Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[chrisj]

I have been on that road hundreds of times and never found a problem other than long queues on Saturday mornings of holiday makers going into Gt Yarmouth and also slow drivers doing 35 -40 mph holding up other traffic.
Oh and I was held up by a massive heavy haulage crane doing 30mph max when I was going to a kids party in Gorleston, next to Gt Yarmouth.
Steady 50 mph is ok on the road and I have never seen an accident happen but passed so many.

[chrisj]

Last night freebie gig. Norwich Sea Cadets Centenary. I am ex-RN and have a good week so I was pleased to help them. A pleaseure to be there and meet 3 members of the Norwich RNA where I will be going on Tuesday night.

[Shaun]

I didn't have a gig last night but I thought I'd post this as I thought it was funny.
I was setting up for tonights surprise 40th Birthday party at one of my residencies. There were a group of women in who had travelled down for a Wedding and were staying at the hotel overnight and ready to go out on the town. They noticed me setting up and asked if I could play them a song before they went out. I said I'd check if it was ok and give them a shout as they went to the bar.
Had a word with the Manager and she said it was ok as I needed to soundcheck anyway.When I'd finished setting up I went to the bar and the ladies followed me to the room. I played them Whitney Houston and they went mad for it (there were only 8 of them). They too asked for "One More!" and I had the feeling that they may start taking the piddle so I fibbed and said "Last one ladies as I need to be somewhere else". They were cool and I played One Direction for them which they asked for. They couldn't thank me enough and left to go and sample the delights of Basingstoke (ahem...).

Manager said to me afterwards, "That's what I like about you Gary, nothing is too much trouble is it". I was chuffed with that. I had to soundcheck anyway so it didn't make much difference to me to be honest.

Excellent, nice one Gary. I remember a similar situation. I was setting up in the afternoon in a local venue for a party. I'd done a few parties for this family and recognised them when they were in decorating the hall with banners/balloons etc. I was doing the sound check and they just started dancing. As soon as a song was finishing I had them shout out another request. I must have played for about 30 minutes or so for them. I just knew it was going to be a great night after that.

[Ryu]

Well, Friday and Saturday provided me with 2 weddings, both sourced from members of this very forum (take note networking fans) and they were quite different affairs.

Fridays, at a very nice Cotswold hotel, for a super friendly couple. Tough night all in all, bit of an apathetic crowd, only 2 requests all night (aside from playlists) and a flakey dancefloor. I left knowing I'd worked hard and done all that was asked but never really felt the night kicked into gear. B and G both happy at the end, which is the main thing, as we're the venue staff. I'm getting good at packing away quickly you see!

Saturday's was a bit of an epic affair, early set up, uplighting, working alongside Rockaoke who are excellent at what they do, expected considering they have been performing every night at Download festival.

Had met with B and G beforehand and felt confident of delivering a great night for them and, if the admittedly well oiled Family's comments at the end are to be believed, I did just that, playing an hour extra and getting back this morning as the sun started rising.


So yep, 2 nights, featuring a range of different wedding challenges, inc working with bands, in marquees, tricky load ins, drunk punters, playlists, power issues (went twice last night) long days, late nights and, hopefully, some good feedback.

And, now for super relaxing Sunday, watching the Spain and Ireland matches.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Excellent, nice one Gary. I remember a similar situation. I was setting up in the afternoon in a local venue for a party. I'd done a few parties for this family and recognised them when they were in decorating the hall with banners/balloons etc. I was doing the sound check and they just started dancing. As soon as a song was finishing I had them shout out another request. I must have played for about 30 minutes or so for them. I just knew it was going to be a great night after that.

Yes, it's good when stuff like that happens. Would you believe that something along the same lines happened last night!!?

Firstly, I mentioned the other day that I had a lighting hire job on too. I wasn't made aware of the type of event, just that the customer wanted to hire lighting so I gave them a price and job done (they questioned it a bit as in the 'That's why you're minted' thread'). I had arranged to meet the customer at the venue at 1.30pm yesterday. The idea was that they would be there at 12.30pm to set up the staging etc. I arrived at 1.15pm to start preparing and to put lights on T-Bars etc and met with a couple of guys who run the venue.

I haven't been in the venue for what must be 10 years and a lot has changed since I was last there. It is now run by the Hindu Community and they have a lot of events on. It is really nice there and they have trussing hanging from the ceiling with a bunch of I-Colours and Pars on it and a sound system installed too. The guy who does all the sound used to be sound engineer. I got talking to the main man from the committee who was also the key holder and the sound guy and they asked what I did for a living. They were really interested in some of the other services I can provide and took cards. The customer finally turned up at 1.45pm with a entourage of around 20 and they started to set up the staging etc.

We got talking and I eventually found out that the event was his 50th Birthday Party. He had a Bhangra DJ coming down from London and it was a Black tie event. I eventually got the lighting on stage and sorted that. I had a feeling the customer may take the opportunity to 'try it on' and I was right.
"That doesn't look a lot" he said..."Are you sure that will give enough of an effect?". I reassurred him that it would be fine and it would look totally different in the dark with smoke etc. The sound man got a scaffold tower out to get up to the trussing so that he could position some of the lighting. I mentioned to him that he may want to move stuff around because it was all focused on the stage area and the back of the venue would have been dark. I ended up getting up there myself and doing that and they were really appreciative. I left in the afternoon thinking that all would be ok.

When I returned after my gig, there were still around 100 people milling about and the first person to come to me as I walked through the door was the customer. "Excellent" he said..."Just what I wanted". That was a bit of a relief to be honest as I was sure he would try and have a moan about something (as suggested a couple of days ago in the other thread). The funniest thing was that the next person I saw was the guy who owns the shop opposite my house. He came over and asked what I was doing there as it was everyone at the event was Asian and dressed up and I suddenly appear. I found out that he was on the committee too. He said "I wondered what you did for a living, I'll have to get a card off you"...."I've already done that" I replied.
As I was packing the stuff away, the Bhangra DJ came over. We chatted and he took a card too as he was talking about Dance Floors and I said I could help with that. All in all, a good hire job and hopefully lots of work to come from that.

My gig itself was a kind of start, stop, start affair.
It was a surprise 40th birthday party for around 80 at one of my residencies. I also provided Photo Projection too. It started off as a nice kind of laid back affair and as time went on, people started to get up and dance and ask for requests. I had a varied request list in advance from the customers daughters which was mainly Chart, RnB type stuff. I played lots of that and it worked and also 70s and 80s too. At times it was mega busy and other times the dance floor was empty which was a shame. A lot of the guests were late teens, early 20s and kept nipping outside to smoke. The party could have finished at 11.00pm to be fair but it went on until Midnight as booked.

Birthday girl was very happy. It was a total surprise to her. Her husband who had booked me, was equally happy (probably because she was). It did become a bit of a pain in the backside at times as he got increasingly drunk and kept coming over to ask for songs that didn't fit in with what I was playing at the time but he was harmless. One of his mates however was quite aggressive towards me right at the end.
Myself and the customer had run through everything a couple of weeks ago and we had arranged that the last song was Barry White - 'My First, My Last...'. It was 11.55pm and there around 10 people left in the room when this guy comes over to me. He's pretty drunk and he says "Mate! How's about playing 'Brown Eyed Girl'?". I had already played it around 45 minutes earlier for the husband as he had requested it and it went down well. "Sorry, I've already played that" I said..."And?...." he said to me...."What's the problem with playing it again?". I advised that there was no problem playing it again but I was just about to play the last song..."Change it!" he shouted..."Forget what you were going to play and play Brown Eyed Girl instead!". He then tried the old trick with me...
"Look mate, the Birthday girl has requested it. She's the one paying you so just do it now!" he shouted. I started to think that this bloke was being a bit of a donut but kept my cool.
I picked up my sheet with all the information on it and turned to him. "Look on there, that's the information I have from Andy (husband) and it's all been arranged that Barry White is the last song of the night. Sorry I can't play your song but I have played it already and you were dancing to it". He grabbed the sheet from my hand, tried to read it and then said "Well ok, if that's what has been arranged then fair enough" and he walked off.
I announced the last song, played it, got a small round of applause and then the lights went up.

I was happy enough with how it all went and started to power down everything when the bloke came over again. "Is that it?" he asked. I was trying to tell him the situation AGAIN when the husband came over. "Is he hassling you Gary?" he asked grinning. He put his arm around his mate and said "Leave him alone, he's done a great job". "I'm not hassling anyone" said his mate..."He wouldn't play my song for me, that's all" he said.
I chuckled to myself and the husband laughed..."Don't hassle the DJ" he said to his mate. "I wasn't hassling him" he said..."I just wanted him to play my song for me". I apologised again and said to the husband that we'd arranged for the last song and he said "I know, don't worry about him". The guy wouldn't leave it though and kept on and on about it even as he walked off. The husband came back and thanked me and said "You did well, tough crowd aswell. Don't worry about my mate, he's drunk". I replied..."It's cool, no problem. Glad you enjoyed yourself. There's always one but I can handle him, he's harmless".
When I spoke to the Duty Manager afterwards, he said that the guy in question had been a pain in the backside to the bar staff all evening.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Great gig last night. Place was packed, not a single request, not a single dancer and we gave out 4 cards.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

What was the event? Sounds interesting.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

What was the event? Sounds interesting.

Haha! I was waiting for someone to bite!

A photo booth.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

D'oh! Should've guessed!! (I had a feeling you'd say that but still asked...).

My gig last night was a cracking start to the weekend.
I arrived having set up on Thursday and everything was running around 30 minutes late. Good atmosphere though and it was a bit of a slow starter but eventually got there and lots of dancing.
One of those nights when people scream and cheer when a track comes on that they like. Very nice people and also very complimentary too. Wide range of tunes requested and they let me get on with it and do my job.
Thoroughly enjoyed the night.

Tonight, different story. I'm hoping that I am wrong when it comes to the playlist that has been given to me and also hope that it works and all of their guests love their song choices. Tomorrows review should be interesting.

[Excalibur]

Well where do I start? I covered a wedding anniversary booking for our very own Captain Pugwash, who wished to celebrate his birthday in the clubs of Nottingham.

Having exchanged quite a few emails with the organiser, and had a couple of chats with him on the phone, it transpired that the function room was indeed on the ground floor! Mainly due to the fact that it was a converted farm building, and didn't really have a first floor. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

Yes dear readers, it was. After a nice jaunt down, I parked Hulk proudly outside the front doors, and wandered inside to get the lie of the land. Standard practice is apparently to get the code for the gates at the back, go through two sets of gates, and park your motor close to the doors at the back of the venue.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? Except the paths are delineated by low timber fences, and designed for golf buggies, not three and a half tonne vans. Hulk didn't fit down the path, and couldn't get nearer than fifty yards away. ( Forty four metres for our younger readers ) The track was less than smooth, and under water in places. On the first run, one of my two remaining amps dived head first off the trolley when I hit a join in the path.

To cut a long story short, I got the minimal kit into what was a conservatory off the main building just before the heavens opened, and as I started to set up in it the manager showed me that the newly fitted roof was leaking! The only course of action was to place one of those "wet floor" signs in the middle of the growing puddle. ( It amused the guests to dance round it later on )

So, I'm fully rigged up, in a Conservatory with no blinds or curtains, in mid summer, the bar, the comfy seats and the buffet are in another room, and the England footy match is on telly next door. ( To be fair, it was on in my room as well ) Am I confident of packing the dancefloor all night? It's not a phone a friend question.

Anyhow, the guests are lovely people, keep me fed and watered all night long, and when the footy has finished, and it's darker, we have a sporadically full dancefloor. The rain has stopped, so the puddle is mopped up and the warning sign removed.

The couple were very pleased with the night, and thanked me warmly. Once I'd loaded Hulk with the kit I carefully left the venue, and headed back up North, tired but happy. Next week I'm a guest at my Nephew's wedding, so I shall be giving an impartial, unbiased report of the DJ at that one.

Yeah right.