Weekend 5th October - 7th October

[Mattaious 0]

What you up to this weekend?

 

Me -

 

Friday Night - Down the local

Saturday - Nothing

Sunday - Round me sisters for her birthday

 

 

Hope everyone has a wkd weekend!

 

 

[KrazyKaz 0]

I'm off to Caister on a "girlie" weekend with my sister in law and my 2 daughters (age 13 & 9)

 

 

 

[Dream Catchers 0]

Nothing tonight.

Charity gig for Derian House (a childrens hospice) on Saturday.

 

Jim

[wizard 0]

Just finished packing suitcase..................now heading off for sunny florida for a couple of weeks

 

well actually it's tornados, hurricanes and lots of rain at the moment............sounds like fun !!

 

enjoy the gigging weekend all

[High Fidelity 0]

No gigs for me this weekend, so hoping for a nice relaxing weekend.

 

Nice scary job to do on Saturday though, replacing some bulbs in the lights at church. About 20ft in the air on the roof beams, so when you go up the ladder there's nothing in front of you, just open space all the way to the floor. :scared: I always wait till there's a few gone before I get the ladders out.

[C.S 0]

wine tasting!

[brianmole 0]

Friday - wedding in Surrey

 

Saturday - 18th in Camberley

[Norfolk DJ 0]

Friday - Race Night helping out my pal Tonsk

Saturday - family party night

[robbiedj 0]

Tonight 65th birthday just around the corner. Small venue in local pub so only need small rig and tripod of lighting. It's a large family we do a lot of parties for, having done numerous birthdays, anniversaries, engagements and weddings.

 

Best part is that since the local hall closed down, they use the pub, who think we are great but too expensive for them. Normally they have a cheap dj who can't supply the range of music we carry and tends to go down the chart/recent Now albums track. Party Night Tonight, folks.

[Gary 0]

Well, I did have a wedding is Friday, but they cancelled -everything-,the reception, the disco, the lot...oh well.

 

His gave me the rare opportunity to go to a retirement party with my other arf. I suppose a chef goes to lunches and dinners keen to see and taste all the food, or a florest might view other peoples boquets with critical acclaim...me? I tend to go to a venue as a guest and run a silent eye over the gear being used by the venue and the entertainment...anyone else the same ???

 

Friday was a karaoke night. The karaoke comprised of 2 uncovered tables of the venues, wires, holding mixer/amp, wires, one single drawer karaoke player, wires, 3 mics, wires, 2 x flat screen monitors, wires, 2 x 8 bulb light boxes, wires, a pair of very big full range speakers on very narrow tripods oh, and some wires.

 

It's not possible (without getting into crazy equipment prices) to be wirefree, but I felt that presentation-wise,covering the tables, taping the wires down or covering them with rubber cable guides/ramps etc would have made the show better.

 

With him only having one music source, gaps between background music, and/or the previous karaoke track, and the next karaoke track were, of course, inevitable and, to me at least, catastrophically long and silent (and fixable for probably/hopefully less than he earnt that night).

 

Equipment wise, the mics had echo on them all night, even during the speeches etc - I guess that's just the echo control not having a "off" option.

 

The mics also provided one of the funniest moments of irony in the evening - had our table in stitches -here's why...

 

The first few announcements by the Karaoke presenter were too quiet, too bassy, and un-decypherable - you could pick out the occassional word, but that was all.

 

So, then onto the Karaoke presenters first song - "Elvis: The wonder of you"

 

And bearing in mind the faact that the micsetup was no good for the previous

announcements in terms of clarity...the opening words of that song are...

 

Anyone?...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[brianmole 0]

:bouncy:

"When no one else can understand me..."

LOL!

 

Well, Friday was a wedding in a local hotel, very nice, plenty of disco & 80's etc... but Saturday - WOW! One of the best gigs this year. Played absolutely no chees for an 18th - plenty of hip-hop & rnb, but a big house set, and dnb to top it all off. Many thanks to NIM for roadieing on both gigs, and for DJing with me on Saturday, we had a wicked dynamic going with mashups / acapellas / 3 deck mixing etc... just like the masters at work LOL! And a nice bacon baguette on the way home.

 

I had doubt whether the Bose L1's would be enough for 120 odd at an 18th, but I really shouldn't have worried - they were perfect.

 

Funniest thing was the manageress who wanted to know how much, the look of shock accompanying the "oh really" once I told her was well funny..

[Andy Westcott 0]

13th in a nearby village on Friday.

 

2 hour event, good time was had by most, and I got to go home reasonably early. smile icon

 

There were threats of several more follow-up bookings to come... Not the highest paying gigs in the world, but better than sitting at home with the wife!

[EdBray 0]

Wedding for about 120 last night, mainly 'old school' stuff and some indie only played about half a dozen tracks older than 1980, they included YMCA, Dancing Queen, I Got You and Sweet Home Alabama all requests from the Bride.

 

Took a while for them to get going meal/speeches over ran (as they do), first dance was at about 9.40, but from then until midnight the dancefloor was pretty much full and I had some requests for tracks I have never played before: 'She Sells Sanctuary' - Cult, 'Here The Drummer Get Wicked - Chad Jackson and 'Magic Carpet Ride' - Mighty Dub Katz all went down really well.

 

Used one L1 with two B1s and it was plenty. Had a couple of people come up and ask about it as they could not believe that all the sound was coming from that 'stick in the corner', the two B1s were under the deck stand behind the curtain.

[Dream Catchers 0]

Well last night I did a charity ball for a local children's hospice at David Lloyd Leisure.

 

Set up from 5.30 and all checks done by 6.45.

There were about 80 punters there and to be honest they looked as though they were not gonna join in with the disco.

It was a very slow start due to having a raffle, then an auction and finally the buffet (more like a banquet as there was a whole pig in the middle of the table).

 

At about 9.30 they had finished so I started and straight away was asked for cheese, I couldn't believe the reaction, the floor was full ALL NIGHT.

Definetly ended up being the best gig for ages.

 

Jim

[C.S 0]

Well, I did have a wedding is Friday, but they cancelled -everything-,the reception, the disco, the lot...oh well.

 

His gave me the rare opportunity to go to a retirement party with my other arf. I suppose a chef goes to lunches and dinners keen to see and taste all the food, or a florest might view other peoples boquets with critical acclaim...me? I tend to go to a venue as a guest and run a silent eye over the gear being used by the venue and the entertainment...anyone else the same ???

 

Friday was a karaoke night. The karaoke comprised of 2 uncovered tables of the venues, wires, holding mixer/amp, wires, one single drawer karaoke player, wires, 3 mics, wires, 2 x flat screen monitors, wires, 2 x 8 bulb light boxes, wires, a pair of very big full range speakers on very narrow tripods oh, and some wires.

 

It's not possible (without getting into crazy equipment prices) to be wirefree, but I felt that presentation-wise,covering the tables, taping the wires down or covering them with rubber cable guides/ramps etc would have made the show better.

 

With him only having one music source, gaps between background music, and/or the previous karaoke track, and the next karaoke track were, of course, inevitable and, to me at least, catastrophically long and silent (and fixable for probably/hopefully less than he earnt that night).

 

Equipment wise, the mics had echo on them all night, even during the speeches etc - I guess that's just the echo control not having a "off" option.

 

The mics also provided one of the funniest moments of irony in the evening - had our table in stitches -here's why...

 

The first few announcements by the Karaoke presenter were too quiet, too bassy, and un-decypherable - you could pick out the occassional word, but that was all.

 

So, then onto the Karaoke presenters first song - "Elvis: The wonder of you"

 

And bearing in mind the faact that the micsetup was no good for the previous

announcements in terms of clarity...the opening words of that song are...

 

Anyone?...

 

I always try not to dissect other peoples gear or performances as there are any number of reasons that things are as they are,lack of money or personal problems can be a reason for things being as they are and they can easily happen to anyone.I always think its best to look for the positive things in peoples performances. Besides there are none of us here who are qualified to criticise anyone else as i am sure we have all done sub standard gigs.

[Dream Catchers 0]

i am sure we have all done sub standard gigs.

I'm thinking of specialising in them LOL

 

Jim

[TonyB 0]

I always try not to dissect other peoples gear or performances as there are any number of reasons that things are as they are,lack of money or personal problems can be a reason for things being as they are and they can easily happen to anyone.I always think its best to look for the positive things in peoples performances. Besides there are none of us here who are qualified to criticise anyone else as i am sure we have all done sub standard gigs.

 

Yep, I can confess to that. I can remember a few years ago having a mixer amp under a venue table, unflight cased decks on the table with mixer at the side. No frontage to hide the wires and wires hanging from the lighting stand. It is easy to forget our roots sometimes.

 

No gigs for me this weekend but picked up quite a few bookings. Two for next year and three for this year plus waiting to receive confirmation for another two weddings next year.

 

Visited two clients today. One is for a 40th birthday they are holding at home. The price didn't frighten them off so I asked if I could visit to see where I would be situated (and see how big the place was). Arrived at the house and had to press the buzzer at the gateway and they opened the electric gates. The room they are holding the party in is massive, I've played smaller venues. Very nice people too so I'm looking forward to it. This is the gig i picked up as a result of doing the School Charity gig.

 

While in the area, I called in to see the organiser of the School Charity gig. Dropped off the paper work, picked up the deposit and was informed to expect another call for another function. So my advice for anyone who dithers about doing a charity function at a reduced price is don't dither, just do it!

Edited October 7, 2007 by TonyB

[Andy Westcott 0]

But I see no problem in analysing the equipment and presentation of a 'competitor'.

 

I think it is the best way to observe mistakes, as our own sometimes go unnoticed by ourselves; This way, we can pick on an issue and pledge to ourselves never to make the same mistake. Of course, if we see something positive, we can perhaps utilise the idea in our own show.

 

Industrial espionage, I think they call it in other businesses!

 

[Gary 0]

Time for part two of my recount of Fridays Karaoke gig which I attended as a guest.

 

Some of you sober types, :flirt: will have noticed something missing from my initial comments - The conclusion: The night went really well. Yes, people were a bit reluctant to come up and strangle a cat in their own particular way, indeed I only sung murdered The Beatles "Twist and Shout" because its one of those songs that, with all respect to The Beatles, is more of a shouters song than a singers song, which means it suits little ol' non-singer Me, pretty well.

 

Also on the upside was the background music. As I mentioned, it was a retirement gig, so...the focus person was...(hands on buzzers, no confering)....yep...just above 60. Most of his mates there?....yep, around the same age. So, it was pleasing to hear that the first background CD on was Tom Jones Greatest Hits, followed by Greatest hits of Barry White, with Now 46 used inbetween singing tracks later. This may sound like a lot of background music, but there was not only the "come in, sit down, natter" stage of the evening, but also the meal, which looked delicious. The karaoke started after the speeches, which were after the meal.

 

Like many, although perhaps not enough DJs, I wont normally go up to the DJ at a gig and say "I'm a DJ too, why don't you do this, or do that". I have been known to assist during equipment failures or once or twice on a set-up error (I've posted one on here years ago about a guy with a mobile phone next to his mixer and wondering why every 20 minutes his sound system sounded like the electronic Grand National was going past. - so I told him that moving his mobile phone would help.)

 

On this ocassion (the karaoke), I was prompted by the rest of my table, to tell the guy that "we cant 'ear 'im". I carefully translated this to "Some of us were wondering if you could turn your mic up louder and take some of the bass off of it, as the acoustics in this room are awful for the spoken voice". I didn't mention the leads to him, or any of the other things which to be honest, I don't think that anyone else, other than DJs would notice. Besides, the last thing that any of us want to hear with two hours of show left, is a list of "could be betters" which cant be corrected on the night, or even later on, with time and money, neither of which may be available.

 

I would have felt bad about my earlier comments, had I mentioned any information which would have narrowed down the disco in question. EG: If I'd said that it was (dunno)...erm.... KJ Karaoke Roadshow Extravagasia, from Swansea - at the Swansea New re-form Foreign Legions Sports and Social Club, bookable on 06123 456789 - then someone could have quite accurately hit a report button or summit.

 

As it happens, the KJ was quite chatty and thanked me for telling him about the mic in-audibility. That said, he also immediately made some adjustments to the Bass and the Gain...and as you more Eagle-eyed ones would have summised from the fact that we could hear what he was singing in his opening number, the hint paid off, for him - we could then hear him.

 

So, apols to those who, prior to part II coming out, thought that I might have started Trick or Treating early this year with my scary comments in part one.

 

It's a tough call, commenting on what some might consider to be a competitor, and easy for it to be read as just sour grapes, but many many more people in a given situation learn from mistakes. Sometimes their own, sometimes those of others. As long as the "other" isnt named, or equally precisely identified, it's perhaps more of a learning experience, than E-graffitti (wish I could spell grafitti...).

 

We've said before on DJU that whether you've brought your own deck stands/tables, or borrowing the venues, using a table cloth (yours, or theirs) to cover the table(s) is a simple step which pays dividends in the cosmetic, or On-stage appearance stakes. Hides the wires, adds a focal point ("I'm over here")...and stick some coloured lights under the same table (not too close to the cloth) and you've got a massive light box that you didn't have to bring with you

 

Cables are a nessecary evil for us, and more so for KJ's thanks to monitors needing power and signal feeds, to the middle of the stage/floor. Rubber cable traps ("Trip strips") can be very pricey, but gaffa tape can keep things looking neater and help improve safety, for a much more modest fee - and can even be re-used a couple of times if you need to be really budget conscious.

 

 

 

[C.S 0]

Good second post Mr G. Must admit i was very concerned that the part 1 would scare a few peopleas not everybody can look at things as tips to improve but see them as a kind of "if you dont do it like this then you are rubbish"!