Despite the title of this post it’s got absolutely nothing to do with the holiday market giant but it has everything to do with people who leave booking their DJ right to the last minute.

Booking a DJ is quite often the very last thing on most peoples’ minds despite the fact that it is certainly one of the most important parts of any celebration.  Book the wrong DJ and your party will be one to remember for all of the wrong reasons.  As with ANY trade all the decent ones get booked up way in advance and this is certainly the case with us, I’m currently taking bookings for 2011 and also have a few booked in for 2012.  I have a few spare dates left but they usually get snapped up very quickly.

For some reason though this year I have had a massive number of calls from people looking for a last-minute DJ sometimes as soon as a WEEK before their party and they sound utterly shocked on the phone when I tell them that we have no-one available!  But of course, at that point it’s too late and the best they can do is spend the next couple of hours ringing random DJ’s in the Yellow Pages in the hope that they will find one available – and they probably will with a very high chance that it will be one of the worst DJ’s in the area, hence the reason why they are available last minute.

But, this post is not just about people who leave it until the last minute to find a DJ, it’s also about those DJ’s who let their clients down right at the last minute.

I’ve heard from a lot of people this year who have been let down, and the range of excuses ranges from the sublime to the truly ridiculous.  More often than not the truth is that they have been offered a higher-priced gig with someone else and they have no problem at all dropping you right in it and it’s these sorts of idiots who give DJ’s a really bad name.  I think having a “no-show” DJ is probably the one thing that people worry about most of all.

The other one is when someone books a “friend of a friend” to DJ at their party.  The number of people who have called me last minute because their “friend of a friend” has pulled out, or gone on holiday or has decided that rather than DJ at your party he wants to come and enjoy it as a guest so he can get drunk.  A fine example of this is last night I had a phone call from a young chap looking to book a DJ for his school prom this FRIDAY.  He’s been let down by a friend of a friend.  I told him our price which is not-surprisingly significantly higher than the very low “mates rates” price the friend had charged.  The poor young chap is now in a difficult position.  He has no comeback from the friend because no paperwork was issued and currently has no entertainment for his prom in two days with the added problem now that he could be letting down hundreds of others who are all expecting a good time.  He hasn’t rang back, so the chances are he’s found a really cut-price DJ.

So…if it’s your wedding or a birthday, or in fact any sort of party, do not leave it to chance.  Getting the right DJ is far more important than you think.