This Friday I'm doing a disco for kids aged 10-14. I'm just wondering if they will dance to songs like Hey Baby DJ Ötzi, Tragedy Steps, Hot, Hot, hot, Le Bamba etc.

I think I'm covered on the chart stuff but I'm worried if they don't dance I'll need some cheese. What will get them dancing?

You'll know once you play some! I would think that the Cha Cha Slide might still be popular & worth a try

they tend to like the main populat cheese suspects like Cha Cha Slide, 5678, YMCA

Recently had this age group dancing/singing along to Bob the Builder, Lambada, Music Man, Sham Rock, Country Roads.

Hmm Bob the Builder is still going strong then!!

A Party without Cheese is like Bread without butter


Go for it!

Ok thanks Guys! Cheese it is!!

Id suggest the purchase of the "Pop Party" CD's

Theres a new one out - Pop Party 5

Yeah thanks for that I will check the new one out. The problem is that the 14 year olds have quite mature taste in music really. My 13 year old daughter's collection includes My Chemical Romance, 50 Cent, etc. but 10 year olds are more likely to be into the Fast Food Rockers! Should be a fun night!!

Kids/teenagers love Cha Cha Slide, Macarena and Saturday Night. You can't go far wrong if you combine those songs with some Avril Lavigne (Girlfriend), Sean Paul (Temperature), Sean Kingston (Beautiful Girls) and Christine Aguilera (Candyman). Don't forgot a few rock tunes as well, namely 'Living On a Prayer', 'American Idiot' and 'Teenagers (MCR).

Enjoy it!! Sounds like my kind of gig

In my opinion, kids LOVE cheese.

I did a 14th birthday party last weekend. Besides playing MCR, Kaiser Chiefs, Lostprophets and similar on the playlist they asked for these

Cha Cha Slide
Macarena
Saturday Night
Time Warp
Agadoo
I Am The Music Man
Superman
5, 6, 7, 8
Oops Upside Your Head

Hey Baby - DJ Otzi went down extremely well.

I usually find that that age group like current chart stuff but also like the following tracks, even more so when they can play with my inflatable guitars, microphones and saxaphone.

Summer of '69
Livin' On A Prayer
Sweet Child O' Mine
We Will Rock You

Ah yes, I've actually ended a few of my school discos with 'We Will Rock You'. You can always get everyone to join in with the hand clapping and it looks and sounds great!

Thanks guys for all these suggestions, I wouldn't have thought of Livin On a Prayer for some reason.

Just as a matter of interest, has anyone tried Five's version of "We Will Rock You"

So they aren't too old for inflatable guitars and stuff like that?

No way, kids and adults alike love them.

Agreed Matt......
A party without cheese is like....
Beer without Alchohol
Coffee without caffine
Or.....A pint in your local without being able to have a ciggie!!!!

Anyway......

Im struggling to come up with some suggestions havnt but they will love their cheese dances and stuff, I like doing partys for this age group, they are full of energy and seem pretty easily pleased, you wont have to work too hard to get them having a good time LOL
In fact I find these partys the easiest to do, coz they will pretty much dance to anything as long as you keep it focused on the latest charts and cheese.......you will be on a winner.

Heres my tip.....Three words....
High School Musical......I feel I need say no more other than "they will love it!"



Never used it at a gig, and never would!
If I was gonna play this track I would play the original queen version.....no question at all!

Could anyone tell me the best version of Superman and does it go down ok with this age group?

I need to know in about 10 mins, as I'm leaving for the disco after that!!!

So much for that then.

so how did it go then.superman got to be black lace imo i would only play it if it got requested , did you play it and how did it go.

I thought their was only one version of superman by black lace......

I did it at a 40th last night, I was asked for "The Music Man"......so I thought why not, lets do another black lace one as they loved Music man...put on superman straight after music man and they loved that too.

I often play it at the end of my Black lace party set. Never requested but always liked. The key is that at many a function is playing tracks which are never requested but popular. Most people don't have the bottle to request Black Lace.

"Five's version of "We Will Rock You"

Why not play it?
It has all the elements of the original, but is more beefy in my opinion, and the added vocals really do the song justice. Also it ends sensibly...
(One of the few instances where the original isn't the best.)

I play this most times, and the response seems to be better, if there is a difference at all.

Agreed. Good track, which I sometimes play.

And a lot of DJs dont have the bottle to play black lace coz of the stigma attached too it, but IMO theirs lots of times when it works and it works really well!
You just gotta try and get the punters into full on party mode first then give it a spin! (Usually wait for them to have had copious ammounts of alchohol first then they like it LOL)

As for Five - We will rock you

I dont dislike it, its a good track, I just think the original is better IMO

A cover version I saw on the TV the other day I thought was amazing and I would like to get hold of it....

Mcfly covering Rihannas Umberella......I loved it! (probbs just me though LOL)

I think that the presentation is important with these party type tracks such as Black lace.

If you just play 'Superman' or Music man unannouced, then the public get rather lost and caught out by them.

I tend to use the radio mic, stop the music and talk to the punters on the dance floor, asking the children to come up first and make a circle, then inviting mums and dads and grandparents. Normally, I would get 30 people out of say 100 in the venue on the floor, which is enough and then start off with the Okey Cokey, then the Music man and finally superman. Maybe as a follow up the Cha Cha Slide.

Well the disco went well. The kids all cheered at the end and said they'd had a great time. It took 20 minutes to get them dancing and I was a bit worried that I'd ever get them doing more than tapping their feet in the corner of the room. I was inundated with 13 year old girls asking me for songs. Most of them wanting Leona's "Bleedin love". The first song of the night that really got them going was the Jacksons "Blame It On The Boogie" which kind of surprised me. The inflatables were the best 15 quid I've ever spent! They made a massive difference and got the boys dancing too. The small microphones were the most popular.

It was the cheese that worked though. I tried to keep it cool, but the congo worked better than Justin Timberlake!

I didn't take Superman as I really didn't know if it was going to be the kiss of death. When I looked on itunes to download the track, about 25 different versions came up. I DID play Five's version of "We Will Rock You" as I personally, like you Andy, think it's much beefier (is that a word?) than Queen's version and I seemed to have had a lack of Rap the whole night and I felt at least I could add a bit on that track. I went from that to McFly's version of "Somebody To Love" and both tracks went down really really well.

I'm still very aware of my weaknesses, which is firstly to play the requests that I get asked to play, I'm always scared that they will go down badly and clear the floor, and secondly I need to gain confidence talking on the mic.

Saying that, the kids danced non stop the whole night, said they'd loved it and moaned when I said that this was the last track for the night. So I think it was ok. I loved every minute of it! Seeing rows and rows of kids right infront of me doing the Cha Cha Slide brought a lump to my throat! I know I'm a bit of a wuz, but it felt great!

Sounds like you had a good night

Told you those inflatables work!!

Sounds like you had a great night.

Did you do any of the party dances with them?

how many inflatables do you take and how many came back after or do they take them home with them.where is the best place to get them.

So dont play requests straight away then, save them for a more appropriate part of the night.....thats what I do if somebody asks for somthing that dont really fit with what Im playing now.

As for talking on the mic........it takes time.....but if you dont feel confident dont do so much of it yet.

KrazyKaz you sure were right!! Thanks for your advice. They were a real asset to the whole night. I wouldn't have believed they would have been either. The girls loved pretending they were the new Leona Lewis and the boys the new McFly!

Andy, I got some of my inflatables off Ebay (dead cheap) and some from a party shop. No they didn't take them home or even ask too. One pink saxaphone was ruined, because I think a kid was bashing another kid over the head with it, but the rest are fine. The microphones cost me 99p and the other ones were about 1.99 to 2.99 each which is nothing if it helps the disco go well!!

Nick, I did do what you suggested at the end of the night I kind of slipped a couple of the requests in, some I was going to play anyway. Is it important to do as many as the requests as you can? I had about 18 or more.

The mic still kinda scares me. The first time I used it on my first disco I didn't even realise I had to turn the music down before I talked on it!!

Thanks for your support and suggestions, I really appreciate them all.

I have 12 guitars, 2 mics and 1 sax, but going to get more. I've always get them all back at the end, but if I get them cheap enough I'm not too worried if I don't get them all.

My local party shop sells them at £2.29 each, which, is my opinion is too much to spend, especially if there's a chance of losing them.
I found that ebay is not too bad and also Amazon might be worth a go.
There was a guy on Amazon selling them at 65p each, but when I went to buy some, he had sold out.
Ebay seem to have loads. 34" suitable for kids, 42" suitable for adults.

What I mean by play them at an appropriate time......
Say your doing a bit of an RnB set and sombody comes and asks for the spice girls...
Its not gonna be good to play one track from the spice girls in the middle of 50 cent and Kanye West, it just wouldnt be right.....
So Im saying do your Rnb set as you planned it and then later on when your doing a bit of cheesy pop slip in the spice girls somwhere appropriate or use the track to launch into the cheesy set and announce it as a request...
Sometimes punters ask for songs that would go well with what your playing now, so by all means put it on now....

Just think about what they have asked for and if it will go well with what your doing, or think of somewhere appropriate you can drop it in later on in the evening.

Requests quite often launch me into the direction of music that the punters want to hear, and if it works then I go for more of the same style of music as the request....

See what I mean?

Kaz - Any links to decent sellers of inflatables on ebay please?

That last post is what separates us from jukeboxes and ipods - we use a bit of savvy to slot the requests in at the right time and then react to the response - sounds simple enough but they haven't yet found software to replicate it and doubt they ever will - it's called the human element. Sometimes we get it right, others we don't but with experience we tend to get it more right than wrong

And sometimes if the track i s a total no-goer, I say I don't have it to avoid clearing the whole venue

Yeah, it does make sense! Thanks Nick, I will definitely try that out next time I get some requests.

I'm not sure if this will work, but this is the seller I used on Ebay to get my inflatables. She actually sent me the wrong coloured saxophone but then sent me some more and said I could keep the original ones as a good will gesture which I thought was good of her.

http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/vivifs/

Oh yea one more word of warning and IT WILL happen quite a lot....

Lets say somebody asks for a good track but it dont fit in with what your playing now, so you shelve the track for playing at a more appropriate time.....
DO NOT be surprised if said requester is back at your DJ stand five minutes later saying "you aint played _______ yet, can you play it next?"

I just try to be as polite as possible and assure them I have not forgotten them and I will get round to it soon......or if they have requestsed a track that will kill the dancefloor tell them you dont have the track...like Nolfolk said..........
Im sure all us DJs have told that little white lie a few times LOL Its gotta be about keeping the majority happy and not just the one person who bugs you for their request.

OMG she sent you the wrong colour saxophones.....deary me what is the world coming too LOL
It does say on her add though "colours may vary" and "we have no control over what colours are despatched"......so how did you swing the freebie ones? And yea it was good of her, as from the sounds of it she didnt have to give you a specific colour at all....

sounds to me that your doing ok kid, well done. very pleased for you. i am gonna get some inflatables next week for my rock sets and elvis, and gonna do some boy band v girl band stuff now xmas is coming.