Wednesday 11 December 2013

Designer Wedding DJ Starts The Xmas Party Season @ Wynyard Hall... Its Christmas !!

Well the Christmas party season is upon us and there is no better place to start than @ Wynyard Hall.

The occassion being the Durham Law Society Christmas ball, the date 3rd December 2013 .



The guys were having a Hollywood Themed Evening and decided to go for red moodlighting and thought that the 6ft flame lights wouild also be appropriate.

After 290 Students were fed and watered ( however i did not see any water being drunk! ).

Time to party.


Merry Xmas. 

Wednesday 23 October 2013

What Music Should The DJ Have Knowledge Of ?

Here's a little story.

I got a telephone enquiry today and the bride to be who was in her early twenties asked me what was my favourite tune from the charts.
Obviously testing my musical knowledge.

Reply "Storm Queen  Look Right Through" Check it out very nice tune!

Then later today I went and got my haircut, not very Rock n Roll and what has that got to do with musical knowledge.

Patience people.

The nice young girl cutting my hair enquired if I was doing much later to which I told her that I was going to see M People.

She looked and asked "Who are they?"

I was initially amazed that she did not know who M People were but then worked out that when M People were starting out she would of been 2 years of age.

But then thought ,when I was 2 The Beatles released "Paperback Writer" and why do I know that ? because it's my job.

So the answer to this post is everything and anything... If your a DJ.

And here is M People, I hope I'm as fit as Heather in this video when I'm her age, oh just realised I am
 ( her age that is! ).  



Thursday 10 October 2013

Keep Your Guests Happy @ your Wedding Disco

The guest request system that I have in place has proved very popular with many clients.

When a client confirms a booking with me they are sent a username/password that gives them access to the client area of my website. One section in here is the Guest request system, which gives them  a link and a password that they can send to their guests to enable them to make some music requests

The guests can browse the music library, select requests, and include special notes about the requests that they make. 

The client is notified whenever a guest logs on and makes a request. After navigating to the link the guests will need to log on using the date of the event and the supplied password.

The client is notified each time they make a request but these notifications can be turned off if they wish.

The client can also remove any tracks selected by their guests that they’d would rather not hear!

Further to this on the night I always announce on the microphone that guests are welcome to ask me for any requests they would like to hear, unless the client requests that this not be announced!

Monday 12 August 2013

When Is the Right Time To Have The First Dance ?

Good Question.



What is the right time? that is different at every wedding and depends on many factors- the weather, the atmosphere, how long since the meal finished, how big the meal was, have the evening guests arrived yet and had time to have a drink or two and a few others as well. If the venue has a nice terrace/veranda etc and the weather is very warm they invariably will stand outside for a while chatting and this will often delay many people being ready to dance.

However one thing is for certain it is'nt when the venue tells you it should be nor is it when the photographer tells you when it should be.

It is when you say to yourselves "we are ready" that may be after you have had a sit dow to gather yourselves or it may be after the buffet or whenever you want to as it is your day. do not bend to pressure.


Have you ever been to a wedding where the first dance has been done very early in the proceedings and then afterwards the dance floor is empty for a long period?

I like to think that the first dance kick starts the night if it is at the right time so take control , you decide.  



Monday 24 June 2013

Wynyard Hall Open Day 28th July 2013 See You There

Wynyard are hosting an open day on 28th July 2013 and following on from the supplier status I have been invited to attend.
Drop by and have a chat I will have my equipment set up.




See you there.


Wynyard Hall Recommended Supplier



I now appear in the Wynyard Hall suppliers list as found on their website.
This seemed to coincide with taking some promotional shots of the Conservatory 'washed in colour'
The lights can be set to any static colour or for a more exciting look they can also be set to sound to light and will react to the beats of the music. 

There are numerous options to the lighting that you can have on the evening all totally colour 
co-ordinated or mix it up a bit.









Monday 17 June 2013

Produce Your Own Playlist or Leave It To The DJ - You Decide

I am primarily a Wedding DJ in the North East however I also DJ Parties of various types including birthdays and corporate functions.

With all of these different type of clients the music range can be everything from a waltz to full on Dance music.

A client may tell me that they like 90’s music that range is massive as an example the database I use has 2491 songs listed as released in the UK for 1990 alone !

So lets narrow it down a bit.

The guest request system that I have in place has proved very popular with many clients.


When a client confirms a booking with me they are sent a username/password that gives them access to the client area of my website. One section in here is the Guest request system, which gives them  a link and a password that they can send to their guests to enable them to make some music requests

The guests can browse the music library, select requests, and include special notes about the requests that they make. The client is notified whenever a guest logs on and makes a request. After navigating to the link the guests will need to log on using the date of the event and the supplied password.

The client is notified each time they make a request but these notifications can be turned off if they wish.

The client can also remove any tracks selected by their guests that they’d would rather not hear!

Further to this on the night I always announce on the microphone that guests are welcome to ask me for any requests they would like to hear, unless the client requests that this not be announced!


Some clients prefer not to get involved in the music choices for the evening that's fine also, the choice is yours.

Friday 14 June 2013

How Long before You Are Ready ?

At Weddings where there is limited space often it can be a requirement that the disco sets up after the Wedding Breakfast has finished, and the question that many DJs are asked is how long will it take to setup?

It generally takes me around 45 minutes to set up all of the sound & lighting equipment, and I will usually arrive at the venue well over an hour before the start time.

Very often at weddings the bride and groom will make full use of the available space in the room and thus there will be tables covering the entire room, and if the room doesn’t have a separate stage area this will often mean that there will not be enough room for the DJ to setup before the guests arrive at the venue. In these situations the guests will often go into a different room after the meal and speeches have finished and the venue staff will then commence “turning the room around” and getting it ready for the evenings events. It is at this point that I can then begin setting up. There a number of things to bear in mind in these situations though:

Some venues will turn the room around within 15 minutes while others can take an hour or more.

It is very rare that all the guests will leave straight away even if an announcement has been made. There are ALWAYS a few stragglers that stay seated at their tables chatting away, oblivious to the staff trying to clear tables, cleaning up around them. Strangely enough it so often seems to be that they’ll be sitting in the very area that the DJ/act is supposed to be setting up in. This then means I can not begin setting up until those guests leave the room. Even then I will still have to wait until the venue staff have cleared the tables, hoovered the area and cleaned up, and only then can I start bringing the equipment in and start setting up. In the past this has often been over 30 minutes after the first guests left the room. It takes me around 45 minutes to setup. In the situation just described you then get the scenario where one of the wedding party come back into the room around 50 minutes after they first left the room, expecting me to be setup and ready to play! but in actual fact I’ve only had 20 minutes at that stage to setup and so will be nowhere near ready, but they usually aren’t aware that some of the guests didn’t leave the room until a long time after the majority of guests did and just think that I’m taking my time.

If you are in a situation where you would like your guests to be out of the main room for as short a period as possible then the following will usually need to happen to facilitate this.

1. ALL the guests need to leave the room as quickly as possible. Guests tend to leave the room far quicker when the bride/groom or someone from the wedding party ask them to leave than if one of the venue staff does.

2. It is an enormous help if the venue staff can first clear the area where I will be setting up before they do the rest of the room. That way I can start bringing in my equipment while the rest of the room is being cleared/cleaned. Some venues though don’t give this much thought and will clear that area last, meaning I cannot get the equipment in until they have cleared that area. So again, things tend to move quicker if the bride or groom have asked the venue contact person beforehand if they could please clear the area where I will be setting up first.

When 1 & 2 are done quickly then I can also setup quickly, meaning that the guests can return to the room far quicker and the evening’s entertainment can begin.


I can have the sound setup and playing within 30 minutes and can setup the lighting as the guests are coming into the room if you would like to have your guests back into the room in as short a time as possible.

Thursday 9 May 2013

idisco A New Trend For Mobile Discos In The North East ? Dont Think So


I DJ’ed a Wedding last week at an undisclosed venue and ended up chatting to one of the Event staff at the end of the night who told me of a new trend .
Being a bit of a trendy guy I enquire what this new trend was.

                                                                         The ‘IDJ



He mentioned to me that he’d seen an increase in bookings where the couple hadn’t booked a DJ but instead had used an iPod to play the music. 
I asked him how these events had gone and his reply was he felt that virtually every couple probably regretted doing so by the end of the night, because at every single event the guests left far earlier than when there was a DJ or band, and he felt it was because there was a marked lack in atmosphere compared to when there was professional entertainment.

I guess with the state of the economy it’s a route that more couples will explore and unless they’ve seen first hand the results they may well just presume that they can create a playlist with songs they like and that everyone will dance, and it’s a shame that they may well discover the hard way that it actually takes a lot of skill to maintain a busy dancefloor at a wedding and keep all the different age groups and music tastes happy throughout the night.

But not having entertainment, or just as bad, not having good entertainment, can make what was a a good day fizzle out instead of ending with a bang, and thus instead of a fantastic wedding celebration, it became a very expensive dinner party that ends early.

Yet another ramble !



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