Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Benny Smyth]

I've pics of myself at the venue and the other DJ's already set up.

I think the important thing here is that Mark is confident that he has enough for his case and if he does, fantastic. If he doesn't, well that's a life lesson for him. Repeating the words "I agree, I would have spoken to the client" doesn't add anything new to the conversation.

Let us know how you get on.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Repeating the words "I agree, I would have spoken to the client" doesn't add anything new to the conversation.

OOOhhhh, get you! Now, where's that handbags icon?

[Benny Smyth]

OOOhhhh, get you! Now, where's that handbags icon?

[funkymook]

Repeating the words "I agree, I would have spoken to the client" doesn't add anything new to the conversation.

I disagree - if just one person said it and no one else bothered to agree then anyone reading the thread (especially newbies) wouldn’t think it was important, 20 DJs reiterating it drives home the point - no one would argue that opposite opinions aren’t valuable, likewise same opinions are as well.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I disagree - if just one person said it and no one else bothered to agree then anyone reading the thread (especially newbies) wouldn’t think it was important, 20 DJs reiterating it drives home the point - no one would argue that opposite opinions aren’t valuable, likewise same opinions are as well.

Now where's that 'like' button?

Totally agree.

[Excalibur]

Repeating the words "I agree, I would have spoken to the client" doesn't add anything new to the conversation.

Absolutely correct, it does indeed add nothing new to the conversation. However...........................

If just one person said it and no one else bothered to agree then anyone reading the thread (especially newbies) wouldn’t think it was important, 20 DJs reiterating it drives home the point - no one would argue that opposite opinions aren’t valuable, likewise same opinions are as well.

I have to agree entirely with Martin's post above.

[Excalibur]

Having seen the telly piccies of a reporter standing on the Moors blanketed with snow, I was slightly anxious about travelling to the West Riding for Friday's 18th. Valuable info from a local ( thanks Dave ) filled me with confidence, coupled with the fact that only two miles of the trip wasn't motorway.
I still set off early, and arrived in good time, despite the sat nav confusing right and left at the final turn! What a pleasant surprise it was to find a flat level car park, and a venue with fire doors facing it. Better still, the stage was next to these doors. Whoopee.

I had time to set up in a relaxed manner, and was ready to greet the punters. A seven o'clock start proved too early for many of the guests, and the room was only filling slowly at first. Before too long, it was comfortably full, and I got to work on the long request list I had. I got a lot of the less dancy ones out of the way, the buffet arrived, and then the fun began. Surprisingly, a member of staff turned the venue lights off entirely at this point, which wasn't a problem, as the Powerbar gave more than enough light.

Then the wheels fell off. The turned on the white stage lights, and was surprised when I indicated that I didn't need to be illuminated so harshly. ( I look a lot better in soft light. ) I wandered across for a word, and he asked how much light I needed. I said if he could light the back of the room, that would be nice. He put on the gentle wall uplights, and I told him that was perfect.

Obviously, perfect has a different meaning in the West Riding. Next, he switched on the stage spots, and blinded me. Git. I got him to turn them off again, and then he managed to really annoy me. Being an 18th, I'd gone in with Powerbar, Cheetahs, and two lasers, over a thousand pounds worth of lights. In best nightclub style, the venue was equipped with trussing over the dancefloor, bristling with various elderly spot lights, and two pretty unimpressive moonflowers. I've got the cheetahs doing their thing nicely in tandem on the dancefloor, and Mr Muppet exhibited his Pavlovian response. We're having a Disco, so I have to flick the switch marked " Disco Lights ". The two moonflowers cast their beams ( not gobos, beams ) on the dancefloor, and then we were treated to eight coloured spots pulsing very slowly and rhythmically in the same place. Basically, a single channel lightshow! Cutting edge, eh? Sometimes, I wonder why we bother?

Anyway, undaunted by all this ( who am I trying to kid? I was cheesed. Never mind, the show must go on. ) I put on Uptown Funk, to screams, and a packed dancefloor. With a bit of cherry picking from the list, and a few of my own, we were doing very well. Bearing in mind, this was an 18th, what was the song of the night, getting almost the entire room on the floor?
Why it was of course, that absolute classic, Cha Cha Slide!
One or two surprising requests came in, but were well received, and then I got a request for Tina Turner. First guesses with this age gruop are of course Shake A Tail Feather, or Proud Mary. Wrong, apparently. We wanted River Deep, Mountain High. No worries, I played it, and it went down surprisingly well. Then the young lady who'd asked for it comes up sheepishly, and says " Sorry, I got it wrong. I should have asked for " Rollin' On The River ". I think it's on the same album as " West Virginia ". ( Take me home Country roads, for those not familiar with this request )

So, on goes Proud Mary, and away we go. I'm down for a midnight finish, and about quarter past eleven, the crowd begins to thin. I play Uptown Funk for the third time, and the last song is Time Of My Life. A great night ends, and even muppetry with the lights can't detract too much from the fact that the punters have had a great time, my client's very happy, I've got a doddle of a load out, and my route home doesn't involve the detour round the closed section of motorway I've had to use three weeks running. Added to which, McDonalds is actually directly on my way home for two steaming cups of coffee, and I'm only thirty miles from home as well.

Ah well, Lincolnshire tonight, so bring on the beloved A15. What an absolutely awful road.

[dicky]

In best nightclub style, the venue was equipped with trussing over the dancefloor, bristling with various elderly spot lights, and two pretty unimpressive moonflowers. Basically, a single channel lightshow! Cutting edge, eh? Sometimes, I wonder why we bother?

I'm suprised you actually noticed the switch turned anything noticable on Peter..... or at least anything visible over the light from power bar and cheetahs!



OK I did my second gig at the Black Lion last night - I was here back at the end of November on only my second paying gig, and after 2 months I got a second booking.

The weather was prettty lousy with regular snow showers that had been on and off all day. While we were setting up the weather started to get worse with quite heavy snow falling.

An 8:30pm start and we were ready 10 mins early so kicked things off with a bit of old school disco. There was a group of about 15 folks in one part of the pub that had just finished a meal, and a handful of regulars over by the lounge bar.

I didn't take the lasers with me as last time at this venue I couldn't use fog as the smoke detector was directly above my head. Also a large area of the room has bright wall lights which the won't switch off as apparently the lights in the bar (the proper bar room) are on the same circuit so they would switch off as well.

However when I got there I noticed that a piece of polythene had been taped over the smoke detector with masking tape!

I managed to get the lights in my half of the room turned off though, and the triclops, octobeamz and six-shooters were doing a reasonable job of putting some light around the room - but the real star of the night was my new Dotz T-Par which really did it's job, defeating the ambient lighting quite well. I had the floods angled up towards the (low) ceiling as they would have been quite dazzling otherwise.

The group who had just finished their meal sent a written request over for me to announce the event (65th birthday) and asked for 'anything by Cliff Richard' so I played some, and followed with a short RocknRoll set. This went down well enough (at least it caused some foot-tapping) so I endevoured to keep them in the room at least for another round of drinks - and switched over to a motown set. The plan worked OK, another round or two was bought and they stayed about another hour - so I guess the publican would be happy with that

Once they left i switched to house and dance music (mostly new/recent stuff) and that went down OK with the mostly young crowd though there was not a lot of dancing going on as they were mostly guys - so I stuck with that until some fat guy came over and asked if I could play 'lip up fatty' so he could do his 'special dance for a laugh'

It went on next and this guy started dancing and kept lifting his tee-shirt to wobble his belly at all those wathinvg. This went down with much hilarityamongst the onlookers - so I followed it with 'One Step Beyond'. 'Too Much Too Young' and 'Special Brew'. The young crowd went wild - where do these youngsters get thier taste in music from these days?

During this a load of girls came in and then the party really started about 10:45pm

I was supposed to finish at 11:30 but the manager asked me to continue to 12 midnight which I duly did.

Finished with Tom Jones - Delilah (this is a Stoke Pub near the Britannia stadium so if you know a little about football you may understand why that was requested at the end of the night)

One notable song requested by this young crowd that suprised me - 'K Klass - Let Me Show You'

They went absolutely mental and packed the floor

Is this old 90s house stuff making a comeback or something? If so I am all for it as I really like that sort of music. Anyway for whatever reason they loved it. One thing I have noticed, in two months of DJing I have learnt a lot about current music and now feel really confident playing to this scene.

So anyway I thought I had come to the end of the night when the crowd suddenly demanded another song, pointing out my PC clock was three minutes fast!! I'm not sure how often DJs get asked for an encore but the manager said yes, one more song. They wanted Rihanna - Rude boy for some reason so that was the end of the night.

Afterwards I was asked by a few if I was coming back. One even asked 'When are you coming back?'

The manager overheard and said in 'two or three weeks'

Picked up my kit this morning, plus my payment. Said they will give me a call this coming week with some more bookings, so I am really confident I have won a fairly regular (maybe once a month or similar) booking here

Drove home about 12:20am in very heavy snow, flakes falling the size of saucers, but I had a big grin on my face


Tonight - Northern Soul & Motown at the Crescent. Looking forward to this one, last weekend was great. And the snow has melted too.

Rich

[DazzyD]

She'd opened the venue and let him in.

I've got it all in writing so she has little leg to stand on. 'Sorry I forgot to cancel' isn't going to save her from payment.

Hmmm....

I agree. As she hadn't seen you, she could just say you didn't show. She never actually cancelled.

Thats's what I was thinking.

I've pics of myself at the venue and the other DJ's already set up.

But pics don't prove you were there in a working capacity. You really needed to have discussed this with the client. The other DJ could have been a chancer. Had you met the client? Did she know what you looked like? She might not have met the other DJ, either, and had assumed he was you! It's quite possible this was a collusion between the DJ and someone of dubious nature at the venue tipping him off. "''Ere, Dave. We've got an engagement at the hall on Saturday. They've got some muppet called XYZ Discos. He's coming to set up at 6 but if you can get in for half 5...". I've gotten to a venue a few times before to find someone else already setting up or even already set up (bearing in mind I get there 90 minutes early, they must be really eager to set up early!). As I have the contract and payment made, they've been sent on their way after speaking to the client. Except one time when the client said "Oh, he's set up already. Just let him do it!". The only downside to being paid for doing nothing was that we'd gone out on a very cold and rainy evening. So I was a bit narked that we'd even set off out the house. Still, we had a game of pool or ten and a few drinks out of "earnings" when we got home and up the road to the snooker hall so it wasn't all bad!!

... Bearing in mind, this was an 18th, what was the song of the night, getting almost the entire room on the floor?
Why it was of course, that absolute classic, Cha Cha Slide!

This was the track that kicked off the dancefloor at my 18th last week. Then the requests came in. Macarena, Saturday Night, the usual cheese which has featured in so many of my shows over the last decade and a half!! But, to be fair, I still enjoy playing them as they are such great crowd pleasers. After all, alchohol and cheese always goes together, don't they?

[Excalibur]

This was the track that kicked off the dancefloor at my 18th last week. Then the requests came in. Macarena, Saturday Night, the usual cheese which has featured in so many of my shows over the last decade and a half!! But, to be fair, I still enjoy playing them as they are such great crowd pleasers. After all, alchohol and cheese always goes together, don't they?

Amen, Brother Dazzy.
Some may say, with some justification, that it devalues our art somewhat. It is indeeed not particularly highbrow, but my job is to entertain the maximum number of people at any given time. " The end justifies the means ". Hmmmm, I wonder if I can feel a thread coming on?

Going out now, back soon with a report of last night.