June 15th-17th

[Dukesy 0]

QUOTE (DJ Marky Marc @ Jun 17 2006, 07:46 AM)

@discodirect - as many as you like or just the once, we don't expect you to try it at some old ladies tea dance.

@MM - but that's all I ever gig MM?! you should see those wet t-shirt competitions!

 

 

[brianmole 0]

Fridays gig was a little fun. I left Camberley at 3:15pm heading for a little village called Hartfield between East Grinstead and Tunbridge Wells. We were due to arrive at about 5:30, so plenty of time for any snags along the way. Or you would think so... There was some massive snarl up on the M25 which had a derimental effect on the whole region, meaning we arrived at 6:45pm http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/fear.gif Having kept the venue in the picture along the way, this was not a problem, because we could simply set up after the wedding meal/speeches at around 9pm. I offered an extra hour, finishing at 1am instead of midnight, everybody was very happy. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/thumbup.gif

 

The gig itself was interesting - 'please play mainly 80's'. So, the first cd on to test the sound was Gusto - Disco's revenge, as there was no way I would get away with playing it to this crowd later. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/laugh.gif

 

The wedding was in a Castle, and the guests were all in period costume, the meal was a medieval banquet!

http://www.dancemix.co.uk/images/5955.jpg

 

 

 

Once again, many thanks to Pete (Music box) for the help.

 

On to tonight, a Marquee in Reigate...

[Jimbo55 0]

Just shows that being professional enough to have the venue telephone number and keep them informed pays dividends. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/cool.gif

 

Jimbo

[Leonna 0]

Went down o the restaurant I work on Saturdays to check out the mixer and that I thought the manager was closing the place. Luckily my mistake, no intention of closing, phew! Mixer turned out not to be the problem, it was the headphones. Went to DJ shop to see about lights and stuff so bought a new set for them.

 

Last night was full of excitement down at the G.P. Busy night an 18th, 21st, 28th, 40th, 3 other non age birthdays and a hen party. Walked into a haze of smoke http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/mad.gif Can't wait for the smoking ban to come in. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif

 

Took a while for them to get warmed up, tried various genre's, which had people dancing but the ones that got everyone up were, Insomnia, Sandstorm, logical song and Jump around. After that they were off!

 

At one point a man started stripping off on a table, so I whipped out Leave your hat on, and the crowd are cheering him on etc. Unfortunatley he fell off the table and smashed his head http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/fear.gif blood everywhere! Kept the music down low until he got cleaned up. He didn't want an ambulance, the blood eventually stopped and after a little recouperation he was up on the dance floor again.

 

Maybe I should make an announcement at the start to remind people to take care when dancing on the tables as they can be unsteady if you get carried away.

 

Anyway, rest of the night went without too much drama. Done a football song set which went great, 150+ people all singing 3 Lions, vindaloo and Tom Hark, Great!

 

At the end after the normal end lot that I do, someone wanted to do an irish jig. I said I didn't have any of that type of music with me and the nearest I had was The Devil Went down To Georgia. So whacked that on, to be greeted by a man saying "This is :cense:", when the reord got going he was off dancing around. Went down really well, so may try it again another week more in the middle though. Finished with Always Look on The Bright Side of Life.

 

All in all a good night.

 

Did Gusto, was OK, just wouldn't rush out and use it again I am afraid http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/sad.gif

[Kingy 0]

I was in a marquee Saturday night with a Beatles tribute band.

 

It was a "coming out" party (company director & his PA- hetro, not a gay party), combined with a football theme. Good night but I was on till 2AM!!

 

Pig Roast, Salmon, Champers and Stella on draught. I got a funny look when I asked for a soft drink when the organiser offered us drinks. Told to help ourselves, but as I was driving I drank nothing but lemonade till it ran out!

 

Nice do, strange requests...PUNK!! Ages since I played the Buzzcocks etc!

 

Used an ACTOR system.

[FDDJ 0]

Had a charity event in a marquee last night in deepest Surrey.

 

Interesting venue, the marquee was in the back garden of an old folks home, so we had to finish by 11.45.

 

Apparently Songs Of Praise is being filmed there today as there is a church next door. I wanted to say something witty about the residents "not having to go far..." but managed to refrain. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/whistling.gif

 

Only ended up playing for an 1 hour and 20 minutes but had a full dancefloor from the word go, really got my buzz back last night. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/thumbup.gif

 

Serious honeys were present and it was obvious no one was short of a few bob, weirdest sight of the night was one guys driver/security guard delivering coolers full of cristal champagne to leave by the table where his boss would be sitting as there was no bar!

 

Forgot to ring Mr Mole when I finished, sorry Brian!

[DJ Marky Marc 0]

South end Was entertaining...

 

played gusto and went down a storm along with a few other tunes of that era, bit of tody terry and the likes...

 

spent most of the night mixing as the venue manager didnt want a talking DJ..

 

DJ booth had a PM-90 with most of the faders and pots broken or playing up but it survived the night with no real problems....

 

also had a DN-4000 and a DN-2600, nice to have a choice of where to put the next CD...

 

No room for my CD decks so had to just mix on there cd players, but thats not a real issue.

 

Great Feedback fromt he staff and punters all seemed to be having a great time. I now feel sorry for the resident DJ who has to come back and deal with the managers new expectations of what the DJ should be doing...

 

met some really nice girls who wanted to look after me and take me home. brian spoke to some of them on the phone (sorry one of them was a little bit drunk and didnt know what she was talking about)

 

Had to decline there kinds offer of a place to stay http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/wallbash.gif

 

now getting rested for the next gig. Tuesday night football party in walkabout Watford, you all welcome to pop in and say hello

 

[brianmole 0]

Yes, I have a recollection of a surreal phone conversation with 2 essex girls who were in the back of your van http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/wacko.gif http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/laugh.gif Na-aa-aa-aa- I dropped me chips.... http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/attentionwhore.gif

 

Saturday and Sunday for me were in the same venue - a stunning marquee in the back of a very nice property in Reigate for a 50th. I was lucky to work with Aiden, one of the best caterers in the area working these niche socials, and a pianist, a table magician, and a steel band on Sunday.

 

On Saturday, I set up at 5pm to discover that the 2 requested 13A sockets were just one 13A socket. Putting my tester on it, I discover a fault: live and neutral swapped http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/scared.gif so a quick rewire sorts it out.

 

Since I only have one 13A supply, I decide to use LED Par56 cans instead of the traditional 300w ones, and the new Stairville moving heads (€468 from Thomann for a pair + controller) which arrived during the week. The LED cans only use 15W and generate no heat http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/thumbup.gif . Also, there is no space for the Starcloth DJ booth, so I use my LED front board.

 

I started DJing at 11pm, had a full floor till 2:20am. Packed the CDs in the car, drove home and returned on Sunday for a barbecue party from 4pm till 7pm. As I arrived, load of guests were in the pool and enjoying the sun. Overnight, I had made a list of what tunes were requested which I did not have on me, and bought them from iTunes for this stint. This went down very well. Played an eclectic mix of music including this lot amongst other gems:

• Roy Ayers - everybody loves the sunshine
• Four Tops - Still water
• Mongo Santamaria - Watermelon man
• Linda Clifford - Sunshine
• Osibisa - Sunshine day
• Bill Withers - Ain't no sunshine
• Stevie Wonde - You're the sunshine of my life
• Arrow - Hot hot hot
• Sugar Minott - good thing going
• Senior Coconut & his orchestra - smoke on the water
• Jimi Hendrix - all along the watchtower
• Cream - Sunshine of your love
• Led Zepplin - Kashmir
• Deep Purple - Black night
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - Freebird
• Pink Floyd - money
• Dire Straights - sultans of swing
• Led Zepplin - Stairway to heaven (last song) http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/notworthy.gif

On Saturday, I had played the Deep purple version of Smoke on the water, and Gusto - disco's revenge!

 

WOW! what a weekend. I wish they all could be this good.

 

http://www.dancemix.co.uk/images/5974.jpg

http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/smile.gif

[RobbieD 0]

A very neat set up, as always Mr Mole!

 

QUOTE (brianmole @ Jun 19 2006, 08:18 AM)

Roy Ayers - everybody loves the sunshine

Tune!!!!! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/071.gif

 

As mentioned at the start of this thread, my lady and I went to see Mary J Blige at Wembly on Saturday. When she did "My Life" (which is based on a loop from "Everybody Loves The Sunshine") my lady proceeded to annoy everyone around us by instead singing the Roy Ayers version as loud as she could!

http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/hide.gif

 

Senior Coconut is also fantastic.

[ChrisPointon 0]

Saturday was a Wedding at Sandhole Farm at Marton.

 

A nice venue which was completed and opened last year and is based on an Oak Barn in a working farm and at first glance, looks likes something out of the Waltons! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/tongue.gif

 

http://www.sandholefarm.co.uk/images/oakdene_farview1.gif

 

Venue Website

 

The inside is actually very nice and although fitted with a Sound Limiter, it is very sympathetic, and set to a decent level and working with it isn't much of a problem, and even with 100 guests you rarely even hit the amber warning leds.

 

The Wedding itself was a bit of a nightmare, we arrived at 6.15 for a 7pm start, only to find that most of the guests being local, left at 6.45 to go home and freshen up. So by our designated start time of 7pm, there were only about 8 people left, and they were enjoying the warm weather and sat out on the patio area.

 

By the time the guests returned, and the Evening Guests trickled in, it was 9.00 and then time for the buffet!. The B&G were also "faffers" - one minute they were ready for the first dance, then they put it off again "For another 10 minutes" and this happened several times http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/wallbash.gif .

 

Why, oh why do clients want you there at some stupidly early time, knowing full well that their guests are not all going to arrive on the dot and things overun!. When we did eventually get enough people for an audience, and the B&G did appear long enough to have the first dance it wasn't a bad night. A lot of Indie, Dance and 90's was on the playlist, so it made a nice change from the usual cheesy stuff.

[otronics 0]

QUOTE

met some really nice girls who wanted to look after me and take me home. brian spoke to some of them on the phone (sorry one of them was a little bit drunk and didnt know what she was talking about) Had to decline there kinds offer of a place to stay

 

Shocker! Why was that?

 

QUOTE

Why, oh why do clients want you there at some stupidly early time

 

So we can charge a lot! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/tongue.gif