Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Paul Palmer Ents]

I dont know if its me but things seem very quiet this year compared to others, having dj,d for 16 years all my past xpn,s have been straight into party stuff and as soon as santa has left the building and i,ve done the works party shout outs everyone used to scream and shout and imediately run onto dancefloor going mad. Have done my 5th one last night and i must say its not happening for me this year and others have said same. they just sit and talk ,i always tell the crowd that a request sheet is ready to be filled with songs and messages but the few i get are very downbeat songs that you would only consider playing later on the slow section.just seem to get the odd few up to occasional songs and thats it. ! I can honestly say i have never done a christmas party night where not one person danced to wizzard! which is what happened last night, even soul banana killed the floor. as the d-ream song goes, THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER.

same thing is happening to me this year, I've done two Christmas parties so far with four to go, And I must say that last night's was truly awful, There was 10 people in the venue at 7:30 when the party started at 7:00, Everyone arrived from a pub in town drunk around 8:30 and their excuse was that the drinks were cheaper there then the hotel.

I played all the usual party classics and it was like all the seats had superglue on them, Everything I tried didn't seem to work. On the contrary the week before I did a corporate Christmas party in a marquee for 6 different firms and we could get them off the dancefloor, Best Xmas party I've done in a long while.

I'm at the same hotel as I was last night for the next 2 weeks so I'm hoping that these will be better nights.

[steaustco]

hi, yes seems to be a trend this year. i too am at the same venue till new year ,last year started off busy then gradually got quieter nearer xmas, maybe this year will be other way round. got two nights off and back on tuesday , see what thats like. there is also a lack of large shops which are always good nights, like asda and tesco , i know our local b&q are not having a party this year and the hospitals too. the best so far seem to be school staff party,s ,they just love cheeeze!.

[Excalibur]

Well after last nights transport of delight, I suppose I was due this one. 14 Year party, four hours long, with karaoke. Daunting prospect already. Got set up in good time, karaoke screen hung on the overhead fired up straight away, so I was a happy bunny. Not for long. Very slow influx of guests, and it took over an hour before I got a request. ( and that was y Gangnam style! )
Not too surprising as the venue had catered for a hundred, and we had less than thirty there. Requests started to dribble in, very few bang up to date ones, some Arctic Monkeys, Electric Six as a joke, and after two hours of this, I wanted to

The birthday girl's stepdad then started asking for some left of centre ones, and we had an interesting selection of Hi Nrg, Rave, Indie, and Drum and Bass, which lightened my mood a lot, thank goodness. At least I was packing up at half past seven, as opposed to midnight or later. Makes a nice change.

[DazzyD]

Like Peter, I had an earlier-than-normal night last night.

I was booked 7pm to 10pm to do a joint 13th/14th birthday for 2 girls about ten minutes away from home. The pre-request list was pretty much all current chart stuff with a couple of more unusual requests that stood out (Warren G's Regulate was one). For me, it went quite well with a busy dancefloor. A lot of young people dancing (no fighting - always a good thing!) and, after the request of Whigfield's Saturday Night and the great response it got, I put on Cha Cha Slide and it filled the room! People, including parents were coming from the room next door to join in the dancing! So far, so good.

In fact, the only slight annoyance of the evening was a girl of 13 or 14 who seemed to be on a mission to see how many times she could make it on to the stage and jump off. The corridor to the stage was dark, the old wooden stairs were very steep and the stage was about 5ft high. Plus, to get from the back of the stage to the front she had to run over my power cables - in the dark! Not too clever. After she did this about 6 times, despite me telling her to stop, she came back up but I was ready for her. When she got to the stairs I was standing at the top waiting for her. I just shook my head and she stopped dead. I told her I want no accidents and if she insisted on continuing to do this, I'd stop the music and put the house lights on. She didn't try again after that!

Like I said, for me it was as good night. For the parents, however, it was stressful. They told me there was food everywhere, some kids had been drinking before they got there and had made a mess of the place (a rather old community centre hall - nice venue, though, bit like a theatre inside!). There had also been 3 foldable chairs damaged and the dad said he didn't expect to get his deposit back. They said it was the first party they'd had for their daughter and would also be the last! Shame really as a minority of kids spoiled it for everyone else. The vast majority were very well behaved, up for a good dance and a credit to their parents! And they made it an enjoyable night for me, anyway. And, best of all, back in the house for 10.40pm! Result!

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Nightmare.

Lashing rain, inadequate signage and no lighting on a long driveway = me accidentaly driving onto a golf course where upon I got stuck and had to be towed out by the none too impressed manager.

[Excalibur]

Nightmare.

Lashing rain, inadequate signage and no lighting on a long driveway .

Jim, I've found it can often help to switch the windscreen wipers on in these conditions, and headlights too can be a boon.

[steaustco]

i have decided i am going to ban all mobile phones from xmas party,s . there are too many young uns just sitting playing on phones instead of dancing , had an excelent night last night started off with motown and then party cheeze, when i asked the phone party why they were not dancing they said they were sick of all the old tunes , so i played some chart stuff and guess what down to about four people so back to the good old stuff we went and a good night had by most anyway!

[steaustco]

tonight i have just got back from my 8th xmas party this was the best one so far, kicked off with always have always will by ace of base cliff richards do you wanna dance and lets dance chris montez solid dance floor till 1 am mixture of party and chart tunes great crowd and much needed after such a lack lustre start to the season.finished with dirty dancin megamix.

[musicology]

tonight i have just got back from my 8th xmas party this was the best one so far, kicked off with always have always will by ace of base cliff richards do you wanna dance and lets dance chris montez solid dance floor till 1 am mixture of party and chart tunes great crowd and much needed after such a lack lustre start to the season.finished with dirty dancin megamix.

Which Ace Of Bass track?

[Excalibur]

Curate's egg. Birthday party for a young Nigerian lady in a rugby club in Hull. Unusually for such a venue, it was ground floor, and I could park the van near the double doors which had a hold open position. After getting over the initial promising start, it got worse, mainly down to two customers. You know the type, one who wants AC/DC when I'm playing dance, chart, funk, soul, Stax,Tamla and the like. Apparently I have no idea how to DJ, because I don't play customer requests when asked for. (Those who know me will realise that I'm actually the exact opposite of that, and have a tendency to play ( suitable ) requests promptly, rather than waiting for a more appropriate slot )

The other one was miffed cos I hadn't got a packed dancefloor. During the hot buffet. ( Which was curry and rice by the looks of it, and I wasn't offered any. ) Suggested I ought to get on the mike, and "exhort them to get up and dance" ( that's the sanitised version ) and if I wasn't prepared/capable/man enough to do it, she would. Thanks love, but I'll have to pass on the generous offer of help.
What we needed was some Reggae, obviously. Except that Junior Murvin Police and Thieves wasn't "old school". Or fast enough.

The rest of the night was a mish mash of styles, due to varied requests from the guests, and as soon as I'd get something going, a request for a change would come in, so usually off we'd go in another direction. Best example of my quandary was when the birthday girl came up and said we'd had enough oldies, could we have some modern stuff? Fair enough, no problem. Except what was the next request, minutes later? You're ahead of me, I know. Yup, some great oldies.

Somehow I managed to juggle disparate musical styles ( not necessarily well, but I got 'em in somehow ) including a CD of Nigerian music provided for me. Mainly 130 BPM type stuff, went down a storm. I just loaded up the track numbers given, and faded them in and out. ( I was surprised to see an old classic tune on there, which I recognised immediately, as I've played it many many times over the years. )

We had a chap go down on one knee, and propose to his girlfriend ( she accepted, to a round of applause ).

All in all, not a bad night. It was fancy dres, and many of the guests were simply stunning. With some of the outfits, I reckon that an old bloke with a weak heart not needing defibrillation at some point has to be classed as a big bonus point!

It was very hard work, impossible to establish any sort of cohesion, and marred by a couple of folk. Seems like I'm paying dearly for last Saturday. I've got a Christmas party in the canteen for a bakery on Wednesday. 11am start, midnight finish. No, not continuous, the three shifts come in for an hour and a half each. I get Xmas dinner with each shift, so not all bad, eh?