To Paradise and back

It’s amazing how much can happen in the space of one week; to the point where in some ways some of the things seem like they happened ages ago and others a few hours ago!

As usual we had quite a few events happening in various locations. Myself, well on Friday I was doing an event at Paradise by way of Kensal Green for Groovers Korner. Groovers Korner is a monthly soul night I’ve been running around North-West London for the past 11 years or so, but have had a break from it since April due to a venue change. Previously I had been holding events at a venue in Harrow called Freddy’s but attendance had been dropping off at the last few events and one of the main complaints from regulars was the extremely high price of the drinks. So after a lengthy search I negotiated a deal with The Paradise but was unable to actually hold an event there for a few months because of their busy schedule which was frustrating but in another way was encouraging.

Prior to last Fridays event I had tried a few new methods in promoting the event and getting news of the event to many more people than I’d previously managed, and in the weeks leading up to the event it seemed that the work that I’d put into it was bearing fruit as there was a much higher interest about the night than most of the previous ones, and I was receiving a lot of emails, calls and texts. At previous events although the doors always opened from 9pm we generally didn’t get busy until around 11.30pm, but last week it was very busy before 10pm! and not long after 10pm it was absolutely packed and stayed that way until the very last song at 2am. It was definitely the busiest night yet and I’ve received lots of appreciative comments ever since from people who really enjoyed it, so all in all a great night.

The following night was a wedding for Liz & Ed at a new venue for me, Cripps Barn in Bibury, Gloucestershire. It was a very impressive venue, that had paid a lot of attention to very small details. This photo gives an indication of how it looks, but the website certainly doesn’t do justice to how good the place really looks and in my opinion the website really sells themselves short compared to what they have.

As usual with most weddings the night ran very late and this seems to happen with about 90% of weddings these days, but it’s usually a good sign. The weddings that run exactly to time are rarely as much fun, because people are paying too much attention to a schedule rather than just enjoying themselves!

The first dance was Nick Drake – From the morning and after that they wanted to go straight into the dance music with Dizzee Rascal – Bonkers. Liz and Ed had given me quite a lengthy request list, which although quite varied wasn’t hugely succesful, especially because there were so few guests in quite a big room.

Wednesday morning was my weekly breakfast meeting at BNI Walpole in Ealing. Fitzroy Williams visited the chapter and mentioned sponsorship opportunities at the Ealing Winter Wonderland this Christmas.

Thursday night I did an event at the Honorable Artillery Company in the city, which was a corporate event for Deutsche Bank, which as with many corporate events meant a lot of sitting around while they were having their meal. The actual dancing section of the evening was less than 2 hours and thus went very quickly.

The Heat Is On

It’s been pretty manic over the past week and a lot less sleep than usual with many meetings and events .

Started last Thursday when I was “subbing” at another BNI chapter. I haven’t mentioned on this blog previously that I’m a BNI member and thus attend an early morning breakfast meeting every Wednesday morning @BNI Walpole in Ealing. But on Thursday a guy I know at the BNI Hogarth chapter in Chiswick was unable to make it to his regular meeting so I substituted for him at 6.30am which is an unheard of time of day for most DJs! The meeting finished at 9am and I then attended a workshop on improving business communications which was also in Chiswick. This took me to mid-day and then after a quick runaround to the bank and attending to some other bits and pieces I was driving over to Essex for a wedding at Stock Brook Manor golf club for the wedding of Sara & Darryl. This remarkably was the first wedding in 4 where they had a first dance; the song being Take That-A Million Love Songs.

Before playing the first dance track I always have a chat with the bride and/or groom and as I was chatting with the groom, Darryl- he seemed quite nervous, which was a little unusual at this stage of the proceedings as most grooms that are nervous during the actual ceremony or speeches have usually relaxed by the evening as there isn’t much they have to do as such, although some grooms do get quite nervous about the actual dance aspect of the first dance. His nerves really became apparent when I joked with him about the first dance being Motorhead and he replied OK! I often joke with the bride or groom that they still want Motorhead as their first dance track and they usually laugh and then reply with the actual track they’re having, but Darryl just said OK and clearly hadn’t realised I was joking. So I then said to him “are you really sure that you want Motorhead as your first dance?” and he said that whatever Sara had asked for was fine with him! and that he’d had no input into the request list whatsoever!

Most of the music on that request list was very commercial and the dancing continued through to midnight. Then managed 4 hours sleep before another early rise for the BNI annual members day at The Metropole Hotel in central London which was an all day event with some superb inspirational speakers including Dr Ivan Misner, Rob Brown, Dinah Liversidge, Phil Berg and Iain Whyte. It was a great day of networking also and lined up many meetings over the next few weeks.

No time for sitting around, after the end of the BNI event then it was back over to Essex for another event at Stock Brook, this time a dinner dance for the Dr’s, nurses and staff of the Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford. They were all very much up for it and a busy dancefloor this time through to 2am.

The following day there was a bit of a lie-in before heading over to Stoke Newington for a 50th birthday party for Lucy at The West Reservoir Sailing Centre which was basically an old boiler room with a very high ceiling. I’d been asked to setup some uplighting around the room to give some warmth to what otherwise has a very sterile atmosphere.

An excellent night with a pretty varied request list ranging from the 40′s the latest hits and genres such as Jazz, Salsa, Samba, Dance, Reggae, Pop, Soul and Rock.

The events were starting to merge into one and the next was a 40th birthday for Nick at The HAC in central London, but the event couldn’t really have been easier as the meal didn’t finish until 10.45 and the event had to finish at 12.15 so music for 90 minutes, and no extra time!

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!