Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[Imagine]

So that's it....I'm officially done for 2025. I don't do corporate Xmas parties and NYE can do one in these parts!


I held the Imagine Xmas dinner for one tonight with cod and chips ('ow much???). Mrs Imagine was out with her lot dinning in style.

My last gig? A school disco and dressing up as the Big Man to hand out nearly 400 presents. It's hot, sweaty work, and definitely not my biggest earner (a school turkey dinner including skin on the gravy and a thank you hamper). BUT....it's absolutely worth it just seeing the pleasure on the kids' faces. Sometimes "giving back" is worth more than the big paying gigs.

The hugs from a three year old preschooler (safeguarding.....oh safeguarding) send warm shivers up my spine.

The playlist for the disco....KPop thrpugh and through....urgh!

BUT, they sang along, bounced in front of the booth, and no more chants for the Spanish Uncle at the end because Ms Head Mistress has access to my wireless mic and sorted that bit out!

I'm now in hibernation until Valentine's Day. A chance to reset, sort out my chaotic lock up, and to concentrate on getting fully booked for all day weddings in 2026..must trust the syste.....

Merry Christmas ya' filthy animals.....next year is goinjg to be sooooo much betterer

[Imagine]

Well, after the very long year that was January, last night saw me out on the road.

I've got to admit - this year at the moment looks abolutely terrifying in terms of bookings and turnover. I know many others are in the same boat but that doesn't make it any easier.....

So last night, a whole year in the making. I'd been booked by a good friend to provide a surprise party for her husband's (also a very good friend) 50th birthday with disco and selfie-pod. Know what, it really was a surprise, and his face was absolutely priceless! That made things worthwhile for a start.

I don't do birthdays anymore, so this was sort of a turning point as the last one on the books. Everything else is wedding only (and my Gawd this mile deep, inch wide niching down malarky is both hard work and terrifying at times).

This was never going to be a mega-dancy affair. Lots of friends from university days were in attendance, and I was always going to be more about background music than full on arms-held-aloft-sweaty-body dance floor action. Yes, dancing happened, yes there were sweaty bodies (mainly due to the fact the hotel had the heating on full blast ). Most of the dance floor action actually took place during the final 30 minutes.

It was absolutely brilliant to be out again after I don't know how many weekends at home.

But, it gave me a chance to test out the new lighting setup and give it a good shakedown. The photo's not brilliant but I now rock with 2 x Citronic Cosmopars, 2 x Fusion 100 spots, a two very reasonably priced lights from U-King (and those REALLY surprised me!). I was also on the Maui 5's because that's more than enough for this particular venue.

I also have the option of adding a glitter ball behind me (the spots are programmed to point at that for the slow dances).



The hardest part of this one - using the family Zafira instead of the van (the sign written van in the car park would have given the game away as he arrived.....the things I do for customers). All I'll say is that I have total respect for those that do this job in a car instead of a van. My Tetris achievement last night was beyond compare!

So that's February done. Other than a wedding fair in March, that's it until June. What the heck is going on in the wedding world at the moment?

[DJ Jules]

Friday night saw me DJ'ing my third wedding of the year. I've also provided photography for another wedding, DJ'd four birthday parties and my Karaoke package has been out on hire twice as well.

The wedding below had a theme that included Shiny disco balls so I put my hand in my pocket and bought one. And now I'm remembering all the reasons why I hate the things so much (plus I bought a ball with 5mm tiles, not 10mm) and I'm not sure I like it as much as a ball with larger tiles.


I still need to work on the positioning of the ball, moving heads, etc to get the best out of it, but it wasn't bad for a first attempt.

This wedding had quite a range of music (everything from T-rex and Abba to One Direction and Hazel Dean through to Chemical Romance and Arctic Monkeys) and the requests on the night went another direction again. Overall I think it went OK but... it's just one of those where I'm yet to get feedback and I don't feel like I fully understand their music tastes so I've been left wondering if I could have done better for them.

I have a Wedding on Friday night that was booked only a few weeks ago and has a first dance that was generated by an AI band (it's a first for me). I've been promised their music suggestions tonight but the brief is "general party music, followed by R&B/Dance and then a tech house set to finish".

Julian

[Imagine]

I'm not going to lie....2026 is turning out to be the quietest year on record.

And I'm not alone. I've spoken to a LOT of folk in this neck of the woods who are admitting the same thing. None of us can put a finger on what's wrong...web traffic is through the floor, lead-gen sites like Add2 are well down on leads, Bridebook and Hitched are tumbleweed.

So, it's been nice to be out twice this week, although not for weddings sadly.

Last Sunday, the local Primary School's FunDay (I've done this one since God was in short trousers) I'm still waiting to see the total raised but I'm betting it's a record despite the VERY wet weather the day before (I'm a sort of good luck charm...it's never rained on the day since I started being the MC for this one). A nice comment from one of the dance group displays - mine is by far the best PA system they use across the summer of fetes (they're talking about the Maui 5 GOs which they Bluetooth into and perform many times better on a school field than physics allows!)

Those same speakers were used tonight in my village hall. The bar staff don't like being deafened (poor venue design but hey ho). The local swimming club awards night...I love this one! PURE CHEESE from start to finish. OK, I HATE any song with an action dance but to see a massive hall filled with kids dancing to the Cha Cha Slide/Macarena is big win in my book.They're happy, I'm happy, I've been booked for next June and December...I'll take that.

Next week - i'm worried. A bride that's insisting no requests unless they come through her of the groom to stop any chance of "killing the vibe" on a completely proscribed playlist of 105 songs for a 5 hour wedding reception and a very sensitive sound limiter to boot....wish me luck!