Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[DJ Jules]

Friday night had me at the local Zoo working for an agency for a corporate "end of summer" BBQ. By far the most people I've ever seen in the zoo Pavilion (150 people - with seating for 50!) and they also had a photo booth and a chocolate fountain. Busy dance floor from fairly early in the evening (bearing in mind people arrived at 6:30 and had the run of the zoo until 7:30 when the BBQ started) and made it easily to the midnight finish with a least 60-70 people crammed into the room Lots of requests for Reggae/90's/Cheese so an easy night for me really.

Saturday was a day that I've been waiting for with considerable nervousness. For some time I've had a wedding booked in at a Church/Community centre with a mid-day setup, a 7pm start and an 11pm finish, with a party with very eclectic music tastes (I don't often see Weird Al Yankovic on a request list). Since the wedding came in, I'd taken a kids party booking for 4:00 - 6:00pm, with Photopod and Karaoke as well. Because the timing was quite tight, I'd recruited the help of an old colleague with a van to meet me at 6pm at the end of the kids party to take kit off me as I broke it down and then it all off at my home the next day (with the exception of a few key pieces, like controller, laptop, DMX dongle, mics and wireless mic receivers).

Everything went more or less to plan. Kids party went as planned (joint 11th birthday with an instruction to "not do anything too childish", not many takers for Karaoke, but the Photopod got 131 visits in two hours and the parents seemed happy). Pack down went as planned and my kit went off on it's own journey. Traffic was OK on the way to the wedding and I arrived with time to spare. Then I went to put the final pieces in place at the wedding and discovered that my controller had gone off in the van instead of coming with me. Luckily I had plenty of varied cables to hand (and two laptops) so I plugged the headphone sockets from the two laptops into the mixer. It was at this point that I was really glad that I'd forked out for a mini Mackie 6 channel mixer a few months back to get decent EQ on the Mic channels, but regretting buying a mixer that allowed me to listen to the channels pre-fade... However, this setup gave me a Mic and playback so got me through the first dance and the first few tracks until my colleague turned up with my controller (luckily the wedding was running late - shock horror). During my wait I discovered that one of the uplighters in my truss podiums had packed up and made a mental note to check it out later.

Anyway, lights on, controller up and running and the dance floor is warming up following the first dance (slightly different - "The Jokers Song") and the second dance ("I touch myself") and some rockier classics (e.g. Ballroom Blitz) and then suddenly, bam. No sound and light. I panic, thinking it's got to be to do plugging in the controller after I started and then after about 20 seconds it all comes back on again. I apologise over the Mic and carry on. 10mins later, it's all gone again. This time I notice the lights on the stage going through a reset cycle after it returns and realise it's a power problem. I try and track down one of the girls who has been clearing tables and seems to know what's going on with the venue and she just apologises and says that it's an old building and the power is dodgy. I need to give a bit more background on the gig here... I believe the B&G (or their parents) are members of the congregation of the church and they hired it for the wedding via friends on the committee. Their guests are also largely members of the congregation and there isn't actually a caretaker or equivalent present. The bar is hired in for the night and the girls doing the arranging are also members of the congregation who have agreed to help out with organisation for the night as well as setting up at the start and clearing up at the end. So... no-one present really knows anything about the building or the electrics (it took them 10mins to find the switch to turn off the spot lights on the stage so I could see anything!)

I carry on and the power goes twice more. I disconnect my broken uplighter, thinking it might be tripping the power. The girls are running around the kitchen off to the side of me by this point looking for trip switches and fuse boxes and I'm getting confused - trip switches don't reset themselves. I start following cables from the stage into one of the side rooms, and find a sound limiter. The girls don't even know what a sound limiter is, let alone that the church has one. I back off the sound a little and a green light comes on high up on the wall to the left of me... turns out the Amber warning light is broken and I've been more or less running in Amber all night since the first dance.

Now I know what the problem is, I watch the lights and we get to the end of the night without any further issues (feeling very glad that I left my sub at home!) The B&G leave for their taxi at 10:30 (pre-arranged - apparently to avoid having to stay behind and help clear up!) and I send them off in style with an arch and the remaining "guests" immediately run back into the room and start stripping tables and sweeping the floor.

So, an early night for me after a manic day and I'm home in bed by midnight. Just waiting on feedback now from the B&G to see if I get the blame for the sound limiter.

As for the broken uplighter. It was ok when I set up originally, and it's fine again now I've tested it away from the venue. I'll have to keep an eye on that one...

Julian

[Imagine]

Tonight was an 18th birthday just 20 miles down the road from me.

Now, I don't normally do 18th's, but mum had called me, explained it was a family affair and all sounded above board, so why not.

It was a small venue in an octagonal shape, so I decided to keep things fairly compact. I actually took my brace of Chauvet Gigbars out (having previously tamed them with DMX), and added in the ImpossiLED just for fun (it's been a long time since any of those have been out on the road). You know what? Despite all of the moaning on the book of faces about Gigbars, tonight they did the job that was asked of them. They lit the room, plenty of effects, and under DMX control were no different to any other fixture. Plus, they're so easy to put up - I just wish they were a little bit brighter.

Anyhoo...to the gig itself. I received an email last week with the playlist.....pure, unadulterated cheese by the bucketload (Peter, you would have loved this one....the playlist even contained the Wurzels!). Guests start filing into the venue and I've already agreed with the birthday girl (very nice young lady) and mum that I'll keep things low key until the buffet's been polished off. So, turn on a 70s Mastermix and settle in for background duties....which went on until nearly 10pm. Hey ho....not a problem. During this time I was taking in requests for a lot of 80s stuff...this is going to be a really good night

Eventually the cake cutting was done and dusted and it's time to crank up the volume. They lapped it up!

Now, when I mentioned the playlist was full of cheese, I didn't just mean the normal YMCA and Macarena.....it was much, much worse than that. Hokey Cokey, Music Man, Agadoo, Birdie Song and I tell you what, they had the time of their lives this evening and thoroughly enjoyed it. I couldn't play that style every week but just for once it made a really nice change, especially since the floor was rammed for the couple of hours I was actually playing. Came home tonight without questioning anything I'd done.

Now I just need to look at my playout before next weekend. I noticed last week that there was a hum on the right channel but didn't take too much notice of it (that was on the DXR8s). I was on the DXR15s tonight and it was a lot more obvious. Possibly a power adapter causing the problem, but will look at that one during the week.

Next weekend, a game of two halves.
Friday is a wedding anniversary with a Gothic/Victorian/Burlesque theme (I have the top hat and steampunk waistcoat at the ready
Saturday is a Golden wedding anniversary where the customer called me a little while back to say the cheque was in the post and apologising profusely because her husband had also put a playlist into the envelope. I could do with more customers like that one (especially since the entire playlist comes from the 60s and 70s....my kind of night ).

Right....time for a beer

[Excalibur]

(Peter, you would have loved this one....the playlist even contained the Wurzels!).
Now, when I mentioned the playlist was full of cheese, I didn't just mean the normal YMCA and Macarena.....it was much, much worse than that. Hokey Cokey, Music Man, Agadoo, Birdie Song and I tell you what, they had the time of their lives this evening and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I could do with more customers like that one (especially since the entire playlist comes from the 60s and 70s....my kind of night ).

Right....time for a beer

Wayne, you're starting to annoy me now! Well done that man.

Right, my gig. Local Social Club for a 70th full of totally disinterested punters. Well, not totally, cos I could see lots of jigging about as I put the tracks on, but no dancefloor action to speak of, and precious little in the way of requests. Makes the job seem very hard, and the night drag. The round of polite applause at the end makes me think I must have done something right.

The venue. It's not a big place, and I often use it as a testing ground for kit. In the past I've had 15" subs and tops, and even twin 15" floorstanders under 15" tops! Well, tonight was the first outing for the Maui 5. How would they acquit themselves?

ing unbelievable!!!!! I started them up at half throttle, and soon had to pull lots of the bass off. Having the bass drivers on the floor improves bass response to way above what the Alto TS 210s could ever produce, which was a huge plus. And the vocal clarity? Incredible.

But were they loud enough, I hear you say? It was a walk in the park for them. I'm now itching to see how big a gig I can actually do with them. Perceived wisdom appears to say around 75 folk in an average room at a mixed function. We shall see.

[Nakatomi]

Another wedding yay!

Had a voicemail from the groom on Friday night that made me laugh the way he talked about NS. Let's just say he was rather candid about how he felt towards it but could I please pay some homage to the style at some point without going OTT. I'd love to be able to post the exact words he used but this being a family friendly forum I can't.

Anyway, it went well despite me feeling like utter crap (day job provides free lurgy this time of year) & I actually got to play some music I like for a change, to whoops & cheers from the 100 or so guests.

Packdown & loadout took more than an hour in my frail state, then I had to take a major detour home because of a road closure near the hotel.

From next week it's only one wedding a week, leaving my Fridays free to er.... do whatever.

[Nakatomi]

Oh yeah Friday's gig... it wasn't!

I'd been booked by the wedding coordinator but wasn't actually required as it turned out. I rolled up at my usual time all ready to unload the van & saw the function room set up as if for a daytime wedding, complete with top table. Que? No, that day's wedding was in a different room & they were all done already.

They're getting invoiced for it of course, but so much for the new regime being more efficient than the last.

At BPM I attended Terry Lewis' excellent seminar & ever since then I haven't been able to get the slide with the picture of a burning bridge out of my mind. Funny, that. Could I feel much more disillusioned right now? Hardly.

[ppentertainments]

They're getting invoiced for it of course, but so much for the new regime being more efficient than the last.

Although on paper, and typing on a forum I agree, but is this wise ?

[Nakatomi]

Although on paper, and typing on a forum I agree, but is this wise ?

I have proof of intent, and no communication from anybody saying otherwise. I paused for thought before clicking 'post' & thought what the hell..

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Last night I was back in Basingstoke for a wedding for a young couple.
Had the meeting with them a few weeks back and they provided me with a list of requests that had been compiled by their guests (apparently they all had 2 songs each to choose). It was an eclectic mix of music from the 80 guests, nothing out of the ordinary but a really good mix.
I was at a venue I do a number of times a year and drove the near on 200 miles on Friday morning. I set up the Lilac & Aqua uplighting and Disco in the afternoon and then had a couple of meetings with customers for their upcoming bookings (back next Friday for another wedding on Saturday).

So, I was booked from 7.00pm - 11.30pm and I thought that I'd see what it was like driving home straight after the wedding (more on that in a second).
Arrived at 6.30pm and the weather was terrible. It was absolutely pelting down with rain and was very windy but it didn't dampen the spirits at all. I'd spoken to the Bride & Groom and some friends when I was setting up on Friday and they were worried about the weather. I told them not to worry about it. Whatever happened it would make their wedding day memorable..........and it did! I'd like to add that on Friday when I sound checked I asked the Mother of the Bride if there was any particular song she'd like to hear. She asked for I Gotta Feeling (yawn!) by Black Eyed Peas so I chucked it on. She asked me to "pump up the volume" and I said "that's a different song" (she didn't get it) but I put the volume up around half way and it was banging in the empty barn and she loved it.

Anyway, I'm waiting outside with the bar staff and caterers whilst the speeches are going on and it is absolutely chucking it down. It was quite cosy actually under the outside parasols.

I finally get in to turn everything on just before 7.30pm whilst the barn is being sorted out and a couple of tables are being moved when I notice that the whole front of my set up is being obscured by tons of photographic equipment. It didn't bother me at all but a guy with a camera (presumably the photographer?) gave me a few looks when I got behind my set up. I took the opportunity to introduce myself and put my hand out for him to shake it. He kind of looked at me in a "who are you?" thing. As I know the venue very well I went around and set the barn lights to a nice cosy setting to create a decent atmosphere. Photographer comes over straight away and says "Would you mind turning the lights back on as I can't focus" - "Excuse me?" I replied, wondering what he is on about.... "No problem at all" I said. I walked back behind the set up saying to myself "Never heard that one before".

As time went on and we were heading towards the 8.00pm first dance and I nipped over and told him what I'd be doing lighting wise for the first dance and it seemed to go in one ear and out of the other. I even said "I'll turn off the lights with the lasers in so that you don't get any green dots" and he replied "Oh, ok... I didn't notice them". This guy was quite strange. He had a young lad with him (about 12 years old) who was running about getting things for him whilst he did his bit. I asked him if I could turn the lighting down because it was time for the first dance and I needed to announce it and get going and he asked for another 5 minutes because he was still going around taking guests shots. I told him to let me know when it was ok and went back behind the set up again.
Eventually he gave me the nod, I turned the lighting down and there were cheers. I then introduced myself, got the guests to applaud the newly weds and mentioned that they and the guests had created the playlist for the evening by requesting the songs and everyone cheered again. I knew I had a good crowd by then and announced the first dance.

Bride & Groom had said in the meeting that they really didn't want to do a first dance. I didn't talk them into it. All I did was suggest that it might be a good idea for them to get everyone to join them on the dance floor for it and they loved the idea. Green Day - Last night on earth was their choice and it filled the floor. I followed it with The Cure - Friday I'm in love and everyone kept dancing. It was a full dance floor all evening and the time flew by.

I must admit that I had the drive home on my mind. I felt absolutely fine and wide awake so was actually looking forward to seeing if I could do it with no problems. I still had an hour or so to go yet so concentrated on the task in front of me.
Everything went really well and at one point a girl came over and waited there whilst I cue'd up the next song. I asked what she wanted to hear and she told me that she didn't want to request anything, she just wanted to say that she was having a great time and that she was the Bride's sister and the Bride had said after our meeting that dealing with me on the lead up to their wedding was so easy and I put them both at ease and she couldn't praise me enough. I thought that was lovely. She then gave me a big hug.

Last song of the night was Sweet Child 'O Mine and the 30 or so guests left all went for it. It was a great finish to a good night.
As I was packing up, the Bride & Groom came over and couldn't thank me enough and then the Mother of the Bride came over with her husband and they both thanked me and hugged me too. It really was nice to be appreciated.

So, I packed up in record time (uplighting and Disco back in the van in 35 minutes) so just after Midnight I pulled out of the car park in Hartley Wintney and made my way back to Great Yarmouth. Everything was going absolutely fine dispite the heavy rain and wind. Music blaring out of my bluetooth speaker connected to my iPad and the window open, sipping on a large can of Red Bull. I was doing well for time too as the roads were pretty quiet and then saw flashing notices up that Junction 22 - 23 on the M25 was closed..........What!!??? I needed to go that way!
I came off at Junction 21 and went all around the houses, ignoring my sat nav that was telling me to "do a U turn" or obviously getting me to a point where I could turn around and go back on myself. It eventually sorted itself out and I was back on track and heading where I should be.

I can't remember what the other road was but another one was closed too so I had to do the same again but despite all of that, despite being blown all over the place and despite badly lit roads on my journey, I eventually got back to the house at 03.20am so I'd done it all in around 3 hours 10 minutes which is bloody good going so I'm thinking of doing the same again next week.

Phew!

[Benny Smyth]

I can't stop laughing.

Wedding tonight at a venue that I'm a regular at. The B&G were nice enough, but obviously not party animals. They had a baby about six weeks ago, a Sunday wedding with 62 guests, no extra evening guests and no buffet served in the evening. This one isn't finishing at midnight.

Start time of 8:30. We were set up pretty quickly so started playing background about 8. First dance at nine o'clock and had a reaction from the guests to my intro that made me yearn for luke warm. Yikes.

After the first dance, it was actually pretty good. Plenty of dancers, including the bride, and lots of smiley faces. Maybe this won't be so bad after all. Then the bride came up to me at 9:30.

"We're going now."

Pardon? My DJing that bad?

She's having an amazing time (all 30 minutes of it) but she wants to go home and be with her baby. I got a thank you, a hug and off she went, with the groom following on like a puppy. I've been doing this for 15 years and I have never seen a photographer outlast a bride and groom. Mrs. Benny and I are giggling our asses off. Numbers filtered down quite quickly and I start packing away but kept some music going. I was home before I was due to finish.

So yeah. I managed to drive a B&G away from their own wedding within half hour. Beat that!

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I once gave a Bride & Groom a lift home in the van because the coaches took their guests away but their taxi never turned up and they were stranded.
They were still waiting whilst I was packing the last bits of kit in the van so I asked where they were going to and they were only 10 minutes out of my way!