Marathon Gig with a potential 45K audience
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dannyboyex@gmail.com.
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November 1, 2013 at 7:48 pm #1015709
DJ Vintage
ModeratorI wouldn’t go with themes. Rember it’s a fair. Nobody is gonna be around long enough to hear several themes.
Being a mobile jock you already know how to cater to a very diverse crowd.
My suggestion would be to go “radio” style. Create a format that goes through several styles and old/new stuff per, say, hour. Then just repeat every hour by replacing the individual tracks for other of the same denomination.
Good luck m8, sounds like a happening we’d all like to do. And don’t worry about the duration of the gig. Time WILL fly in such a setting, I am sure of that!
Greetinx,
C.
November 1, 2013 at 9:35 pm #1015714NewportDJ Drew
ParticipantThanks Chuck. I have thought about doing a ‘radio rotation’ as well and the more I think about it, the more sensible it sounds. 🙂
November 3, 2013 at 1:33 pm #1015773mauritsrotte@gmail.com
ParticipantI’m strictly a house DJ. So I always do admired DJ’s who are that all-round. I think Chuck has some good points. If I had a gig like that I think I wouldn’t know where to begin. So the only thing I can do is to wish you good luck and lots of fun.
November 4, 2013 at 1:59 am #1015815Lamid45G
ParticipantMix-N-Match your style prolly be the best bet, find out if they having some kind of games/contest during the annual ? So you can prepared to play some “funny” tunes to accompany the games/contest.
“My idea is to split the day into styles, eg for the lunch time (eg 12-2) I’m thinking rock n roll.”
And Lord have mercy, you doing this all by yourself, and you planning to play something during the lunch time, err are you not having the lunch yourself ? That would be awful !
November 4, 2013 at 4:43 am #1015820ParticipantI will probably eat on the run so to speak., but you raise a good point about taking a break. I have a few pre recorded mixes I can play or jump into cruise mode. 8). I have also decided I will definitely be mix n matching styles. I almost have a full playlist now that does just that.
November 4, 2013 at 9:43 am #1015843Terry_42
KeymasterListen to the Chuck… the Chuck knows…
November 24, 2013 at 11:58 pm #1017018ParticipantHere is my story. The day started at 9am, with setting up and generally getting organized. I played my first track at around 10 am, and played the final 114th track at 5pm. I was smack bang in amongst traders stalls and had a passing crowd of at least 40 thousand people throughout the day. I played a huge variety of music from rock n roll to rock, to 80’s, 90’s, top 40 to better known commercial club tracks and back. I ended up doing ‘blocks’ of genres and it worked really well. I found out the day before that there was a ‘dj stage’ of sorts with these guys playing only doof. It didn’t go down well with the crowd at all as the feedback I was getting was I was playing ‘great’ music and people were vociferously complaining about the dj stage down the other end of the fair. I handed out heaps of business cards that passersby asked me for, and have four confirmed and 2 maybes for future gigs. I think getting around a gig an hour that I would not have got otherwise is pretty good for a promo job. Did I get paid? Kind of. I got paid in promotional advertising (worth around $800 from the fair organizers that others didn’t get, (NOTE I had the option of money or advertising and chose the latter) and also got three more gigs (besides the crowd gigs) from them as well that are paid (they are having a foreshore market once a month on a Friday night over summer) and it’s in a prime location and will attract a few thousand people. They also supplied my marquee and power. What did I learn from yesterday that I didn’t know before? Firstly, I am no longer a DJ that plays what I want, I am there to entertain the crowd and give them what THEY like! I have a huge target audience that has been largely neglected by DJs in my town/city so much so that I now have an established niche being a ‘jukebox’ DJ. Do not underestimate the old music of 50/60/70/80/s and the cheese and commercial top 40. There is a huge demand for it and there is a huge amount of cashed up people out there that are prepared to part with their coin to have me play it for them.
November 25, 2013 at 7:43 am #1017027ModeratorHey Drew,
Thanks for the great story. Sounds like you nailed it! And 8 follow-up gigs? Awesome man. If there was every any doubt about it, you are now truely is professional DJ!
And I couldn’t agree with you more. Even if you CAN play for a narrow crowd, the ability to play for a wide crowd can never be overestimated!
I think all-round rather than jukebox DJ though is a much better, nicer and accurate term. And forget all those sour pusses that were on the DJ stage and got boo’s and never gave out a single card and are probably just jealous for you having (in their view) easy succes.
The only thing the organisers want is a happy crowd and you gave them that.
Again, good job m8.
Greetinx,
Chuck
November 25, 2013 at 4:28 pm #1017039KeymasterNice one, congratulations. See that happens when you listen to our Chuck Norris eeeh van Vodka eeh van Eekelen.
Terry: Hey Chuck how many track you got on that laptop?
Chuck: All of them!
November 29, 2013 at 7:24 am #1017248Dominic Souza-Larimore
ParticipantThanks for the write up man. I guess it’s the season of marathons because i’ve got one coming up in about a weeks time too. I have an idea of what I am going to play for the most part, but could always use more suggestions.
I was advised to play upbeat and motivating music. They DO NOT want dance music! Emphasis on the do not. I mean I can play dance music, but it has to be suited for runners. So a lot of rock, alternative, classic rock stuff. Never really played that genre for a gig before.
I guess I was wondering if I could get specifics of what you played or perhaps maybe even a screenshot of the playlist you played to get a better idea of what would work well. Thanks!
November 30, 2013 at 1:38 am #1017279ModeratorAlthough you might get lucky and have someone share a playlist with you, but in general it’s not really “done” to ask for such specific advice. My advice would be to keep it on a more general level. At the end of the day it’s all about feeling the mood, understanding the needs and wants of your customer and putting the two together. A playlist that works somewhere probably won’t work somewhere else.
I don’t think any two of my gigs are the same. Obviously there will be some returning elements, but even the genres I play, the amount of tracks per genre, the order in which genres are played and what song within the genre I play all vary greatly.
Check here and there (preferably with runners!) what the general bpm is that they run too. I am guessing there is a pretty narrow bandwidth. Use that as a matrix. Running is all about cadence. You don’t want to be in a 120bpm running flow and pass someone playing 98bpm music …
Not saying 120bpm is the right one, but just to illustrate the point.
If it’s not your thing, make sure you spend enough time preparing. In your case preparation would be selecting music and listening to it a few times to “get it in your head”. Then when you play it’s easier to get that flow going because you know what material you have to work with.
Remember:
Failure to prepare is preparing for failure! (credits to whoever came up with that one).
Greetinx and good luck. We are looking forward to YOUR write-up.
Chuck
November 30, 2013 at 3:23 am #1017287ParticipantChuck makes a good point of what worked for me probably wont for you. Here is my prep advice…. pick 20-30 good popular songs from each decade (50/60/70/80/90/00/teens). That’s 140- 200 odd tracks. Put them in your list. You may not play them all but they are there.
December 1, 2013 at 9:35 am #1017314Participantthanks for the advice vintage, your right it’s definitely about feeling and mood more than a set playlist. Cheers!
December 12, 2013 at 5:25 pm #1017772dannyboyex@gmail.com
ParticipantGreat job buddy!
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