Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Just to report back (at 5.12am too, I can't sleep!)...tonight's gig went very well and exactly as I thought it would.
Everyone was up for it and there was a packed dance floor all night despite the heat.

I had a technical issue early on with the Denon HD2500 and I will post about that in another thread.

[Imagine]

Wish I could say the same

Tonight (sorry, last night) was a wedding...but it's been strange since bridey first booked me.
Went to the initial meeting and the brief was as simple as "play music" - her actual words. OK I thinks, this is obviously a nice simple reception.
WRONG!

Despite trying to make contact numerous times before today, everything came up blank. I didn't find out what the first dance was until 10 minutes after she arrived (and I'd really been trying to find this out for the past couple of weeks...just not getting a response). Even the best man didn't know anything about timings or who was doing what and when.

I was supposed to set up at 2pm while they were in the church, with the mobile bar letting me in. There I sat outside the village hall, watched the wedding party go into the church, come out again an hour later, have photo's taken. 3:30 the best mans ambles along with the keys and we're in. Sweated profusely getting everything lugged in and behind the stage curtains before the guests arrived half an hour later. I even managed to have some background music going behind the curtain whilst they started drinking (I wasn't supposed to start until after they'd eaten).

The bar who was supposed to arrive at 2, arrived at 4.
It transpired that there were supposed to be 2 best men, only one actually took part (the other was stuck on a train somewhere by all accounts).
The wedding breakfast consisted of fish and chips (the van doing this was over an hour late), followed by ice creams (from an ice cream van) after the speeches.

8pm I'm finally announcing the first dance. Even the photographer has had enough and wants to go home (mind you....he got fed...I didn't get offered for some reason).

8:04pm - first dance finished and everyone leaves the floor. OK, it was boiling hot and the bar was doing good business. Most of the guests went to sit outside.

So started on a few favourites and requests for those who stayed in the hall....could only manage a couple of people dancing. Didn't matter what I tried (I went through all genres and decades), just couldn't make it work...this is going to be a very long night.

In the last half hour, I decided to repeat the rock 'n' roll set I'd done earlier.....bang - fullish floor at last, so carried on with that until the end at midnight. Bride and groom left - didn't even say thank you or goodbye.

Needless to say, I'm feeling utterly deflated at the moment. I don't think I could have done anything different. Nobody complained or said anything was wrong (in fact several said they were enjoying it), and the bar shifted double the amount of booze they were expecting to.

Got to admit - this one's a first for me, and not one I really want to repeat.

Maybe the heat of the day killed things (it's done me in), maybe I did something wrong....I'm sure I'll find out in time.

Another wedding next Friday (different setup entirely with lots of chat going backwards and forwards between the happy couple to be and myself)...hopefully it'll be a better one that this week.

[funkymook]

Friday's wedding - empty room from 7pm to 11.15pm due to the lovely weather and nice grounds at the hotel, but they could hear the music outside. 1am finish though so still managed to get a good party going on.

Saturday - bit of an argument with the venue owner as I wasn't told beforehand I had to leave the premises after setting up early (was only playing in the evening), couldn't even leave my car onsite, wasn't an argument I was going to win so had to go. Apart from that a great gig, lovely venue and rest of the staff were lovely. Here's what I played:


Olympian Gene (First Dance)
Bryan Ferry Lets Stick Together
Let's Spend The Night Together The Rolling Stones
Too Many Fish In The Sea The Marvelettes
Tainted Love Gloria Jones
The Only One I Know The Charlatans
Disco Down Shed Seven
What Difference Does It Make? The Smiths
Rock The Casbah The Clash
Cool Jerk The Creation
Soulfull Dress Sugar Pie DeSanto
Hound Dog Big Mama Thornton
Jeepster Marc Bolan & T.Rex
One Way Or Another Blondie
Teenage Kicks The Undertones
Basket Case Green Day
Girl From Mars Ash
Gay Bar Electric Six
Song 2 Blur
Last Nite The Strokes
Don't Look Back Into The Sun The Libertines
I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance Floor Arctic Monkeys
Our Velocity Maximo Park
Underdog Kasabian
Block Rockin' Beats Chemical Brothers
Dare Gorillaz
We Are Your Friends Simian, Justice
Ready For The Floor Hot Chip
Doctor Pressure Mylo Vs. Miami Sound Machine
Girls & Boys Blur
Stupid Girl Garbage
She Bangs The Drums The Stone Roses
Love Will Tear Us Apart Joy Division
Molly's Chamber Kings Of Leon
Sheriff Fatman Carter USM
The Size Of A Cow The Wonder Stuff
This Charming Man The Smiths
Town Called Malice The Jam
Too Much Too Young Specials
Louie Louie The Kingsmen
My Generation The Who
You Really Got Me The Kinks
Metal Mickey Suede
Saturn 5 Inspiral Carpets
Common People Pulp
Step On Happy Mondays
Fools Gold The Stone Roses
Brassneck The Wedding Present
Rich And Strange Cud
You Give A Little Love Paul Williams

[ukpartydj]

Only had the one this weekend as I'd been booked Friday by the girlfriend.

Wedding played to empty room, same I hear happened to my DJs. Only kicked off at 11 and they weren't all that happy when last song was midnight but that's the trouble had it been a marquee on private land they'd no doubt paid for an extension.

[Imagine]

Friday's wedding - empty room from 7pm to 11.15pm due to the lovely weather and nice grounds at the hotel, but they could hear the music outside. 1am finish though so still managed to get a good party going on.

Wedding played to empty room, same I hear happened to my DJs. Only kicked off at 11 and they weren't all that happy when last song was midnight but that's the trouble had it been a marquee on private land they'd no doubt paid for an extension.

Soooo glad it wasn't just me with an empty dance floor for most of the night - was really worrying that I'd lost my touch not having had a dud gig for months. You've both made me feel so much better

I was even more worried that maybe I'd cocked up a wedding, but the more I've mulled it over today given the lack of communication from bridey in the run-up to the event (and even the best man not knowing what the hell was going on)....and the unbearable heat and humidity in the hall yesterday....maybe it's just one to put down to bitter experience.

[musicology]

Yep same for me. All outside till 9.30 but they could still hear the music. I quite enjoyed it as I didn't worry about the dance floor and could see lots of them tapping feet and nodding heads whilst chatting. Finished 11pm so just did an hour and a half of proper disco. Easy job and they told me they were delighted with the evening. Thunderstorm broke as I was loading but I even found that nice and refreshing and watched some great lightning driving back!

[fullcontact68]

Same here,

Had a wedding Saturday night (Only have 1 weeks notice, previous DJ pulled out at the last minute).

Only about 60 people turned up, they had a buffet to feed 300.

Dance floor dead most of the night, (Had about 10 people dancing to the usual cheese).

Even the bar closed early in hall (They had to use the main bar instead), because that was dead.

The couple did thank me for a great night, and had a couple of requests for my business card.


A bit boring for me, but at least the couple and their guests were happy.

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Had a belter of a wedding on Saturday.

It was at 29 in Glasgow which is notorious for access and loading.

My missus nicely volunteered to help me load in as it's easy enough for her just to get the train home from town but in the end she wasn't needed. Was worried about access to the City Centre (as well as all of the Commonwealth games road closure nonsense, you need to drive down a couple of pedestrianised areas just to get near this venue!)

Got there bang on schedule for the wedding co-ordinator and a staff member to open the back doors to the lift. They gave me a hand with my stuff and everything was loaded in and up outside the room within 10 minutes.

I parked up the car in a nearby NCP, got back to the venue and they were ahead of time with the meal (yup you read that right AHEAD!!!) so I was able to go right in and start setting up.

Took a bit longer than usual because I've just bought MyDMX and had to make sure everything was hooked up properly and running as it should. Once set up I put on some backgroung tunes and they started filtering in.

It was great to see the bride and groom again, the both of them looked brilliant.

First dance I had a nice slow white scene running on MyDMX then on the 2nd I switched it to a teal scene I'd made for them (teal being the colour scheme) by the end of the 2nd dance everyone was requested to join the dance so from the get go the floor was busy and after that it pretty much didn't stop.

A brilliant night was had by alll, she's already been in touch with super feedback but apart from being a great party a few things made it stick out:

At one point out of the corner of my eye I thought I'd spotted a guy I went to uni with. A few minutes later the bride came over to ask me a "strange question" as she put it. The question being was "are you a history teacher?" Which, when not being a superstar DJ, I am.

It turns out that it was the guy John I'd been at uni with who had recognised me. Not only that, he works alongside the bride now who is also a history teacher. Turns out she's involved in one of the teams that creates the History exams for Scottish pupils so I'll be tapping her up for some insider notes in the run up to next year's exams

It was nice to catch up with John, we'd been cllose during our postgrads but as is the nature of these things, we'd lost touch.

Aside from all of that, early doors someone came up and requested Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark. I noted it down to play later on. As I was mingling during the buffet a lady asked why I hadn't played Springsteen yet. I told her it was one I usually play later on. She then explained at length about how the bride's mum and aunt's are Springsteen fanatics so I needed to play it.

I adore the Boss. Actually if I turn my head 45 degrees from where I'm sitting I've got a big canvas of the Born to Run cover hanging on the wall so that was the night set - got to play a bunch of Boss stuff which everyone loved but the mum and aunt's really appreciated plus it was nice for me to get to hear it at a gig

Getting out was a bit more work as I had to move everything myself, get the car to the alley way, go down the lift and get everything down the alley without anyone in the pub next door or walking down the main thoroughfare taking note of the laptop cases and the like.

But yeah, for a gig I was dreading due to the write up the venue gets, it turned into a cracker and taking 2 and a half hours to tear down and get home from a venue 5 miles away might be a bit annoying but for a gig as good as this and a bride so clearly appreciative of the effort I put in for her reception, I'll gladly deal with that.

Next one is a wedding on Wednesday for a girl who I DJ'd for her sister's wedding last June and am doing the other sister's in September (unless I totally balls Wednesday up ) her son was a total dude at the previous wedding and he's asked if I can play the new Ninja Turtles theme tune so I've actually created a Turtles themed light show for it because the little guy was such a gent.

After that I'm off to Wickerman for the weekend to see some awesome bands then the following weekend is the surprise wedding which is such a surprise even the groom doesn't know he's getting married. Will DEFINITELY be reporting on that one.

[grebble]

Had a joint retirement party and a 70th birthday (two different people) at a local working men's club this Saturday just gone. The birthday element was supposed to be a surprise but a few big-mouthed guests let it slip when they turned up so he found out about it prematurely!

Being so hot, it was quite a subdued affair. It was well gone 9pm before the food was out of the way - they had a guy outside with a pizza oven and he couldn't keep up with the demand! But when I finally turned the lights off there were a few dancers to start with, but the floor never actually got busy, with people preferring to stand outside; a common problem this summer, it seems.

Some of the older guests danced to the 60s classics I played, but it was hard to keep them up, and most people had gone home by 11pm. When that has happened before, the client has advised me to call it a night, but not this time! I was playing to the last 10 guests for the final hour! They were giving me an occasional request, though, Motown and rock and roll, and dancing a little, so I wasn't too disheartened.

At the end of it all, the client came and spoke to me, and said not to take personally the lack of dancing and everyone leaving early, she said it was just too hot to dance, which I can understand. She said she had had comments that the music was great, so if the customer is happy, that's fine by me!

Hit of the night: YMCA
Random request of the night: Sniff 'n' The Tears - Driver's Seat
Floor clearer of the night: Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (!)

[Imagine]

Belter of a gig on Wednesday for a mate's girlfriend's 21st.



It was unbelievably hot in the venue (a hotel conservatory) but I still had them doing the Macarena in the beer garden, and later got them indoors to dance...the only major problem was my mixing desk going South which I found a workaround for.

Best bit was....I left a few business cards behind and I've already had my first recommendation

Tomorrow night (sorry...tonight) is a 30th fancy dress...absolute cracker of a playlist
Sunday is a teen disco......who are half of these artists?