Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[ukpartydj]

Last month I set up the wireless mic for wedding speeches, tested it all beforehand and spoke to the best man about how to hold it etc. So speeches come around a bit later and the father of the bride thought it was muted when it was just turned down my end and was testing it before he got up and did his speech, no problem I notice him and turn it up a little and the best man shows him the mute button... so now he's muted the microphone I've turned it up, he then un mutes it again and I quickly turn it down and slowly up again... but still not working I rush over there and he's only slid the control cover over and been changing the frequency! I looked like a right plonker!

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Not good or bad, just a bit meh for me last night.

Older couple got married abroad in December so this was their wedding party in their local boozer. Had a MASSIVE list of tunes from her which to be honest were all over the place - Beyonce, Savage Garden, deep 90s old skool, funk and she wanted a whole hour of uber camp tunes after the buffet.

It was a bit of a weird crowd - quite older family - parents aunts etc... then the younger ones were the neices, nephews etc... and there was a large group of noticeably gay guys and girls who must have been about 20 years younger than the bride and groom, I 've no idea how they all knew each other but they were my bread and butter on the dancefloor for the night.

Later on the young females started getting drunker and drunker and I got the:

Going to play the (song she'd already requested and I'd already played)?
Oh just play it again, everyone will love it.
Can I get the mic? No honestly, I'll tell everyone that it's just me that it's allowed to use it.
Brides sister comes up with 10 minutes to go and asks for something totally out of whack then refuses to go away when I tell her I can't play it.

And so on. It was a NaD gig so I spent the night thinking - I'm bursting my arse here to make this work and it's still a flat night and I'm going to get slaughtered with feedback for it.

Shoot forward an hour or so and as I'm loading out the wee bar woman grabbed me and said - I'm not joking, that's the best disco I've ever seen and I don't just mean in my work. I told her she should see me when I'm having a good night then

Got a lovely e-mail from the bride today and she's already dropped her feedback into DJEP with excellent ratings across the board so what do I know.

[Excalibur]

Got a lovely e-mail from the bride today and she's already dropped her feedback into DJEP with excellent ratings across the board so what do I know.

Probably about as much as me. Not a lot.

Cancellation last night, but I was saved from Saturday night telly by the chance to be tech ops for Twinspin, at a surprise disco and karaoke for his Uncle. The lad took the opportunity of having a co-pilot to allow him to be as much guest as DJ, and permitted himself half a shandy. We ran mainly my kit, with the Maui 5s excelling themselves space wise as usual. They didn't sound half bad, either. It's a small pub function room, with a small stage, and tripods would have been a logistical nightmare. We were joined on the stage by my second sound limiter in two gigs, but fortunately, this one was having a day off. It wasn't switched on, but the sockets on the stage had power. Yippee.

John ran the karaoke, I played music and passed out mics. The karaoke was very popular, and John was kept busy, so much so that the music I was playing was basically fill in. Midnight came too early for many, and we packed up happy little bunnies.

Findings from the night?
My Peavey mixer is a cracker. We managed to fit two laptops and it on the top shelf of my DSB.
The Chord Quad mics aren't at all bad. Biggest gripe is that so many singers turn the bloody things off without trying, or realising. They're not in the class of Senny and Shure, but I don't have a panic attack handing them out to amateurs.
It's old and heavy ( much like its owner) but the EFX500 is a room filler. I'm always happy with one as a centrepiece.

Next Saturday is a 30th Birthday, family affair, starting early, first hour for kids, and finishing at 9pm. Mmmm, nice.

[Twinspin]

Probably about as much as me. Not a lot.

Cancellation last night, but I was saved from Saturday night telly by the chance to be tech ops for Twinspin, at a surprise disco and karaoke for his Uncle. The lad took the opportunity of having a co-pilot to allow him to be as much guest as DJ, and permitted himself half a shandy. Findings from the night?

My Peavey mixer is a cracker. We managed to fit two laptops and it on the top shelf of my DSB.
The Chord Quad mics aren't at all bad. Biggest gripe is that so many singers turn the bloody things off without trying, or realising. They're not in the class of Senny and Shure, but I don't have a panic attack handing them out to amateurs.
It's old and heavy ( much like its owner) but the EFX500 is a room filler. I'm always happy with one as a centrepiece.

Next Saturday is a 30th Birthday, family affair, starting early, first hour for kids, and finishing at 9pm. Mmmm, nice.

Half of Shandy

The Chord quad microphones are a good piece of kit for karaoke. I never usually use switched mics for Karaoke. I always use non switched wired ones so the singers can't turn them off. But that would be pointless having a non switched radio mic.

[Nakatomi]

I had my first of oooo... about 75 weddings of the year last night at my residency. I took the bin in the van but on seeing the room setup I didn't bother deploying it. So, audio wise I had 2x TS115A doing the job. Lighting wise, the ever present gigAbar, ADJ Quad Phase HP and (big fanfare) my new moving heads. KAM (spit! ding!) GoboTracers I picked up from my local emporium for a good price earlier this month. Wired DMX except from the laptop USB adapter to gigAbar, and boy do those Gobotracers ever need it! Their builtin programs are USELESS unless you really want a fixture spending the majority of its time facing directly up (or down, if upside down). As for the build quality... I'm now on my 3rd one after build roughness on half of the original pair being sub par, and the 2nd one blowing fuses for England during the week

Anyway, it was a low key affair, the wedding do, with lots of children present. I kept them happy running around after the projected gobos slowly sweeping the dancefloor... 7.15pm was the cake cut time which went without a hitch.. and then the 1st dance 15 minutes later. This was a special cut & shut job the couple had ordered last year - which saw me stitching together The plain ordinary version of All of Me by John Legend into the Tiesto remix of it. At the appointed time of 'the drop', hazer came on full tilt & I sent the lighting into 'excited mode' which got a very healthy helping of guests joining the B&G on the floor. From there, Shut Up & Dance, and then... tumbleweeds until after the buffet.

A request from the bride to keep the music a bit older produced great results (so much for room reading - barely a soul over 30 & they wanted soul, rock & roll, disco... ).. and we lasted all the way til midnight with very healthy numbers indeed. Last song of the night was requested by the groom - Otis Redding - Sitting on The Dock of The Bay.. and closedown.

A very appreciative B&G ensued, and I was nicely tucked up in bed by 1.30am.

Next weekend I'm going back to my roots by spinning tunes in Whitley Bay - a nice little place called Parade which is over the road from where I met my wife in my club/party DJ days. The client - my sister inlaw who's turning 40. I've got them a cracking deal on a photobooth & the playlist I'm working to is a dream bar 2 songs (Proud Mary & Mr Brightside). That one promises to be a whole load of fun - I'm armed with loads of juicy goss and will be doing a bit of a roast, complete with a few musical surprises rolled in.

[Excalibur]

I broke a lot of rules, embarrassed myself, insulted a mate, and put him to trouble on my behalf.

OK, the flogging with birch twigs time. NaD gig, in the general area of Davesounds, who had PAT tested my kit this week. I arrive early, began to set up, and couldn't get any sound out of the Mauis.
Nowadays, I often don't take backup speakers, as the Mauis seem reliable, and spare speakers means awkward loading, along with speaker stands. I said I was an imbecile.

After quite a time of fruitless fault finding, I panicked and rang Dave, accusing him of blowing up the Mauis on PAT test. Splendid fella that he is, he shrugged off my insult, threw some kit in the car, and set off to me. Shortly after that, I found out what I was doing wrong. Whilst testing them, we had a good old play about with them, and having finished, turned all the knobs down to minimum.

Including the ones for the line input I use.

When Dave arrived, he was unfazed by the whole affair, as per usual. I owe him big time, and it never ceases to amaze me how much help forum members give one another.

The gig? 30th birthday, in a lovely WMC. As almost everyone there had very young children, it was planned as 5 to 9, with the first hour for kids. Effectively, it ended up being a kids party, with extra adults. I had folk taking the little ones home halfway through the gig. Around a dozen were left with me at the end, and I couldn't really get the adults interested. Ah well. Could have been worse I suppose.

[Imagine]

I had a brilliant one tonight.

'twas something I don't do too often....a freebie (I can hear Peter's brain trying to work out that one already ).

The party? A 40th for a very good friend and fellow Scout leader. She gives up a LOT of time to help me run the Scout Troop so when she asked if I'd do a little something for her party (she was prepared to pay), it felt only right to do it as a present...I had no other enquiries for the evening so why not?

So, to the party. It's a house party (I don't do too many of those because I don't like the idea of plod knocking the door at 11pm). That said, I always play it very careful and advise that come 11pm, the volume's going down to a level which can't be heard outside.

As it's in her lounge, it's a small rig. Two 3ft light screens (she wanted the retro look), and a pair of DXR8's. Yup....no bass bins....just the 8's. Those things will NEVER cease to amaze me! Right up until the time I plugged them in I'd been wondering if I should have just taken the 15's and sat them on the floor just to give a little punch. Turned the 8's on, changed the crossover settings (once I realised why they were a little on the tinny side) and my jaw hit the floor. We're talking a very large lounge here by the way of around 20ft wide by 30ft long. They well and truly held their own and everything was well and truly trimmed back output-wise to avoid upsetting neighbours!

OK - the light screens decided (as they do) to blow a couple of bulbs....and trip the ring main with them....hey ho. It wasn't quite as embarrassing as it could have been as I knew most of the couple of dozen guests there. Shoulders shrugged, trip switch reset, and we're off and running again

Lots of dancing (well...they'd been drinking since 1pm and I didn't start until 8pm ). But well behaved and sensible with it...a breath of fresh air.....apart from some of the dubious music choices (yes....I played the Hokey Cokey, Agadoo, the Birdie Song.....arrrggghhhh!!!!!!!). But, everyone there enjoyed and that's what I set out to do.

Now safely home in the warm with a quick glass of red feeling very warm and fuzzy inside after that one . Hopefully the rest of the year will pan out in a similar vein once February's out of the way and I'm back out on a weekly basis again

[Nakatomi]

What a coincidence Wayne! I also did a 40th last night for my sister inlaw. And it ended up being a freebie. She was happy to pay but my dad inlaw - wasn't. Family shouldn't charge family apparently. Hmm. A small price to pay for family harmony I suppose but jees..

Anyway the gig took me back to Whitley Bay almost overlooking the North Sea (so it was nice & warm out, yeah?) literally across the road from where I met my wife almost 19 years ago. My wife was helping out so together we got my gear into the bar without any trouble. Except the bar was open to the public. I was just assembling the micron booth when a VERY drunk Scottish gentleman came over & shouted something about karaoke. I got the impression he thought I was going to be providing karaoke later. Er, NO. I wouldn't touch the 'oake with yours mate, I almost said.

I got everything rigged in plenty of time but oh no - there's a problem with the lights. They won't come on! Ah, that'll be the WashFX backlighting the booth then, not yet set to DMX input mode so its wireless board was being a transmitter & blocking the light control PC's transmitter. D'OH!

Sorted that out in very little time at all & went to my case to get the wireless keyfob remote for my hazer. No, it wasn't there! Blast. So, I started googling around for the pinout of the remote control socket to hack a simple means of getting the place hazy and then... I suddenly remembered my haze machine has DMX! A quick reference to QLCPLus' DMX address calculator later I had the DIP switches all set to address 100 and a nice 'Haze!' button on my virtual light console. Phew!

So to the music. I was working from an extensive playlist & providing foot tapping goodness for people as they filed in. We'd set the music weeks ago & it was all very agreeable to me. None of the usual suspects, and none of the tracks that make the birthday girl's skin crawl - which also happen to do that to me too (Cha Cha, Macaroni etc.. UGH!).

By around 8.30pm there was dancing aplenty & people were screaming "OH MY GOD NOT HEARD THIS IN FOREVER!" quite a lot which was nice. At just after 9pm it was time to do the 'roast'. I'd been given a load of incriminating information and set off reading it off, accompanied by suitable music - edited on the fly (music & content)... and it went down very well indeedy.

That done, I went to the 1990s & got rolling out some dance classics. A request for Children Of The Night was batted away without argument (I just said NO WAY, NO HOW - the birthday girl had poo-pooed The motiv8 discoid remix of Disco2000 for the reason it was 'too ravey' so I doubt she'd have gone for Nakatomi). Oh then the lass I help out with her website came over and was the personification of the reason I don't miss DJing in bars. I DON'T KNOW THIS SONG, GET IT OFF! I look past her at the people going crazy on the dancefloor behind her & just say "Oh dear what a pity". She's a nice lass when she's not had a drink... Thankfully she was the only 'difficult' one all night.

Now then - the bar was due to open to the public at 11.30 but to give me 'enough time' to get out with all my gear we'd agreed the bar's DJ would take over at 11. Yeah well, we hadn't figured on the dancefloor being quite so busy, nor the fact that people were being allowed in before I'd got everything clear of the venue. Stress much? Oh yes. I'd helped sort a photobooth for the party too, and foolishly thought all its components would fit in my van. Whoops. Nope, the poles from the pipe & drape system wouldn't fit in the 'lingo any which way. Then I remembered one of my mates was working in Tynemouth - and he's got a proper van.. can he help? Yes! All sorted, but it was way after midnight when we got away.

It was 2.15am when I finally locked my gear in the garage. I'd finished at 11pm!!!!!

[DAVESOUNDS SERVICES]

I broke a lot of rules, embarrassed myself, insulted a mate, and put him to trouble on my behalf.

OK, the flogging with birch twigs time. NaD gig, in the general area of Davesounds, who had PAT tested my kit this week. I arrive early, began to set up, and couldn't get any sound out of the Mauis.
Nowadays, I often don't take backup speakers, as the Mauis seem reliable, and spare speakers means awkward loading, along with speaker stands. I said I was an imbecile.

After quite a time of fruitless fault finding, I panicked and rang Dave, accusing him of blowing up the Mauis on PAT test. Splendid fella that he is, he shrugged off my insult, threw some kit in the car, and set off to me. Shortly after that, I found out what I was doing wrong. Whilst testing them, we had a good old play about with them, and having finished, turned all the knobs down to minimum.

Including the ones for the line input I use.

When Dave arrived, he was unfazed by the whole affair, as per usual. I owe him big time, and it never ceases to amaze me how much help forum members give one another.

The gig? 30th birthday, in a lovely WMC. As almost everyone there had very young children, it was planned as 5 to 9, with the first hour for kids. Effectively, it ended up being a kids party, with extra adults. I had folk taking the little ones home halfway through the gig. Around a dozen were left with me at the end, and I couldn't really get the adults interested. Ah well. Could have been worse I suppose.

IT was a pleasure to see you again Peter,
i did check by the way it was around 35000
items ive tested...and not blown up!
Myself and Matty made a detour on the way back to check out Mattys next Saturday Church Hall in Leeds . ...See you soon Dave

[ukpartydj]

What a coincidence Wayne! I also did a 40th last night for my sister inlaw. And it ended up being a freebie. She was happy to pay but my dad inlaw - wasn't. Family shouldn't charge family apparently. Hmm. A small price to pay for family harmony I suppose but jees..:

That's fine, next time you can think of a job he can do for you, make sure to remind him