Cher and Cher Alike

We had a few events again in various locations around London and the M25 and I was doing a Civil Ceremony in Dulwich.

Had to fight with the nightmare that is driving through South London on a Saturday afternoon! Lot’s of jams and roadworks but eventually arrived at the venue on time; the venue being Beauberry House for the union of Rob & Rich’. They’re big Cher fans and had also hired a Cher tribute act to do a couple of sets. She was a superb entertainer and really worked the crowd well, with the songs Walking In Memphis, The Shoop Shoop Song and Just Like Jesse James going down particularly well. At the end of her set the crowd would not accept that she had finished and she did two encores. I was gonna have to be on top form to maintain the level of excitement, so kicked off with Black Eyed Peas-I Gotta Feeling which has been a great way to start the night for quite a while now with many different types of audience, and it went down a storm.

Actually, this was also the 3rd marriage in a row that the couple didn’t have a 1st dance; maybe a new trend is starting! The request list Rob & Rich had given me was quite eclectic and the crowd were mostly in their late 20′s, early 30′s and the music that worked best from the dancefloor point of view was 80′s pop, funky house from a few years back, Kylie and some classic 70′s disco! One issue I sometimes encounter with Civil Ceremonies is whether to play the almost stereotyped camp tracks such as I Will Survive, I Am What I Am, Dancing Queen and so on, because it could seem like you are taking the Mick!? However when MacArthur Park from Donna Summer went down so well I took a chance and followed it up with I Am What I Am and it was a big success. The set list was quite different to many events and other songs that went down really well included Sympathy For The Devil, Ring Of Fire, Wish I Didn’t Miss You remix, 9 to 5, Rockin’ Music, Disco 2000 and Once In A Lifetime.

This is a bit of a generalisation but gay audiences seem to enjoy themselves so much more and really have fun, which from a DJs point of view is ideal. The night ended with a track that was special to the couple which was a song previously unknown to me, David Gray & Annie Lennox – Full Steam.

All in all a great night and it’s a lot easier getting home from South London at 2am than it is at 2pm!

From Stoke to Stock

On Saturday afternoon I met with a client called Lucy at the venue where I’ll be DJ’ing for her 50th birthday party in a fortnight. The venue was quite an unusual space in Stoke Newington called the West Reservoir Sailing Centre which used to be a boilerhouse.

From there I went to my cousin Sam’s house in Rayleigh in Essex to watch the 1st half of the England v USA game in the World Cup. I had to leave just before half time to get to Stock Brook Manor near Billericay where I was DJ’ing a wedding. On the drive from Rayleigh to Billericay the roads were empty! When I arrived at Stock Brook there was a band performing which is why I was starting so late. They were on a bit of a hiding to nothing, they’d been performing since before the game started and there was a huge widescreen TV setup next to them and most of the wedding guests were watching the game, with one of the guests getting particularly irate, which was so over the top it was actually quite funny.

At 9pm the band finished and I took over, not that any of the guests really noticed as there was still about 20 minutes left of the game. I was now in quite a peculiar situation, as I was setup against the back wall, with the band setup directly in front of me and the TV slightly to the left of the band. So I couldn’t see the TV or the game but had a good view of all the guests watching the game and some of the anguished faces! Watching the guests faces and reactions was like studying anthropology!

The 1-1 result really seemed to dampen many people’s spirits for a while and the room cleared; mind you it wasn’t helped by how long it took the band to dismantle their gear. They finished their set at 9pm and were still taking gear out of the room at gone 11pm! So in the meantime their gear was on what was supposed to be the dancefloor.

For the 2nd night in a row the bride and groom (Amie & Peter) didn’t have a first dance, but both of them did seem to be on the dancefloor for most of the night once the football had finished, with Peter especially liking anything from Pulp, James and other 90′s Britpop.

While the band were removing their gear I noticed a small boy of around 4 maybe 5 years old doing some amazing dancing, while I was playing a Michael Jackson track. The whole room started watching him in astonishment. He really had some good moves and I can’t ever remember seeing a kid so young dancing so well.

A few meetings over the next few days with venues and off to Ascot on Wednesday for a day at the races.