Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Nakatomi]

One subtle thing I forgot to mention. I always do an intro for the cake cut & first dance. I had them all standing in a circle around the happy couple just before I pressed play on A Thousand Years (awwww ) etc... Right?

Imagine my surprise later when the bride came over to ask if I had a microphone! How the hell did the huge applause & circle of friends and family occur for your first dance then missus... MAGIC? Grrr.

[DJ Jules]

Imagine my surprise later when the bride came over to ask if I had a microphone! How the hell did the huge applause & circle of friends and family occur for your first dance then missus... MAGIC? Grrr.

Most of the time it's the combination of Alcohol and a long day shortening the question "Do you have a Microphone that I could use?" into "Do you have a Mic?"

Anyway, last nights wedding with the lengthy playlist... did I mention that the bride was Chinese and it was in a Chinese restaurant (on the 2nd floor?) Got there at 4:00pm to discover that I had a gap about 5ft wide to set up in as they didn't want anything to obscure the decorations on the walls! They also didn't have a dance floor due to a large stage being set up at the front, so after a few words with the management, the stage was removed. Also had to move a few tables a little to make room for the speakers!! Set up by 5:00pm when 220 guests flooded through the doors in quick succession, making me very glad that I had insisted on setting up early. Kept most of the major lighting off, except for the pars backlighting my booth and scrims and a couple of moving heads on the floor pointed almost straight up to light some of the nicer decorations on the wall. All lights set to red of course.

So, background music on for the first hour while they welcome the guests with a tea ceremony. Then speeches, then food.

And more food.

And more food.

I nipped out to have a snooze in the van between 7:00 and 8:00 while I left the background music on after the speeches and when I came back in the room was very lively, people moving around, kids running about and a lot of chatter. Looked promising... but people were still eating.

First dance was set for 8:45 - 9:00, but dessert came out about 9:00.... 9:15 comes and food is pretty much done and suddenly the brides sister wants to play games with the bride and groom. If I'd had warning of this I'm sure I could have helped with both the presentation and the execution of the games, but I didn't so they took over and while it worked and was funny, it could have been done better (games involved the bride getting a boiled egg up one trouser leg and down the other, biting off a banana, finding the pigeon heads, etc). A photo booth also turned up at 8:45 so suddenly I also find I have competition for the audience's attention.

So... on to the first dance, except the bride has to get changed first.

The first dance ended up happening at 9:45 (much to the photographer's disgust), full dance floor for 4 songs afterwards, and then it's back to just me and the kids until 10:45 when they called it a night as everyone had left (not helped by the restaurant clearing and setting tables for the following day as soon as each table emptied!)

Happy Bride and Groom, happy and apologetic Brides' sister (who booked me). In her words "it's not your fault and it doesn't make you a bad DJ - the music was great".

Notes for the future...

1. Don't put moving heads on the floor when there are kids around (I managed to scare the kids off for a while by keeping them moving, but eventually they decided it would be fun to try and point the big torches around the room, despite being advised otherwise). They all appear to have survived being pulled about against their will (the moving heads that is), but I expect a few kids might have blind spots for a few days after looking into focused 35w LED light.

2. As usual, better engagement with the bride and the family before the night would have resulted in a better outcome. But in this case I'm sure she thought I was "just there to play music" and she really didn't get what I could have done to make the night better. Her sister got it (having seen me a number of times), but she didn't.

3. Ref the photobooth... I always have deodorant and a change of clothes handy for when I've finished setting up. The photo booth operators would have been well advised to do the same. They set up in the large open landing outside the restaurant which was well vented, but they clearly had a hard time getting the booth up to the 2nd floor and set up, as the whole area reeked of B.O. A real shame as the booth was good and the guys (despite both looking knackard before they started) did a good job and left the Bride and Groom with a great little photo book with pics and messages from the guests. Sadly, I'm sure they also got paid more than me, despite only being on site for 4hrs total (vs my 7hrs).

Need to work on "selling my value".

Julian

[Corabar Steve]

Because I was working intensely, the time flew by, and five hours didn't seem that long

& yet you still had time to inform somebody who, up until that point was doing very well avoiding anything to do with the rugby results for that day, who had won the one game they really wanted to watch.

[Excalibur]

& yet you still had time to inform somebody who, up until that point was doing very well avoiding anything to do with the rugby results for that day, who had won the one game they really wanted to watch.

Steve, I'm very sorry for that.
In my very poor defence, I was outside the venue for twenty minutes waiting to be let in, so took the chance to reply to your text. I expected you to be glued to the screen, and for the first time in ages you weren't.



Could have been worse though. You could have been a Scotland fan.

[Corabar Steve]

Could have been worse though. You could have been a Scotland fan.

Iwas on the edge of my seat for the last 10 minutes of that match!

[Excalibur]

Iwas on the edge of my seat for the last 10 minutes of that match!

Me too, that and the Scotland one, willing both teams on. At least you didn't have salt rubbed into the wound by a wrong decision, owned up to by the governing body, and then being told " can't do anything about it Guv, rules is rules ".

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Bit of a weird one for me and maybe this is the wrong section of the site to put it in but I'll share it anyway if that's ok?

I was originally booked a couple of months ago for last Saturday for a Charity function but the organiser called me around 3 weeks ago and asked if they could move the date to this coming Saturday. This meant that last Saturday was free. I was / am free this Saturday so it wasn't a problem just shifting the date forward (I think he was struggling to sell tickets)....The usual thing happened in that as soon as I moved the booking to this Saturday I received an enquiry which would have been a confirmed one as it was a friend of a friend and so I had to turn it down.
Then what happens?
Yep, you've guessed it....the organiser of the Charity function calls me up over the weekend and apologises but he has to cancel the booking. Now, as it was a Charity thing (rightly or wrongly), I came to an agreement with him about the cancellation fee. It was a Help for Heroes thing and I support that. It didn't do my pocket much good and I was doing the gig at a reduced price anyway but whatever.

So, I've turned a booking away and lost the booking I had for this week.

It doesn't stop there though....

Last weekend I didn't have any bookings which was a proper bummer as October seems to have been very quiet for me (November and December are rammed though so that's good).

Bear with me!!!

So, I am sitting there chilling out on Saturday afternoon. I know I am not working in the evening so I am pretty relaxed and looking forward to meeting up with some mates and catching up over a few beers which doesn't happen that often if truth be told.
My phone buzzes and there's a text message there from a guy who is quickly becoming known as someone not to go near unfortunately.
A while back I received an email from a member of this forum asking me about this guy. Apparently he owed a friend / colleague some money for a cover job he did.
I must have been in cloud cuckoo land because I didn't put 2 + 2 together at the time and didn't realise that I was on this guys 'friends' list on facebook.
Anyway, to cut a long story down a bit.....A few weeks after I received the email from a forum member, I bumped into another local DJ who I hadn't seen for years whilst walking through town. The same guys name was mentioned again and it was the same scenario (DJ owed money for work he's done).

The reason I mention this is because last week I received a message from an old friend of mine who contacted me to say that I should expect a couple of enquiries from 2 girls he works with who are both getting married next year and who have both already booked this guy but are finding it difficult to get in touch with him. It is as if he has disappeared off the face of the earth. The name wasn't even mentioned in the message. It was actually me who said "It isn't ************** is it?" and the answer was "Yes, do you know him?". The other thing he mentioned was that a friend of his is also owed money. I didn't ask anymore.

One of the girls has been in touch with me and I have provided her with a quotation.

So....I get this text message out of the blue. I am not working that night so I could do with the money but I decide not to even reply to it.
About an hour later another text comes through and it is desperate sounding. Apparently it is the same kind of text message all the time "Been let down by a DJ. Can you cover it for me?"
Again, I decided not to reply to the text and I left it.
I haven't heard anything since.

I know I did the right thing not working but I find it so annoying that there are people out there who have no morals and just muck it up for everyone else and give the rest of us a bad name.

[Benny Smyth]

I know I did the right thing not working but I find it so annoying that there are people out there who have no morals and just muck it up for everyone else and give the rest of us a bad name.

Sorry that you've had a couple of frustrating weekends, Gary. At least on the upside, you can take this time off with a big ol' smile on your face and a much needed rest before the silly season kicks in.

[rth_discos]

I know I did the right thing not working but I find it so annoying that there are people out there who have no morals and just muck it up for everyone else and give the rest of us a bad name.

I think it's similar for most industries - take builders for example.

But it is those who quote cheap and screw it up who have brought down the perceived value of a DJ, and therefore the overall fee we can command.

Look at how photos booths are going out for more than most DJs get!

[Retrodisco]

Even the photo booth industry is being screwed up slowly.

I used to see lovely booths with good equipment and staff, now the 'cheaper' option is around, a backdrop, an ipad or cheap camera taking the photos, nowhere near as good, but undercutting the price of the real guys.