old soul

Military prison is no joke, I went to the glasshouse in Colchester once on business, unlike our comfy everyday prisons, very few people want a return to a military prison, hopefully they'll learn a hard and sharp lesson.

I'd go with all the above advice, but just to add a couple of things. If speaking is something you are nervous of, then I would suggest as said, just say a brief hello and welcome to... at the start of the evening. Once you've said something once, you'll relax and find it much easier if and when you need to say anything later or make announcements, you don't want to spend half your night worrying about when you have to say something. Another tip, if you have the ability to turn down the mid range on your mixer whilst speaking, then this will make you far more easily understood, obviously

One I remember from several years ago (before I was married) Friday night club gig on the Kent coast somewhere, think it was a gate, Mar or Rams lol, finished at 2 AM, broke down on the motorway on the way home, finally got home at 6-45 AM, had breakfast, went to the day job and worked 'till 5 PM. Went home, had food and sorted out troublesome car, then off to club res from 8 'till 2AM, had a very good night, so ggod in fact that I was obliged to accompany a young lady home and entertain her, got home at 9-30 on the Sunday morning and went to bed, very tired, very happy and with a pocket

Hi Nathan, welcome aboard and be sure to stick around :)

I've worked with bands a few times and had some really good nights, and I have to say imho, live music has an atmosphere all of it's own which is different to a disco. However, I can't imagine anybody wanting a band without a disco, most bands are at best going to provide a couple of hours of music, and there's a good chance that a number of people won't be into what they are doing anyway. With the experiences I've had it's normally a case of the disco playing second fiddle to the "big event" of the band, warming up and introducing them, and then playing out the gig afterwards. However, I

Interesting point, and I can see both sides of the coin. I worked in clubs where I did "pop" nights where it would be a case of playing chart stuff, and would rarely dream of deviating from the familiar, however Saturday nights was normally at a club or clubs which would be known for playing dance music. These were completely different crowds, people who would be going to the club mainly for the music, not so much to socialise or pull, but to listen to their genre of music and dance the night away. It was expected that the music was on the edge, and nights like these generally were what w

So who still buys albums? and who plays tracks off of them? I still love buying albums of artists I like, and it's always fun trying to pick a track off the album that people will like and dance to, even if they don't know it. When I started, it was common when working in clubs to end up spending fortunes on 12" USA imports, and playing them, which meant people were quite used and open to hearing stuff they weren't familiar with. It doesn't seem to be so much the case these days, most just seem to want to hear what they know most of the time.

I wouldn't do them now, but the main reason is that I don't really feel qualified. I'm now over 40 and am probably not quite up to date and fashinable enough with music to do them justice. I did a lot in the past though, and generally used to ejoy them, normally very responsive audiences, and enough eye candy to seriously put you off what you are doing. Having said that, I would still consider one now, but only really if the client involved was looking for more general party music rather than really up to date stuff. Don't be put off, if you are up with current trends then more often

I do think at this point I ought to add that anybody who is running their own business and getting a decent living wage out of it for 40 hours a week investment ought to be extremely happy. There aren't many businesses you could do that. Something else that may be a factor to some degree is the unsocial hours thing. When I started out, way back in the eighties, working on a Friday or Saturday night was considered unsocial hours, and heaven forbid having to work on a Sunday. However large swathes of the population now work across the weekend as a matter of course, so whilst people may have

Any service is only worth what a client is prepared to pay for it. The only way to increase their perception of what it's worth is by selling it to them properly. A lot of people see salesmanship as a bit of a dirty word, but if you run your own business then it has to be an integral part of it in order to secure what you want for your services. That may sound a bit rich coming from a part time DJ like me, but to refer back to an earlier point made, in my full time job, as a self employed electrician, I do have to sell my services, otherwise contrary to popular opinion I'd be losing all m

LOL including the "five must know answers you can give to telephone enquiries to guarantee business"

Actually I know someone who only charges £80 a night. He's well into his sixties and does afternoons at old peoples homes and birthday parties for the older generations. Strictly speaking what he does probably wouldn't be classed as a disco, but he does take equipment, set it up and play music. He also does a job that I wouldn't be able to do. Be very surprised if he was voting in polls on here though

White Doblo, juuuust about big enough.

No, probably wasn't being very clear. What I meant was that a conventional speaker is fairly directional by it's nature, and a high quality one will tend to sound "less loud" at the same volume. The Bose, as I understand it, whilst a high quality sound are omni directional. My point was really that a decent quality set of speakers that are 'aimed' at the dance floor are likely to be just as succesfull in this regard. Probably me trying to sound clever and look stupid :joe:

I'd be interested to know what they felt when Weller left, and then turned up with the Style Council. A bit of a departure, and perhaps you could ask them their favourite Style Council track lol.

Thanks chaps :bouncy: Might have been the life and soul, but a nice lazy pub lunch with a few bottles of Magners has put paid to that. Now trying to decide if it's TV or Xbox this evening. It's so exciting being 41 could try my new socks on I spose?

Not knocking the Bose, but wouldn't a high quality directional speaker be even better in this regard, I thought the Bose where omni directional?

When it was out I used to do a series of under 18's discos every month, we used to rotate around the village halls on a Friday night. One of the guys i used to organise these with was a huge Russ Abbott fan and he used to ask me to play it every week. I never did, and am pretty sure I never have yet, in fact I can't think of anytime I would, unless it was a p:cense:take for some reason.

Welcome a board, be sure to have a good peek around, there's more here than you might first think :)

I think buying second hand is an excellent way to get better quality equipment that you may otherwise not be able to afford. As well as ebay, forums like this one are a great place to buy, most sellers are bound to be honest by virtue of the fact that they have a reputation to keep.

Sounds nice and positive, and who knows, with a few functions you may even end up b etter off in the long run. Good luck with it.

I've been giving this situation some thought following my "Heavy Metal" thread the other day which was similar, thugh further complicated by the fact that party girl with her playlist wasn't the one hiring or paying me. I think if this comes up in future, I might look at ways of doing it without DJ'ing. Recording the playlist prior to the event, and being on hand all night to make alterations, announcements or hopefully changes, but not actually be a presence behind the disco, whilst letting people know as stated above that a prechosen list will be played.

I know brief mention was made above, but how much difference do those using video find it makes to winning business, and increasing fees? Is it a feature that sells, or more of an add on to the package which helps to win business as part of the whole deal? I'm also interested to know how much time it adds to set up/ packing down. Being a tight git normally working on my own I have think about these things, not because I'm not prepared to put in a bit more effort, but more because I feel that there is a point where people would feel it takes too long.

If I were you, to avoid making a costly error, I would talk to a reputable dealer and explain what you want to achieve. From what you're saying, though I profess to be a little lost, you are looking to buy a set of bass speakers and an amp to run them. In order to do this, as stated above you are also going to need a crossover to split the signal you are sending to your bassbins, and your mid/high speakers. The other alternative would be to buy a pair of bass speakers with a passive crossover built into them, and an amp to run your whole system. Or, I might be completely wrong w

When I did my first mobiles, I carried probably more than my own bodyweight (considerable ) of vinyl into the room, a console with decks and about a dozen light boxes. My speakers were large x4, were about 100W per side and produced a loud, wooly and I thought impressive sound. My coolest effect was one of those projectors that shone through oil filled discs onto the back wall, and all my light boxes and spots were sound to light. Stuff now is so compact by comparison that you can get away with a reasonable sized hatchback or estate if you needed to for a lot of gigs. I can fit my enti