Abuse Aimed At Dj's

[ian . 0]

And that's why you don't take payment on the night Mr Welshy.

[C.S 0]

i always take payment on the night, never had a problem.

[Dukesy 0]

Unfortunately, even after numerous calls, i was unaware, until reaching the venue, that it was actually a wedding.

Do you still accept work from the agent?

[shakermaker 0]

Sorry but there is no way that I would put up with that kind of behaviour. I may get lots of criticism for saying that but I am not there to take abuse off people no matter if it's the groom or not. I know it's a dodgy situation because it's his and his brides day but that does not mean that you or I should take go away! him, her or anyone.

 

I do find that 9 times out of 10, if someone shouts at me like that I tend to answer back which surprises them. Usually something to the words of "Excuse me, start again without the abuse or I'm not playing anything" - Usually (and I must say that it's not common for me to get abuse) they apologise, make excuses that it's been a long day and they are stressed and then offer to get me a drink etc...after that it's all ok.

 

At christmas in the hotel on the last christmas party I was doing (I've mentioned it before), I had 150 people that had no enthusiasm whatsoever. I tried my hardest, used all the tricks in the book etc to get them up but for at least an hour they sat there looking glum and chatted (oh, what a joy it must be to work at ************ mentioning no names)....I played the Scissor Sisters followed by Dancing Queen and no sign of movement from those 2 guaranteed floorfillers.....During the night those 2 songs were requested again and although I don't like playing the same songs twice in one set, I did and they packed the floor. Earlier on in the night (as mentioned before on another thread), I came back from the loo to see a tall guy dressed in a dinner suit looking through my cd's etc...I asked what he was after and he made comments about the background music not being that great whilst they were eating and could I change it. I was polite and replied that it was christmas music at a low level whilst the meal was being served and as the night progressed I would pick up the pace. I also said that everyone else seemed fine with it. He shook his head, mumbled something about me being a small little disco or something and went to walk away. I said "Excuse me" and calmly told him that I didn't appreciate his comments but he was entitled to them. He huffed and puffed and walked back to his table.

 

Later on in the evening, much to my surprise, as soon as I played Dancing Queen again, he and his friends rushed to the dancefloor. In fact, there were more guys dancing to it than women. I got on the mic and said "This is for the dancing queens on the dancefloor"...everyone laughed and the atmosphere changed to a decent party atmosphere...apart from the tall guy in the dinner suit. He came rushing over to my decks with a clenched fist (he was pretending I might add) and gave me a real evil look. I laughed on the mic, everyone else laughed with me and he went back to his silly dancing. Then I said "Excuse me sir, remember who has the mic!" and he smiled and that was that, I never had anymore rubbish off him all night.

 

It's NOT something I regularly do and before anyone else says it....yes, he could have turned nasty (I wish he had because he was smarmy and deserved a ****) and yes, there may have been complaints to the hotel afterwards BUT...there wasn't. In fact the feedback was great. I turned a potentially bad evening into a good one and everyone enjoyed themselves. I think that one of the main things with us and our jobs is reading the crowd and knowing when you can be a little bit cheeky etc..etc.. The guy came up to me in the end and although I guess we didn't like eachother, he said "Well done young man, that was a fantastic night" and shook my hand. He probably knew deep down that I could rip him to shreds and really embarass him if I wanted to because I had the mic and he didn't.

[djbzentertainment 0]

Good one! What a great story! Must confess you can usually tell when your audience or certain members of the audience don't mind a bit of good humoured joking. Those sort of nights almost always turn out fantastic and you feel really good when you are driving home knowing that you have just put on a top notch bit of entertainment. Nice one!

 

Bob

[guyowen 0]

I have a simple solution for this kind of thing.

 

 

STOP the music and say over you mic, "security required on the dance floor" assuming their are bouncers avaliable.

 

or alternativly just stop the music and announce loudly on the mic that no further music will be played due to the abuse you are getting, and the disco will stop for good if the person in question is not removed or calms down. Then every1 else will kick off on the D:cense:khead in question.

 

 

[guyowen 0]

further to the post abouts i have read regarding abusive behaviour aimed at DJ's I thought i would share a rather funny / scarry at the time thing that happened to me.

 

I was playing a social club 40th Bday i think, And i was playing background music and one of the songs i played was rockin robin by michael jackson. About 1min into the song a man approached me and sed "is this michael jacksonn" i sed yes and he said turn it off now (this was at the time MJ was in a bit of trouble) and i sed why, and he sed because there are children here.

 

I told him no i wont, hes not been proven guilty of anything yet. So the man goes "Ok fine, but if i hear anymore michale Jackson I will come over and smash all your gear down" I saw this as a great oppertunity to wind this guy up so i played, "i want you back" about 10 mins later he came storming over and again told me to turn it off or he was gonna break my gear down. i sed no so he came over to me looking very angry and i showed him i had pre dialed 999 into my mobile and he backed off and i didnt hear another thing from him all nite.

 

I dont generally get many people kickin off on me at gigs presumable because i am so big and tall. But im trying to lose some weght.

 

Maybee in future the threat of no tollerance police phone calls to trouble makers will shut them up. What do you think?

Edited January 19, 2007 by Paul_Smith

[dj_baz_A.D.S 0]

i always take payment on the night, never had a problem.

 

 

i state on my booking froms take i do not turn on any equipment until the gig has been paid in full at least 15 mins before the stated start time always works never get any probs

[PEDJ 0]

I have a simple solution for this kind of thing.

STOP the music and say over you mic, "security required on the dance floor" assuming their are bouncers avaliable.

 

or alternativly just stop the music and announce loudly on the mic that no further music will be played due to the abuse you are getting, and the disco will stop for good if the person in question is not removed or calms down. Then every1 else will kick off on the D:cense:khead in question.

And this should work at every type of event?

[andyw 0]

further to the post abouts i have read regarding abusive behaviour aimed at DJ's I thought i would share a rather funny / scarry at the time thing that happened to me.

 

I was playing a social club 40th Bday i think, And i was playing background music and one of the songs i played was rockin robin by michael jackson. About 1min into the song a man approached me and sed "is this michael jacksonn" i sed yes and he said turn it off now (this was at the time MJ was in a bit of trouble) and i sed why, and he sed because there are children here.

 

I told him no i wont, hes not been proven guilty of anything yet. So the man goes "Ok fine, but if i hear anymore michale Jackson I will come over and smash all your gear down" I saw this as a great oppertunity to wind this guy up so i played, "i want you back" about 10 mins later he came storming over and again told me to turn it off or he was gonna break my gear down. i sed no so he came over to me looking very angry and i showed him i had pre dialed 999 into my mobile and he backed off and i didnt hear another thing from him all nite.

 

I dont generally get many people kickin off on me at gigs presumable because i am so big and tall. But im trying to lose some weght.

 

Maybee in future the threat of no tollerance police phone calls to trouble makers will shut them up. What do you think?

 

i think you should avoid deliberately upsetting anyone if possible.if someone is offended by something like that then unless its been specifically requested by the organisers then dont play it.yes mj was proven not guilty,but by deliberately playing another song by him was inflaming the situation and could of turned nasty.there is enough good songs out there to play that another mj song could of been avoided.at the end of the day what did you gain by playing it.one very upset punter

Edited January 19, 2007 by andyw

[McCardle 1]

What do you think?

 

based on some peoples comments i think that we have got all of the deejaying skills in the world on this forum, however for some, people skills which relate to how we deal with the public are a little harder to come by

[Welsh Audio Man 21 0]

Do you still accept work from the agent?

 

Thankfully, he has not contacted me, since I turned him down over christmas twice, he rang me in the mornings, asking for a DJ for the evening, i was allready booked on both occasions. Think he has given up asking me!

[Mattaious 0]

Ive had a similar problem with an irrate party go'er

 

He requested a song we played it then evey 5 or 10 minutes he kept coming back asking for the same song.

 

When i said id play it later for you but not straight after ive only just played it he decided to test the ground.

 

He even started pushing and soforth. In the end i stopped all the music and asked him to leave. until he did so the music would stay off.

 

the person whos party it was thanked me for how i responded and acted in the situation and explained it was her EX BOYFRIEND who gate crashed.

 

Always one aint they.

 

 

[ellaskins 0]

In my experience it is good to be hard in many ways. What i mean by this is NOT at all to be big headed, bossy or make out like you love yourself, but firm and to the point.

 

A few times i'v been in a situation when a punter has come up to me and been a little bossy and demanded a record to be played NOW!, as they put it, " well we are paying you !" As always to be polite is a must! but to let them talk to you like that is not acceptable (we are human too).

 

In a situation like that i once said to the chap, " excuse me, but i will play the record you have requested at the appropriate time, because if i play it now it will clear the floor". and on saying this i took the mans hand and shook it with a firm grip! he then smiled and walked away happy knowing that he would get what he wanted, but also knowing that i would not bow down to him and jump at his every request.

 

This is why i feel it is good to be hard and firm with the croud. In an ironic sort of way if you are the croud will feel more confident too.

 

What do you think?

[Andy Westcott 0]

Dodgy territory, and one area we've all had to tread at some point.

 

Sometimes I feel it is better to palm them off with whatever excuse you can to get rid of them, such as,

"I'll try to dig it out and pop it on as soon as I can."

The persistent sods are a pain though. In these cases it's possibly better to just tell them you are sorry, but you haven't brought that track with you tonight.

 

If it's the client asking, I think you need to be a bit more accomodating in order to for your reputation to emerge unscathed - if they ask for a track which you have, play it and announce it as their request. Then work at recovering the floor afterwards - not usually too difficult really.

[Dukesy 0]

:sad:

You are not there to take abuse. Quite right.

But if you provide a professional service you sometimes need professional advice from the specialists in other fields.

Don't ever confuse and mix DJ confidence, professionalism and reputation with a 'Hard-man' image and attitude.

Seek professional advice on how to be assertive, get public relations or management skill training.

DJing has a bad enough reputation perception wise. Why add another negative to that perception especially on a forum which gets Googled.

If you want to be hard then change the job and become a bouncer or a personal guard. tongue out icon

 

[shakermaker 0]

On saturday night, early on in the evening I had a couple of guys come up to me. They were ok at first because they were sober (ish) but about an hour later after watching them at the bar knocking back shots, one of them came over and said "Mate, Can you play something up to date 'cos this is ****!!", I replied saying that it was a retro night so probably not. He then said "But it's empty at the moment why not?" so once again I replied to him saying that it didn't matter, it was advertised as a retro night, it was MY night (I hired the place) and that I was sticking to what I was playing, which at the time was some old skool 80's dance music (Luther, Cheryl Lynn, Shannon etc..).

 

He walked off and then more or less turned around straight away and came back as if he had suddenly thought of a tune... "Hey, have you got Atmosphere - Dancing in outer space?" he asked... I told him that, that particular track is my favourite 'Disco' track ever and I would play it in a second for him and HE shook MY hand, apologised for the grief and walked back happily to his mate. After about 10 minutes he came back and asked where the tune was and I told him that I had trouble finding it but as soon as I did, I would put it on. 10 minutes later and I still couldn't find it (found it the next day and it was in with all my Indie stuff for some reason) so I apologised and he didn't like it and started moaning at me big time. Then his mate came over and just as they were about to start giving me extra grief, I found it on a compilation I had (I buy so many just for one tune that I may not have that I didn't even know it was on there)..."Found it mate!" I said and within seconds it was on and they were up dancing about. Straight after that I played 'Expansions' by Lonnie Liston Smith and they shouted and cheered. They danced for a little while and as more people came in I changed the style and they left the dancefloor.

 

After about 20 minutes they came over said "Thanks" and disappeared. I think the best way to go about abusive people is just to be honest (for starters)...sometimes I may tell the odd fib if someone is getting on my nerves and just say that I haven't got the track they want, even if I have. If they keep coming back I will just tell them that I can't find it etc etc...I'm not there to be abused, I'm there to entertain.