Gig log April 2010 at the Marine Hotel Aberystwyth

0:01 In the morning, well first thing

Alright guys, another gig log for you. It's a beautiful sunny day in April, Saturday, and I'm off to the Marine Hotel. Now it's first thing in the morning, well first thing in the morning, it's like half past nine, it's not really first thing in the morning. And I'm going to go and set up most of the gear. I don't normally do this kind of thing, there is a certain logic behind what I'm about to say. But I was phoned by the client a while ago and they booked the disco, they booked the SVM, they want the camera on the crowd, all that kind of stuff. Thought fine and they wanted me to set up sort of about seven but logically you know it's a lot of gear so it's going to take a bit of time. There is a band there tonight as well so you'll see some of the footage of the band but then they phoned up again about a week ago and said would you mind coming along in the morning to set up most of the kit?

Well, in their eyes initially it was can you set all of it up? But I did explain that I don't want to leave a lot of expensive items around because you do have the occasional sticky fingers. So what I agreed, I said yeah okay that's fine and of course it is a bit of a pain because it means you've got to go in and out from your home to the venue twice. Now logically it's not that far away so it doesn't really matter. I haven't charged them any extra or anything like that Which some people possibly would. But in a sense, by just agreeing to, okay, yeah, that's fine, the people involved would probably look at that and think, well, yeah, that's quite polite of the guy, very professional, and also tiny little things like that people never forget. Sometimes the smallest things can be the biggest things. Now I have said this before in another video, but... Hold on, I've just got to get past this guy here now. What's he parked there for?

1:54 They'll always remember he was a good DJ, but you know what?

I have said this before, but you could have the biggest show in the world. You could be the best top number one DJ. But if you're late, if you're late to the event, people will never ever forget that. They'll always remember he was a good DJ, but you know what? He was late. And do you know what? Being late is one of the worst things in the world you can do because people expect you to be there set up. They don't want the hassle of you Turning up and, you know, trying to get through the crowd, no excuse me, excuse me, and testing the microphone and testing the speakers while the people are there eating or whatever. So try and get there early. So it's always a good idea if the venue is two hours away, give yourself three hours. So in other words, you've got some injury time. Right, hold on. All right, I've got my glasses on now. Right, take my advice if you want to, but when you're dealing with a band, right, there is a band on tonight, more importantly,

If you're dealing with a band and you're setting up before the band, please, please take the band into consideration. It is vitally important. There is nothing worse, alright? Please just don't go there. Don't set up and think, you know what, the band can go in the corner because I tell you what, if you set your gear up and the band turn up after you, more than likely they'll possibly move your kit and set up. This is my way of thinking. A band is something very visual, very audio. People look and watch. They like to see the guitarist, they like to see the drummer, they like to see the vocalist, etc. So in my eyes, you tell me what you think. The band should categorically take... Deadfly on the windscreen there. Take centre stage. They've got... He just went... Oh dear, poor thing. Must have hurt his arse.

Right, so the band must take centre stage. So when you're getting to an event and you set up before the band, consider them and make sure you have ample space for them. If you don't know who the band are or where they're from or how many people, inquire, ask how many people are in the band. Then it gives you a general idea. A small tip but it's vital help. Right here we go, Marine Hotel. And apparently there's 400 people here today, and it's going to be absolutely... Sorry, you can carry on talking. It's going to be absolutely chocker in here. And yes, as usual, there's absolutely no room for me. Now normally I set up over there, but I've had to set up there, which is, I don't know, my only way of actually getting in is under there.

4:50 I brought the CK1000 just to make sure we have sound, logically

I brought the CK1000 just to make sure we have sound, logically. And what that does mean is that I can turn up and literally turn this guy on and have some background music while I'm setting up the rest of the gear. So what I'm going to have to do probably is put a cable across there and have the screen there after they've moved those tables. The band are going there as well. is probably three-quarters of an hour absolute chaos later on while everything's been tidied up. But it's looking rather good. And I must say, I like the florist. Very nice designs here. It's just being quiet. Now that is excellent, you see? Look at that. The beauty about something like that is if you've got any cocktails later on and you fancy some limes, just dig in. So, this is part one. During the day it's no 5 to 11.

9:21 Enjoy practice person, then I'm afraid you can't really do that much

And part two will be in the dark. There's the Marine Hotel, it's a blue one. Well, when I say sort of gay blog, you didn't really actually see much. That's mostly because you're always doing something, continually on the go and unless you've got a photo-video or a photographer and strata, Enjoy practice person, then I'm afraid you can't really do that much. Band were very good and I didn't really do much until sort of like 11, half 11. It's now three o'clock so I finished around about half past two after one more and then you play one more and then one more and then you play another one go on one more and then you go fuck off. Don't normally swear but I don't say that it's just I had to do it at that particular point. No you don't do that you don't talent.

Do that because that's a little bit rude actually and it's highly unprofessional. So, alright, what do you do if you're in a situation whereby they're going one more, one more, one more, one more? Well, a good thing to do, to be quite honest, is literally just walk away. That's it. Walk away from everything and just walk away basically. Walk away from the whole blinking lot but keep your eye on it. Because quite often they're that drunk, they won't notice you sat in the corner and all of a sudden music stops. Worst case scenario, let's say for example you're in a marquee and it's private grounds and there's no licensing laws etc. One brilliant way of stopping the music, and I have done this actually, is phone the police and complain about the noise. It's marvellous, it's very simple, very easy to do. All you've got to do is complain about the noise, the police turn up and guess what? They'll stop you.

Marvelous. But of course, don't tell the owners that you were the one who phoned the police because they're probably going to get paid for being very happy about that. Anyway, so a bit of fun and yes, I turned up very quickly as well. I turned up, as you know, this morning to set up. To be quite honest, neither bothered because again, quite often it's a good idea to time how long it takes from the transition from sort of Food, speeches where they clear the tables to when the disco starts etc. And it was a good sort of hour just doing that. There was a lot going on anyway so I could have easily set up in that amount of time but you just don't know these things do you? You'd never know. But anyway another gig log for you and let's see yours all right. Let's see your gig logs. We want to see the cock-ups, the good bits, the down bits, everything. If it goes blurred let it go blurred. If it goes dark like that

And blurred! Marvelous! Then let it go dark and blurred. I don't care, this is real life. And this is good fun. And it's raining and I'm going to go to bed and I'm tired. And I'm going to have a glass of water and practice and enjoy. In a blurry sort of way. Thank you.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.