Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[funkymook]

I totally agree with not recommending - attitude counts for everything.
I'd rather recommend a bad service provider who is friendly and makes an effort than a really good one who has an attitude problem.

Personally I’d recommend neither.....

[ukpartydj]

Personally I’d recommend neither.....

Well of course! One would never wish to displease his clients by choosing either option unless one really had to.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Did I read that correctly or is it my 'after darts night out headache' that is playing tricks on my eyes?

Did you say you'd rather recommend a bad service provider who is friendly?

What?

[ukpartydj]

Did I read that correctly or is it my 'after darts night out headache' that is playing tricks on my eyes?

Did you say you'd rather recommend a bad service provider who is friendly?

What?

Yes, I assume by your answer given the choice you'd pick the guy with the bad attitude?

[Excalibur]

Yes, I assume by your answer given the choice you'd pick the guy with the bad attitude?

I think that's the lesser of two evils. Personally, I'd be inclined to give details of both, making it abundantly clear that both had flaws.

[funkymook]

Well of course! One would never wish to displease his clients by choosing either option unless one really had to.

If I really had to choose I’d go for the better service and put our personality clash (or having a bad day) aside for the client's sake - I would never recommend a sub-standard service under any circumstances.

I reckon you just didn’t think it through properly when you posted

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Yes, I assume by your answer given the choice you'd pick the guy with the bad attitude?

Not at all. I may look silly but I'm not...

Surely, if there are 2 suppliers and one is a lovely bloke (or woman) but their service isn't great and the other is half decent at what they do but their attitude stinks, you wouldn't recommend EITHER of them!!!

There are plenty of suppliers around that are nice people and offer a great service so I wouldn't even think twice.
I would NEVER recommend anyone that I have had a negative experience with no matter how good they may be. I like to think I can get on with anyone and if someone has narked me that much then I would say they'll have the same affect on someone else.

You recommend people for a reason and that recommendation is associated with your name. Any comeback comes back to you.

I totally agree with Martin on this one.

[Excalibur]

Right chaps, I think we're now quite a distance , so I shall chastise myself severely for doing so, and urge us all to go

Perhaps this matter is worthy of its own thread? Hmmmm.

[Nakatomi]

Well, I can now say I've DJ'd a reception for a gay wedding!

With one thing or another I've not had a great week what with having to put my beloved Rory dog to sleep (a black lab we adopted over 8 years ago - he was 15!) & I rolled up to the hotel tonight wondering if tonight was going to be the big gay wedding the staff had told me was coming up 'soon'. And lo, the names on the function room card spelled it out. Two grooms.

The first dance was scheduled for 8.30 after cutting the cake, so background music was applied at 7pm while people piled in. There were 120 guests on the cards - I've never seen that room so busy. I didn't want to be too downbeat with the background tunes but at the same time I didn't really want anybody dancing until as close to 8.30 as I could get away with. Did that plan work? Hahaha. Did it heck. The volume was kept low & the disco lights (all on, or all off) were kept off ... and still people got up & boogied to the likes of George Ezra & Adele. Sigh.... but hey.. good omen for later eh?!

I put the lights on, announced & played the 1st dance, the happy couple had the floor to themselves for all of about 30 seconds... Followed John Legend 'All of Me' with Magic's 'Rude', then gently ramped up into party mode. The buffet was opened at 9pm and still people wanted to dance, which seemed to be annoying the people queuing for food. Harsher action was called for. Jessie J.. don't fail me. Yes! Now there's an orderly queue for the grub. Background autopilot engaged & I went to the bar to put my latest hair-brained scheme into effect....

Request slips!

At 9.30 the crowd looked like they were about ready again, so I announced the request slips were at the bar... first I had 20 or so brought up to me... then more.. then more.. most were workable & not standard wedding fayre .. some not. The floor was PACKED (as in no elbow room) for the vast majority of the night , programmed & mixed to a tee (if I do say so myself). 11pm came & the grooms were to throw their bouquets.. I played a fanfare, we had a countdown... big cheer.. into Beyonce - Single Ladies etc etc etc.

Despite the request slips (some of which were hilarious BTW) people still came up for a chat & without exception were the epitome of grace & politeness. Can you play Philip George please? Oh, not until after you've got the party stuff out of the way.. maybe around midnight? No problem! (Shocked DJ face).

Some of the request slips were very er... how should I put this.. catty. About me, too. Heh. E.g. Song title: "Le freak" Artist: "Chic".. Message: "Because you are one". Funny, I thought I'd kept my alter-ego a bigger secret!

At one point I was having so much fun there were actual tears in my eyes (well, it's been an emotional week). This isn't a word I throw around willy nilly, but it was awesome. Last few songs played: Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston - It Takes Two, A little snippet of 'Face the music & dance'.. into Ray Charles - Hit The Road Jack, to finish. I made a point of thanking everybody for being such a brilliant lot (because they absolutely had been) & told the newlyweds they're lucky to have such fun friends & relatives.

Oh I WISH I'd been taking a gig log video. Maybe I'll start doing them as a matter of course.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Sounds like a good one mate.

Firstly, sorry to hear about Rory. Very sad and I know how you feel as I had to do the same thing just over a year ago with one of my beloved boxers (makes me feel bad even writing that )

Bit of a different kind of weekend for me this one.
Friday night I was supposed to be doing a Request Fest night at a small venue in town. It was billed as a 'Pay Day Party'. Unfortunately I was up all of Thursday night with some kind of bug and I left it until midday on Friday to see if I would be ok but I wasn't. I still felt pretty rough so arranged cover and went back to bed. The guy at the venue was totally cool with it. I've never let him down before (don't intend to again) and I spent most of the day sleeping. This became a problem Friday night though as I just couldn't get to sleep and was up all night again.

Now, as Friday and Saturday merged in to one, the bonus (if that's the correct word to use) was that I didn't have a booking on with too much responsibility as such.
I had 2 well paid bookings on Saturday and neither of them were for DJ duties. It was a nice change.
I commented on a topic a week or so ago about why I like my job and being full time and it's because of the variety of bookings and that every week is different.

No sleep and still feeling a tad rough wasn't a great start. Left the house at 4.15pm to go to a venue just down the road from me where I was supplying lighting and uplighting for another DJ....well, not a DJ as such. He was the father of a girl who was celebrating her 18th birthday but her and the majority of her friends all had learning difficulties. It was a big event with lots going on. He had his own sound set up (Maplins Pro Sound job) and a few little effects. I set up the Ultimax for him with my lighting system and also put Uplighting around the venue too. There was also a separate room where some casino tables had been set up so I put some Uplighters in there too.

After I'd set all of that up I nipped over to the other side of town where I was supplying lighting and sound for a beer festival at another venue.
The organiser contacted me about 3 weeks ago and he originally asked if I could play music from 6.00pm - 10.00pm. I said that live music with me in between may work better and he let me have free reign over what I wanted to do.
The bass player in my band is a sound engineer and runs a home studio so I got him on board to take care of the PA duties. I put in a simple 4 x Uplighting panels on a T-Bar for stage lighting and for the first time in ages I took my cluster laser out and used it to create a backdrop on the wall behind the stage. I had organised 4 local acoustic acts to perform throughout the evening.

The night went really, really well. It was very well attended and the live music was really appreciated. The organiser came over to me a number of times throughout the evening with positive feedback and one of his comments was "I am so glad I contacted you. I will have a lot more stuff for you if you're up for it". I chatted with him (having not met him before) and found out that he organises a number of mini festivals as well as regular beer festivals so there could be some good times ahead.
I have enough promoter mates who can put acts my way and I know a lot myself.

Once that had finished I was packed down and away by 10.30pm. It was then back in the van and over to the party at the other venue so I was there in plenty of time for when it finished at 11.00pm. When I walked in to the place I was greeted by lots of smiley faces. I went over to where the 'DJ' was and he was grinning from ear to ear too. He was having a great time and was very complimentary about the lights and uplighting. Before I could say anything he said "Really impressed, definitely going to use you again". As I stood there a couple of the guests came over and a tiny little bloke tapped me on the side and said he recognised me. He called over some others and said "This is the man who did our Christmas parties". I didn't recognise him but made out that I did to keep him happy. Every year I do the Christmas party for the school that looks after kids with learning difficulties. It is very humbling at times and I felt both chuffed and humbled that he'd recognised me.

Anyway, the party finished at 11.00pm on the dot and I was packed down and away by 11.30pm and sitting in doors with a cup of hot chocolate at just after 11.30pm (rock n roll eh!).

One funny moment to mention - As I was taking the last bits of equipment out of the venue and the parents and the last few guests were helping to clean up the place, one of the parents (who reminded me of Frank Butcher from the old Eastenders) shouted over "Oi, Mr Lighting Man. Would you like some cake to take home with you?"
I said I'd take some for the missus and he bought it over. Now, the whole party had a casino theme and when he bought the cake over to me it was wrapped in what looked like £20.00 notes. I didn't realise that they were serviettes at first and my first reaction was "wow!". I didn't say anything at first but when he handed me the cake I thought the serviettes were real money.
"You don't need to do that" I said "I've already been paid"
He just laughed and said "I didn't mate. They're not real"

Talk about embarrassed!