Bar Local, 16th November
It would appear that my last gig here was to the approval of the proprietor, because he invited me back for this Friday night gig. Either he had no one else or he genuinely wanted me to play here. Whatever the real reason, I was a bit loath to play again as I wasn’t 100% happy with the equipment or and general positioning and location of the DJ booth. However, it’s a fantastic bit of luck that I’m a consummate professional, and I willing took on the gig to soak up whatever experience and improvement I could (lets also not forget that I’m not exactly overwhelmed with offers at the moment, but you didn’t hear that, right blog fans ;) )
Ok so I took on the gig but the one major problem I had last time was that a load of my CD’s weren’t working last time so I burnt some of my new ones off and popped round to the venue the night before to try them out. Lo and behold, these new CDs didn’t work either, but as I was advised from the bar manager that it’s not the quality of the CDR you use, but the speed you burn it at. Yes folks, apparently, although we strive to have a fast writing speeds for all our CD and DVD drives, it is, in actual fact, detrimental to the quality and reliability of the disc you burn. This is a great piece of technical knowledge to know. Especially when you have a DJ gig in 24 hours, a full time 9-5 job and your entire DJ CD box consists of over 50, potentially unreadable CD-Rs.
In a way it was a relief to find out the reason behind the unreliability of some of my CDs always playing. (I’d had similar problems whilst playing out in Thailand). However it did pose the monolithic task of re-burning my entire collection. Knowing that it had previously been a long and arduous task to categorise and burn my collection, I didn’t exactly have the time to do it again. So it was a case of finding software that actually allows you to select the burn speed of a CD (I eventually opted for ITunes after a tortuous late night previewing burning software), and then sitting down and re-burning it all. This actually entailed me bringing the lappy into the office and burning my top 20 CDs (I didn’t have time for them all), whilst also squeezing in doing what it is I’m generally paid for (writing emails, making tea, looking handsome….that kind of thing).
So after a hectic 24 hours, I turned up to my favourite local venue (with my new vinyl wheely trolley, which I might add isn’t balanced correctly so you end up dragging it along with an Egore emulating hunch), ready for action. This time though, it’s the actual vinyl decks that aren’t working.
When I’m planning for a gig, no matter where or what it is, I’m always wanting to make it my best. It’s always got the most of my most focus on the days leading up to it. And I always like to plan what track I start off with. This can change right up to the moment I start, but I always like to think of the venue and plan some sort of launch pad. When you have a pretty major technical failure from the off, these plans go out the window.
For a while, nothing was working until Lucas, the bar manager, actually swapped the vinyl decks for backups, and rejigged the wires, that we got any sound. He asked me for a CD to test it all and I picked out at random off the cuff. As it seemed to work, I had to start off my set with some rather deep,dark minimal number and not the planned Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy story intro progressing into Nu-Yorican Soul’s, It’s Alright – I Feel It (Spanish Underground Mix). But such is life.
Being a Friday, the crowd was a lot more up for it, and generally bigger, even for the tiny venue that it is. And even though you have one of the worst positions ever to DJ from, you could still feel the vibe of the place and enjoy the atmosphere.
I’m not sure if I speak only for fellow DJ’s here, but when you’re starting out you want as many people as you can to come and join you to fill out the crowds. So you invite anyone you’ve ever known ever. This, of course, can also be a major double edged sword.
Naturally your invited guests will quite rightly come up to you (having made various treks across town, county or country to come and see you) and want to chat to you. And while it’s hard enough listening to 2,3 or even 4 pieces of music at once, trying to get them to beat match in time, whilst maintaining a charming and charismatic conversation with friends, some of which you may not have seen for years, is nigh on impossible and so something has to give.
It would appear that my last gig here was to the approval of the proprietor, because he invited me back for this Friday night gig. Either he had no one else or he genuinely wanted me to play here. Whatever the real reason, I was a bit loath to play again as I wasn’t 100% happy with the equipment or and general positioning and location of the DJ booth. However, it’s a fantastic bit of luck that I’m a consummate professional, and I willing took on the gig to soak up whatever experience and improvement I could (lets also not forget that I’m not exactly overwhelmed with offers at the moment, but you didn’t hear that, right blog fans ;) )
Ok so I took on the gig but the one major problem I had last time was that a load of my CD’s weren’t working last time so I burnt some of my new ones off and popped round to the venue the night before to try them out. Lo and behold, these new CDs didn’t work either, but as I was advised from the bar manager that it’s not the quality of the CDR you use, but the speed you burn it at. Yes folks, apparently, although we strive to have a fast writing speeds for all our CD and DVD drives, it is, in actual fact, detrimental to the quality and reliability of the disc you burn. This is a great piece of technical knowledge to know. Especially when you have a DJ gig in 24 hours, a full time 9-5 job and your entire DJ CD box consists of over 50, potentially unreadable CD-Rs.
In a way it was a relief to find out the reason behind the unreliability of some of my CDs always playing. (I’d had similar problems whilst playing out in Thailand). However it did pose the monolithic task of re-burning my entire collection. Knowing that it had previously been a long and arduous task to categorise and burn my collection, I didn’t exactly have the time to do it again. So it was a case of finding software that actually allows you to select the burn speed of a CD (I eventually opted for ITunes after a tortuous late night previewing burning software), and then sitting down and re-burning it all. This actually entailed me bringing the lappy into the office and burning my top 20 CDs (I didn’t have time for them all), whilst also squeezing in doing what it is I’m generally paid for (writing emails, making tea, looking handsome….that kind of thing).
So after a hectic 24 hours, I turned up to my favourite local venue (with my new vinyl wheely trolley, which I might add isn’t balanced correctly so you end up dragging it along with an Egore emulating hunch), ready for action. This time though, it’s the actual vinyl decks that aren’t working.
When I’m planning for a gig, no matter where or what it is, I’m always wanting to make it my best. It’s always got the most of my most focus on the days leading up to it. And I always like to plan what track I start off with. This can change right up to the moment I start, but I always like to think of the venue and plan some sort of launch pad. When you have a pretty major technical failure from the off, these plans go out the window.
For a while, nothing was working until Lucas, the bar manager, actually swapped the vinyl decks for backups, and rejigged the wires, that we got any sound. He asked me for a CD to test it all and I picked out at random off the cuff. As it seemed to work, I had to start off my set with some rather deep,dark minimal number and not the planned Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy story intro progressing into Nu-Yorican Soul’s, It’s Alright – I Feel It (Spanish Underground Mix). But such is life.
Being a Friday, the crowd was a lot more up for it, and generally bigger, even for the tiny venue that it is. And even though you have one of the worst positions ever to DJ from, you could still feel the vibe of the place and enjoy the atmosphere.
I’m not sure if I speak only for fellow DJ’s here, but when you’re starting out you want as many people as you can to come and join you to fill out the crowds. So you invite anyone you’ve ever known ever. This, of course, can also be a major double edged sword.
Naturally your invited guests will quite rightly come up to you (having made various treks across town, county or country to come and see you) and want to chat to you. And while it’s hard enough listening to 2,3 or even 4 pieces of music at once, trying to get them to beat match in time, whilst maintaining a charming and charismatic conversation with friends, some of which you may not have seen for years, is nigh on impossible and so something has to give.
The other danger with DJing, which I’m almost definitely not alone with here, is that you get to watch all your mates get more and more wrecked, as you remain pretty much sober (please refer to earlier section about being a consummate professional). If it’s not that, and if you’re unlucky enough to have an easily accessible DJ booth (in this case, the side of he bar), then you can guarantee someone you know will come up and ask to “push a button”, or “have a go”.
I’d love to hear of ways for dealing with this as what I want to say is “Cmon now....” with a hint of “Why don’t you run along and enjoy the music…” lavishly garnished with an abundance of “Fuck off you annoying tool”.
That aside, this gig went well. I had a good response from the crowd, with a few fans asking for CDs (one for my phone number ;) ) and my trade mark (well, if I do it three times in a row I’ll call it a trade mark) Skee-lo vs Brett Johnson Jiffy Pop mix thing also went down a storm. In actual fact, fast-paced, well lyriced, good rhythmed raps put to house music is the future. Right now, it’s the top of my list and I’m loving any house beats with raps on them. I’ve always been a fan of rap as an art form but I have an intolerable craving for tempo so the two combined is like ecstasy for me. I’m making a contrived effort to push this forward so listen out for more of this type of splicing shit from me.
When finishing a gig I always tend to have this weird multi-emotion experience. It’s a mixture of joy (if you get a good response, people shaking your hand), relief (I can talk to friends now), and relaxation (after standing on your feet rocking for 5 hours, its nice to have a seat). This is also combined with horror (my gaping hole! Is that what I’m like when I’m drunk), inconvenience (I want to go on the lash now but it’s a bit late and I have loads of bags with me) to finally, tedium (listening to your drunken mates say repeatedly things along the lines of “MATE! You were…..like…..the…the…the..! HIC! Like…thin….That track you played…..with the……LA! LA! LA!…….fucking…..no no honestly, honestly….it was like…..serious…..” etc)
But hey, that’s what this is all about ;)
See you soon.
