Hello,well after a few months getting myself ready and gathering all my songs (over nine thousand!!!!) im doing my first gig in 3 hours!!! a 4oth birthday party.... i did my soundcheck and rigged my lights im less nervous now and more excited!!....i cant belive this day has come and due thanks to chris and various members of this forum!!....
Agghhhhh Here We g OOOOOOOOOOO.............................

Fantastic, and we want to hear all about it when you get back
Have fun!

Thanks Paula....Is A 9 minute Steps Megamix Too Much??He He !!

GOOD LUCK

Hope its all going well for you ~ Im sure it is... but tell us all about it tomorrow

Good Luck, I hope it's all going well, look forward to the report!
Vinnie

good stuff m8
have a good one

Hey Hey Guyz !! .im back from my first gig!!.well i thought i did a great job with what i had to work with!!..i performed well for my first gig,no mistakes !! NONE !!..i couldnt get the audience!! i played new stuff which they liked...the birthday girl wanted 80' stuff so i delivered and i pulled out my ace card of ""footloose"" what a waste!! BOOM!! everyone left the floor!!! ..thats a great lil tune!!..so then another lady appears and informs me that i should go back to new stuff..i ended up playing very camp classics for the girls as they were the only ones dancing!!....but GET THIS!! ...i got my first booking !! on my first night!!!! ..it is for this ladys brothers birthday...in their house.!! i didnt expect that on my first night as although i performed very well i played really boring dire crap at times.... and another fatal song choice was ""the bomb"" by Bucketheads and it was the 12 inch!!! Doh!!! ....apart from that im chuffed!! and i didnt start till 10.30 pm and finished at 1,30 am...for £140.00 not Bad huh??? ..all in all a good night....stupid punters but good...
im a happy fellow......
GoodNight

Hey 40's birthday parties can be like that, at different gigs the peps will shuffle the
floor and at other gigs it'll be like 'Hey what am I doing wrong' so it depends on the
crowd and type of peps ie: if there's lots of bosses from a company there they dont
like to, should we say 'show themselves up' Im just getting back into the Mobile DJ
market and its going to be tough but I think its going to be more entertaining if I
find a partner or follow along to DJ, I used to do this with a cousin of mine and always pulled the peps towards the booth, at times a bit mad for request which we
served, sounds like you did well, excellent keep at it now that you got a booking it
can only grow from there.

Yay! Im really pleased that it went well for you.

And there lays a golden lesson...what a DJ thinks is a great song, doesnt always match what that nights audience thinks of as a great song, and vic versa, of course...

Of course, getting another booking from last night, at least should add to your confidence about how last night went too.

Well done! When is gig number two?

Now, incidently, is a great time to start making a list of anything that you got asked to play, but didnt have (if anything). It gives you a shopping list for your collection.

hi mate,
glad it went well,the first one is the worst.
on the footloose thing,i played the twist once and it killed the floor!!! i filled me pants when that happened (it was only my 5th gig)but on the other hand had a 70yr old dancing to sandstorm and loving it so it just goes to show that every gig is different.

cheers

mick

I just want to Echo what Gary has said. Over the years when i've been training D.J's one of the most common problems, is their own opinion of music conflicting with a dancefloor reaction. For instance, there are a few people who like the Mad World re-release by Gary Jules - however as D.J's we wouldn't play it since it's a dancefloor killer......and bloody depressing .

With your own example - Footloose. Yep, better than Gary Jules , a popular track that most people from that era will remember, however the main thing to consider is its tempo. This is a very fast track and would probably not appeal to the dancefloor masses. In other words a good radio / driving track but not a dancefloor classic as far as us mobile's go. However, having said that, you may find that it works reasonably well at another gig in the future , all audiences are different.

Reading and understanding a dancefloor is a skill that can take some time to perfect, it probably won't happen overnight. The best thing to do is read some tips on music playlists here on DJU where other D.J's post what they play during a typical function, and then stick with the relatively safe stuff to encourage them onto the dancefloor...and yes, sadly that often means a lot of cheese and playing a lot of predictable material, but if it gets them dancing than thats half of the battle won.

Requests Slips are the D.J's friend!. They give you an indication of what the audience will like, and can be of great help during the early part of the evening when you are looking at the age range of the audience, scratching your head and wondering what to start off with. Obviously, if you at a Function then ignore the odd request for Marilyn Manson, Linkin Park, Eminem etc that the only 15 year old in the building would like to hear!. Request slips are great, not only do they encourage your audience to get involved, but if the majority of requests come back as being from the 70's era, for example, then you would realise that the majority of the crowd are 70's fans and it would be a relatively safe bet that it would get a favourable dancefloor reaction. Consider getting some slips printed / photocopied with your roadshow name, contact details and a space for requests, and then distributing a few to each table and around the bar area before the guests arrive.

Well done, not alot to add to what's already been said, I think we all learn something from every gig and it's always good to review them and ask
1 What did I do that went well
2 What did I do that didn't go well
3 How can I improve next time
Remembering that audience response isn't always going to reflect on your ability
sometimes you can have what you think is a bad night and everyone has actually really enjoyed themselves, just not danced (I know, so why book a DJ).
Anyways well done again!

Vinnie

Hey thanks everyone for your advise etc...a lot of the people were from offices so that would explain why a lot of the suits wouldnt dance and boy when they did they were the campest moves i ever did see to some real camp classics!!!! he he..
i will stick to non extended songs too..i was gonna try a few megamixes too but ill wait till next week.
ive been very lucky to have been offered the contract for a hotel so i already have about 18 gigs ,and will have every theme night,party night and wedding they have!!!my next gig is next saturday, a murder mystery night !!..im very lucky and happy
and ive ordered speaker stands because my speakers became a drinks trolley and got a wee bit wet!! ..

What a start then

Glad that things worked out,keep it up!

Well done mate i never really play foot loose at a mobile gig but if i do a cheese night in the club i play in i play it and it goes down very well

Ah bless, well done on having survived your first gig! Remember, this is where you really start to learn the business.... we can all help with advice but every single one of us is still learning - so well done!

Hi

well done m8

I remember my first professional gig...I forgot to put the bag with my bolts for the stand in my holdall...derrrrrr. Lucily my roadie toddled off back to my flat to get em so i had to manage with a couple of table for the first hour.

The thing t remember about playlist is don't muck about too much going from fast to slow tempo tracks. For example, footlose would probably work well if you stuck it after Wake me up before you go go, as they're of a similar tempo.


Well done though, full steam ahead then!

Darren

Congrats on your first gig going well and getting that hotel contract (we're all after them I can tell ya!!!!!)

Your comment about playing mixes though - I went out on Friday night and the DJ at the venue kept playing mixes, like mastermix stuff and he even played back to the sixties - and it was sooooooooooo annoying - Constantly same beat of party stuff and only 2 mins per track.....

ARGH!!! Don't do it....

The odd one that last 5 mins, but not all the time.. Those people who are not drunk will possibly feel cheated as they realise they are just listening to a CD and not the actual skills of the DJ...

Although that is just my opinion!!

Brilliant to hear it went well!
I have my first proper gig in a couple of weeks, so good to hear about success stories! ;-)
I like the idea of slips for people to ask for what they want. think i might try that.
Has anyone got experience of doing this and then not having the tunes they want though???!

I've kind of got a 'motto' with requests. I say it near the begining and it's also on the request slips.

"For your requests, come up and see the DJ. If we've got it we'll play it!"