All the request lists are ready and there’s some pretty amazing tracks coming up this weekend!  Here are the first dances…

• Michael Buble – Crazy Love
• Snow Patrol – Chasing Cars
• Steve Tyrell – The Way You Look Tonight
• Jason Mraz – I’m Yours

So a big congratulations this week to Claire and Matt, Keri and Gary, Juliet and Ian and finally Louise and Ross!

Now, you need to know that DIY and I are not the best of friends so it was really important for me to get this right.  A good friend of mine (who is my DIY equal I hasten to add) thought he could paint his disco lights to make them look brand new and it turned out to be one of the most expensive mistakes he ever made so the pressure was on for me to not cock this up.  I concentrated hard on the job in hand and made a list of things I needed to get and got stuck in.  The end result is pretty amazing I have to say and my speakers looks fantastic again!  It’s certainly inspired me to go and do other things, i’ve been walking around the house looking for other things to paint, the Wife is VERY worried!

Speaking of things looking all sparkly and fresh i’ve been busy working on a new website and it’s finally almost ready to unleash on the internet.  It’s been a good 4 or 5 months in the making and because i’ve got design OCD i’ve redone things many many times until i’m solidly happy with them.  There are just a few more things I need to do and add so i’m hoping that certainly by the end of next week it will be online for all to see.

Keep checking back for a link so you can see the fruits of my labour!

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.

This is…the worlds worst wedding DJ…American…naturally.

…UNFORTUNATELY…

YouTube have removed the video as it shows “abuse” (apparently) BUT, I found another version

www.youtube.com/watch?v=86HaTCv2Gss

For some reason the wife doesn’t want to come to my discos anymore.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWmvaBUA_IM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFXPZ6AjnsU

It’s no wonder A-Plus have reviews such as this…

We Booked A Childrens Entertainer for our terminally Ill daughters 3rd birthday party. He was very hard to get hold of once we had booked and did not turn up on the day. Do not book this Man.

Or…

I booked Aplus for my daughters 16th on 30/12/07. I paid my £50 deposit and apparantly Aplus called to speak with me but i was at work. They sent e-mails, pass words to get on the internet site. However 14 days i paid in full as was requested of me. Then it dawned on me that somethings not write as there were no more e-mails from them, nothing. Afew days later when i was speaking with a friend advising that i’m gonna have to book another disco. Is when she suddenly said that a disco was being investigated by Watchdog. Unbelievable, i felt so stupid. But hey we live and learn, this was a very expensive xmas as i had to fork out for 2 disco’s. At least the second booking turned up and i paid him at the end of the disco. I book a lot of things via the internet this has definitely put me off.

This appears to be happening, worryingly, more and more often.

So how do you avoid a “no show” ?  Quite simple.  When looking for entertainment no doubt you will get a massive range of prices.  If you get three or four quoting very similar prices and one that is temptingly so much cheaper, it’s cheap for a reason.  There’s every chance that  mr. cheapskate DJ will ring you up a few days before the party and cancel having gotten a better offer from someone else, or even not turn up at all!  Make sure you get a contract from your entertainer, speak to people he has worked for before but most of all, go with your gut instinct.  If you do not feel comfortable, do not book.  If you can’t get hold of them, do not book.  It’s worth spending a bit more to get someone you can contact, who provides a contract and has all of the correct insurances.

I will enjoy doing these parties because i’m a nice guy but I would REALLY like to meet the plonkers who cancel on these poor people and give them a jolly good thrashing!

Programs like this never fail to disappoint.  It really is trash TV!

The guy who does the voiceover for the show really sums it up in the opening credits when he mentions that the best bit of the program is slagging off the weddings afterwards.  Great!

I have to say though that my jaw hit the floor when I saw the DJ at one of the parties.  This was the DJ who “danced”.  Now, there’s dancing and there’s dancing but this was really something else.  The DJ’s name is Andy Hofton and it appears that he is quite popular in Cheshire (Macclesfield to be exact).  His show really was something else.  It was a very basic looking disco with a few flashing lights but the DJ himself was the show and all he did was dance like a lunatic.  For an example of the dancing I managed to find a video of him on YouTube…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXS3qhDm0XA

I can’t seem to find a website for the geezer but it does appear that he is very very popular.  Maybe I should consider taking dancing lessons too?

The rest of the program, albeit compelling viewing, was utter trash.  The Brides are so rude.  Anyone seriously considering going on this program really needs to think twice, or maybe even three or four times.

I hear also that Channel 4 are creating a wedding programme.  I guess they need something to fill the slots now that Big Brother is almost over -- and don’t get me started on that.

If you managed to make it down there and chat to us then it was really nice to see you.  We use events like this to meet up with clients who have already booked their weddings with us and of course a chance to advertise our range of services to those who have just got engaged.

The next big Sussex Wedding Show is on Sunday, 19th September and we will be attendance for sure!  Keep your eye on their website for a full list of suppliers soon!

Over the years I have spent a lot of money on increasing the visual aspect of the equipment I use. It’s not always been good, five or six years ago there was absolutely nothing good about how my disco looked, but it did sound brilliant. Since then i’ve got myself involved in the DJ community and spoke to other people and found equipment that once invested in would seriously increase the quality of disco. Since doing this I have had the pleasure in working at some of the most fantastic venue’s in the area.

Unfortunately, not all the DJ’s out there are interested in upping their game with a view to providing a better service to their clients and earning better money in the process. How a disco looks is very important. Clients have spent hours/days/months hunting out the perfect venue for their Wedding, what they don’t want is a DJ turning up and taking over with a huge unsightly rig.

But it’s not just about shonky looking equipment, it’s how it’s presented. Wires hanging down from overhead bars and trailing all over the floor. This presents a safety risk to the client and their guests. With a little bit of effort (and gaffa tape) it could be very easily and cheaply tidied up.

After a bit of looking around the internet I came across several photo’s of other disco set-ups and decided to compile a gallery. Some of these are so shockingly bad I often wonder how they manage in business. Is their desk really as untidy as their disco? So please, sit back and enjoy the pictures.

I normally do it every week but since I changed music software i’ve found it difficult to export the list from iTunes into something that our online system understands.  Luckily i’ve now managed to overcome this little hurdle and will be back to updating it weekly again!

Now, back to my ice lolly in the garden!

DISCOfever is owned and operated by me, Ian Forest and whoever hires me first gets me as their DJ.  For every other gig we get in we get one of our other DJ’s to do it.  Luckily, we work with a great bunch of guys, all wedding professionals.  There’s no pecking order and there’s absolutely no risk to the client.  They get the benefit of our superior levels of customer service and of course access to our online planning system without the worry of having to continue their search for a DJ in the Yellow Pages or wherever.  We take a very small commission out of each of the gigs we give to our DJ’s to help cover our expenses such as time and advertising, etc.

As with all small businesses, we have to price our service at a certain level and do so many gigs a month in order to pay our bills and make a little profit at the same time and it’s very hard because we constantly have to deal with other companies out there who are undercutting us by HUGE margins in order to get your business and to be honest the ONLY person who benefits from this is you, or at least you would think so.

The real truth is that these companies who are undercutting us by as much as £200 do not have the resources that professional wedding DJ hire companies have access to and what they end up doing is ringing every cheap DJ they can think of and offering them wedding gigs at knockdown prices.  They will even take a £50 cut out of the fee leaving the DJ with as little as £130 for his services.

As I said above, you’re getting a good deal as your entertainment budget get slashed in half allowing you to go and spend extra money on another tier on your cake, or fancier table decorations.  The fact of the reality is that whilst you may be happy initially in spending much less on your entertainment you have absolutely no idea at all who is going to turn up at your wedding to entertain you and their level of experience/quality of equipment.  Because these companies do not have access to decent DJ’s what they end up doing is ringing around all the quality DJ’s in the area asking if they are available to do these really cheap gigs – and because more often than not these DJ’s are unavailable (not surprisingly) they end up booking the cheapest DJ they can find.

Right at the beginning of this post I mentioned a phone call from another DJ.  He rang me up asking if we were available to do a wedding disco in 13 days time (I wonder if the Bride and Groom are aware that despite booking some time ago, they do not actually have a DJ for their wedding yet?) for less than half of our usual rate.  As it happens, we had quoted ourselves for this gig at our standard rate – is it any wonder we did not get it when this other DJ slashed our price by a good 60% and he is now ringing us asking if we can do it!  He then went on to ask if we could ring round any of our guys to find out if they would do it.  As you can imagine we declined the very tempting offer.

So folks, and I cannot stress this enough.  If you are looking for quotes for your wedding entertainment and you get several quotes all around the same price and one at less than half the cost of the others, please do not be tempted because you WILL regret it.