Archive for November, 2009

I’m convinced that every year, the following advert appears on our TV’s earlier and earlier….

Now, I don’t know about you, but each time I see it it gives me a warm snuggly feeling inside.  Pathetic, I know!  Hahah!

For me, it also means that i’m going to be as busy as Santa over the next month or so.  This Thursday seems my first Christmas Party at the Ramada Jarvis hotel up in Gatwick near Crawley.  After that…well, let’s just say I have a few free days before the new year to put my feet up.  I’m even working on Christmas Day this year!

Had a few spare hours so I thought I would replace a few wires in my main equipment box today, not that the other ones were crap mind, but with such a busy season coming up it’s better to do this now than have to do it on the night.

The main trouble these days for DJ’s is that if you go to your average DJ equipment shop in town for an “off the shelf” wire, you’ll pay a tenner or more, depending on what you’re getting and these will be Lidl quality, think value baked beans at 4p per can.  They look like beans but they taste rubbish.  If you want quality cables then you have to for Van Damme cable, Neutrik long-life connectors and so on.  Before long, your average £10 wire now costs £40 (but will last a lot longer).

I did a rough bit of maths on Saturday night as to the replacement value of the cables in my cables box and came out with the most frightening figure of over £800.  This really surprised me especially as I only use about 20 wires in my whole show, but they are good quality, and I also have replacements ready just in case.  On top of this I have a whole load of other cables and bits and bobs i’ve picked up along the way, just in case you get to a gig and there’s a singer who wants to wire into your equipment.

Cleaned all my gear too so it looks absolutely sparkly new, which is always nice!

See you soon.

Well, the memories of Tenerife are now a long distant memory and it’s really time to knuckle down and get into the Christmas spirit.  Yes folks, I said Christmas.  You’ll have noticed all the shops are getting their chrimbo decorations out now and i’m sure you know that the idea behind this is that it will give you something to look forward to instead of worrying about the credit crunch.  Ahh, but there is no credit crunch is there!

Christmas for DISCOfever began in April this year when we started taking bookings for 2009.  We’re now playing at over 80 Christmas Parties at various locations all over Sussex.  Obviously, i’d love to be able to do them all myself.  The idea of running the DISCOfever “empire” from a disgustingly long yacht parked up in Monaco is most appealing but it’s not going to happen, so thankfully I have my band of merry men (DJ’s) to help me out.

This year is a little different in that I will be working both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day which is most odd as i’ve never done it, ever.  One of the hotels we provide entertainment for has got a booking for a coach-load of elderly Christmas revellers all coming to Brighton in search of a good old game of Bingo, a race night and a disco.  Well, I can do all of that!  It will be very odd, unwrapping prezzies with the kids in the morning, enjoying dinner with the family (and the Queen) then off to work.  I’m not moaning…it will just be odd!

We recently provided the entertainment for talkSPORT’s Ultimate Night In (in association with Carlsberg).  talkSPORT basically moved into a house in Haywards Heath, kitted it out with radio gear and all the booze you could ever want.  Superstar footballers turned up with a few random FHM girls and basically provided the best night in, ever for the winner of a radio competition.  You can see the pictures here!  (fast forward to photo 15 of 19 to see our DJ Dave playing some phat beats in the guys garage!)

Last Saturday I played at Ashdown Park which is a beautiful venue over in Forest Row.  It was a fantastic day (although it rained) and it was a great wedding, but slightly different in that it was being filmed for Living TV’s Four Weddings which should be on your screens next February.  If you’re not quite sure what sort of programme it is, think of Come Dine With Me, but with Weddings.  Four Brides battle it out to provide the ULTIMATE wedding day.  The other three brides then vote and give each wedding a score out of 10.  The winner wins a fantastic all-expenses-paid honeymoon somewhere exotic.  There was a lot going on at this wedding.  The Bride & Groom turned up in a horse-drawn carriage.  As well as having me for the disco, they also had a Frank Sinatra-style singer, a chocolate fountain, tarot reader and casino tables.  It was a brilliant night and hopefully I can look forward to another 15 minutes of fame when it comes to air next year.  I’ll let you all know first!