First Gig This Year.

[DJ WuSubby 0]

So got a call last Wednesday for a disco at a venue near me (lee-on-solent). The event was just a disco at the end of a day that had dance comps, darts comp's.

 

So quoted the price and got the contract sent of to them, due to the time scale i did not ask for a deposit as it was Saturday just gone.

 

Got up Saturday and half loaded the van, then i decided to give it some affect i'll actually get round to repairing the smoke machine.

Reason i had not done it thus far is due to no venues letting us use it as yet. Finally got the repaired and purchasing some fluid finished loading the van, The diver arrived and headed round to pick up the sound engineer. (I normally take on this role but decided to hand it over to my friend).

 

Finally arrived at the venue at 7, (was a 7.30 start, but with 4 of us did not take long to set up). Had a hard time finding the person who booked us, we did not have time to worry about that due to the fact that the HDD failed on us, we was panicking due to the fact we did not have any back up CD's or Vinyl with us that night.

(Remember peeps allways have a back up.lol)

 

So our sound engineer got the hard drive working, :Thumbup: Then one of the workers asked if we wanted the lights off on the stage and the spots. Obviously we asked if the could be turned of due to the fact that we had our own spots and lighting.

As we had started at this time and the venue was filling up and the lights where being turned of, it came to the stage lights when they was turned of the whole rig lost power. Turned out the guy was just flipping switches and killed power to the stage. Grrr.

 

So about an hour in the person who booked us finally decided to appear, (With the contract) So we all introduced ourself and what not, Due to us getting into the flow of things he left only to return about ten min's later requesting songs and jumping onto our laptop, We constantly told him that we will put the songs on that he requested and as politely as i could to leave us alone, At this point i asked for payment as me and my colleagues would like to get a drink.

He said to go to the bar and order them and he'll pay for them, so we did this.

 

Allmost all the way through the night the gentleman who booked us was on stage, Telling us not to drop tracks, To cut of tracks, Even though the dance floor was pumping. He finally left us alone and we could get into our stride.

 

People kept coming up and requesting songs, Especially this one lady who looked like mutton dressed as lamb, Who constantly asked for chart music. I explained to her that what i was playing is chart music she then started shouting and screaming while walking of stage then turned round and called us "Greebos", That made me and my colleague laugh as we have not been into that scene for about 7 years now. Even though when she returned to the dance floor she was dancing all night.

On the note of this charming lady while i was out side having a smoke, i over heard her slagging us off saying that we was [EDIT] and i quote what she said to some one else, "There [EDIT], I hope you have not booked them for your party next week". (On that note we have a booking for that area this weekend.lol)

 

Through out the night we had the dance floor packed, Towards the end of the night people where requesting some hardcore tracks. :Thumbup: :Thumbup: Reason we was so happy with this is that we actually DJ this genre, but we wished we had taken the decks and our personal vinyl collection.

But we had MP3's, But every one was loving it practically turning it into a rave with all the guys taking of there tops and waving it around there heads.lol

 

So end of the night tracked down the person who booked us for payment, he said to talk to another person tried to find him fount another person by the same name, at this point the gentleman who booked us had left the building.

So during this we had every one thanking us how much a good night it was and grabbing our numbers and stuff for future bookings, I was running around figuring what to do, i spoke to alot of the comittee members who advised me that the gentleman who booked us was only a member and they had nothing to do with the night.

 

But they did take my number to confirm that we had been paid, Still currently waiting, witch is really annoying as it was my mums Bday on Monday and was using some of that money to get her a present, plus we was going to upgrade some of the lighting as well.

 

Thank you for contracts , But all in all bad and good night. But thats was we enjoy, But we have come to the conclusion that no matter what there is one person who is not happy about the music and who keeps demanding requests, this is reference to the lady who slagged us of.

 

 

Thanks for reading, sorry if it was long winded, not much of a writer.lol

 

:: One Love, Richie ::

 

 

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Edited January 27, 2010 by Dukesy

[vokf 0]

Sounds an interesting night. I don't often get grief- and when I do, its mainly from an ex-DJ when playing my local pub - so its a bit of banter...

I think we're all used to the look of utter disgust when dropping a song that one person doesn't like. I enjoy giving them a happy smile :-) Last time this happened, the girl giving me bad looks was the daughter of the bride - and I was playing the brides playlist, and could show it to her! lol

 

I assume you've got a signed copy of your contract?

 

 

I know its sometimes a bit "difficult" to ask for money, and do admit to doing some gigs (when I started out) where the balance was paid at the end (this was mainly kids parties though!)

 

Giving them a quick call when you arrive (on their mobile) and suggesting sorting out payment now will get it over with before you start unloading.

 

I hope you do get paid, but if this drags on for more than a few more days, you may need to apply more pressure- post back here for advice.

 

The DJ Associates site also has articles on claiming back monies owed.

 

[DJ WuSubby 0]

Haha, yeah i know we have had grief from individuals in the past, but we have learnt that there is allways one of them like that at most gigs, one wedding, it was the best man kept requesting rock songs that we did not have.

I even told the best man that i personally did stress the importance for the B&G to give us as much detail for music as possible, the B&G even gave us a playlist.

 

The best man was that rude that we had a young girl must have been around 14 waiting to tell us her request when the bestman and a friend barged in front of her and jumped on stage in front of the rig demanding certain tracks, This was during a drop that i was trying to nail.

Lucky my friend went round and asked her what she wanted.

 

But yup got the copy of the contract, We do normally wait till the end to collect payment but after this i'll do it at the beginning in future.

 

Ive noticed that DJ@ are really good for advice, i'll be joining them next month.

 

But i shall keep people posted.

[stoke53 0]

I always ask for payment at the start of the night as its embarrasing to go round chasing people for payment especially when theyve had a few drinks. The music doesnt start until ive had the payment and of course I never work without a signed contract and contact name phone no and address.

 

alan