Presumably inspired by the recent release of a movie with Dame Maggie & Hugh "Triumph" Bonneville ?Originally Posted by Excalibur
Very surprised that G'n'R was even considered for this on their rigid play list
If it happens again, atmospheric preservation would suggest some Russ Conway, Winifred Attwell, Joe Loss, Glenn Miller etc. etc ?
And yes, I'm still alive !!
The Keyboard is mightier than the Sword ?
Occasions Of Excellence For One & All In Cornwall
Mayhap.Presumably inspired by the recent release of a movie with Dame Maggie & Hugh "Triumph" Bonneville ?
I was allowed any guest requests, with only one restriction. ( And even then, I broke it.Very surprised that G'n'R was even considered for this on their rigid play listWell, honestly, a young lady comes up and asks for some David Whitfield, who am I to refuse)?
And in case our younger readers haven't twigged, the young lady could probably have given me twenty years headstart. I had been asked to play a disco version of Cara Mia by Paul Delicato, from the 70s, which even I'd never heard of.
Two things.
1) I think you're a decade or two out there.
2) My musical brief was mainly 70's, 80's and a few modern, plus guest requests.
3) I did a Peaky Blinders themed gig where my music was firmly 20's and 30's. The guests and I have had more fun watching paint dry.
1) Delighted to hear it.And yes, I'm still alive !!
2) How do we know it's you and not some demented, deranged hacker?
Good to hear from you.
Better late than never! The weekend just gone was a game of two halves, access wise. Both in Wakefield, and I was glad of info from my native guide, the wonderful Davesounds. The first one was a 50th wedding anniversary for a lovely couple, whose children had chosen a venue which looks pretty, as a guest, and looks pretty grim as a DJ.Awkward doors, even more awkward stairs ( unless you use the stannah stairlift!
No, I kid you not). and electrics which leave something to be desired.
Young Mattysounds was dispatched to assist me, jubilant after passing his driving test first go. ( Cheesed that he had one blot on his sheet for crossing a white line, but hey, that's not bad. He's now a fully mobile Mobile DJ).The venue looked great, and Matty knew all the good and bad points about the venue. The guests were lovely, especially the happy couple, who looked very spritely. We loaded in and packed up in the rain, and I dropped Matty off at home, to return to mine.
Saturday was covering for an agent who also runs a Disco shop. My gig started in Bradford, moved to Leeds, and finally ended up back in Wakefield again! This however as a far easier access than Friday, and in some ways an easier gig. Information was limited to venue, time, price, and it's " Soul and Motown". It was a Holiday Inn, and the staff were lovely You back the van up to the goods access, and come in through the doors the staff have wedged open for you. Nice.
There was a meal first, and a small raffle, and my guests were lovely. At times, I had the floor full of dancers, the bar full of dancers, and just about any space not covered in tables. Apart from having to be sparing in my use of Northern Soul ( we seemingly only had a handful of the faithful in ) it was anything from the Tamla label, any Barry White, Trammps, and general Disco/Soul music. At times, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.
* Young. Age is a relative thing. Let's just say that, like me, she was " young at heart".
David Whitfield. Wife's grandmother used to be his pianist
I was allowed any guest requests, with only one restriction. ( And even then, I broke it.
And in case our younger readers haven't twigged, the young lady could probably have given me twenty years headstart. I had been asked to play a disco version of Cara Mia by Paul Delicato, from the 70s, which even I'd never heard of.
A kids' halloween party tonight for me, my first for about 3 years & I don't strictly DO kids' parties... oh well. Timetabled for 3 hours between 5 & 8pm with party games (eek!).. it was a pretty nice little gig actually.. Except at one point during a game of musical statues I overheard a little dear say to somebody "that DJ is retarded! The music keeps stopping!"Ahh the yoof of today..
Rumour has it that I MIGHT just have been out front doing a party dance or two.. and now I'm completely cream crackered
Never again, I hope!
Oh & last Saturday I played a wedding in quite possibly the most posh venue I've ever played to date.. an nth century mansion house whch is quite literally breathtakingly beautiful - as were a lot of the dancers... Load in way ahead of time, then patiently wait til room turnaround time, and get everything set up in a short order.. like 20 minutes. Which as it turned out, left me 40 minutes of thumb twiddling time. Not much to report other than it was very cheese heavy until later where it got very indie & pop punk heavy.... Time marched on til there was only time for one more.. I did my usual winding up end of the night 'bit' & just as I said "I'd just like to say.. " I saw the bride's face freeze as if she was worried I was about to drop a clanger. Suffice to say I was disappointed a customer could think that of me, but hey no harm done & the relief on her face was palpable when all I did was wish the happy couple well & got them a nice bit of noise from the remaining crowd.
Ah, but then I only went to play Wonderwall as the penultimate, false ending stylee - as it was on the request list after all.. about 15 seconds in I overheard a "I BLEEPing HATE this song!" from the bride before I deckstopped it & went with the actual last song instead. Erm.. if you actually 'BLEEPing' hate the song, why put it on the request list? No such faux pas for my next private wedding gig.. Oasis are BANNEDTalk about nailing your avatar, eh Mr Lewis..
Not my normal type of gig really.
Due to a cancellation, and another DJ/Agent who is always keen to have me earning a crust for him, I ended up with minimal information ( 80s, Halloween ) in a bar in Wakefield city centre. With the aid of much googling, and a reconnaissance expedition by my native guides, I had a good idea of the plan of campaign. Access was fairly grim, unless you parked on the pavement outside, then moved the van round the one way system to get it back where it started.
Plan B however, involved my trusty Rock'n'Roller at almost full stretch, The wheeled Micromax from the shed coming out of retirement, and young Mattysounds filling the role of Roadie, DJ, and native guide. What a star that lad is, thanks Matthew.Matthew was unexpectedly available, due to His Saturday night function taking place on Friday.
( Don't ask, I don't care where or how the mix up occurred, I'm just grateful for it ).
So, there was a free car park about a hundred yards from our venue and a pair of fully loaded vehicles ( cart and deckstand ) trundled up to the front door. While we were debating how to unload because of the steps, a couple of patrons grabbed the front end of the R'n'R and hauled it inside! Thanks lads, nice one. The kit was Micromax, two LD12s on tripods, playout, and lighting was the trusty Teutonic Powerbar with two Crossfire XPs bolted onto it. They actually fitted beautifully, and worked very well.
So, our start time arrived, and we kicked off with Thriller, as a high impact opener. The venue had been thrashing their in house rig which appeared to be not all of the Citronic cabs hung from the walls.Loud, but not sweet. We were both.
We rotated the music through 80s anthems and the odd Halloween track, ending up with a bit of a Metalfest, and two or three chart songs. All in all, a very enjoyable night. We must have done something right, because the moment the music ended, the bar manager rushed across, and said what a good job we'd done. His female counterpart said we had fitted in perfectly with the style they were looking for, and offered us the residency on the spot!!
We packed up happy little bunnies.
Twofer one.
As the title indicates, a report of my last two gigs.
A week ago, I got a rare local one, at a former residency, a Golf Club five minutes down the road. It was for a party of Caravanners, who turn up every year, take over the car park, and have a meal and disco in the Clubhouse Saturday night. It was a very relaxed affair, more so when I'd set the kit up mid afternoon, and turned up at half seven to plug in the laptop, and kick off! Luxury.
They're mainly over21s, and were never going to be big dancers, but a good time was had by all, and compliments abounded about music choice and volume levels at the end. Job done.
Last night was a 30th Birthday, for one of this summer's brides. It was nice to see familiar faces walk through the doors, and one or two came up to say hello. There were lots of young children involved, and early doors, we had another set of Frozen one and two, Baby Shark, Greatest Showman and other child friendly numbers, which filled the floor with bodies.
The wedding had been notable for its eclectic and wide ranging music choices, and the party was no different. The last half hour when most of the children had left, and much alcohol had been imbibed, turned into an Indie singalong, Wonderwall, James-Laid, Kasabian-Fire, Courteeners- Not Nineteen Forever, and Killers- All the Things I've Done. First time I've ended the night on System of a Down - Chop Suey before. Very rewarding night, and the offer of work in a nearby pub when they've got the river out of it early next year, hopefully.
After a few weeks off (mainly planned due to the dear lady wife's health problems), tonight saw me at my final wedding of 2019 (with wifey in tow as roadie....after all, it was her brother getting married).
I'm often in two minds about these ones. You should feel more relaxed because you know the majority of the guests (and most certainly the bride and groom) personally, but at the same time it always feels like it's much harder work and a lot more pressure because you're somehow trying to prove what you do for a living....does that make sense?
A lovely little village hall just on the very outskirts of my territory (in fact, the longest journey of the year so far), in an L-Shaped room which needed sound throughout for the afternoon, and just in one end for the evening bit (to give those that didn't want to party the space to chat or whatever else they get up to out of sight of the DJ).
So....I'm set up in one "end" of the "L", and run a very long cable down to my still very favourite Maui5Go (they're AWESOME speakers and the battery life is incredible!). First technical snag of the day and actually, an enlightenment. The main PA was obviously connected to the main output of the Denon, and the Maui run from the booth sockets. Music was fine on the Maui...no mic output though! WTF???
And then it cocoa'd a little while later...the booth output is designed to be...well...behind the booth innit. Putting the mic feed into booth speakers is going to cause feedback so Denon stop it happening. No worries, I have another mic system I can use for the speeches over the Maui (which was powering the main bulk of the guests)
All set up with loads of time to spare, and leave the rig (eeeek!) in the hall under the watchful eyes of the caterer whilst we disappear off to the legal bits at the smallest church I've ever seen about 10 miles away (and one hell of a comedian for a vicar!)
Back to the venue, and although I'm officially a guest, I'm still "working", and my brain cell can't ever get away from that fact (which sort of dulls things a little....I just can't relax and enjoy the occasion because I'm thinking about 10 steps ahead into speeches, cake cutting, first dances and who's setting off the confetti....all whilst trying to catch up with friends and relations). I want to do my very best for my brother and sister-in-law, just the same as I do for every other bride and groom...except better!
So, first hour is cocktail time with a string duet (actually very good and had provided the music at the church), and then into my background music (a tried and tested list which Mr Mastermix refers to as "elegant dining"). I've been doing it that way for a long time where the music builds from dull to singalong
Food done and dusted, it's into the one and only speech (a really emotional speech by the bride...nobody else, and I knew about that), into cake cutting and then first dance. "Hold on Musky!!!!!" Nobody said from speech to FD in 3 minutes flat....I need a pee, a cigarette and to prepare for such things!
It's OK - they're related to me by marriage...I'm taking things waaaaaay to seriously and need to "switch off"
First dance...my suggestion (because they were struggling and didn't want to do the traditional "wobble" around the dance floor). Queen, Don't Stop Me Now (32 seconds of slow slush then confetti canons fired by nieces and nephews and we're off!). I used this one earlier in the year and it didn't disappoint....tonight was no exception.
From there, into a little of the usual "rock" suspects from Mr B Adams and Mr B Jovi and then.....well...they were a tough crowd if I'm honest. The only required tracks were Reel Big Fish - Take On Me (what the hell is that about?) and Love Shack....OK - no connection whatsoever to build up a list then!
The main part of the night stayed well and truly in the 1980s with just a smattering of a decade either side. But it actually felt very disjointed from where I was standing. I was suffering from major brain farts for the majority of the evening, not knowing what to play next until a few seconds before needed.
Don't get me wrong....I had a full dance floor for the duration, a very happy bride and groom at the end of the night, and came home with a full belly and a dozen bottles of leftover red plonk as a result (I could have actually brought home double that if I'd wanted to!).
The end result? The guests, bride and groom congratulated me on what I did. It was a good night with no major failures (OK...just one lighting-up which was resolved fairly quickly before anyone noticed).
Did I notice things more than usual?
Of course I did! I wanted the best for my family and I think I got away with it
Thankfully, there's no more family weddings for a while yet (that I know of), so back to business as usual from February next year.
Until then though....it's Xmas party season....ugh!!!
Well done Wayne, nice to see the mindset of going above and beyond for family, rather than " it'll do".
In the cold light of day, re booth output, that's something Denon kit is known for. Could you not have daisy chained out of your main PA? I'm not up on Bluetooth, so don't know it that would have been an option.
OK, my gig. Back at a local cricket club, and despite what my Boss said/advised, I turned up really early, and was granted access because the balloon lady and caterer were there, in fact the caterer was glad to see me, as it meant she didn't have to leave the door on the latch. How nice.
40th Birthday, which never really took off. A totally wild range of requests, which I complied with easily. It had all the signs of becoming a total cheesefest, but just didn't ever really take off. Ah well, sorry I didn't slay ( sleigh?) 'em Dave, I'll try harder next week.
A bonus at the end was that as I was packing up, what I took to be a taxi hurtled into the car park, and the driver jumped out asking for " just one more song, mister"? It was none other than my Boss, Mr D Jackson, who had the luxury of leaving his kit as his venue across town, and popping across to check on the staff, and taxi one of the bar staff home. Great to see him, and thanks for the help loading the van, much appreciated.
Next weekend sees me venturing North up the A1 covering for someone else on Friday, and Saturday back at the cricket club, before heading into the Christmas season proper for Matthew Western at Forest Pines.
I was out last night for the first time in ages. A new landlord at my local wanted his first night to be a cracker and wanted to put on some entertainment (something the previous landlord had failed to do which meant lots of locals going elsewhere). Being new to the area, he'd asked around and one of the guys on our darts team had mentioned that I was a DJ (I don't really class myself as one these days due to my extended break - Despite continually turning down enquiries)....
After a long week with the alarm going off at 4.30am daily, I could have done without it to be honest (I'm back driving and delivering due to my 18th month home based role finishing at the end of September). To say I was knackered before I'd even started would be a massive understatement, but I'd soon get a second wind.
I was very casual about the whole thing. It was a half decent payer, at my local and I could set up whenever I wanted so I did just that. I decided to set up before they officially opened for the day seeing as I had been getting up at silly o'clock all week. I set up the deckstand and screen with a couple of uplighters, a couple of moving heads and the Mackies and left the Denon controller, mixer and laptop at home as I didn't want to take any chances with those that were curious, you know what I mean.
Well, come the evening and the place was looking very healthy numbers wise. The theme was 80's so I was in my comfort zone. I was banging them out and a few people were dancing in the space that was free. They seemed to be loving it.................was I though?
Well, not really. It may have been because I was just too knackered? I think though, if I am being honest, I have just lost the passion for the whole thing. 30 years is most definitely enough for me. I know there are plenty that have been doing it for longer and admire their passion for the job. To have the same passion to go out week on week in this day and age is not for me anymore.
Don't get me wrong, everything flowed well, everybody appeared to enjoy themselves and the landlord was more than happy.....but I can say with 99.999% confidence that last night was my last ever gig. I'll still keep hold of my kit as well as the projectors and uplighters etc because you just never know what may happen in the future and it is always something to fall back on. It scares me that IF things do go downhill with whatever I am doing, and I need to go back to the DJ thing, IF I still don't have the passion for it then I'll have nothing. I hope that makes sense.
I know one thing though. I certainly don't envy those that are out already doing the Christmas parties...... No thank you. I've done enough of those to last me a lifetime.
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