9:40
The first mobile disco gig log
On YouTube this video is called First Ever Mobile Disco Gig Log on the Web!
What this lesson teaches
He claims this is the first mobile disco gig log on the web, and whether or not that is exactly true, it is where the format in this course starts: a camera on the dashboard, the whole evening, nothing staged.
The drive
Saturday, raining, in the van, on the way to a hall he has never been to in his life. A stop at the local music shop to say hello.
And the first lesson, which every one of these logs repeats: he arrives early and then waits.
Hang around time
His name for it, and the explanation is the useful part.
It is five o'clock. The guests are arriving in their best clothes and standing about talking. He cannot get the gear in until they have moved, so there is an hour of nothing to do.
And the reasoning behind choosing that over the alternative: if you leave on time for a two-hour journey, you will get caught in traffic or have a puncture. Leave early and sod's law means you have ages to wait.
So the waiting is not wasted time, it is the price of never being late - and by the argument of the whole of this stage, being late is the one thing a client remembers.
The venue
A grand hall, and his first practical observation on arrival: he can get the van right up to the door.
Which he immediately contrasts with the alternative - venues where you carry everything up five flights of stairs and down long corridors, and where the chance of a lift would be amazing.
That is worth asking about when taking a booking. Load-in distance is the difference between a forty-minute setup and a two-hour one.
The rig
A pair of 15-inch-and-horn cabinets, a twin CD player, an 1100 watt amplifier, three scanner lights, a colour changer, an oil wheel projector, a radio microphone, a crate of CDs and a 20GB music player.
And a good detail on method: he sets up on the floor first, because the table has not arrived yet. Everything gets connected and tested, and when the trestle table turns up the whole lot goes on it already working.
What he plays, and why
The most honest part of the video.
He shows the CDs and points out that they are all cheesy - and then explains why that is correct: this is what people want at weddings. They do not want the latest drum and bass or hip hop. They want Michael Jackson and disco.
And what it earns
On the drive home, the thing nobody else says out loud.
He enjoys house, soul, R&B and hip hop - and he makes no money from playing it, because where he lives there is nowhere to play it.
So he does weddings, parties and twenty-firsts, and earns from those. And then the figure that matters: it is not a living. His wife works too, and they could not survive on either wage alone. Together they get by.
That is a straight answer to a question most DJ content avoids, from somebody who has been doing it for decades. The mobile work funds the hobby and contributes to the household. It is not a career that replaces one.
Why the format works
Because it shows the parts nobody films: the rain, the hour of standing about, the gear on the floor, the box of cheesy CDs, and a man explaining on the way home what it actually pays.
Everything else in this course is a variation on that.
Contents of the video
0:00 Hope you're getting this
Alright folks, hope you're getting this. This is Reno on my way to a function this evening. It's Saturday, I'm in me van, it's raining, it's an horrible day but who gives a monkey's? There you go. Alright ladies and gentlemen, this is the music shop I come into sometimes. Midwells Music in Newtown. Say hello. And here's all the PA that they use themselves, shall I say. Laugh every minute.
Hi again, still on the way. I've got the foggy one. I know sort of where I'm going but never been to the place before in my life and roads are getting a little bit better now so I'll speak to you again soon. Okay guys, we're at the gig. This is Sorton Hall and a bit of a place actually. It's what you call a bit of a drive and I'll show you some more when we get there. Bye bye. In my game you'll come across some strange people in all walks of life, including me. But it is now 5 o'clock UK time and this is called the hang around time where you just wait basically. A load of people have arrived all looking as though they've just left some posh shop with all their posh frocks on. And they're all yapping now, giving it a bit of this. So we've got to wait until they finish yapping and then I can go in and set the gear in, which is about an hour, so I've got ages yet. So really, it's a case of if you leave just on time, you know, and you think, oh, it'll take two hours to get there, guaranteed you'll get caught in traffic or have a puncture or something like that. So if you give yourself plenty of time, sod's law, isn't it? You've got loads of time to wait.
2:09 The chance of a lift would be amazing, so speak to you soon
While we're waiting, I thought I'd just show you the house. So, there you go. That's it. It's quite impressive actually. Well, it's a hall anyway. Sort of an hall. There you go. The entrance is over there but luckily I can get the van right close to the door. Believe me, I've been in some venues where you had to sort of travel at five different flights of stairs and long corridors and, you know... The chance of a lift would be amazing, so speak to you soon. Okay, here's the place. This is it. By the looks of it they're eating up there. I'm playing in one of those rooms there. So we'll have a look inside now. This is where I am. Setting up over there. You'd be surprised in what kind of places you actually work in.
And I'm playing in that corner over there. Okay guys, that's the gear I used. It's not exactly tidiest of stuff, but you've got a couple of RCF Event 6000s, 215.8 and a 1-inch. In one of the boxes, double satronic CD player. There's StudioMaster 1100 watt 4 ohms amp. That mixie you've always seen. 3 MadScan lights, colour changer, oil wheel projector, loads of CDs and an iPod with about 20GB of music. So there you go, hopefully you'll see it set up in a minute. You're probably wondering why I'm setting up on the floor. Well, the table is going here.
4:33 It won't come to me until I've had my coffee
It won't come to me until I've had my coffee. Well, they've coffee, so I've got to set up and make sure everything's working first. And then luckily, if I want to get a trestle table, I can put the gear on that, and then it's already plugged in and ready to go. So, still looking pretty messy at the moment, but we have power. My play is there, and if I turn the amp up... That's one side, and that's the other side. So there you go. More to follow.
Okay, guys. Okay, folks, we're going to have a look around the place now. Like I say, this is Salton Hall. It is as it says. Hi. Hello there. Toilets, yeah? Just straight through there, sir. Thank you. Straight through there. Oh, I didn't know they had this place, this room. Yeah. Somewhere to sit. Excellent. I was going to tell you in the last few months. Ah, right. Presume this is the reception. There you go. You can see all the way through there is where I will be tonight. This is only a bit of it. They're eating upstairs at the moment. Okay guys, very simple, straightforward, but this is my setup for the cheesy mobile disco. We've got Sertronic CD1, dual CD player, not the best thing in town, but does the job. There's the mixer you always see, the amp, I've got a radio mic so you can walk about everywhere. There's my little iPod thingy.
6:31 They don't want to listen to the latest drum and bass or hip-hop
That's playing about 10cc at the moment. And a collection of all sorts of CDs. You may notice they're all cheesy ones, but then this is what people want at weddings. They don't want to listen to the latest drum and bass or hip-hop. They want a load of classic Michael Jackson and disco dancey stuff. I mean, come on. The Macarena. Well, we'll see. Speak to you next time. Alright folks, right, that was it. What do you think about that then? It was a bit manic, but good fun. That's what it's all about, having a bit of fun. The crowd enjoy themselves and get on with it, don't you? So it's bye-bye to that big place. Bumps. And I'm going to stop the van and we're going to have a look at the place at night because it looks pretty funky actually. So I'll stop and see what you think of this, check it out. So we're going home.
And on the way home, listen to some proper music. Hi guys, Rob. Right, how do we break up tonight then? Well simply this, and that is that I enjoy house, I enjoy soul, R&B and hip-hop and stuff like that, but I don't make any money from playing that sort of music, not where I live, because there's... Not really many places to play that kind of stuff, or kind of thing should I say. So what I do is I do wedding discos, parties, 21sts and I earn some money from it. It's not a living because my wife works as well and we can't survive on her wages and we can't just survive on mine but we get by on what we earn together going round and round about so excuse me. But thank you for watching and I hope you've enjoyed all of this. And if you've got any questions or queries on this, just give us a bell, give us a comment and I shall speak to you again ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much. Bye bye.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
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