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That moment when everything just works


ericuk

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I know most of you don't do the shit I do, but I also know some have done it. Commercial pub/club/mobile DJ'ing. I've been doing Xmas parties this month, 3 so far and the 2nd was absolute crap. People moaning all night, being drunk dick heads etc. Last night it was a full house and everything worked. Loads of compliments and a full dance floor til closing. I was shattered from working in the day then working till the early hours at night, but I really enjoyed it. Kind of makes me enjoy it all.

 

Anyone else had one of those magic nights where every tune goes well and you connect with the crowd?

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Guest petesasqwax

The last time I did a DJ set purely using vinyl, rather than using Ableton and doing cuts etc. over it was a last minute thing at Sheffield Octagon where I was asked to stand in for Daedelus, who had some kind of passport issue and wasn't able to fly in from LA at the last minute. I took a big box of exactly what I wanted to play and everyone completely lapped it up! Having been on hip-hop bills every time I've played Sheffield (which was often) I had always felt obliged to play what people expected, but this was the one occasion I'd got to do exactly what I wanted with no preconceived notions from the crowd of what I was going to play. Loved it

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Guest Symatic

yeah i love it when a plan comes together. my best gis have always been where i didnt have a specific plan and had to just work with whatever crate i grabbed, but it all just comes together :)

 

good work mate :)

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yeah i love it when a plan comes together. my best gis have always been where i didnt have a specific plan and had to just work with whatever crate i grabbed, but it all just comes together :)

 

good work mate :)

 

word to that! i used to really overplan my sets, and then as soon as something goes slightly wrong it can throw you off a bit.

 

some of my best sets have just been simply playing tunes, no fancy mixes just dropping tracks to a crowd that digs it.

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I used to play in a bar here in BA where it was mostly shit music. Modern pop and shit rock.

An irish guy owned it, and he asked me to play and I used to try and stick as much to the commercial side of decent music.

 

Occasionally i'd give in and play whatever shit the crowd wanted, or sometimes if i took a break for 5 or 10 mins, i'd ask one of the staff to put on something, I'd come back and have to rescue and try and realign what i was doing from david guetta or some black eyed peas bullshit.

 

Sometimes i'd use the PC and controller there, and i'd say i didn't have shit, and the punters would be like "you do, the guy last night played it for me on this same computer..."

I have actually walked away in shame when having to put on some terrible shit, and then walked back just at the end, so no one could see how depressed i was.

 

but then again some nights i had the place going mental, dozens of girls going insane dancing up on the bar and tables pouring drinks over each other, wild/stupid shit.

 

I actually learned a lot about djing there.

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Pre digital dj era I did the high street dj thing for a good(shit) 10 years, regrettably at least half of my record collection backs this up :( and yeah, I got roped into a few weddings every year, a world of abuse and pain.

 

In the high street dj world, gigs like Eric and Savwar mention are like perfect cosmic alignment shit where everything jus comes together, the stuff of legends, the handful of unicorn gigs that help restore faith.

 

but then again some nights i had the place going mental, dozens of girls going insane dancing up on the bar and tables pouring drinks over each other, wild/stupid shit.

 

I actually learned a lot about djing there.

 

That's sounds jus like the last bar club setup Rock Well and I used to resident at, every now and then it would go off with no clear reason as to what made one week different from the other.

 

The best perfect storm gig I experienced was a last minute thing Rock well and I was summoned for. 300 capacity venue, full setup each (always a nice treat) on a slightly raised stage that had the crowd at touching distance.

 

Be nice to think it was the handful of 10/15min team routines Matt and I had prepared for other gigs which got the party rocking, but the end of the month pay check thing (full club), a non dic head stag night and a bonus burlesque fancy dressed hen night both staying put for the the whole evening all played a role in maintaining the atmosphere, the hen night girls were tasty as fuck, it's basically all there fault. The place went mental from start to finish, hip hop, dance hall and cuts all night long, plenty of handshakes and fist bumps.

 

I jus think with a lot of high street/mobile dj type stuff all to often the dj gets stick before the night even kicks off, it seems fashionable to hate on that type of dj. But if you jus have couple groups rock up with an up for it mentality everything else falls into place.

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Guest It'sPhilFromThursdays

One of my best gigs was at a bday party where they'd asked for funk music and i played so much shit and they kept just going, "Nah, not this, some funk, mate" as i bumped the Meters and Parliment, etc, so i just stuck the 12's on 45 and just mixed super fast funk (mainly breaks) into each other for the rest of the night, smashing the place up. They were well happy. They could have just asked me to play some jungle, really. Nought as strange as party going folk.

 

One of my fav nights, me and Ed smashed it up with a fully improvised, future primative style set, but there were 3 serious punch ups ending with a huge three way fight between two groups of guys and the bouncers and we were banned from playing there again, even though we had nothing to do with it dammit! The highlight was me looking up to see this bird sparking out this other lady about 3 feet away from me. Good times.

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Guest It'sPhilFromThursdays

Canterbury, oddly enough, but it was Whitstable dudes who brought the ruckus to start with.

 

I should make it be the first story in a one man show called "The Canterbury Fails" and take it to the Edinburgh festival.

 

It was in Canterbury where some kids, who seemed really high, ensconsed themselves on a sofa right next to where i was and proceeded to laugh at my scratch face for about 3hrs. The thing is it's something i would have done at their ages, so i can't blame them really and i can't really blame anyone from laugh at my scratchface.

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Had some great nights and some shockers recently me Eric. You can't really predict how a night will go either. Weddings are pretty difficult because you have a large range of musical taste to cater for. I played a cheesy 90s chart party recently and it fell on its arse. I played a r&b vs drummer night that I thought would fail, we was the busiest pub/club on the night ??

I've tried explaining to a few peeps on fb that stood scratching in front of a go pro and having to deal with stroppy teenagers requesting deep house are two different things. It sometimes falls on deaf ears. Being a good DJ is not about our musical taste, ability on a fader or individuality. It's about playing songs that people like and want to dance to/listen to. Things like reading the mood of the crowd and interacting with them are just as important tools as 3clik reverse arse cracks.

If you can implement all of the above into a DJ set then I suppose you can call yourself a good DJ. I seen some pics of Eric on fb and he looked like he was having a good time. Well there's rule number 1 smile 😀😀😀😀😀😀

 

But the DJ game is a funny one like I say and you can sometimes deliver all of those things and the crowd might still not want to know. It's a funny old game!

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