I recently recieved a enquiry from a couple whom wated to book me for my dance music style disco..
I quoted them but today heard back from the Bride..

"I went to the hotel where we are having the reception and unfortunately we are going to have to have their DJ otherwise we have to pay a licensing fee of £150 to have our own DJ!

Thanks for your help anyway - I wont say who the hotel are because i dont want to cause any issues for the couple but i just thought i would share this and perhaps hear your views on this so called license fee..

I am not sure they can do that.Restrictive practices or something

The venue can do just as they wish its their Hotel or Venue so they make the rules.
Some insist on PAT & PLI some will insist on using their preferred supplier. They own the venue so you have to abide by their rules.

If the bride and groom really want to use your service they could always say they are going to cancel the hotel and see what happens.
Your clients are the only ones who can really put the pressure on the venue to let them use you as your contact would be with them and not the venue.

I have just been through a similar situation but have managed to turn the venue around. to using my services.

This practice looks to be common on some venues - its been discussed here on DJU back in 2005, and I found a US AV forum also discussing it as a problem over there.

Chat with trading standards? I don't actually know if any laws are being broken, but they should soon tell you..
Worth a call, just to find out where you stand.

Its a shame the couple can't have the DJ they want, and perhaps they could ask the venue to clarify where this license fee comes from?

Its better know as "The we cant make some extra money out of the client we are already fleecing for a fortune if you don't book our DJ so we can mark up the price of that licence"

Works a lot like a produb licence...

I hate some hotel practices.

Nik

I'll bet the Hotel has some contract stating that all fees are payable already etc. Its worth checking the small print to see exactly what it says on the matter...

I'll also bet 150 quid is probably what they'll be creaming off the other DJ...

I wonder how much the venue are charging for the use of "their" DJ... What if the Bride & Groom don't like the DJ they're forced to use? Can't they be "difficult" to the venue, ask for references, proof of PAT, PLI, produb? photos, a meeting etc? Perhaps the bride & groom could go and ask the venue for proof that the hotel electrics are up to scratch.. They could share their concerns that their day will be ruined by someone they don't know at all...

Could they potentially negotiate the 150 quid down to something "more reasonable"...

Or if they're forced to use the venues preferrred supplier - get something in writing that they will receive a full refund of the DJ fees if they're not happy with it.. ?

I'd also ask for details of this "licencing fee" of which they speak, and then get them to clarify it with you if they're unsure... if they say its some performance licence, you could get them to call the hotel's bluff - saying they'd rang the PPL people and there is no such thing blah blah blah.

Basically make life difficult for the Hotel Manager... ? (or could that backfire?)

If it wasn't mentioned at their meetings before now, then that is quite underhand of the hotel to only bring it up now...



Cheers,

David, throwing things up in the air and maybe something will stick..

Thanks for your feedback - it seems a bit unfair that a venue could use the fee as to control the entertainment & although i would like to pursue it with the venue i feel id rather not this time.

I would agree in this instance I thin you would be on a hiding to nothing.

My fave hotel scam is the dance floor one.

Hire our dance floor for £250 or get it free if you hire our DJ £350....

Now that's a good one NOT!!!

Nik

lol Nick yeah thats a great deal! A Whole dance floor for £250!!!

I was just thinking, if say the Wedding DJ ascociation could play a part in warning/guiding couples to venues that are exclusive venues this could make a difference for us.. Either that or we could make up a list of venues that do discriminate and put a warning on our sites - but lets face it a lot of couples book the DJ last so its simply too late by then!

Not sure the WDJA is interested in helping DJs anymore as the person who formed it has moved on to a money making scheme.

Also you are right the entertainment seems to be the last thing on the list and the least important for most B&Gs but suddenly becomes one of the most important as the big day unfolds.

Today already I have had two people call who have been let down by their DJ for this coming weekend. How much was the other DJ charging?

one was £80 the other was £100.

What was the top budget for both £120 and that was till 1am.

makes you laugh but also makes you

Nik

I'd be happy if it just produced some enquiries!!

Will you be re newing this year Steve ?

Nik

I did - earlier this year.

It's certainly true that the market has contracted.

However, in the past week I have had a number of enquiries and bookings for this year and next through my own website, so things are beginning to pick up.

I remember giving a quote for a 21st last year butt hen they got back to me saying that the club would only let them have the party there if they took their DJ. They seemed quite adamant that they wanted me to do the party and a week later I got a call saying they had been given the go ahead.

I went to scout out the venue and meet the management and they seemed very cold and off with me (as I expected)
The party came and went.
Was brilliant.
About a week later I got a call from the venue asking if I would like a residency one night a week!!!!

Was over the moon! Amazing how things can turn out!

Glad to hear it

Nik

Maybe I'm just sceptical but I'll be interested in knowing where all of this work is coming from for those who proclaim some kind of record breaking year or a drastic and recent return to normality. I guess its word of mouth because I doubt that its entirely gained from the internet, and even Steve mentioned on another post that a Wedding Directory which performed consistently well in previous years has been stagnant and performing poorly recently. Its pretty much everywhere.

I must admit that I don't use statistics gained from the various DJ's on forums to gauge the current state of the industry or demand for our services, nor would I ever use it for marketing purposes. Such information is usually subject to the occasional embellishment with a sprinkling of bull for good measure. Its also diluted by wishful thinking, envy, greed or just a pure denial to look hard and obvious facts in the face.

Approach a bank for a business loan with your business plan entirely formulated by something 'DJ Dub-a-lub' said on an internet forum and get laughed out of town!. Of course it must be right if 'DJ Bertie Big Potatoes' said it, mustn't it? 'Course it is!....and I'm dating Kelly Brook.

If anybody has ever used the various stats available through entities like Google, they will probably see a much darker but accurate figure. For example there are various suites of tools available through Google's webmaster tools, and Adwords Suggestions as well as Alexa which are a little bit more accurate with trends than some DJ with a big mouth, an even bigger ego, but who is still getting to grips with his Fisher Price 'My first client contract' and who thinks that market penetration is something he does with his bit on the side under a stall after a gig.

Personally, I'll sell my soul to Satan and pay copious amounts of cash for business advice from Mr Bean before I start 'taking on board' business advice and planning from, (and I'm sorry to say it) faceless aliases on forums.

Either way, when I look at the graphical & historical data trends available from these Search giants and see how the number of searches for popular and relevant terms like 'Mobile Disco' has decreased, then I'm likely to accept that the industry is deep in recession. Once I drill down to my geographical area, Google's stats tell me that the number of people actively typing 'Mobile Disco' into their search engine is down 75% since September 2009, and still is flat lining even now at the same amount - so no sign of any recovery yet.

Even if you widen the stats criteria and include all of the UK, the number of searches for this term is '-56%' compared to the same time last year and its obvious from that, that 56% fewer people are actively using Google to search for our services.
I'm sure that we all agree that both Google and Alexa have no bias towards DJ's on any positive or negative basis and that these stats are probably far more accurate and reflective than anything said on any DJ forum.

So whilst I agree that there is still work out there, it could be around 56% down on last year as far as the internet side is concerned. Of course it is entirely feasible that these overly busy DJ's are finding more work from word of mouth, wedding fayres or some unique marketing concept that escapes the rest of us......but then I read some of their posts and that illusion quickly vanishes

And all of this during media discussion about the distinct possibility of a double dip recession.

Not to sure what your trying to say there Dan but you sure sound down mate.

Nik

Not down at all. Sceptical? Maybe!

Mine is over 40% down currently although it was worse than that earlier in the year.

I am naff at % but last year for Aug we did 22 gigs and this year its currently 16 gigs.

So it is down a little but I don't know % wise how much. I am sure you mathematical guys can tell me lol.

Nik

Approximately 27% down.

Dan,
I'm not sure what tool you're using for your research, so appols if you have been using google trends.

Checking with google trends;
http://www.google.com/trends

Shows a few complications - "simian mobile disco" is also in the mix..., so a new album release last summer is showing an artificial peak- and any public mention of this band will sadly skew the results.
The following search also displays "simian mobile disco" with "mobile disco" - and if it were possible to subtract one from 't other, we'd see a truer picture.

A bit more specific "mobile dj"shows a downward trend, but not on such a high scale, but perhaps .
"wedding dj" shows things about the same.

So, ignoring public claims on being busy/quiet, we can see from Google that there have been roughly the same amount of queryies for "wedding dj" as there were last year.


I'm not doubting anyone's work is getting lower (or higher!), but search terms are not showing a major problem from these results.

Now, if we're looking at stats on our websites - then visitors need to find us before we can log their search terms, this is then an exercise in SEO, and fresh, original content.
Adding other DJ's that are starting out - often web savvy with flashing web sites, they can become competition without even trying.

Cheers Steve. Mind you some work still to come in I took two more today for this month. I have to be fair and honest the figures include Kids Parties Adult Parties and Radio work as it is all on a self employed basis and working in the same arena as it were.

Nik

Sadly the Hotel can do pretty much what it likes. In some ways its no different than insisting that patrons to their venue don't bring and consume their own food and drink within the premises. So legally they are doing nothing wrong, although I would think that from a PR prospective, further limiting a clients choice of wedding service providers, beyond the norm isn't probably the best marketing idea ever conceived.

For example, their resident disco may be considered by the venue management to be the best in the world, but since everybodies opinion is different, it might be that a client who is forced to book the resident dj doesn't share the same view as the management at the end of their Wedding!. It could also be that the client had been at a Wedding where she had seen a DJ whom she liked and whom she wanted to book for her Wedding, however thanks to the venue manager, she was prevented from doing and so, effectively had her evening reception marred or ruined by somebody elses decision making. I really wouldn't want to be a venue manager in that situation, indeed if they are answerable to somebody else, then one complaint to the head office from an angry / distressed bride may mean that they aren't a manager any more.

Getting involved with recommending anything or any service is a minefield, purely because in the event of something occuring, then everybody remembers exactly who had put them in touch with that entity in the first place and one whose recommendation they trusted. I think this is why most venues, fortunately still prefer the client to book their own Wedding service providers, then if it all falls apart, at least they won't be held accountable.



If you do go down this route, I would avoid making it look like sour grapes in respect of a DJ peeved about losing a job to a resident Dj at a hotel, as T.S are very busy, understaffed and generally overworked and unlike forums, don't get involved in fueling petty inter-industry spats. It would be far better to encourage an actual client to persue this route and make a formal complaint, ideally to the head office if the hotel is a chain or directly to the address of the owner of the business if it is privately owned.

Maybe you could get one of the big industry Wedding Magazines to take up the story or run an article, in the interests of restricting the clients own choices of course.

Or speak to NADJ who are already pursuing this issue with some venues.

I've taken one venue to task in my area and have advised my brides & grooms that are holding their wedding there not to pay the £150 ("not having our dj" fee), and to ask the venue what that money is for.

They've already been told:-

1: it's for insurance - nope our dj has £10m PLI
2: no sorry it's for electrical test purposes - nope again our dj has PAT
3: no erm we meant its for an entertainment license for your dj, as our entertainment license only covers us for our dj - nope thats just bo:cense:ocks.
4: erm we'll get back to you on that

So already this year I've had 4 gigs at this venue and all four times the b&g haven't had to pay the £150 fee, as I've armed them with the questions to ask and the answers.

They'd never say "you have to have our photographer/cake/vicar/wedding car/bridesmaids" would they?

But how come people just accept they have to have the hotels dj even if their not the one they want?


rant over!

Probably for lots of reasons really and I bet there will be several we don't even think of.

First of all, they may feel that the Hotel is speaking with some Authority and could be best placed entity to recommend a DJ / service provider. After all, the venue have probably seen through 100's or 1000's of Weddings and witnessed the work and performance of 100's of DJ's, whilst for most clients, it will be the first and only Wedding that they arrange

They are probably happy to put themselves in the hands of the venue in this and other similar respects, thinking that they are recommending from vast experience and will only be providing the best, especially when they are recommending and / or providing service against their own name and reputation.

Secondly, most clients don't spend every waking moment on DJ Forums. As I said before, this may be the first time they have had cause to book a DJ, they may only book one or two functions with a DJ in their entire lifetimes. They don't know the law(s) or lack of them and nor do they know about licenses and other red-tape, nor will they have the information to hand in order to question and challenge what the venue is telling them, and since they probably have 50 other things to arrange for their Wedding and a whole stack of invitations to send out, they can hardly be expected to sit on DJU for a few weeks reading the best part of 1/4 million posts.

Our cause is also probably not helped by the glut of Association False Prophets amongst us, masquerading as DJ's, whose members constantly hint or even openly misinform clients on their website that if a member doesn't have this or that bit of paper, or is a member of xxxx Association, then they are out and out cowboys and if they book a DJ without all of that red tape or who is cheaper than them or who doesn't use a certain make of equipment, then the four horseman of the apocalypse will hunt them down and put a big dent in their Wedding Night nocturnals.

With all of the DJ's out there spouting mis-information via their own websites, I guess its only fair to expect some of the Wedding Venues to also want a piece of the action and start mis-informing clients in respect of DJ's too - perhaps, venues are natural mimics, following the example that some DJ's, themselves are setting.

Of course its 'Ok' when its our own ilk doing the mis-informing isn't it? Or when one of our own is knowingly emailing and writing to venues and preaching to clients alike, stating that DJ's operating without a Pro-Dub license are illegal per se and shouldn't be allowed to work in their venue!.
Sure, when this happened a few years ago, we all sat back and do absolutely nothing, united only in silence. The only thing worse, IMO than sharp practices is blatant double standards and glaring hypocrisy!
At the end of the day, if the spotlight was turned on us, would all of our industry pass scrutiny with flying colours eh? Then again, it seems that most of these entities are a member of another cult, perhaps called the "W.B.O.B" (Worshipful Brotherhood Of Bullshitters) these are clearly beyond the reproach of every other DJ in the country as they never get challenged nor blackballed out of any of the Associations despite their shady, underhand practices, and we are all just as guilty of sitting back and doing nothing in this respect, as the client who just books a resident or recommended DJ purely on what excuse the venue tells them is policy, so we are hardly in a position to criticise.

I suppose a lot of how far the client will fight and defend their cause against a Venue 'policy' depends on how much they want their own DJ. If its a DJ they have seen or booked previously or otherwise 'know' then they are likely to fight hard for the right to book them, however if they are booking a random DJ who they don't know, then perhaps they are thankful of the venues policy, again thinking that the odds of the venues DJ being much better (in order to keep their employment) rather than playing Russian Roulette with Google.

In most cases, the desire to have the Wedding venue they have dreamed of outweighs the desire to book a certain DJ. After all, a lot of the top area venues have a waiting list of Wedding clients, and if the client did walk away purely over a dis-agreement over the venue DJ then the date would probably get rebooked by the venue very quickly, however, the Bride & Groom probably wouldn't want to lose their first choice venue, and may not find it easy to rebook a 2nd venue at short notice, over (in their eyes) such a trivial factor.
So its fair to say that some clients simply wouldn't rock the boat, and others would just take what the venue said as Gospel (in the absence of any proof to the contrary) and some clients probably couldn't give a damn either way!

And that's even before considering that even with any additional charges, their DJ might be cheaper than the one the client had considered!
That aside, getting involved with recommending anything or any ‘service’ is a minefield, purely because in the event of something occurring, then everybody remembers EXACTLY who had put them in touch with that entity in the first place and one whose recommendation they trusted.

Do note that venues can pretty much insist on the details of THEIR package deals, and can include or leave out pretty much whatever they like.  Also, they can eject services and individuals from their premises for whatever reason, and can insist on requirements to be met by third parties right up to and on the actual day!

Lets look at it this way.  In cases where the venue insists that a client pays a certain fee for a ‘service’, but that “service” is pretty ambiguous in the details, then the client obviously has the right to ask the venue further details about that ‘service’.  If the venues reply is unsatisfactory, then the client merely has a simple choice.  Choose the service, or not. 
However, if the ‘service’ in question is included as part of a “package deal” with the venue, then the client may find themselves paying for something they don’t get the benefit of because they still desired the venue!
Given this, if the client wishes to change the terms of the package deal, obviously the client may / will pick up the tab and shortfalls.

I'm happy to hear that the Associations are working towards dealing with the venues in this respect, I can't wait for it to get around to 'dealing' with some of their own membership in a similar respect. The ones guilty of mis-representing their professional memberships / accreditations or Pro-Dub in the manner I've described above, the ones acting and squabbling like 6 year olds in their 'professional' attitudes to each other on forums and those starting threads about their clients with PUBLIC forum topics like 'That Bitch from hell' or other derogatory and personal terminology. Yeah, this clean up has been a long time coming and it cannot fail to levy the same scrutiny towards its own membership as it levies towards the venues can it (?), because that would be a case of double standards and would lose all public confidence in what it professes to represent if its own house wasn't in order and its own members clearly found to be dealing in sharp, unethical, misleading or otherwise unprofessional practices which make it harder for the decent folk in the industry to get a fair nights pay in return for a fair nights work.

Like I said, it would be far better to encourage an actual client to pursue making a formal complaint, ideally to the head office if the hotel is a chain or directly to the address of the owner of the business if it is privately owned.

Yikes, first time I answer a post in years and that happens!

I'm sure that if you were to lodge a complaint to these " Associations" regarding specific members behaviour as opposed to posting it on a publicly viewable forum, then they might investigate it.

The point I was trying to get across was that most venues will fold on this fee if pressed with the right information and if our clients want us instead of the inhouse dj then there IS something we can do about it.

More fool me for mentioning casually mentioning NADJ as part of that and not expecting the usual backlash.

Good posts Dan.There is a lot of merit in what you say.



What day last week did you start thinking and typing that lot out.

First of all, I'm not hijacking this thread and turning it into 'What is the best DJ Association' thread. I've been careful to refer to the Association Environment generically wherever I refer to it, and therefore any positives and negatives in the points I may make can be silently and anonomously applied to any one or more of the particular associations wherever they may be applicable and where their own members may identify that the need exists.

Unfortunately, there is already too much of this Kramer vs Kramer attitude on forums with Associations constantly battling it out between each other and promoting how much superior they are over the next Association, and trying to find petty ways of getting even with the other, even resorting to what could be termed as childishly and publicly badmouthing their rivals.

I've even posted an un-named example of one of the 'Accreditation' sites on the DJ Accreditation thread who actively use sweeping phrases like -
"The sign of a quality mobile disco"  and "We would strongly suggest that when hiring a DJ for an important event that you choose one with a current xxxxxx award!"

Now, unless this entity had actively booked EVERY member of its membership for a performance and had assessed their level of quality using an independent panel drawn from random members of the public, it remains something of a false statement and entirely misleading, based purely on nothing other than the assumption of the person building the website! Using such misleading and largely unproven terminology is also hardly setting an example to the DJ's they represent is it (?), especially as that DJ will probably go and use the same misleading statement on their own website. Lead by example!

Some DJ Associations are pretty similar in putting across the philosophy that their members are in some way superior to the rest of the industry just through the writing of a cheque and that by qualifying for membership by providing copies of pli, pat, pro-dub etc (and of course a cheque payable), that the general public is guaranteed something of a quality, high level of service which would be far superior than the service provided by any non member.
This is inference is complete twoddle of course, and there are plenty of DJ's out there who have operated for 10, 20 or 30 years without any membership to any association / accreditation and still have an enviable wealth of satisfied clients dating back decades, that even some association members can only dream about i'm sure that there are also Dj's out there with all of the paperwork who have let people down or have drawn their own share of complaints.

In addition, in nearly every other industry, PAT & PLI like other bills are annual mundane requirements which appear for renewal every year, get paid and then get forgotten about for the next 11 months. For DJ's however its a constant source of exciting marketing material and potential business promotion, an excuse for finger pointing as a reason not to book competitors, and the sole reason why they are a much better DJ than the 1000's of others out there.

Having access to paperwork costing a total of a few £100, is no gaurantee of quality nor is it a reference for or a means of re-assurance of both the business and personal integrity of the operator, and making any reference to the fact that a pli certificate is anything more than the fact that the person carries insurance, and membership to a particular Association is some kind of personal vetting or a trade reference is completely wrong and needs to be stamped out.

Personally, I would always encourage anybody to obtain such certificates where they are required because its good business practice and common sense, however, if a DJ chose not to obtain those certificates, the worst that could happen was that they, personally, become liable for the cost of any damage or injury caused through their own negligence, however whilst it may suck to be them, their actions would be unlikely to cause me any loss of business or financially impact on me.

However if that same person goes on to slag off a client on a public forum, along the lines of referring to her as 'That Fat Annoying Cow' then it crosses a line and it becomes personal, and members of the public witness 'our kind' slagging off clients routinely and 'for fun', and so decide that they probably will be better off providing the music themselves, and hiring "WEDDING JUKEBOX HIRE" for their reception, and that DOES have potential to impact on me (!), so don't be surprised that I will take exception to it and draw attention to it, more so if / when its posted by somebody who is a member of an association and according to the text on their own website, supposedly is far more 'professional' than the rest through the fact he/she is a member of an Association and perhaps also has a Pro-Dub.



Not sure where I was creating a backlash towards any one Association, I merely picked up on a point that you made and clearly mentioned that it was a GOOD THING that 'Associations' were actively policing the abuse by certain venues and stated that if any of them were going to draw attention to themselves then it would be prudent if they policed the actions of their own members to the same extent and with the same level of interest. I'd hate for the venues to pick up on the fact that the home of the entitles criticising them was less than perfect itself in practicing what they preached and so turn the tables, I'm sure that you would agree that this would be highly embarrassing and would not return its members any favours.

I'm not sure as to why this would be construed negative advice, common sense surely (?) in that if you are about to take somebody else to task, that your own policies and those integrities of your own members were watertight?

I'm not expecting any standards which aren't levied and policed in professional associations in other trades, I've previously linked on another thread to two such entities (one of them the Trading Standards) and could probably find you more! I also actively linked to their codes of conducts and the standards of business expected from their members. Yet, whenever I mention DJ Associations introducing a small fraction of those professional standards practiced by the MAJORITY of other professional associations, here on the forum, the response which comes back is like I have posted something written in Klingon and not of this world.
In reality, what I am doing is posting the general good business practices expected of other business owners, but of which seems alien to the DJ fraternity.



Since key / committee members of these associations are, I believe, also active members in such places where the points I mentioned occur, (and, I'm informed, are also moderators in some cases), then I'm sure that they are well aware of each individual situation as they arise and so it should be noted and dealt with internally already. When people engage in openly slagging off their clients / colleagues in an unprofessional manner to the point of making / trading personal insults across the internet with 'Member of xxxxxxxx' clearly and boldly promoted in their signature, then its hardly difficult to identify who they are, and shouldn't be difficult to deal with it.
I've seen enough stats to know, without any shred of doubt, that clients DO visit and read forums in ever increasing numbers and in that respect, they probably read signatures too and are interested in what professional capacity that person is making those comments, and if even one client got the wrong idea, it would be one too many.

Sadly it seems that I'm the only one to see the obvious connection and to uphold the policy that professionalism shouldn't end at the keyboard, certainly it should be constantly applied to the activities where engaging in ones own business activities or being an ambassador for the association you are so proud to be promoting.

Most employers would call an errant employee to task or even dispense of their services for gross misconduct if they acted in any manner that let the company name down or bring it into question, or acted unprofessionally or rudely when referring to or dealing with a client in the public domain.
Can anybody please provide me with a detailed, well thought out reason as to why the complete opposite is deemed acceptable or the 'norm' in our industry and nothing is done to address it? Are we Royalty or something? Oh no, we are DJ's aren't we, and that's a "get out of jail free card" in some peoples eyes.

I'm sure that very few of us would employ an electrician, builder, carpet fitter etc, and invite them back into our home, if we read of them verbally abusing us, or making derogatory comments about our OH's appearance or personality on a public forum, to the jeers and amusement of other like minded individuals. After all, we'd know exactly who they are, because they nearly always have their company names in their signature and profile!

I guarantee that such behaviour is not considered a marketing opportunity and where it is allowed to happen and is silently encouraged by the apathy of others, affects everybody's ability to remain in business and to fill their diaries, not just mine.

It's far easier to earn a living and earn the respect and business of a client in an industry with an already positive public perception and a glowing reputation, than it is to build a business in an industry considered stagnant and unprofessional and where the public actions of a few reflect badly on the majority. If you believe any differently, then the best of luck with that!

Dan, I fully agree with you about members of our profession who tend to misrepresent themselves. An association of which I am a member recently had a complaint from a customer, which was investigated and dealt with immediately. However, saying this, two wrongs do not make a right!

I also agree with your opinion of venues experience with various DJs and I think it is a good thing that they should and can recommend a reliable service for their customers. But this should not be forced upon the customers with a penalty clause should they want their own DJ and music.

Having actually spoken to Trading Standards and made approaches to the relevent Ministry, they conclude that this is almost certainly restrictive practice. They have requested that I give them as many examples as possible so that they can investigate for themselves.

To this end, if anybody has had dealings with venues doing this, please forward details to me via e-mail, especially if it is on the venue's website. No names will be passed on to the offices.

I am persuing this as an individual with the backing of two DJ associations and the MU (who also find live bands/singers suffer in the same way with customers having to pay extra) as we all agree that we do not want any back-lash to members of any association in the industry.