So you want to get your request played! @ Wynyard Hall ( or anywhere ) Interested then read this guide

I am a DJ based in Durham covering the North East with a mobile disco and DJ services however the below guide is Universal ……. International even!  

Some people genuinely seem to believe that DJs won’t play their requests and thus you can read it in their body language when they approach to ask for a request. No doubt there are awful DJs around or DJs with oversize ego’s that don’t play requests, or worse, say yes to the request when it’s asked but then they don’t play anything that any guests have asked for all night.

For private functions such as weddings and corporate events however, most DJs, and certainly most professional DJs, will always try to play as many requests as possible, because their main aim is to try to make as many of the guests as happy as possible, because that will give the DJ a much more enjoyable night and also by doing that, that will keep the client happy and more importantly (from the DJs point of view!) it increases their prospects of picking up a booking from one of the guests at the event! They are in business like anybody else and always looking to take on more bookings, especially bookings where the prospective client has already seen/heard them.

But, and it’s a big ole butt, a good DJ won’t play a request that is likely to lead to a lot of people leaving the dance-floor, or, even if the dance-floor’s not that busy at the time- they probably won’t play a request that is unlikely to entice people onto the dance-floor. There are exceptions of course, but on the whole this is the attitude most professional DJs will adopt.

How to get your request played?

Simple common sense. You’ve got a lot more chance of getting your track played if you say to a DJ “can you play my track at some stage during the night” than if you give the classic line “I have to leave in 10 minutes, so please play it before I go”! because if you’re leaving in 10 minutes then the DJ has no incentive to play it! Especially if the request doesn’t fit in with the type of music that he’s playing when you ask, and besides, you’re just leaving yourself open to him thinking, well if the request was so important to you, why did you wait until 10 minutes before you leave to ask for it?

The DJs ultimate aim is to get as many people in the room dancing as possible and for as long as possible and so he has to try and decide which tracks are most likely to appeal to as many people in the room as possible as opposed to just keeping one person happy.

Simple psychology also kicks in; if you’re polite to the DJ when asking for a song you’ve got far more chance of getting your song played than if you talk to him like he’s a piece of dirt or being sarcastic. You’re then just giving the DJ a reason not to play your request.

Other good tips to NOT get your song played:

“What songs have you got?” “what do you want?” “I dunno, anything”!

“Have you got anything other than this?”

                           www.designerweddingdj.co.uk

Hey DJ Play My Song ! @ Wynyard Hall Durham Castle Or Any Venue

I’ve  been DJ’ing for many years and have DJ’ed in clubs,  parties and Weddings in many venues  and one thing that seems to be the same in many events or Weddings are guests asking for requests from the DJ.

OK what’s strange about that I hear you cry ?

I will continue……

The person making the request then expects the request to be played immediately. Most people are OK about it when their song isn’t played soon after asking but there are always the minority that seem to think they’re really special and that the very fact that they have asked for a song means that it should be played straight away!

I realise that it’s not something most people would give any thought to but I thought I’d attempt to explain some of the reasons why there’s a good chance your request won’t be played immediately, and that it’s not because the Wedding DJ is on an ego trip!

Lets remember these are my thoughts so I cant account for other DJ”s.

For this example I will use a Wedding as the point of reference as there are most ages from toddler to Great Grandparents so therefore everything from teen pop to rock n roll.

As the DJ I will attempt to try and keep everyone happy and so there will be music from many different era’s and genres played.

If for example I’m playing “Marvin Gaye I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and there are a lot of the crowd dancing to it and a guest then requests The Killers; if I went from Grapevine into a track from The Killers the probability is that many people will leave the dancefloor and a few of those would probably give me a strange/dirty look.

To try to keep as many of the guests as happy as possible I will tend to group together small groups of similar genres/era’s, because very often if someone gets up to a 60′s track for example they’ll likely want to dance for a few songs at least and there’s a good chance anyone that has come onto the dancefloor to a 60’s track will like other songs of that era.

So if you followed that 60’s track with a 90’s track the people that came onto the dancefloor for the 60’s will probably go and sit down again. Whereas if you played around 3 sixties tracks they’d stay dancing to all 3 of them. From the 3rd sixties track I could then gradually transform into something from the 70’s or something with a similar feel from a different era, by mixing the tracks into each other, thus maintaining exactly the same tempo and so many people will just continue dancing as long as they still like the next track. And by playing a few from this era and then a few from that era and then a few from a certain genre it’s easier to try to keep most of the crowd happy.

It can be a problem though to stay with one particular era/genre for too long, say for 30 minutes or so and that is almost certain to rile at least one section of the crowd as they are probably waiting for a transition to the 70’s.

Can you imagine what would happen if the DJ just played every single request they received in the order they received them and as soon as possible?

To give you an example at a recent event I made a record of the requests received, and this is how they came in (in the order they were received):

“something from Beyonce”

“some rock n roll”

“Black eyed peas”

“Take That”

“Some Beatles”

“AC DC – Rosie”

“Yolanda – We no speak Americano”

“Joe Tex – Ain’t gonna bump no more”

“Robin S-Show me love”

“Rihanna-Only girl in the world”

“Fatback-I found lovin”

“Lady Gaga-Bad romance”

“Paul Weller Town Called Malice”

“Kings of Leon-Sex on Fire”

“any Jackie Wilson”

“Anything from the top ten”

If a DJ played those tracks in that order, it’s unlikely that they would maintain a full dance floor throughout that set. One thing that would be likely is that a lot of the guests would get annoyed with the constant change of tempo, era, style and the atmosphere would probably be pretty bad.

Every DJ would probably play them in a different order but this would be my playlist and the reasons for those choices:-

Personally I try to play every request I receive unless it’s a song that is probably gonna clear the floor. I will try whenever possible to play it as soon as possible after being asked for it, but sometimes that might not be until over an hour after it was asked for, while at other times it might be within a few minutes, and there have been times when someone has asked me for a song that will fit perfectly with what I’m playing at that very moment and I’ve then mixed it into the current track within a minute or so.

Other things to bear in mind when making a request; there are certain songs which will work particularly well near the end of the night and others that will work better earlier in the night but not so well later on. Other times I’ve been asked for a song and at the time it was asked for I’ve thought that I’ll be able to fit that in later but then the way that the event progresses, it gradually dawns on me that that request just isn’t gonna work. So I then decide not to play it because it’s better to annoy one person by not playing a track than clear a dancefloor and annoy a load of people!

Exception To The Rule :-There are some requests that ordinarily wouldn’t work but will work when they are asked for by the host of a party such as the bride or groom at a wedding, because if the bride or groom dance to it then usually some of the guests will dance with them, same for the birthday boy/girl at a birthday party…unless of course they’ve asked for a real floorkiller such as Leonard Cohen or a chilled out instrumental!

Hopefully it’s given a tiny glimpse into some of the many things that a DJ needs to take into consideration when receiving a request, and most of the time if a DJ doesn’t play your request it’s not because they’re on an ego trip it’s because they feel it either won’t work at that particular time or just won’t work at all.

www.designerweddingdj.co.uk

JBTD2FKKJYJQ

Uplighting @ Wynyard Hall

I had an enquiry in for mood lighting at Wynyard Hall in blue which I hadn't done before.

I arranged a meeting with the client to meet up @ Wynyard and gave the lights a blast.

                       

Imagine the full room dressed in blue LED lights, stunning.

It was worth the drive as the clients happy.

www.designerweddingdj.co.uk

Why Pay More Than £100 For A DJ In The North East

When two people get engaged and then begin planning a wedding it can at first seem extremely daunting, faced with the enormity of organising such a huge event, and very often without any experience of organising anything this big, it is very easy for it to get quite overwhelming especially with all the advice, much of it conflicting, that is offered by so many people. A multitude of things have to be done and what to do first? It can quickly get quite stressful.
With so much to do, the entertainment can easily get overlooked in the early stages. Additionally as most people will never have booked entertainment before, that can be another reason to put it off because of being unsure how to go about finding the right entertainment.
From my experience the groom is given this responsibility as this is perceived as a non bridal thing - i disagree, do it together guys.
In most cases the first decision will come down to choosing between having a band or a DJ for the wedding entertainment, and once that has been decided how do you then go about finding the right DJ or band? What questions would you ask? How much will it cost? What things are standard?!… if you haven’t experience of booking this before you often won’t know where to start, or on what to base a decision? Is it just a case of plucking a figure from the air with regards to what to spend? And how should you decide what percentage of the total budget should be allocated to the entertainment? So much to think about!
For those thinking of having a disco, the following is a post from Mark Ferrell, a respected advocate of mobile DJs, on the subject of wedding DJs and the perception of them by the public.

“The public thinks that many wedding DJs all do the same thing and at the same level of proficiency. Based on what they’ve seen, they don’t expect much. That’s why they want to pay the average price or “going rate”. And for that reason, most wedding DJ services charge about the same price, varying by only a few hundred pounds.

In many instances, brides and grooms don’t think the entertainment is very important because they haven’t seen a DJ that can really deliver quality entertainment. So they get the cheapest DJ that can play the best music. Sometimes they forgo having a DJ and instead use an iPod or no entertainment whatsoever.”

If you’ve never hired a DJ before it’s easy to think of them as a commodity and all much of a muchness, after-all, they just play music right?! so not much to think about. But as with most things in life there can be a huge diversity in what is available, ranging from kids just starting out trying to get a bit of DJ experience and charging a couple of hundred pounds through to the seasoned professionals charging ten times that amount.
I must point out at this stage that although i regard myself as a seasoned professional my rates are not extortionate. 

“The only reason to pay more for something – anything – is because you are getting more/better. Dinner, cars, real estate, entertainment, anything.

People will buy a BMW over a Hyundai because of quality – they are getting a better car. Not everyone will afford a BMW, granted, but they still recognize it as a better car that they would prefer to have. Generally speaking, people want better stuff.”

There is a service for all budgets. From the guy that you book but never meet until they turn up on the night and they play music for 3 or 4 hours, to the other end of the scale, where they will meet with you or at the very least have several in depth conversatiions as to how you perceive the night going. . They’ll really get to know you, and ensure they have a thorough understanding of the vision you want to create for your day, and will assist you throughout the wedding day, from the ceremony onwards,  ensuring that the whole day is completely personalised and very unique.

I am not going to say how much you need to spend to get a Good DJ everyone has a budget but if you are reading this now then you must have grasped the fact that 'you get what you pay for'
i believe in a fair price for a professional service.

Think about this the cake costs i dont know £500 you can get a cake or £100
A DJ can cost £100 or you can get a DJ for £500 you need to decide cake or DJ.
Dont get me wrong i'm not attacking cake people it's only an example but if the DJ is pants and the cake is fantastic or the DJ is fantastic and the cake is OK what are more people likely to remember a pants DJ and a good cake OR a Good DJ and an OK cake.
You decide !


To finish with, some stats from a magazine called Bride and Groom.
Bridal magazine research has found wedding guests remember the entertainment more than anything else. Surprising then, the happy couple sometimes spend more on a sweetie cart and skimp on entertainment. When the wedding favours cost more than the DJ, it’s no surprise the party is average!

·       The vast majority say they would have spent more of their budget on the entertainment.
·       During wedding planning, Brides say their highest priority is their attire, followed by the reception site and caterer – reception entertainment is among the least of their priorities.
·       Within one week after their reception, 78% of Brides say they would have made the entertainment their highest priority!
·       72% of all brides say they would have spent more time choosing their reception entertainment.
·       When asked 81% of guests say the thing they remember most about a wedding is the entertainment.
·       65% of all couples that chose a band to entertain at their wedding, said, if they had it to do over again, they would have chosen a DJ.

Stats dont you love them!

www.designerweddingdj.co.uk

There's Always One - If Your Lucky

Ok your stood there behind the decks, trying to mix it up on the dancefloor. 

Could be a Disco @ Wynyard Hall  Guyzance Hall or anywhere in-between.

It doesn't really matter where it is you can guarantee without exception someone at some stage during the night will come and request a song.

Well whats unusual or strange about that i hear you cry after all I am theWedding DJ at a North East venue isn't that supposed to happen.

Well yes it is but for whatever reason ( probably due to mucho champers ) the lady requestor as inevitably it will be a lady will try and remember the name and title of a song but it's totally gone and they cant remember.

Then it happens they burst into some form of tune that resembles nothing you have ever heard before thinking that you are immediately going to say oh well of course i'll put it on next !

Yes the singing requestor its just a classic part of the night that i have a chuckle about on the drive home.  

www.designerweddingdj.co.uk