How Much Did Your First Gig Earn You?

I got hired to DJ 7 nights a week at a club round the corner from where I lived. Got paid £180 a week for that, more money than I had ever seen before at that point.

£100 and replaced by another DJ ( I did warn them that it would not work)

Mine was 40 bucks for an hour set as an opener 😀

squeeam, post: 30499, member: 1129 wrote: …. I’ll be using my Mixtrack Pro with Serato Itch…
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May I suggest you download Serato Intro to avoid panic and disappointment 😀
Itch does not support Mixtrack Pro

250 CHF, but I was supposed to animate a karaoke which in the end was cancelled, and I was thrown as the evening DJ… good memories

So, Saturday night was my first ever DJ gig at my sister-in-laws 40th birthday. However things didn’t go quite according to plan.

My friend who has all the speakers, amps, lights etc found out on Saturday afternoon that his father had collapsed and was in hospital. This was minutes before we were due to set up. I told him he had to go and see him but he insisted on taking the gear and setting up as we were doing the music and it would be too late now to get another DJ.

We finished setting up and off he went to the hospital. Later on in the afternoon I got a phone call to say that my friends father had passed away. I was really gutted for him and his loss but knew I had to carry on as now the party was due to start in less than 2 hours. I was asked not to say anything to anyone as my friends 10 year old daughter was at the party and as far as she knew her Grandad was in hospital but was OK. Also, and this is not to be disrespectful to my friends loss, but we thought it better not to tell the person whose party it was as we didn’t want to spoil hers and others night.

I’d set up a pre-recorded mix of gentler tunes going into more upbeat stuff for the beginning of the evening. Then the moment came when I had to get up on the stage and take over from my mix. I could see a few people looking up thinking “What’s he doing up there?” as not everyone who knew me knew that I was delivering the music.

We were hoping to kick things off at 9pm but people were taking longer over finishing their food and my set list was rapidly going out of the window as I was trying to play upbeat tunes but not the “killers” that were in my set. I asked my brother-in-law what was going on and he said people weren’t going up for their desserts! So grabbing the mic, and by the way this was the part of the evening which scared me the most, I politely requested that everyone had 5 minutes to get their dessert as the caterers were due to leave. I’ve never seen a rush of people like it.

Still, I couldn’t start my set properly. There were about 10 kids running about on the dance floor and I knew I had to force the situation. I knew if I played this next track, which my brother-in-law hated, then the kids would dance and he would ensure that people ate and we could get the night started.

So I played GANGNAM STYLE! (I’m not proud, I was desperate.)

The kids went mental and were all doing the routine from the video. The adults loved it because they could see the kids dancing and were joining in with them. And my brother-in-law was rushing around telling people to eat up and get on the dance floor.

From then on I was able to play what I wanted, all be it a pared down set as the 3 or 4 songs from each genre/era were reduced to 2 songs so there were a lot of left turns but the dance floor was mainly packed. Until….

Earlier on in the day the birthday girl mentioned she was disappointed as she thought no Wham! would be played (did I mention it was a 40th birthday party). So I decided before the party I would drop a tune in by the band of her choice as it was her party and she hadn’t asked for anything. So I said to my wife who was with me should I play I’m Your Man or maybe Edge Of Heaven. Oh no, they’re not good ones she said. What about Everything She Wants, I said and yes, this was an excellent choice.

The party is now in full swing. Everything is going according to plan in terms of people dancing to the tunes I’ve chosen. Chaka Khan’s I Feel For You is belting out and everyone is dancing. Now would be the time to play the birthday girls favourite group. Chaka faded out, Wham! came in and everyone left the dancefloor. All I could do was laugh. Then a woman came up to me and said why didn’t you play I’m Your Man or Edge Of Heaven? I thought that will be the last time I take advice from my wife on musical matters.

The night finished and everyone was happy and telling me what a great time they had and how brilliant the music was. I received texts the day after congratulating me and telling me how much they enjoyed it and what a great party it was.

It was a massive learning curve and taught me so much about tune selection and reading the crowd which I’ve read so much about in the articles and forums. And I didn’t take it personally when people cleared the floor because I was confident in what else I was going to play.

And since this thread is “How much did your first gig earn you?” well mine and my wife’s drinks were bought all night by a very grateful brother-in-law. But more than that, and despite my friends loss, I got a fantastic experience and a great feeling of satisfaction.

I’M HOOKED!

PS Apologies for the post being so long.

Well long story short, private school social, 3 hours, music, speakers and lighting supplied by myself, $350 😀

Not even my school.