly, just wanted to dance and enjoy themselves. Great night and 11.45 was at least an hour too early. Huge round of applause at the finish.

    Saturday total opposite. Too cool to dance. No appropriate requests. However, out of desperation played Andy Williams from the request list and it filled the floor. I give up. Played something similar and it emptied!

    Oh well. Just put in my invoice, that’s some consolation!

  5. #5275
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    East Yorkshire
    Age
    68
    Posts
    26,833

    Default Catch up.

    Well I have been chastised by a colleague for not posting gig reviews lately ( I thought I had ) and thus not thanking him for being an awesome roadie. ( Yeah right. )

    So, a look back at the diary shows:
    13th November- Presentation night for a female Rugby team/club presentation, at a Golf Club near Huddersfield. I went overboard with gear, as my radio mics had moved into a shiny new case, and so had some other bits. I sort of expected to need more than one mic, and I was totally wrong. Ah well. The night wasn't quite as lively as I expected, a lot of folk left shortly after the formalities, and we sort of meandered interminably along to the finish. Not a great night. Second time in a month at a golf club that I was mugged for cards before I'd even plugged anything in!

    20th November- Grrrrrrr. I had three confirmed bookings for this date. Not simultaneously, of course. Two enquiries racing each other, and the one I ( foolishly ) preferred booked first. Two days later, a regular customer wanted that date. Then the ones who had booked " postponed " it, to next year sometime. The other two had been filled at this point.
    I ended up covering an engagement in Barnsley for another DJ. Venue staff were really helpful, and absolutely lovely. Guests were really nice, but not keen to dance much. Smile Peter, and take the money.

    27th November- Yes/No/Yes. Booked for ages in The Capital Of The Wolds, Great Driffield. As capitals go, Great is a breach of the Trades Descriptions Act. Covering for Driffield's self proclaimed greatest DJ, had been booked for ages. Then it was cancelled. Then Dave got another booking, so I was on again. A hotel I've worked before, a 21st with the stipulation:
    I only ask for 3 songs to not be played - mr bright side, come on Eileen and sweet Caroline.

    Hmmmm. A three page playlist leaning towards EDM helped a lot. I got the gear in, and wasn't able to get the second Polar in as I'd hoped, due to a sloping ceiling. It didn't really matter, one was enough, no problem. Had plenty of lights on the t-bar too. The guests were " boisterous" at times, and to give them their due, they danced to most of the drivel they requested. With that and the playlist, I wasn't short of material, and again, it goes down as one where the guests were happier than the DJ.
    The high spot of the evening was undoubtedly the arrival of Yorkshire's best dressed roadie! Mr Jackson, suited and booted, having done his stuff at the Golf Club nearby. With help from him, we soon had the kit by the door, waiting for me to back the van up from the nearby car park. Thanks Dave, much appreciated.

    Tomorrow, I'm going to Wakefield as cover for a poorly DJ, and Saturday it's back to Cave Castle, for a colleague from Hull, who has the residency there.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

    www.excaliburmobiledisco.co.uk

  6. #5276
    Imagine's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Ely, Cambridgeshire
    Age
    53
    Posts
    2,450

    Default

    I've got three this weekend, a family party/awards ceremony which I do every year, the last wedding of the year and a good old fashioned kids party.

    I've already been told that the awards party tomorrow night is going to be quiet. The normally arrive, eat, do a raffle, THEN the presentations and a bit of dancing. Tomorrow night they're doing the awards first whereafter apparently a lot of folk have already said they'll be going home rather than mixing in public

    Could be interesting to see how the wedding goes on Saturday as well.

  7. #5277

    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Yorkshire
    Posts
    489

    Cool

    Quote Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
    Well I have been chastised by a colleague for not posting gig reviews lately ( I thought I had ) and thus not thanking him for being an awesome roadie. ( Yeah right. )

    The high spot of the evening was undoubtedly the arrival of Yorkshire's best dressed roadie! Mr Jackson, suited and booted, having done his stuff at the Golf Club nearby. With help from him, we soon had the kit by the door, waiting for me to back the van up from the nearby car park. Thanks Dave, much appreciated.
    Always a pleasure to help the elderly

  8. #5278
    Imagine's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Ely, Cambridgeshire
    Age
    53
    Posts
    2,450

    Default Well that went better than expected!

    So - first of the weekend is the awards ceremony I do every year (apart from the last one for obvious reasons).

    I'd been warned that it'd be different this year, just straight into the awards themselves, then party to the end and expect a lot of the guests to go home after the awards bit was done. I hate turning up armed with this knowledge because it sometimes puts you in the wrong frame of mind for the party, and this one is ALWAYS a good-un.

    The swimming club is for kids and adults, but it's mainly kids that attend this one, and bring their parents along as well. Around 100 people in attendance (the organiser really wasn't sure how many would come this year, especially with recent infection rate news). OK - game on!

    Very few disappeared after the awards so it's straight into party mode.

    Now the thing with this one is that I can actually write the playlist before I arrive - 'cos it's the same every year apart from a couple of changes. I should note that the playlist is based on the first couple of years of doing this one where the entire night was a cheddar fest to behold - they come up and ASK for this stuff!

    So, the full Black Lace back catalogue, LOTS of action dances, Oops upside your head, Cha Cha Slide, Macarena....you get it. No mixing, no fretting about upsetting someone because they don't like cheese - it's just good, wholesome, all out fun with a full dance floor for the duration and me absolutely shattered because I like to do the dances too and get involved, albeit from 3 feet above them on the stage

    On a moot point, the venue have already cancelled their NYE gig and aren't certain their Xmas parties will go ahead next weekend

    Next up - a wedding in one of the most awkward to get into venues known to man in these parts. They've all been good in there in the past....we shall see what tomorrow brings
    Last edited by Imagine; 10-12-2021 at 11:59 PM.

  9. #5279
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    East Yorkshire
    Age
    68
    Posts
    26,833

    Default By Jove, I needed that!

    Younger readers will not be smiling at the Ken Dodd reference. Oh, the days of Sunday Afternoon comedy programmes.

    After a series of gigs where I came away feeling that there was so much more potential untapped, this one delivered. Last minute cover for a hotel I've worked before, the second room DJ was taken into hospital. Lovely staff, three of them thanked me for covering before I'd even unloaded! Interesting layout, I was on a raised section in the restaurant, over the dance floor, and the guests were across in the wild blue yonder! I could hardly see them. Space was tight, so I put my one lighting t-bar in front of the booth, and one Polar to the side. Worked well, not perfect, but good enough.

    I was asked to play Xmas background, as the venue system wasn't rigged for seasonal. A bunch of guests asked for a bit of boogie, and we got into trouble for jumping the gun, and a yellow card for excessive use of the volume control.

    Well, back to the background it was, until dessert, when some of my fifty guests invaded the floor. Although I saw some guests leave straight after the meal, and I only started with fifty, they behaved like a hundred and fifty, they were marvellous. Venue lights were not dimmed or extinguished, so mine were a tad superfluous, but I had fun with them. Unlike Cassandra's Ugly Sister, no cheese was played, merely The Usual Suspects. How good was it when you bring up the fader on the next track to whoops of joy from the floor, as they recognise it?

    Just before twelve, I thought they'd burned themselves out, and my likely early finish was a possibility. No chance! They got a second wind, and the fifteen odd folk left at the end were thronging the floor at the stated finish time. What a night.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

    www.excaliburmobiledisco.co.uk

  10. #5280
    Dinosaur Excalibur's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    East Yorkshire
    Age
    68
    Posts
    26,833

    Default Almost an absolute corker.

    Except for Mr High and Mighty Numpty DJ.

    Another join a party for a colleague, at a venue I was resident at over thirty years ago. A hundred guests this time, in a room I like a lot. I got the gear rigged ludicrously early, ran it up, and the Polars sounded lovely. Shut them down, and put the laptop to sleep. I went off to get some tea, and came back to eat it in the car park. Soon after, the lad I was working for arrived, and I helped him to set up for his wedding. He expected a high likelihood of this finishing early, and he wasn't wrong, as it turned out later.

    Back to my room, wake the laptop up , and set off on background music. Venue staff complain about the sound. I twiddle things, and think it's a combination of playing quietly, and tone settings. Venue staff pull rank, and call my colleague in to sort me out. Two heads are usually better than one. We reboot the laptop and all is right with the world. I apologise to the young lady running the room. Her ears were spot on.

    Once that's overcome, and the meal is over, it wasn't like shooting fish in a barrel, but whatever I played, someone danced. Again, not really any cheese, although we've discussed Mr Brightside and Sex On Fire moving towards this category. Perhaps The Vengaboys are perilously close too?

    First requests were for rock and roll tracks I've never played before, and the requesters duly did their stuff. I had requests for Northern Soul, Disco, 70's, 80's, one solitary, well lubricated " something modern ", Abba, Boney M a few times, and all manner of stuff. One guest recommended a track to get them all dancing- What was this magic song?

    Sweet Caroline! Who'd a thunk it? I must try to play it more in future.

    Half an hour left, and " could I play some more Xmas"? And Madness. And more 80's. I put Madness on, and the dancefloor looked like the warm up for the England Rugby fifteen, folk running on the spot like lunatics. Last three tracks were Nolans-Dancing, Monkees-Daydream Believer, and Fairytale. Wow, what a night. If only I'd spotted the laptop issues. Took the edge off the night a tad for me, probably only me, manager and other DJ noticed. Roll on next week, it gets a bit silly if they all go ahead.
    Excalibur. Older than the average DJ.

    www.excaliburmobiledisco.co.uk

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •