Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Excalibur]

There is a lot of genuine illness about currently, which led to me covering a wedding for Chris Dye, who has enough on his plate without DJs adding to his problems. I was happy to head off through Harrogate, to the Tithe Barn, Bolton Abbey. The venue is nothing short of magnificent, and it's well thought out, and run by lovely, helpful staff. I got to park the van right outside the access door, wasn't asked to go and hide it anywhere, could set up while guests were being fed, and best of all, plugged into what I'm told was a Function One system, which was just awesome!

I'd been fed a lot of info by Chris, such as the appearance of a Sax player, so the big live mixer was on the booth shelf. At times, that is a game changer, and a smaller cousin of it has been used a lot recently. The sax player turned up a couple of hours into the gig, and redeemed himself by being one of the most impressive live acts I have ever seen, and I've worked with some top class ones.

However: ( go on, admit it. You just knew there was a fly in the ointment, didn't you? ) I couldn't get a handle on the audience. I couldn't really string a sequence of songs together to keep the floor. Every time I got one style going, requests would come in for something totally different. One of those crowds you never felt you understood at all. Under the circumstances, since the Groom was very happy, and a few guests thanked me at the end, I'll happily take that as a win.

[Excalibur]

An all day wedding at a lovely venue, in glorious weather. Organised by the Bride's parents, who were lovely. The ceremony ran well, registrars were very good to deal with, timings worked just fine, and a great start to the day.

Drinks and nibbles outside followed, at a low level, as they can have noise issues with neighbours with outside music.

Inside for the evening, and we had two brilliant Singing Waiters, who kicked off the night in fine style. All suppliers got fed too, which was nice.

The warm weather meant a slow burn initially, but the longer it went on, the better it got, in some respects. Although it's nice to see a packed floor, when it's all The Lads barging each other about like bumper cars, you tend to fear for the kit.

The last few songs were all singalongs, and I was to end with Three Lions! Cue more barging about, I was glad to switch off. Chalk it down as a job well done, but some lessons were learnt if I return there.

[ppentertainments]

There is a lot of genuine illness about currently, which led to me covering a wedding for Chris Dye, who has enough on his plate without DJs adding to his problems. I was happy to head off through Harrogate, to the Tithe Barn, Bolton Abbey. The venue is nothing short of magnificent, and it's well thought out, and run by lovely, helpful staff. I got to park the van right outside the access door, wasn't asked to go and hide it anywhere, could set up while guests were being fed, and best of all, plugged into what I'm told was a Function One system, which was just awesome!

I'd been fed a lot of info by Chris, such as the appearance of a Sax player, so the big live mixer was on the booth shelf. At times, that is a game changer, and a smaller cousin of it has been used a lot recently. The sax player turned up a couple of hours into the gig, and redeemed himself by being one of the most impressive live acts I have ever seen, and I've worked with some top class ones.

However: ( go on, admit it. You just knew there was a fly in the ointment, didn't you? ) I couldn't get a handle on the audience. I couldn't really string a sequence of songs together to keep the floor. Every time I got one style going, requests would come in for something totally different. One of those crowds you never felt you understood at all. Under the circumstances, since the Groom was very happy, and a few guests thanked me at the end, I'll happily take that as a win.

Thanks for your help Peter (at last haha). So simple to deal with, just wish everyone was like that.

[Excalibur]

Thanks for your help Peter (at last haha). So simple to deal with, just wish everyone was like that.

It's a two way street, Chris. I don't think I've ever had as much ( valuable ) information beforehand when covering. Made my job so much easier, meant I took the right kit.
Any time Chris, was a pleasure.

[Excalibur]

60th Birthday in a nice venue I've worked before. Helpful staff, good access, and a lovely function room, let down by having virtually no access to the stage for guests. Can tend to isolate you a little, and I'm glad I didn't decide to set up on the floor, due to the behaviour of some of the little darlings. I had varied requests, lots for Abba, Killers, Kings of Leon, Beyonce, and One Direction.

The dance floor was at times healthy, especially when I put some Coldplay on, as requested. Coldplay? Dancefloor fillers? Not normally.
Much chair dancing was noted, and much singing along, but with such an age spread, it was never going to be rammed on the floor.

All in all, a success, best possible result under the circumstances.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

You should set up ask the DJ. It's ideal for situations where people coming to talk to you isn't ideal.

Last night's was a plethora of new experiences for me:


Tog: "can you play something slow on the 2nd song? If everyone is up and dancing from the start I'll need to take more shots and it'll be harder to get my lighting stands down."


Yeah mate let me just intentionally sabotage the start of my gig for your convenience.


Old dear at the buffet when I asked her if she was enjoying the music:

"No actually, look around you need to play a mix for the whole room and there's a lot of older people here and you're playing dance music for the younguns"

The only time I'd strayed past the 80s to this point was to play 1 Avicii and 1 Calvin Harris tune that had been on the bride's list.

Coup de grace - the grooms brother does a slide on the dancefloor, slips and dislocates his knee (badly,it was like a horror sporting injury) at 11:10. He lies on the dancefloor screaming and refusing to try and weight bear on this other foot so we can get him up and onto a seat while he waits for an ambulance.

So yeah 10 minutes of no music while we first aid / sort an ambulance then 25 of background while he lies on the dancefloor in the last 50 minutes of my set. Great.

Despite all that it was a pretty good night and the couple said they'd had a great time. The brother was a nice guy but he'd been bouncing around like a toddler most of the night before ing up badly so I can see a rollicking coming from the groom this morning.

[Excalibur]

Blimey Jim, you don't do boring and mundane, do you? Do your gigs come with a government health warning? Sounds like they should.

Re ask the DJ, I have flirted with a phone dedicated to text requests, mainly during Covid restrictions. It has pros and cons, especially when I get sent a picture of a young Lady's new superstructure! My laptop doesn't see the internet, so I don't think ask the DJ would work.

The whole idea has much to recommend it, but as both this weekend's guest lists feature heavily in the 60-70 age group, I reckon we might have a few Luddites to contend with. Ta for the idea though.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

I use my phone as a hotspot for it.

It's still online but not shared WiFi or anything and when it's set up you don't need to do anything so there's practically no security concerns as you're not opening browsers or anything.

Tbh my main reason for using it is to drive traffic to the site but it does get used a lot and now and again you'll get some cracking requests at half 8 you know will go down a storm later in the night.

[rth_discos]

Tbh my main reason for using it is to drive traffic to the site but it does get used a lot and now and again you'll get some cracking requests at half 8 you know will go down a storm later in the night.

How do you promote this to guests? Do you leave a load of cards around at the start of the night?

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

How do you promote this to guests? Do you leave a load of cards around at the start of the night?

I mention it during my first dance / cake cutting intro spiel and I have wee half sized cards I leave on the tables if I don't think I'll get absolutely battered with requests from it.