Hello all!!

I've had an enquiry about doing a kids disco - it's a 'Leaving primary school' party in a church hall with 40 ten year olds plus some teachers and parents and 3 hours maximum - and it's nice and local.

I haven't done a kids disco before though it sounds like a lot of fun and I'm hoping you can give me some pointers - it's probably all just a matter of common sense but I know that some of you specialise in kids disco's so who better to ask? Besides, I don't want to just dive in there and look like a complete numpty!!

I have plenty of up to date chart stuff for the kids plus party CD's with stuff like 'Simple simon says', Agadoo, Ghostbusters, etc etc but there might be 'standard / most requested' stuff for kids that I'm not aware of. Also,I'm not really clued up on party games and I'd really like to get the kids involved.
Any advice would be gratefully received!!

Cheers in advance,

Greg.

To be honest I think simon says is too young for them. Keep it charts and cheesey, like Aqua, gina g, b*witched, take that, spice girls. Make sure you play the Cha Cha, Macarena, Saturday Night, Oops upside your head, time warp (damien version). Make sure you get some of them in.

Encourage them to make requests then you will get a type of feel for the place. And most of all enjoy it!

Charts and cheese I can do - had an inkling that Simon says might be a bit young.....
Cheers!

I have done a few of these this year -

High School Musical is a must.
Spice Girls, Take That - Rule the world,

I also play "Dr in the Tardis" by the TImelords/KLF for the boys which they love as it samples the Dr Who theme.

Dj Otzi - Hey Baby
Dj Otzi - Do Wa Diddy
Los-somebody - Macarenna
Peter Kay - Amarillo
Steps - 5,6,7,8
Any Girls Aloud
Eminem/50 Cent for the boys they love it, try an get radio versions though or you could have some problems.
Nickleback - rockstar
High School musical - both albums
Usually find some michael jackson works
rihanna - don't stop the music

high school musical and hairspray
chart stuff and dont forget most of them will have big brothers/sisters
so they will probably ask for commercial dance cascada etc...
good luck and enjoy

As a Dad to 8 & 11yr olds, the above is pretty much what is on their MP3 players. Both love High School Musical and Michael Jackson.

hehe to Radio Versions of 50 Cent!

Jason

Ive got that version its called... silence I think

we got one tonight our usual school,talking to one of the helpers last night and they said all the kids have whichdoctor( well she said that annoying song from the chipmunks film) on there mobile and sadly i knew what one she was on about .so think that has to be played at some point

Plenty of chart and r&b lol unfortunately

Oh dear........sounds like fun!!!!.......your in for a big shock!

I find them a nightmare, I can cope with maybe upto 5 under 10s in any circumstances, but if you put 30 of them in a room together, its like "light the blue touch paper and stand well back".

Seriously though.....

Im not cut out to be a childrens entertainer in any way at all, its not for me.
I just cant cope with kids when they are in great quantitys.
Even at mixed age partys where their is a large portion of youngsters, I find it difficult to deal with them, stop them from touching your gear and trying to stop your moving heads from spining round.
And the bigest problem at mixed age partys is their parents not supervising them because they are busy having a good time themselves.

But anyway, its not for me, but you might like doing them, plenty of DJs do, so give it a go and see what you think to it.

In my experience the music suggestions that others have made are perfect for this agegroup, so stick with that...

Oh yea....

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

i think an all kids party is easier than a party with a load of kids at, you will get some very memorable moments from kids parties, especially if you do the same ones at the end of term on a regular basis,yes you can get some nightmare kids but just keep everything out of reach.i will never forget last year some little boy coming up to me and jamie as we were packing away and saying.thankyou very much this is the last time i will see you because i have to go to big school next term. moments like that are worth everything

Hey Baby always goes down well for me and the limited number of kids discos I've done so far - its always great to fade it right down on the "ooh! ah!" a bit too :)

Sugababes - about you now has gone down well for me.
Bass Hunter - now you're gone
Alphabeat - Fascination (i love this track), went down well at my son's 9th the other week.
S-Club-7 Reach - another you can fade down on the "Reach!" sometimes if the kids are up for it!

I'm also doing a year 6 leavers disco in July, and there's a beach party i've been booked for too (looking forward to that - buckets,spades, and flying balls everywhere, and limbo too!).

Cheers,

David



:)


Yeah I find they can sometimes be a pain in the bum trying to come around the back when you're trying to work - esp if you know them. My daughter was always coming up every like 2 seconds (she's 5) at the first disco I did for Halloween last year. Was bad enough one of the cd players wasn't wanting to read cd's properly either...

They also like to hover around where the smoke comes out of the smoke machine.... So have to put that well out of the way of little fingers!

Anyway, I enjoy doing them.!

David

commercial dance [poss latest clubland depending on aera]
top 40 [yes - u will be asked for solja boy 20times! sorry]
mika, girls aloud
the remix of alice deejay and 50 cent - better of alone and ayo tech went down well to
also dance like fly on the wings of love and children of the night
also if dancy chesse cha cha and macerena drop the odd black lace in :)
oops upside your head - im not sure - always fails on me now - so much to say that i never play it unless its requested

also dont play party games - just do a dancing competition, i would say so anyway:)

Leavers discos - you could always suggest doing a special pass the parcel with forfeits under each layer - thats what they did with years 5/6 at xmas.. Was a lot of fun and they all laughed at the person who had to stand up in the middle of the ring doing the forfeit!

Statues is OK to do as a game (although sometims it can drag on a bit if they're all good at it), Corners, while nice in theory, is just a pain to do as a game..

Best girl + boy dancer should do it too...

Oh another suggestion: Fast Food Rockers - Fast Food Song - I managed to get the headmistress to join in once!



David

well coming from experience...
what type of forfeit?

You will need to be very careful how you set up your gear in case of accidents as kids will run into the gear and will want to touch the lights.
If the lights are hot then someone will get burnt.
If teh gear is stacked it might get pulled over onto someone.

For kids discos I prefer being on a stage out of the way.

Its good to have 2 DJ's and then one can play games with the kdis while the other does the music.

Things like making them tell a joke, getting them to sing a nursery rhyme (!), sing a song from the charts, or do a dance (!), err ask them to do something random....

Unfortunately that was the time the amplifier went *bang* 2 minutes into the first track (and I was setup early for once and playing music before they got into the hall.... ), so was a little taken aback that that had happened! I can't remember many of the other forfeits. I don't think every layer had some kind of forfeit. But what I do remember is that they all had a great time, screaming and laughing!

Oh also the equipment was up on a stage and out the way, speakers were deliberately not on their stands and on the temporary stage floor (which is only about 2ft from the proper floor, and the lighting stand was behind the speakers, just about well away. A teacher was nearby to warn them off from touching things anyway !

Cheers,

David



Or you get the odd one who wants to stare into the moonflower lights


David

[quote name='NRG Roadshow']
don't know about Soulja boy though.....sorry to those of you who like it but I really, really,REALLY dislike this 'song' and can't bear to listen to it (how on earth it got into the charts when there are so many great songs out there is unbelievable IMHO) so there might be a few disappointed kids on that one........
[/quote]

Fortunately, I have done many gigs in the past where kids have been present (but not kids only party's) and know how out of control they can get but I will make sure that I have someone with me to keep the kids safe and away from the gear - in other words, a minder!

Lots of great advice here guys and much appreciated - don't know about Soulja boy though.....sorry to those of you who like it but I really, really,REALLY dislike this 'song' and can't bear to listen to it (how on earth it got into the charts when there are so many great songs out there is unbelievable IMHO) so there might be a few disappointed kids on that one........

Thanks one and all,

Cheers,

Greg.

<Just edited your post slightly Greg, you forgot to put the [/quote] at the end of my quote and for some unknown reason its still not showing as a propper quote>

Well I couldnt have put it better myself chap!
I dont play it at all......well maybe I might but they really have to keep nagging me for it!

<Just edited your post slightly Greg, you forgot to put the at the end of my quote and for some unknown reason its still not showing as a propper quote>
[/quote]

Thanks - I've not quite got the hang of this yet...over 40 now you see and according to my 13 year old daughter I'm 'Well past it!'

Dont worry about it.....

Looks like it still aint worked even after I added the [/quote]

So I dont know why that should be......

so if it is requested you wont play it.they were requesting it as soon as we started last night,weplayed it early it filled the floor as soon as it finished they started coming up asking us to play it again so we replayed it in the last 3 songs. don't normally play the same song more than once but if that is what they want that is what they get,i think they know what they want better than i do and my job is to listen to them.smack that also went down a storm last night

Ok,Ok - I would MAYBE play it ONCE if there was enough pressure but I'd rather pluck my eyes out with a red hot poker (which would probably be much more entertaining for the kids anyway!) as this is one of those 'songs' - and I use the the word 'song' very loosely - that is an insult to all the great songs that are in the charts at the moment . Only my humble opinion of course........

I know it's not very professional but I'd rather say that I haven't got it than have to play it and if it wasn't for the fact that it is on Now 69, I wouldn't have bought this track in a million years - as far as I am concerned it is the biggest load of ever released!!!

Now where is my Now 69 CD?....wonder if I can scratch that track out while I wait for the backlash......

No backlash from me Greg......I agree with you 110%!!!!

I play it eventually, coz I get fed up with the kids coming back saying "you aint played soulja boy yet, when are you gonna play it" grrr.....kids of today they have no musical taste!!!

In my day, the tunes had a melody that you could sing along to and also dance too.........
Right Im going to stop their because Im really starting to make myself sound like an old fuddy duddy...

.....thats better almost makes soulja boy barable!!!!

I know we're off topic here but Fuddy duddy Shmuddy duddy - you know what your problem is mate? You've obviously got GOOD TASTE in music!!!
Good on you - melodies rule and when is someone gonna bring back ABBA for god's sake?
I suppose I've opened up another can of worms now..................

nick do you mean like "star trekkin by the firm"
all generations have there souja boy

Star trekkin' - now there's a quirky little ditty........would go down a bomb at a Trekkie convention! Would be a blast watching all the Klinkers (sorry,Klingons),Vulcans and ferengi's getting down to it!
Far superior to Soulja boy - at least it's got something....not sure what it is but I could listen to it without wanting to thrust a pointy stick into my eardrums!
Would even be brave enough to listen to 'Shaddup a ya face' by Joe Dolchi or whatever he's called in preference to Soulja boy......

PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME PLAY SOULJA BOY..........

i bet you in ten years time someone will post along the lines of this new song is driving me crazy i wont play it,why cant we have songs like souja boy now that was not so bad.

you may have to keep it charty (u got the mentions of tunes in other replies) and play the in demand fads - bassline garage, some indie (not that this stuff is new - it's all old skool)

You're right - things aren't looking too good for the future.....we're all doomed......it's all down hill from here............it's life Jim but not as we know it........do wormholes really exist?

On a brighter note - I'll probably have completely lost the plot and be as deaf as a post by then.....

If not already..........

Not at all......nothing wrong with Star-Trekkin....
In fact that song holds special memories for me of family holidays back when I was younger.......all the redcoats or havenmates doing it on stage and getting the kids to join in!!!!
Its in a different class to soulja boy



Aparently they do, we went to the National Space Centre in Leicstrer, I learnt all about worm holes.....

Stephen Hawking knows it all!!!

So they do exist.......probably

Yep,got to admit that every time I hear Star-trekkin' it always brings a smile to my face but I'm a big trekkie fan anyway
If wormholes do exist (definately,probably..) then maybe we should chuck Soulja boy into one and hope it doesn't come back........

yes but it might come back in the 1970's and then we would all have to play it each week as a classic
we could just broadcast it in space then we would never be attacked by aliens,because they would not believe intelligent life existed here

What a brilliant idea.......that might just work!

Unless of course they decide to destroy our planet because its that bad that they feel we dont have a right to exist in the universe



At least if that happened, the older people of today wouldnt be able to say "back in our day, the music had a tune you could dance too, and words you could understand" LOL

true but if the music was that bad then, how much worse would todays be