Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Excalibur]

Pre-planning - Preparation - Problem Solved before it begins.

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

I can in no way disagree with any of what you say, and your aims and practices are truly laudable, impressive, and inspirational.

Oh lads, how I yearn to join the ranks of those who receive more than £100 for a wedding gig, whose venues insist that they converse with or meet potential customers, and have detailed schedules to refer to.

Alas, I can only dream of joining those hallowed ranks, especially when the information I'm given usually consists of:

"Slagthorpe Social Club. Saturday 20th. It's a wedding".


Jesting aside, we all endeavour to deal with possible pitfalls by different methods. I suspect the end result is pretty much the same, whatever methods we employ in order to achieve it. If we were all the same, things could soon become very boring.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Last night I had my best wedding of the year so far.
I was in a place called Buriton, a small village just past Petersfield and at the village hall. 190 guests with me set up on the stage. The customer paid the extra for me to set up on the Friday.

It was for a lovely couple who I have met on a number of occasions. They are in their late 20's and are both teachers at the school I do the kids christmas party for every year. 2 weeks ago I did the father of the groom's retirement party and a lot of the guests were there too aswell as the head teacher and some of the staff.

There were a number of other activities happening both inside the venue and outside the grounds. They went all out on this one and even though the words village hall may give that first impression of it being a DIY, small budget affair, this certainly wasn't. They had a rodeo bull, coconut shy, bouncy platform with pugle sticks, hog roast and photo booth. When I arrived the sun was shining and it was baking hot and I had visions of the usual scenario with people outside enjoying the other activities until late but it wasn't like that because there were a lot of people attending.

I was surprised when someone saw me on the stage setting up the laptop and started cheering! Everyone was finishing their desserts and someone shouted out "The DJ's here!" and everyone clapped me...quite embarassing!
It was a 7.00pm - 11.30pm booking and I started the background music. The first dance was planned for 7.30pm but it ended up being 8.45pm. From then on and right through until the end, it was a busy dance floor. Lots of requests and a whole range of music played.

The Bride & Groom requested that the last song of the night be Rudimental - Feel The Love and wow! As soon as those beats kicked in, everyone of all ages just went mad for it. As the last notes faded out, the cheering and clapping started. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to the Bride & Groom because they looked busy saying their goodbyes to everyone else but the Mother of the Bride came over and thanked me and was actually quite teary. She said it was perfect and that made my night.

The only downside to it all was that it could have gone on longer. Before Rudimental I had played their final 2 requests which were Don't Stop Believing and Never Forget and that was great but the Rudimental track got the atmosphere really going and I think another few classic dance tracks etc would have been cool. The other thing was that the journey to the venue was all back roads and pitch black country lanes. One of the roads is renowned for fatalities because it's dangerous. It's not so bad in the daytime but at night it's pretty bad and I had to keep my wits about me on the way home.

Brilliant night though.

[Excalibur]

Last night I had my best wedding of the year so far.
.

Gary, I'm getting really worried about you! At the moment your gigs seem to be mirroring mine almost exactly! A weddinginvolving teachers and a hog roast, and undoubtedly my best one of the year by a country mile.

Bride and Groom were a lovely couple, who in the pre event meeting expressed the wish that they wanted to get the first dance out of the way, and then relax and have a party. The photographer ( who was a really nice chap ) remarked on the excellent atmosphere. Observing the necessary formalities, but really relaxed and easygoing.

I arrived for an early set up at the same time as the bar. We were greeted with a beautiful marquee set in acres of parkland, with power provided by an almost silent generator burbling away gently behind the tent. Our respective areas were marked out with big labels telling us where to go, and four thirteen amp metalclads each for us. Lovely. The bar was set up in the entrance tent, and I was round the corner, with more than adequate space, and just enough headroom to get the overhead up on the DSB.

I got set up to my satisfaction, and awaited the arrival of the party, after a chat with the barman, who I've had the pleasure of working with before, and also the pleasure on certain occasions of sampling his wares. I was mildly disappointed that I couldn't this time, as the beer he'd brought promised to be a good one from a locally and nationally renowned brewery, Wold Top. Ah well. I'd loaded up the van with an additional PA for the speeches and background, but due to the size of the marquee, and my positioning, that wasn't needed. I offered a radio mic for the speeches, but again, they managed easily without.

Guests arrived, and I played Classical music as instructed. ( It's tricky getting the levels right on that stuff, cos with the vast range of some of it, one minute it's inaudible, and the next it's deafening, if you've nudged the fader up a bit ). I had to call the tables up for the meal in turn, and on my running order was the command " Make sure you get your meal after the guests have done so. " I did. And so did the Barman, and the Photographer. The food was excellent, and later on in the evening sausage and bacon sarnies appeared which were equally as good.

I had a request list from the B&G which contained nothing I wouldn't play at a normal function, and the Bride's Mum handed the photographer a neatly typed list of tracks I'd have loved to play in its entirety. ( But had absolutely no chance of doing so, cos some of them weren't too dancefloor friendly. )

As always, the formalities took forever, and the first dance took place at gone eight o'clock, so with a midnight finish, I was going to be pushed for time.

What a crowd. All polite, willing to dance to many different styles and genres of music, and lovely lovely folk. I played everything including Disco, Rock, Rap, Hip Hop, Tamla, Cheese and Chart Dance. I can't say I had a packed floor all night, but it was healthy almost all of the time, and packed at the end.

Highlights of the day/night?
The antics of the under fives, with one in particular who's obviously destined to be a supermodel. She spent half an hour posing for the photographer, as if it were a photoshoot. Magic.
Watching the Bride's Father rocking out to Silver Machine. ( Well it was on my playlist, so I was damn well going to play it. )
Playing a request for the Bride's netball team, and watching them proceed to strut their funky stuff in fine style for the rest of the night virtually.


All in all, as near perfect an occasion as you could reasonably wish for. Why can't they all be like this?

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Just to add an afternote on to the end of my review.
I received a thank you email from the customer earlier today before they went off to the airport and jetted off on their honeymoon.
Some great feedback and the usual bits (guests asking for contact details etc) but what I found really funny was where the Groom commented that unbeknown to them at the time, there were 4 guests who turned up shortly before the first dance who were at the wrong wedding!

I thought I had passed a sign a mile or so up the road from where my venue was that said there was another wedding on. It didn't have names on it, just "Wedding guests this way please". I think that's a classic!

[CRAZY K]

A great night out with Paul from Paul James Promotions a long way from Birmingham and Kettering

Louth in Lincolnshire---not far from Grimsby in fact

I found that out on the way home stuck behind a Grimsby Fish Lorry for about 30 minutes---impossible to overtake on the winding A16.

All went smoothly apart from the fact that when Paul arrived he found out that the Hotel had booked the resident DJ --yeah right--- after the client spent a small fortune hiring Paul and myself



We saw the inhouse DJ system---and laughed---couple of Maplin style cabs screwed on the wall.a bit downmarket for the type of Hotel.

Paul took the Void system with the bass bins and supplied me with a Sennheiser Radio Mike ---no contest.

I learnt one thing--I wont be trying to find a head set mike anymore--tried the Sennheiser but it just doesnt do it for me compared with the hand held.

Client popped up to see us at the beginning to conclude payment--nice to deal with people with a grasp of Wedding etiquette isnt it

The first half went well with my non stop Instructed Dancing and I handed the reins over to Paul after the superb buffet.

Paul got em going straight away with some shrewd selections and the request list and I left around 11pm with things swinging along nicely.

The client emailed today ( without request) to convey thanks and confirm objectives reached on the night---job done.

If I manage to get any vid clips from the official vid man will post them.

[Gary (GDK)]

Gary, I always love to read your in depth reviews

[messiahwannabe]

urgh, after several weddings-of-the-year in a row for me, i had a real dog the last one out. the actual djing bit was fine, i think everyone liked the music i was playing, especially once they all got drunk and the requests became non-stop. it's just i've never had such a rude, inconsiderate crowd before! for one, while i generally enjoy my freebie beverages on the night, especially when people seem to want me join the party, i do enough of these things that it's to the point of being a bit of a relief when it's just a few beers here and there alternating with soda and lemon. however, when you're stuck outdoors from 3pm till midnight in the tropics, it'd be nice if someone would bring me some sort of beverage at all. anything! especially when i'm doing request after request, putting what i'm asked for on next when theres 30 seconds to go on the last tune, etc. i mean, usually a met request will be followed but a "cheers mate, can i get you a beer" but that night i would have settled for a thank you and someone taking the trouble to send a waiter over with a glass of frikkin tap water. not to mention i was told there would be food at the event (so didn't bring a sandwich or muffin or something) but when i got there i was literally forbidden to eat from the treys of canapes going around because there was apparently barely enough to go around (did i mention the party were frikkin cheap, and didn't want to pay for anything, but nevertheless decided to throw their party at the four bloody seasons?)

instead, as soon as someone from the younger half of the audience would request some sort of tiesto track or whatever, the aunties would come along to give me an earful for playing that awful boom boom boom crap. then as soon as i put on a classic disco number to please *them*, one of the under-30's would waltz right up and demand i change the track. not ask for something else next, but DEMAND I CHANGE THE TRACK IMMEDIATELY. explanations that i was playing someone else's request and that if you looked out you could see that the floor was full of people dancing were met with eye rolling. literally.

the wedding planner hated these people, the staff at the hotel hated these people, the guitarist i brought in hated these people, and about 30 minutes into the night i completely understood why. a fight broke out. someone actually ate a third of the wedding cake with their bare hands before the frikking cake cutting ceremony. i thought that last part really let me know what kind of drunken selfish assholes i was dealing with.

again, the music end went over fine, and i think everyone was actually happy with my work, the dancefloor was kept reasonably full throughout the night, and as usual i had at least 9 out of every 10 requests on hand, if not more. but jeeze, what a terrible crowd!

shame i didn't come on here the week before when i had the party of londoners who were into every deep cut i played and gave me a $250 tip at the end of the night! that would have been much more fun to write up :/

[sweetie]

Had the most difficult wedding in a few years last night. I performed aswell as I could but everything was working against me. Small numbers, big room, nice weather, lots of smokers, 5 hr gig and the couple were metallers. Here's the playlist below. I started off with the usual floorfillers aimed at the older crowd initially and whilst there was intermittent dancing it was never busy. I'm used to a busy floor so was slightly worried but it was just one of those days. The younger crowd did get going when we got into the metal section and the last two hours were certainly better than the first few. The couple were very nice and complimentary but I hate feeling I havent earned my money even though I know I did my best (lots of mic work to encourage etc)
Roll on tonight and get back in the saddle....

Billy Joel For the longest time
Billy Idol White Wedding
Skunk Anansie Because of you
Pendulum The Tempest
Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter
Daughtry Home
Stone Sour Through the glass
Nine inch nails We're in this together
Alice Cooper Poison
Phil Lynott Out in the fields
Dropkick Murphys Shipping to Boston
Tinie Tempah Written in the stars
Katy Perry ET
Adele Set fire to the rain
Madcon Beggin
Adam Lambert Whataya want from me
David Guetta Titanium

Five finger death punch Hard to see
Menace

Metallica Until it sleeps
Dyers Eve

Slipknot Snuff
Before I forget
Gematria

Korn Here to stay
Divine
Lady GaGa Marry the night
Bad Romance

Prodigy Omen
No good start the dance

[Daryll]

Predictable bread and butter gig.
WMC, 50th Birthday

It was upstairs , as the birthday girl said on the phone " dont worry , there will be loads of people to help you carry your stuff up the stairs" , yea right......... , when I got there at the arranged time , the place was like a ghost town , no change there then..............
Anyway , got set up , sound check etc , all going to plan , booked from 7:00pm until 11:45 , first person fell up the stairs drunk at 8:00pm , followed but everyone else , suffering from various states of drunkenness.
Still not a bad crowd , dancing most of the time , everything from 60`s up to current chart , a few requests , some I had to turn down , because I am not double jointed........

Got toward the end , and one of my XP 5`s stopped working ( the slave) , still after a minute it fired up again..but.........................
rotation was on sync , so was the gobo selection , but the colour wheel was out , if the master was blue , the slave was red , etc etc , thats this afternoon job..........

Got to the last song , un chained melody , loads of couples on the floor , as it faded out , I thanked everyone for a great evening , bid them goodnight , expecting the usual "one more one more" er....no , they applauded me and went home............ , for a WMC that unusual.
I packed up the gear this morning , the club was all alarmed up , so no worries.
As I said , a bread and butter gig , not bad at tall.......

Daryll

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Quick (and I'll TRY to be as quick as I can) review of Friday and Saturday's bookings.

Friday night I was in a venue just outside the town centre which I do a couple of times a year. It's one of the venues where I know a number of people won't DJ in because it's known (or should I say...was known) as a bit of a rough place. I know the landlord and a few of the regulars and the times I have been there have been really good. They more or less know me now and so I have no quarms about going there. The other thing is that I do 8.00pm - 11.45pm and the money is very good.

So, Friday's theme was Ska/Two Tone/Mod/Northern Soul and I was really looking forward to it, as was the landlord and a number of regulars who used to be skinheads back in the day. When I started, the venue was pretty quiet to be honest but as soon as I did, the requests started flooding in. The venue was never busy but everyone who was there really enjoyed the night. I loved playing some of the classics and watching the old skinheads singing along.

A funny point during the night was when a few of the regulars appeared at around 10.30pm. Apparently (forgotten by the landlord), they'd all been to one of the regulars wedding. One of them walked in as I was playing The Jam (as requested) and he shouted at the top of his voice "Where's the Ska then!!!???". I recognised him but he couldn't see me behind the lights and I watched as he stormed over to me with a proper angry look on his face. I popped out from behind the lights and he laughed his head off. We used to hang around together when we were kids. I'd been playing loads of Ska during the night but chucked some more on for him and he loved it. It was a poor turn out but everyone enjoyed it.

Saturday was a Wedding with Uplighting at one of my residencies. It was an older couple who were both marrying for the second time. They didn't want a massive fuss made of them and just wanted "A good party" (their words). I had 2 requests from them - The Bangles - Eternal Flame (which was their first dance) and Bill Medley - Time of my life (their last dance). They asked me to play a full range of music and that's what I did.

It was quite funny actually because it was only a few weeks ago that Daryll (Crimson Tide) covered a wedding for me at the same venue for a couple of their relatives. A number of guests were at the wedding a few weeks ago and commented that I was brilliant...I laughed because I had to explain that it wasn't actually me (and Daryll and I look nothing like eachother!).
So, I played a good mix of Current chart, 70's, 80's and Cheese and it worked really well.
Bride and Groom were very pleased and thanked me over the microphone. Really good atmosphere all night and the dance floor always had people on it.

Daryll will know what I mean when I say that I saw one of the tallest girls I have ever seen at the wedding. She was absolutely massive! She had very young twins with her too and this may sound bad but at one point I saw her dancing with one under each arm!