Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Nakatomi]

Young Farmers? Young Farmers?

Be afraid. Be very afraid. They'll warm your Altos up.



It's a much overrated pastime.

I dunno exactly what the gig is yet - but if I take it, it'll be my first mobile gig proper for well over 20 years . For the past year I've only been in four different venues.

[ukpartydj]

Young Farmers? Young Farmers?

Be afraid. Be very afraid. They'll warm your Altos up.

And your Mackies... And any other speakers you own.
I do love a good young farmers party though a chance to see what my equipment can do and how much jumping on my stage I can handle before I get angry!

[Benny Smyth]

Wedding last night at one of my regular venues. It's my last gig there for 2015, so I decided to drop off their Christmas presents incredibly early as it will be the last time I'll see them (with the exception of an open day they are having in a couple of weeks, but it will be their first open day and I would imagine it would be stressful enough without me stopping them to hand out gifts - see? I can be considerate!). They've really looked after me over the last couple of years with recommendations as well as looking after me while I'm there (not that I ever ask for anything). Add to that the fact that they are really nice people, a few bottles of wine is the least I could do.

Anyway, onto the gig itself, and it was pretty good with the only problem being that everybody was really tired. The bride and groom had no evening guests, so there was no injection of 'energy' and you could tell. People were dancing and singing, but you could see that they were waning. I was booked until 1am, but the B&G decided to have the coach arrive at 12:30 for everyone. Good laugh with some nice people (even though none of them could say please or thank you without being prompted be me - "Can you play XYZ?" "I don't know that one. Is that by Mr. Please and Mrs. Thank You?"). Highlight of the night was playing Sandstorm, but I decided on the spot to play the House Every Weekend acapella over the top of it. The reaction was unbelieveable, and I was monumentally peeved that I wasn't videoing it!

[Excalibur]

Saturday was a 60th birthday for a lovely lady and her friends and family. Second time recently I've been in one of these Soccer Centres, this one was very nice indeed. Set up in the time honoured " corner under the telly "
Hung the powerbar from the overhead, and one Samurai at each end. My but they're impressive. Don't think they'll suit every function, but nice to have available.
I had a wonderful playlist, mainly 70s, and Rock. Guests were appreciating the music, but not filling the floor. There was a steady stream of guests leaving early, and by 11.50pm I was told to pack up. Very pleasant night, I was ordered to partake of the superb buffet, and got home reasonably early.

[Nakatomi]

Tonight's gig was a wedding I've had the most awful playlist I've seen in a long time. 30 or so ballads & as it turned out when I found they were falling flat on their bums they weren't for changing the plan. Oh how very dear. Lily Allen - Somewhere Only We Know.. really?

Never fear though, after the buffet time (and plenty of complaints from guests) I'd ran out of their playlist so it was down to business. Black Lacy business. As in Superman, I Am The Music Man, Agadoo... I stopped short of the Conga but safe to say that was easily the cheesiest DJing I've done for over 20 years. That's right.. I'd not played any Black Lace since 1995/6. They'd been requested of course and wow I've never seen a floor fill so quickly. There they were singing along doing all the actions. It was like a nightmare come true. And then I played YMCA. Where did they all go? Timewarp it is then.. whee all full up again. Saturday Night... still full... Cotton Eye Joe... tumbleweeds. WTH? Aaaanyhoo, B&G thoroughly enjoyed the set. Bride's mother was very very rude. She was the only person who wasn't polite all night & I was taking requests from children, teens & 20s/30s. Would it hurt people to say 'please' once in a while? TINA TURNER THE BEST! DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNNERS! PROCLAIMERS! I considered taking her to task but who'd win? Meh.

I took some video of the dancing to Black Lace incase I need to remind myself it really happened. Low point of the night was a kid asking me for some song I'd never heard of, then his dad asking for it... and finally the bride asking for it. I said I didn't have it. "It's okay, I'll get it on my phone" she says & asks me to plug it in in place of my tablet. Sigh. The song? The King of Caractacus by none other than Rolf Harris. Fan bloody tastic. From Youtube too. Bride did a bit of a number with three of her family to it.

Anyway.. quite a fun one. Nervous about the next one.. a 50th off my usual turf... first proper mobile gig in ummm... since I 1995 or 1996!

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Couple of belting weddings last week (2 to go this week the that's me done for the year)

Doing my first pub gig I about 5 years tonight. Walk in paying good money so happy days.

[Nakatomi]

Oh dear I'm tired. Had the day from hell (garage door wouldn't open... Major stress) and then out on a gig way out in the sticks at Hamsterley. A 50th birthday party for a very nicer lady. With all my gear.

I'd never been to this place before so took my two foot booth and the bits to make it four foot. And my new steel screen thingy with white lycra. And every light I own. PA was taken care of by my ancient disco mixer and my new altos.

There was a singing stick on the stage when I arrived dead early. For the singer, with his minidisc playout & zoom vocal thingy.

I managed to get all my gear in onto the stage & set up. It took Yonks. Over an hour! Mostly because I was playing with ideas. This was the first time the gear has had a whole stage to occupy after all.

My cables are easily more than enough in my residency but not here. Note to self: need longer iec cables & more DMX cables. And clamps.

The chauvet wash fx I bought this week was put to work lighting the booth & it did a marvellous job of it. The gigabar seemed to be underpowered at first but then I remembered the lenses in the case. Much better with those on. My kam lasers were lost on the floor so they were pointed at the ceiling instead.

And just for giggles I brought along a twelve quid jelly dome effort I bought my son for Christmas. Wowser! That thing can cut through the gigabar! Amazing little thing & it's nice when tamed with DMX.

So. The singer. His Bose L1 sounded awful. Too little bass, way too much mid, too little treble. And very clippy. In short, on the second hearing I wouldn't have one if you paid me. They are majorly light though. I'll let them have that.

The disco itself... At peak time I think I had ten up dancing, but there was plenty of chair dancing & singing song. Birthday girl likes the older stuff as well as new, so off we went to 60s land, then 70s & 80s.

Man who was paid me before I started came over for a chat & said I'd done a grand job. So did the bar manager who took some cards & said I was the best DJ he'd ever seen or heard. I said maybe he should get out more.

Birthday girls husband said I might as well call it a night at 11.15, so that was it.

Gear safely stashed again and I'm fit to drop when I finish this beer. Remind me why I want to leave my residency again....

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

The 'problem' with Bose kit is that the sound quality is so good that if you have rubbish quality mp3s or a mixer set up wrong (as sounds the case here) the speakers will show no mercy.

My pub gig was good. Lots of slutty insert whatever you want really costumes on show and lots of very drunk and coked up youngsters.

Had a blast though and for a change I got to properly mix for most of the night though I forgot to wheel out my lmfao / van halen super mix which I a bit annoyed about.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Tonight's gig for me was a 40th birthday in a village hall around 10 miles away from my base.
Well, it was definitely a DIY job and a bring your own beer type event. Met the birthday 'boy' last week and went through his request list with him and what an eclectic mix it was to say the least. He loved the cheesiest of cheese but also some decent dance tunes from the 90's and some full on Prodigy type stuff. Nice guy though and booked me as he said he'd "heard good things about me".

It was the first time I haven't done a Halloween party on Halloween. I asked him if there was a Halloween theme and he said no. I asked if it was fancy dress and got the same answer...ok, no problem. When I arrived at the hall it had a high stage and was quite small. I wondered how his estimated 120 - 150 guests would fit in it.
Well, I reckon there were just over 100 in total but it was more than enough. There were lots of young kids about and to be honest they made the first part of the evening very easy by requesting lots of tunes. I went through the cheesy stuff and got a good response with lots of dancing and slowly built my way up to the more dancier stuff after the likes of Tag Team, Salt 'N Pepa, Snap! and such like. The last half hour was filled with tunes like Goodmen - Give It Up and I mixed them in with current stuff too. The final 3 songs of the night (as requested in advance) were Prodigy - Firestarter, Prodigy - Out of Space and Faithless - Insomnia. I knew straight away that it was one of those nights where they would ask for more but I just couldn't do it. There were strict instructions for the music to finish at 11.30pm and the hall to be cleared and empty by Midnight. There were a few boos at the end but there was nothing that I could do as I needed to pack everything down.

Lots of applause at the end though and the guy was very happy.

A couple of things really narked me though.....
Firstly, a woman came over very early and asked me to turn it down because "we can't hear ourselves talking". That wasn't a problem. It wasn't loud and I wasn't in the mood for arguing. The front door to the hall was wide open and her and her group were stood by it but hey ho. Around 20 minutes later another one of her group comes over and asks me to turn it down. Come on ladies, are you having a laugh? It's not even loud in my opinion. Again, I don't argue with them but I don't adjust the volume to suit them when they're at the back of the hall and nobody else is having an issue with it.

Secondly, that same group of 'ladies' are up dancing to the cheesiness during the evening. One of them asks me for Saturday Night by Whigfield. It's on the request list anyway so no problem. Half way through the song the same 'lady' that asked me to turn the volume down earlier looks up at me and does the cut throat sign, more or less signalling to me to change the tune. Needless to say I ignored her! She was rapidly becoming a pain in the backside.

Thirdly, I am packing down at the end and I am wheeling out my speakers. A couple of guys are stood in the way of the door so I say "excuse me" and I get ignored. I say "excuse me" a second time and it is as if I have told them I am going to kill them. They really get the hump just because they have to move. I'm huffing and puffing and getting flustered trying to get the stuff out before Midnight and these 2 idiots are getting a strop on because I have asked them to move. They've been up dancing all night and had a great time by the looks of it but they're now getting all stroppy. Eventually they do move but when I return with other bits of equipment they are back in the way again. The same thing happens again and to be honest, this time I say something...."Seriously guys, are you doing this on purpose?" I ask them and they just laugh. I am beginning to get the hump myself now. It's been a really good night but now I am getting peeved off big time.

I'm taking the last bits out when 1 guy decides to help move the last table. He turns around with it and we bump into eachother. "There's always one" he says sarcastically aiming the comment at me..."You're hilarious aren't you mate" I tell him and he has a confused look on his face as if he doesn't know whether I am joking or serious.

I've probably made it sound relatively normal but it wasn't at all. I don't think I have been that wound up for a while.
It was a really good night otherwise.
The journey home was interesting as it was really thick fog so I had to go slow.

[Nakatomi]

My pub gig was good. Lots of slutty insert whatever you want really costumes on show and lots of very drunk and coked up youngsters.

I didn't know you did gigs in my home town!

I'll try to keep an open mind about the L1 but so far the evidence isn't good.