Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Excalibur]

Even when they have Amateur status.

I was so far South last night, I think I must nearly have been in Wayne's territory! An FFN gig in Lincolnshire, at a venue new to us all. Basically, a huge polytunnel in a field behind a pub!
I arrived as advance guard/scouting party, and for the life of me, couldn't see how the night was going to work with this venue and layout, a fact I communicated cryptically to the FFN. They were unfazed, saying they were " adaptable ".

They were, and they are. You can't beat a good leader, and they now have one. No histrionics, no complaints, just a can do attitude, and a rapid rearrangement of the entire layout! What followed was one of the best nights we've had in ages, and apart from the table of five vinegar faced guests who walked out shortly after kick off, everyone had a whale of a time. The weather varied between sweltering, raining lightly, and beautifully balmy, so something for everyone.

These lads provide something unique, the best way I can describe it is a wine tasting in the style of a lively Bier Keller! Action dances, conga lines, and ladies standing on chairs while the men beat out the rhythm of The Radetsky March on their legs. That's why Penfold christened them The Legslappers. They've raised over two million for charity over fifty plus years, and they're all volunteers. Well done lads ( and now lasses ).

We're a mile away from there in October, and there is no way on God's Green Earth that I'm following Apple maps instructions on the short route again! It's a route I've used before, and it's grim in places. The return journey was made along the A1, A1(M), and M18/62. Fifteen miles further, ten minutes longer ( allegedly ) and an absolute pleasure compared to the trip down.

Justin: Every point taken and agreed with wholeheartedly. Two new power supplies are on their way, hopefully, and perhaps a third will be ordered at more leisure, with the biggest current capacity possible.
But how did it perform last night, I hear you cry? Well, I left the PSU in the open, and also, I found my way into some system settings, and disabled some things which shouldn't have affected it anyway. ( Who the hell wants a sleep facility on their controller anyway? ) Of course, it never missed a beat, so was the power supply the cause on Friday? Did I cure it by fiddling under the bonnet with the ECU? Was it just lulling me into a sense of false security?

How the hell should I know, I'm just a DJ!

[Excalibur]

Should be banned. Ruins the flow, allows the ankle biters to be a bigger nuisance than normal, and means I have to take more gear that may well hardly be used.

A midweek wedding at a very nice WMC with a lovely function room. Groom asked for the dreaded Karaoke, ( cos he was dead keen on it, sang five songs himself ). Add to that a young lady who was equally at ease with a mic ( just a step down from semi pro I'd say. Either that, or a very very enthusiastic amateur ), and an ankle biter or two, and that was my Karaoke for the night.

The bride and groom were not in the first flush of youth, like many of the guests, and the night was spent trying to walk a line between the non-cheesy Usual Suspects, and the more modern tracks for their offspring, which wouldn't upset them. I think I just about managed it. Everyone seemed happy enough.

Whether the new power supplies for the Roland are better, I don't know, but no hiccups from it last night. The biggest issue was that if the singers moved to a position where the monitor was between them and the receiver aerials, the signal was lost. That's what comes of non-diversity mics, seemingly.

[DJ Jules]

Should be banned. Ruins the flow, allows the ankle biters to be a bigger nuisance than normal, and means I have to take more gear that may well hardly be used.

Guess what I have at my wedding tonight... I usually run a twin wireless mic receiver into the second input on my MC6000, turn on a little bit of echo for effect, plug a screen on a stand into my backup laptop and run the headphone jack from that into a spare channel on the MC6000 and I'm done. Total additional kit - 1x twin wireless mic kit, screen & stand and a couple of cables.

Last night I worked an award ceremony for a local dance/cheer troup (young children = early night for me!) and the venue had another award night in the room next door. I got chatting with the DJ for that room and he was also talking about how they wanted Karaoke and he couldn't be bothered with it.... But I could hear them belting out various pop hits from his room as I was driving away at the end of the night so clearly it got their interest

Karaoke has been having a bit of a mainstream revival around Bristol. There's a couple of Karaoke bars that have popped up and some of the recent "entertainment centres" (think bowling, darts, table tennis, games, etc) have also got a couple of private Karaoke rooms that can be hired by the hour.

I'm not convinced tonight's Karaoke is going to go too well - it's going be a sweaty night and the venue has the bar in a completely different building and a lovely open courtyard space between the bar and where I'll be so I suspect I'll be lucky to have guests in the room, let alone singing.

Julian

[Excalibur]

Guess what I have at my wedding tonight... I usually run a twin wireless mic receiver into the second input on my MC6000, turn on a little bit of echo for effect, plug a screen on a stand into my backup laptop and run the headphone jack from that into a spare channel on the MC6000 and I'm done. Total additional kit - 1x twin wireless mic kit, screen & stand and a couple of cables.

Julian

Interesting. Very interesting. The Roland has effects available on the second mic channel. I already have a W Audio twin mic set, which is probably too good to hand out for Karaoke, but for the nights when Karaoke is an add-on, rather than the main event, that's a thought. Thanks.

[Excalibur]

Nearly. 75th birthday, Birthday Girl was frail, in a wheelchair, but I spotted her singing along to many of the songs, so I must have been getting it right.

It's a sports club near Scarborough, Dave Jackson and I have worked it a time or two, and we seem to be The Special Ones. First time without Karaoke, and that was an absolute joy, as it's about a hundred yard trolley dash to get the gear in. When Dave goes later this year, one Maui 28 and a Gigbar will be amply enough kit. I managed fine with one Polar 10, a spotbar, and a Kaleido.

As with Thursday, it was the same balancing act between tried and tested classics, and more modern songs which didn't offend the more mature guests. This one definitely went very well. Quite an enjoyable night, nice crowd.

[Imagine]

I rarely do multiple gigs in the same weekend, let alone three back to back....especially in the heat we've had in these parts.

Know what though? It's been hard work, the load-ins/out's have involved a LOT of sweat, and although I'm absolutely knackered I've enjoyed every single moment of it!

FRIDAY: Nice little (~120 guests) corporate summer party in a hotel/country house 30 mins from the front door. Food and drink provided (they had an open bar but thankfully behaved impeccably as senior partners were there). No expense spared on this one with entertainment from a live singist, a conjourer, a photographer and of course, yours truly.

Having been to this particular gaff before, I knew I was sharing a small stage with a grand piano pushed against the wall. It's the combi booth, Maui 5 GOs (yes, with 120 guests) and a single lighting pole. Slow burner due to the heat and the fact the air-con got turned off due to the client preferring the doors to the patio being open. In reality, only the last hour involved legs in any quantity on the dance floor, but that was enough for me to be happy.

11:30 finish saw me very carefully loading kit into the van whilst trying not to scratch the shiny McClaren with a personalised plate that had parked next to me

SATURDAY: The annual summer party/awards night for a local swimming club. I've done their Christmas party for years, and they started doing the summer one a couple of years ago.....choosing yours truly as the MC, DJ and general all-round good guy that knows how their party works. I ALWAYS look forward to this one. I'm well looked after, it's a 10:30 finish (yes....a great time to goad the Old Git who's slugging away in a hot function room that it's now "beer of the clock for me" ), and they've started using my local village hall (with air-con) less than a mile from my front door.

In reality the night involves doing "stings" as the swimmers come and get their awards, background whilst they tuck into a buffet, and around 2 hours of party if I'm lucky. Again, I wasn't expecting great things as the hall has a massive patio and play area (yes....even teenagers like swings and slides). But as usual with this one, we're talking bottom of the barrel cheese (I am the music man, the Conga, The Hokey Cokey) and the kids joined in with the adults with great enthusiasm. We even did a little trance set which went down a storm with the parentals. Already booked for the rematch for the Xmas gig

SUNDAY: 29 degrees in the open on the local Primary school field for their annual FunDay. I've done this one since God was a boy (as well as their school discos which I'm doing on Wednesday, being their Santa at Xmas, helping with sound/lighting for their productions), and it's always a good gig. I'm the compere, lost property/children point, music man, announce the winners of the prize draws and spot prizes for things like beat the goalie, and keep things generally running nearly to time. It's a job for the Evolve 50's on the main PA (those things can be heard by Mrs Imagine at home half a mile away!). It's also the one I work the hardest at and involves coordinating "acts" such as local dance schools, the school choir etc in a central arena (cue again the Maui 5's and their wonderful bluetooth functionality). Challenges for this year included getting an electric piano into my system for the young pianists to do their thing, and running sound from a complicated website for the choir who were a good 50 feet from the PA (tricky balancing too loud for the assembled adults watching and too quiet for the choir who were the other side of said adults).

The hardest three hours I work all year, but well and truly worth it from the sheer amount they raise for the school. Absolutely drenched in sweat by the end of it, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

So, that's three more ticks in the "win" column for me.

Next week.....a gap in the diary, or in other words, a weekend off (I'm overdue one).

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Rarely post on this thread but seeing as this week was different and just the right balance of work and play I thought I'd share.

During the week a long volley of corporate events (non dj stuff) alongside a few proms of various "success" (from a strictly DJ POV) but all containing unreal amounts of the yellow cheddar stuff.

Then comes Saturday.... a date I spotted awhile back that had nothing booked in and considering the past two weeks (and this week) I wasn't working.....but I was DJing!

Hosted my second ibiza themed gig but unlike the previous one we started much earlier (5pm) so the old gits can get the last bus home....

Due to the pub being in the town centre and being surrounded by flats you guessed it.... they have a license to play music outside but only until 2am! (yep).

Thankfully we wrapped up around 1ish but by that point myself and two friends had DJ'ed for 7.5 hours. Nothing but dance and ibiza classics despite the protests of one hen party who wanted "pony". They still hung around for hours and were a great bunch.

Now to plot this last mad week of proms and Weddings. Ibiza holiday on Sunday and it cant come soon enough.

I've uploaded the entire set onto youtube with a photo of the setup. I put in two flower walls to hide some bins alongside the basic dj booth, a db sub and two FBT tops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwbUMNmcKhA&list=PLkIErqQ6t-XfRVtimop43NgzAltS6KRAH

[Excalibur]

Hosted my second ibiza themed gig but unlike the previous one we started much earlier (5pm) so the old gits can get the last bus home....

Thankfully we wrapped up around 1ish but by that point myself and two friends had DJ'ed for 7.5 hours. Nothing but dance and ibiza classics despite the protests of one hen party who wanted "pony".

Hmmmm. Some might say you'd been playing " pony* " all afternoon.






* " Pony and trap". How often have you been playing stone cold classics of whatever Genre, only for a guest to utter the time honoured phrase " take this crap off and play something decent "? They usually ask for a right load of Balearics anyway.

I saw Neil's alter ego posting this on Facebook, and thought what a lovely way to spend an afternoon it would have been. Sadly, the last bus home would have been past my bedtime.

[Excalibur]

No, they weren't playing hits from the Seventies, they must have all been in their Seventies!

It was a marquee wedding for the daughter of a good friend. I'd set up most of the gear on Friday, and I turned up around the time the ceremony was starting about five minutes away. I got everything set up and running, and awaited the guests' arrival. They started to arrive around three, and it was background time during nibbles and drinks. Four o'clock saw the sit down meal begin, and speeches around half five.

The Ceilidh band arrived around this time, and they were absolute troupers. They had to set up quietly while speeches took place, I was signalled that the first dance wasn't imminent, so the band would have time for a sound check.

Oh no, they started to tune up, and guess what? Time for cake cut and first dance. We got those out of the way, and a couple of songs later, the band got to sound check. They followed on with their first set, and got folk up dancing. The buffet supper arrived, and the band came on after for a second set, which was well received.

I was left to finish the night, with the forecast from Bride's Father that it would never be overly riotous, but I had a healthy dance floor until the finishing time. All in all, a very acceptable day.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

I saw Neil's alter ego posting this on Facebook, and thought what a lovely way to spend an afternoon it would have been. Sadly, the last bus home would have been past my bedtime.

It really was and great to have a room full of likeminded people too. Typical Wedding no matter what you're playing there's always some that aren't that keen.

After three weeks of playing brie bangers at Proms and Weddings it was a great day.