Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[rob1963]

Yeah, Macarena, Saturday night, YMCA, Agadoo....



Julian

To be honest, none of those were on their list.

They did ask for a few cheesy tracks that have a special dance with them, but only two or three.

Most of it was just good party stuff.

[Twinspin]

I have a small phonic mixer for my Mini Disc and Cortex---nice piece of kit.

All Peavey Powered Mixers have the facility to play each channel independently including EQ and volume --I have two--

I use this facility during the summer for inside/outside events.

In particular a venue at Old Deer Park in Richmond where we have quiet music inside and blasting level outside for the Rodeo Bull Competition and the drinkers!

Which Peavey cabs do you have Pete---XTs?

Your only too old when you cant yank a Peavey UL15 on to a Speaker Stand!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im hanging in there at the moment.

regards

As far as i know they are Peavey Eurosys 3s

[Daryll]

Just got home from a gig , 7:00 till 10:00 at a local army camp for the cadets , all 350 of them , aged between 14 and 18 I must admit pushing my system to the limits , drum and Bass , Dubstep . hip hop , chart , 90`s club , you name it they went wild , a full dance floor all night , great thing was , at 9:50 , the guy in charge made an announcement ," At 10:00 all the girls will make their way back , the boys will stay and clear up" , and at 10:00 that is what happened , on the dot
really good crowd , I was a bit apprehensive before hand , but I can say , that's the best gig I have done this year by a long way, maybe the best I have ever done

Daryll

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Just got home from a gig , 7:00 till 10:00 at a local army camp for the cadets , all 350 of them , aged between 14 and 18 I must admit pushing my system to the limits , drum and Bass , Dubstep . hip hop , chart , 90`s club , you name it they went wild , a full dance floor all night , great thing was , at 9:50 , the guy in charge made an announcement ," At 10:00 all the girls will make their way back , the boys will stay and clear up" , and at 10:00 that is what happened , on the dot
really good crowd , I was a bit apprehensive before hand , but I can say , that's the best gig I have done this year by a long way, maybe the best I have ever done

Daryll

Glad to hear it. Most of the gigs I've enjoyed have been the ones that have been shall we say "out of my comfort zone"

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I was booked for a wedding at a lovely venue just outside town which I have played at a number of times. I set up yesterday afternoon as arranged beforehand. I was also supplying sound outside in the gardens as the ceremony was on site too.

140 guests for the day and evening. There were bouncy castles, Sumo suits and remote controlled boats on the ponds. I wish I had taken my camera because this wedding was great.

Equipment inside was -
2 x Mystic LED's / 2 x Marvelled's / 1 x Laser UK Moonbeams / 2 x LEDJ Uplighters.
Denon HD2500 / Laptop with VDJ / Cerwin Vega CV2800 / JBL JRX125's

Equipment outside was -
1 x Radio Mic / Pioneer Mixer & Customers I-Pod for background music / 2 x DB Technologies Actives

Got to the venue at 7.10pm for a 7.30pm start. I was told things were running late (as usual) as they were just having their starters. Went round to the summer house where the ceremony had been and packed away the equipment. I made sure that the B&G knew I was on site and then went and sat in the van for a while and listened to Absolute Radio.

I was backwards and forwards checking how things were going for a while and the caterers kept me up to date. It looked like an 8.40pm start was on the cards but that passed. The Bride came over to me and apologised for things running so late and said that they would like to do their first dance (James Morrison - You Give Me Something) at 9.00pm. Well, 9.00pm passed too. The staff had to clear the tables and then move some away so that there was a big enough dancefloor so whilst they were doing it, I started to play some background music. I played 3 tracks and it was approaching 9.30pm when I announced the first dance. The venue was packed. Lots of cheering, tears...the whole lot.

Kicked off with Andy Williams straight after the first dance and the dancefloor was rammed, followed it with some classic motown tracks and that was it, it went down really well. Got into the chart stuff, Disco, the usual Indie and Rock and some cheesier stuff and it was nearly time to finish. Last song of the night was Florence & The Machine 'You Got The Love'. Despite having the flu (yes, I've had a bad few weeks of illness), I really enjoyed this one. Lots of dancing all night.

Best tracks of the night?
The Killers - Somebody Told Me and Sister Sledge - We Are Family

The Negatives.... Well, they aren't really any negatives as such. Starting late wasn't that great but in a way it helped as I had a lot of requests and went through the genre's and decades as much as I could.

More of an irritant really and something we have spoken about on here before about people being rude etc etc...No word of a lie, when the B&G had finished their first dance and Andy Williams was fading in, I was approached by a woman in her (at a guess) late 40's. She pointed at me and said "Play Love Shack!!"...."Of course, no problem" I replied and she stood there, looked at me and said..."Er, like now!"...

I told her that I would play it for her no problem but not just yet and she walked away. 10 minutes later she was back! I said the same thing again. I could see her dancing away to other tracks but every now and then looking over at me and nodding more or less to say "Hurry up!". I had a request on the sheet from the B&G to play The Jacksons - 'Can U Feel It?' so I played that and the dancefloor cleared apart from the Bride and a couple of guests. This woman took that as an opportunity to come over to me and say "Look mate, you're losing them now, play my Love Shack song!"....

I'll be honest, I ignored her. I know that's not great but she was becoming a pain, especially when she said "You're losing them now" so I thought "Right, I'll show you!" and after The Jacksons I played The Kings of Leon and 'Sex on Fire'....The dancefloor was rammed. Even the caterers joined in and started dancing. The woman looked over and nodded as if to say "Ok, you're not losing them". You could tell that as every song finished, she expected 'Love Shack' and when it wasn't, she shook her head and carried on dancing so it wasn't as if she was having a bad time...she just wanted to hear her song. When I played it after 'Summer of 69' you could hear her scream out above the music. It was a sight!

Anyway, that's about it really. A great night with a bunch of guests that were totally up for a party. Just to add, the Groom was a massive 'Only Fools and Horses' fan so each table was named after a character from the show....Rodney, Delboy, Trigger, Boycey etc and instead of table numbers, they had photos of the characters. About halfway through the night when the dancefloor was busy I made an announcement about the Groom being a fan and the tables and played 'Hooky Street' and for the first 10 seconds or so, everyone apart from the Groom and a few guests stood there wondering what was going on until they all caught on and started singing it...it was great.

Cheers
G

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Sounds good.

That "I want my request playing now" client is getting more and more popular both at club and private gigs. You were lucky in a way that love shack is a fairly popular song as quite often its stuff that doesnt suit or just plain and simply is rubbish.

We finished as requested on we are family and it worked a treat everyone joined in.

[rob1963]

Good review, Gary.

This is a bit spooky, but my wedding was also due to start at 7.30pm last night, but I didn't play the first dance until 9.30pm, and "We are family" was also one of MY top few tunes!

[Vectis]

Bad gig.

45 people in a room which will comfortably take 100, in a venue with other distractions such as a bar in a (very) separate part of the building and a HUGE lawn outside with comfy sofas under gazebos with candles on tables, lawn games etc.

So it was going to be a struggle gaining and retaining an audience before I even started.

Then the revelation that most had travelled from the North West that morning for the wedding and had been on the road since about 6am.

Finally, absolutely no music guidance apart from the first dance and "some Motown for my mum".

First dance 8:45, buffet 9:30, lanterns on the lawn 10:30 (well at least it killed half an hour) and last song 11:45. Felt like an eternity.


Looking back at the video this morning and it's not as bad as I felt it was last night - I was jumping around the genres all night looking for something that would latch a few dancers onto the floor - anything post-2007 brought a clutch of girls aged around 9-12 up for half a song at a time - but otherwise I had a really tough time of it. Even the revered Motown only managed a few shufflers for a few minutes.

I called for requests more times than I can ever remember, and played everything that was asked for including, wait for it (well I had nothing to lose), Foo Fighters. No dancers (oh really!).

Disco - nothing. 60s - nothing, apart from a couple of Motown numbers. 70s - nothing. 80s - nothing. 90s - a bit of action to 'Relight my fire' and 'Don't stop movin'' but that was all. I dabbled with the less well played genres - tried a bit of Northern Soul given that the Motown had a bit of a reaction - nothing. Shake a tailfeather missus? Not likely. Some modern R&B / Indie perhaps? Niet. Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!

Absolutely shocking night. I had plenty of banter with the audience (they were all Northerners after all) so quite a chatty night for me but most just sat and stared all night.

Last couple of songs went down well because B+G dragged everyone up one by on. I had a little chat with them as we were loading up the car and they were waving off their guests. They were really happy and thought they'd had a great night.

So that's all that matters really

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I had a Principal Haley awards ceremony last night. Arrived at 6pm to plug into the venue's supplied EV P.A. and was ready in 15 minutes. The 450 capacity room was stunning, complete with 3 massive backdrops, 3 projectors, stage, lecturn, moving heads and 4 man AV team running it.

The guests had dinner first, followed by the very glitzy award ceremony and then the band. We were given a 3 course mean and drinks, which we had after I returned from visiting Neil (see other thread!). The band were supposed to be playing 2 x 45 minutes sets and then said they'd do one hour set, but ended up starting at 11:40 and finishing at 12:20pm. A guy from the band said he wanted to give me a chance....yeah right! Anyway, the organiser (one of the companies top women), asked me to play a little longer and I went against all my principles and stayed until 1:30am, but as I didn't start until 12:20am, I thought it 'may' be a little harsh to say no!

Anyway, the floor was rammed and a good time was had by all. The organisor told me afterwards that I was basically guaranteed to be booked next year, but without the band!

Packed away in 10 minutes, thanked the P.A. guys for the use of their rig, then shot round to Neil to pick up the spare lappy.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

terrible, just terrible for me anyways. Its in the supporters area so I wont go too much into it but hopefully all my bad luck came in one go last night.

Course helped when Darren told me how easy his night was, got fed and drinks. Me? no food, had to get my own drinks