Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Excalibur]

But sadly disappointing 40th Birthday. My basic brief was:

My requests for next Saturday below:

80's (wham, Duran Duran etc & smiths, cure etc) 90's Brit pop (blur, pulp, oasis, stone roses), 70's disco. Lionel Ritchie session (all night long, dancing on the ceiling for certain), stevie wonder - at least superstition. More modern stuff including arctic monkeys, kasabian, killers (not Kaiser chiefs or muse!).

No cher, shania twain etc!

On the face of things, should have been a really good gig. First half I had virtually no response till buffet ( apart from the offspring wanting all manner of bilge, and being told by the Birthday girl halfway through UB40 not to play UB40. )

Post buffet I had a good floor going with 80s being the order of the day, a quick Lionel Richie session with Stevie Wonder Superstition to top that off, then the last hour mainly Indie. Thought I'd rescued the evening, played a bit of Wonderwall as the last one at midnight to wind down, and said goodbye at five past twelve. Naughty me.

Then had all the shine taken off it by birthday girl coming up and explaining that her wedding first dance was American Pie, and could I play it now.
Well not when the laptop is switched off and unplugged, and the Mauis are switched off. At this point I suspected I wasn't on her Christmas card list any more.

[Imagine]

Touch wood....I seem to be on a decent run of gigs at the moment

Tonight was a bad taste themed 50th birthday an hour down the road from me. Technically, it's only 30 miles but it's across the Cambs and Lincolnshire fens so the roads aren't straight from one bend to the next.....

Twas an outing for the Retro Roadshow as well (or at least a cut down version....the client seemed to think I could squeeze 16 feet of light box into a 10ft corner....hey ho).

A slow burner to begin with...lots of bobbing up and down at the bar and fingers tapping on the tables. This could be a long night I thought to myself as I was talking the birthday boy's teenage nephew/wannabe DJ through how everything worked and how I do my job.

However.....after plugging away at the 80s stuff from the playlist I decided early doors to go for a little 90s club (Snap...Rhythm is a Dancer to be exact)....BOOM! After that there was no stopping them. Back through the 80s and 90s, a smattering of stuff from the Madchester scene and even a little from the Pogues (well it was a bad taste party and it's nearly Chrimbo so why not ).

Very happy birthday boy and requests for one more at the end (which I obliged...for just the one mind).

Where did the bad taste part come in I here you ask? Well as far as I could establish it was mainly down to the number of Jimmy Saville costumes present.

Next week, another slightly odd one. It's a 30th but it's 1940s themed (yup...I've got to program a couple of movers up as search lights, put tape on the front of the lycra screens to look like an air raid window and they're going to be putting sand bags against the front of the rig.). The music consists as you can probably imagine of Dame Vera, the Andrews girls and Mr Miller with a very long do not play list including Queen, Old Blue Eyes, Gloria Gaynor, Oasis and Take That to name just a few.

Don't panic Mr Mainwairing!

[Daryll]

Great gig at Basingstoke last night , one of Garys , excellent crowd , I didn't think they would ever finish their meal
A few requets as well , I dont like to use the term " full dance floor" , but on this occasion I will....
Next week sees me in Eastleigh on friday , and back to Basingstoke on the Saturday , just another pic of my rig , its the same old trusted rig I have used for years now , if it ain't broke , don`t fix it.


Background music

Erasure A Little Respect (Extended Mix) 11/26/16 7:30 PM
Whitney Houston One Moment In Time 11/26/16 7:36 PM
Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) 11/26/16 7:41 PM
Duran Duran Hungry Like The Wolf [Night Version] 11/26/16 7:46 PM
Frank Sinatra Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! 11/26/16 7:51 PM
The Wombles Wombling Merry Christmas 11/26/16 7:53 PM
tears for fears everybody wants to rule the world (urban mix) 11/26/16 7:56 PM
Luther Vandross Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas 11/26/16 8:02 PM
Gladys Knight & The Pips Do You Hear What I Hear 11/26/16 8:07 PM
Greg Lake I Believe In Father Christmas 11/26/16 8:11 PM
Mike Oldfield In Dulci Jubilo 11/26/16 8:14 PM
madonna papa don't preach (extended version) 11/26/16 8:17 PM
Blondie Heart of Glass 11/26/16 8:23 PM
Andy Williams with Robert Mersey & His Orchestra; Arranged by Johnny Mandel It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year 11/26/16 8:26 PM
Aled Jones Walking In The Air 11/26/16 8:28 PM
Band Aid Do They Know It's Christmas 11/26/16 8:32 PM
Perry Como and The Fontaine Sisters It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas 11/26/16 8:35 PM
the human league human (extended version) 11/26/16 8:38 PM
Marc Bolan And T-Rex I Love To Boogie 11/26/16 8:43 PM
Madness Baggy Trousers 11/26/16 8:45 PM
Wizzard I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday 11/26/16 8:47 PM
The Jackson 5 Frosty The Snowman 11/26/16 8:52 PM
The Puppini Sisters Jingle Bells 11/26/16 8:54 PM
The Supremes Santa Claus Is Coming To Town 11/26/16 8:57 PM
Chris Rea Driving Home For Christmas 11/26/16 9:02 PM
The Jackson 5 I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus 11/26/16 9:10 PM
Stevie Wonder What Christmas Means To Me 11/26/16 9:13 PM
David Bowie Rebel Rebel 11/26/16 9:15 PM
Coldplay Adventure Of A Lifetime 11/26/16 9:19 PM
Eric Carmen Hungry Eyes 11/26/16 9:24 PM
Rod Stewart Maggie May 11/26/16 9:28 PM

End of background


And since they loved Mamma mia , who am I to argue....


Mamma_Mia Mamma Mia (Meryl Streep) 11/26/16 9:33 PM
Mamma_Mia Voulez-Vous (Full Cast) 11/26/16 9:36 PM
Mamma_Mia Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (Am 11/26/16 9:41 PM
Cliff Richard Roll Over Beethoven 11/26/16 9:45 PM
Shakin' Stevens This Ole House 11/26/16 9:47 PM
Bette Midler Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy 11/26/16 9:50 PM
Bill Haley Rock around the clock 11/26/16 9:52 PM
Chubby Checker Let's Twist Again 11/26/16 9:54 PM
Beach Boys Fun Fun Fun 11/26/16 9:57 PM
Michael Jackson Billie Jean 11/26/16 9:59 PM
Earth, Wind & Fire September 11/26/16 10:03 PM
Average White Band Let's Go Round Again 11/26/16 10:07 PM
Los Del Rio Macarena 11/26/16 10:12 PM
DJ Casper Cha Cha Slide 11/26/16 10:16 PM
Ferrer La bamba 11/26/16 10:20 PM
Little Nell Time Warp 11/26/16 10:24 PM
DJ Otzi Hey Baby 11/26/16 10:27 PM
Azzurra Music Ymca 11/26/16 10:30 PM
Steps 5, 6, 7, 8 11/26/16 10:33 PM
Bucks Fizz Making Your Mind Up 11/26/16 10:36 PM
Jacksons Blame It On the Boogie 11/26/16 10:39 PM
Sugarhill Gang Apache 11/26/16 10:42 PM
Gap for Raffel
The Proclaimers I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) 11/26/16 11:05 PM ( for the hosts , who were scottish , went down really well)
The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl Fairytale of New York 11/26/16 11:09 PM
Michael Jackson Dont Stop Til You Get Enough 11/26/16 11:13 PM
Chic Le Freak 11/26/16 11:19 PM
Haddaway What Is Love 11/26/16 11:22 PM
Mariah Carey All I Want For Christmas Is You 11/26/16 11:30 PM
Tony Christie (Is This The Way To) Amarillo 11/26/16 11:33 PM
Dexis Midnight Runners Come On Eileen 11/26/16 11:36 PM
Wham Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go 11/26/16 11:40 PM
John Travolta We go together 11/26/16 11:44 PM
John Travolta You're the one that i want 11/26/16 11:46 PM
Bee Gees Night Fever 11/26/16 11:49 PM
Bee Gees Stayin' Alive 11/26/16 11:52 PM
Journey Don't Stop Believin' 11/26/16 11:57 PM

Packed up (with the help of my roadie) and was home at 12:59, I wish they were all as good as that

Cheers

Daryll

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Nice one Daryll.
Thanks again.

[soundscapes]

Avon presentation last night, organisers husband had tinnitus so volume was requested to be low.
Not a problem early doors I thought, however after several visits from the organiser we ended up with the volume so low that you could hear the artist in the room next door clearly over the top of me. They even went into the main room to ask if the could turn thier volume down. It was the strangest night I've done for a while.
Hopefully a better day today doing a kids party for aunt Bessie's at the same social as last night so at least I didn't have to mess around taking the rig down.

[Excalibur]

Very happy birthday boy and requests for one more at the end (which I obliged...for just the one mind).

Whaaaat?
Wayne, I should be considering the strongest possible sanctions for you after behaviour like that, despicable.


However, that would be somewhat hypocritical, as I played three more!
Interesting night for me, Disco and Karaoke at a pub in Beverley. Yet again the little Maui 5s came out, and they're just made for these jobs. I've been playing with only running Karaoke mics into one side, to lessen the chance of feedback, and allow me to run the backing tracks high enough for the singers to hear easily.Last night I realised I'd been overthinking it a little, as the punters wanted the monitor turned to face the crowd, which I don't normally do. This meant that my carefully planned setup was now totally the wrong way round, and I suddenly had the Road To Damascus Moment when I spotted the simpler and more versatile solution. Too late to change it last night, but I'll try it next time.

The night was shared with a Golf presentation and raffle, which for one reason and another took up a big part of the evening. Initially, I only had one singer prepared to have a go ( several, actually ) and it looked like being a long night. You know what's coming don't you? That's right, by the end I was bound to overrun midnight with the queue of singers, so I cut a couple off the list. Cue shouts of one more, and the landlord okayed another ten minutes. Probably the correct decision in the circumstances, and I had compliments from folk left right and centre. And sulks from folk who thought I should have gone on longer. It was ever thus.

At half eleven I'd instigated noise abatement procedures, because the venue is in a residential area, and I was asked to lower the volume. Fat lot of good that did when we had the massed voices of the punters joining in with the last few songs.

All in all a highly successful night, and lessons learnt for the future.

[ppentertainments]

I am in the middle of Race Night season and last night saw me working alongside another DJ – there’s no need for one but he (appeared) to be the resident and offered his services for free. No problem with that.

Turned up to setup and said DJ had been in 2 ½ hours setting up. Became quite apparent that he wasn’t the resident as he didn’t know about the secret way out to a back car park which makes loading in 100 times easier lol.

Really nice guy but had enough lights for Wembley stadium – with the exception of background music (I was able to leave my iPod in the case lol) and maybe half an hour tops at the end there would be nothing for him to do.

Anyway he left to drop his van off and reappeared with his wife and 2 other couples – this was a private fundraising event.

About 120 in the room and the DJ was doing his background music, but must need his mixer repairing as it only had 2 volumes – silence and full power, could tell by the red lights flashing away on the mixer.

As he was nothing to do with me, thought it would sound a bit petty if I said anything so just got on with my job in hand. Everyone starts complaining about the volume, even the organiser. I say to the organiser that it is up to him to say something – problem solved, well not quite but maybe a db lower lol.

Finish my part of the night, hand over to the DJ, 2 songs later chaos. To jump to the result, we ended up with 3 police vans, a car and an ambulance.

What happened was one of the DJs guests started kicking off with another man who was with the Race Night. At this time the DJ was blasting out club music, lights everywhere, then decides to jump down from the stage to sort it out – cue everyone else to join in.

This was a fundraiser for the U11s football team and kids were there, so I go the kids into the corner where I had my equipment so they were out the way, then sat and watched.

Music still blaring I heard the woman behind the bar screaming for the music off, so went and turned it off as the DJ was now outside amongst the heated debate. 2 minutes later he appeared again, turned music back on, full blast, then went out. Bar lady had the solution and just unplugged it.

Police came, took a few away and were ‘guiding’ a few others. One came up to the room and I mentioned the back exit so kids, and most their parents had now came back, left and then I loaded my van.

I mentioned (half-jokingly) to the lady behind the bar that this happened after the Race Night and when their resident DJ had started (I get a lot of work there so wanted to make sure they knew he was nothing to do with me). The reply “we don’t know who he is, never seen him before but he is a and is to blame for this getting so bad” - they also said he must have had 7/8 pints of lager through the night too.

Received a text from the organiser who is disgusted at the behaviour of people there and is threatening to quit the club as a result as he is so embarrassed. He also has no idea where this DJ came from, another parent had passed the message that he would be there but nobody knows why lol. The good news is that they raised £2800, surpassing their £400 target.

Now, I don’t think this DJ was totally to blame, however had he not invited his mates along, turned the music off/down, got venue lights on and turned his off, not got involved I don’t think this would have escalated so much.

My next Race Night there is on Wednesday so hopefully normal service shall resume lol

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Ouch sounds nuts - friend of a friend of the parent in question?

I had a cracker last night. A 50th round the corner (well 2 corners then 10 yards to my drive way ) for a lady that stays in the fancy party of town.

Big hall but it was rammed so all was good.

Plenty of ceilidh went down a treat - she was English so her family who'd travelled up were all really up for it. Then her song list was extensive but great all round.

I broke a cardinal rule and tucked into the buffet - during her speech she mentioned that the food had been put on by a friend who runs a cafe next to my old uni. In passing I mentioned to the guy that his ploughmans toasties had seen me through many a hungover Monday morning lecture and he laughed then filled a box and foisted it upon me. It certainly took the edge off the veggie chicken kiev and quinoa dinner my good lady fed me and sent me out into the cold night with.

Load out was a skoosh so I was packed up and away within 20 minutes. The birthday girl and her guests were still milling around tidying the hall up and they stopped and gave me a cheer as I left which was quite nice.

Next weekend is my last one off before Santa comes so my fiance and I are doing out annual wear stupid Xmas jumpers and get ed up the west end day out. Bonus is we're having a cheese cake (like real cheese) thing for our wedding so we're going to hit up a few cheesemongers for tasting.

[mattydj50]

Ouch sounds nuts - friend of a friend of the parent in question?

I had a cracker last night. A 50th round the corner (well 2 corners then 10 yards to my drive way ) for a lady that stays in the fancy party of town.

Big hall but it was rammed so all was good.

Plenty of ceilidh went down a treat - she was English so her family who'd travelled up were all really up for it. Then her song list was extensive but great all round.

I broke a cardinal rule and tucked into the buffet - during her speech she mentioned that the food had been put on by a friend who runs a cafe next to my old uni. In passing I mentioned to the guy that his ploughmans toasties had seen me through many a hungover Monday morning lecture and he laughed then filled a box and foisted it upon me. It certainly took the edge off the veggie chicken kiev and quinoa dinner my good lady fed me and sent me out into the cold night with.

Load out was a skoosh so I was packed up and away within 20 minutes. The birthday girl and her guests were still milling around tidying the hall up and they stopped and gave me a cheer as I left which was quite nice.

Next weekend is my last one off before Santa comes so my fiance and I are doing out annual wear stupid Xmas jumpers and get ed up the west end day out. Bonus is we're having a cheese cake (like real cheese) thing for our wedding so we're going to hit up a few cheesemongers for tasting.

Good morning, Sir. Welcome to the National Cheese Emporium

[Nakatomi]

Had potentially my last ever murder mystery disco last saturday night. There are others this year but I'm getting a friend to cover them for me.

I went to the venue to set up in the morning & strolled back in at 9.30pm. It was then I found out they'd had a powercut earlier (sorted by then) so everything was running late.

65 minutes of disco ensued & barring mood hoover requests from one bloke everybody was up for a good time. Given a choice between keeping a floor full of ladies dancing & playing Sydney Youngblood - especially with so little time available I went with the needs of the many. Sorry bud. (not really sorry)