A wedding in the Welsh hills

0:01 Another gig log for you and today I'm doing a wedding in a marquee

Right guys, another gig log for you and today I'm doing a wedding in a marquee. So, few tips, few tricks for you. The first thing, very important, with I would say any gig, take some food with you. Take a packed lunch, drinks, something. Now, if you have arranged with your client that they supply you with refreshments and a meal to begin with, then that's fine. But if you haven't and on the way there you think, oh don't worry about it, there'll be a buffet, I can help myself. Then think again because A, it's very rude just to help yourself and B, the client most of the time will automatically expect that you've organised that anyway. Yeah they'll say, oh would you like to help yourself? But you'd only be in the position of maybe 7 o'clock, 7.30 when you've spent three hours getting there setting up.

You're really hungry and they just completely ignore you, which has happened to me in the past. So I'm just giving you tips here and a bit of information so hopefully you won't have some stumbling blocks that I've had to sort of hurdle over, which has happened many, many a time. The next one, in a marquee. It could be the hottest day in the year outside. Great, fantastic day, you're sweating pints. But come the evening time, believe me, it's going to get cold. It's going to get cold. So make provisions so you have maybe a t-shirt underneath you. If you're going to wear a shirt, so you're in a suit, then put something underneath your white shirt so at least you've got another layer. If anything, make sure you've got your jacket with you because it will get cold. Unless of course they have organised heating, you're pretty much fine.

But even then you will find it'll be rather drafty, so it's a good idea to take an extra layer with you just in case. Another thing I always talk about every single time is give yourself time to get to the event. If it's half an hour away and you say well you know I don't have to set up till two, half one I can go now, then again think again because you have to imagine that You could fall foul of maybe traffic jams or flat tyre or something. So I always allow myself, if it takes an hour to get there, I allow myself two hours. If it's six hours to get there, yes, maybe six hours. You know, six hours is a hell of a distance, but when you consider that you could get stuck behind the 40 mile an hour brigade, you don't want to have to rush.

3:01 I prefer to get to the event and think, that's it

I prefer to get to the event and think, that's it. I've got an hour to chill and relax now. I don't have to worry about, oh I've got 10 minutes! Oh my god, 60 miles! You're buggered, aren't you? As I've said before, you can have the best show in the world. You could be the best DJ in the world. But if you're late, they will always remember you as, he was a great DJ, or she was a great DJ, but they were late. They don't want to see you late. Especially, especially if you're doing a wedding because that's going to be the biggest nightmare for the bride and groom, especially the bride, in their entire lives. They want to know that you're there full stop. All right, that's enough of me wobbling on. One great feature about marquees is at least, I don't know about the rest of the world, but at least in the UK, you can pretty much get away with using smoke. So it'll take your light show.

4:59 At least sort of 20 meters to get a good effect

To new heights. Now, this evening, talking about light shows, what I've done, I've got the moving heads, the LED 350 spots from Chauvet, intimidated spots, I've got four, I may use them or may not, I've got the full core from Chauvet, I've got a cam power bar, I've also got the full play from Chauvet and I've got that rather nice smoke machine as well from Cam. I'm also going to use the PM1800 RGB from Laser World, which has the Phoenix Force software. Now, I don't know the size of the marquee, I haven't got the foggiest, but it might be huge, I don't know yet, but I'm going to take it anyway. So, the thing is with lasers like that, you've got to have a bit of space. At least sort of 20 meters to get a good effect. So if, just if, it's not a big marquee then I might have to reconsider using it. I've also got another, forget the name of it, light from Chauvet. So what I'm going to try and do today is I'm going to try and please everyone.

I've got the core four for like uplighting and mood lighting, have them around the room. Hopefully I've got enough time so I'll be able to put the master slave. Then I've got the laser of course that hopefully will project at the back. They're crying out quiet. Someone now doing about 20 mile an hour. I've got some... Someone doing 20... Yeah, I've got the laser to give the effect at the back of the marquee. I've got the foreplay and another light for the dance floor. Then I've got the cam power bar to go behind me. So what I'm trying to do, I'm trying to not just take like a shitload of light and go, oh look, let's blind everybody! Listen forward! I've thought about it, I've tried to think, you know, let's set them up nicely. And then of course there's the moving heads that I will put on the speakers. And they're very sturdy, they've got rubber feet.

7:44 I'm playing some kind of house music

And the speakers will be right next to me, so I'll know exactly where they are and we'll see what happens. Here we go. Alright, I'll see you in a bit. Full power now. And this is what happens when you put a laser on! To offend, because you never know who watches the video. But, you can see, someone's done. They've got the dance floor there. You'd normally think, well the DJ can set up there, but then that's the entrance to... I'm playing some kind of house music. It's got to be done in it. Sounds better with you?

10:30 You don't mind being on film, do you?

You don't mind being on film, do you? Where are you all from? Wales. Good, good, good place. Where are you from, sir? Wales as well? Española. Española, yeah? Thanks for a lovely day. We love your wedding. Oh, just that. No, actually it's a really nice day, isn't it? Well, you get free booze. I was going to say, yeah. So what sort of tunes do you like? What sort of music styles? Anything in particular? Classics. Old school, sort of... A bit of 60s drive. I don't know. Fine. That's what I like. All kinds of everything, yeah? Kath and Wynne love Ibiza tunes. They do. Good. They love it. So that's what we're going to do for you later on. By the way, you don't mind me putting this on the internet, do you? What site? YouTube. YouTube? Yeah. Are we allowed to check it out first? No, put it this way.

12:21 The night is young then

And you know, nothing nasty or anything like that. So, you know, if you're over the corner, like crouched down because you're desperate and stuff like that, I'll edit that bit. Yeah, nice one. I mean, I might watch it for my own personal preference. Here we go. All right, I love you and leave you gentlemen and ladies. Nice one. Thank you. There it is. It's the biggest marquee I've ever worked in, but it's all right. To the job? The night is young then. Interesting, fun, lively event in a marquee in the middle of Wales on the top of a hill. Beautiful evening, the moon is right over there now and great night. So I'm going to do my review night tonight, my bit of review, talk about what went on. There was one thing I'm pissed off with, really pissed off with about tonight.

16:03 Very pissed off with something that I used tonight that is absolutely

Very pissed off with something that I used tonight that is absolutely shite, okay? So, I will explain now. First of all, the good stuff, alright? The cam amplifier absolutely ticked, never made a sound and I touched it as soon as I finished and it was like cold. Alright, yeah, we're outside in a market, duh, but... It's still, it was cold. I've used amplifiers in marquees before and you can't, well in fact you boil bloody water on them. That thing, you can't. Very good, very impressed. Also, the smoke machine. Oh my god! It was like, I've only just turned the bloody thing on. And with the LED shining as well, it's almost like a geezer spewing up all this hot air with lights behind it. Stunning. Then you have the Core 4, the lights, sort of like I use them for up-lighting. Very good. They gave a really good effect and if I'd have had time what I would have done is probably DMXed them, had them around the room a little bit more, spaced them out. But, but, trouble is that there was not...

17:37 There weren't many places to put them

There weren't many places to put them. You had a huge dance floor, as you saw. The marquee wasn't massive. Now, I always have to think, and you do too, you must continually think, idiots. Now, I'm not saying there were idiots there. Tonight, there are idiots every night. And most of the time they're idiots because they've had a few too many Alco pops, that's it. Normally, they're sensible. 90% of them. 10% are always bloody idiots. Never mind. But, when you're putting lighting on the floor, more importantly, when you're putting lighting away from you, you need to make 150,000% sure it's going to be bomb-proof, bullet-proof, safe.

20:10 Do apologise, but I am really pissed off with one item I used tonight

No one's going to kick it over, no one's going to mess around with it. You put it somewhere, then you've either got to, like, make sure it's completely safe or think that at the end of the night it could be broken, cracked, blown up. Just had one of them as the master taking in the sound, the other one was the slave. So whatever the master did, the slave does. It's a bit like, you know, Oi! You! Jump! Sorry, hands. Yeah. The other thing that the other item always impressed with, always like kicks bottoms big time, is the Laser World laser, the PM1800 RGB, which is just absolutely immense. Bit of a shame. Because in a small setup like that, you don't get the true feel.

You can't see it properly. It needs big, it needs smoke in big rooms to get the full effect. So what we did is we pointed it outside. So I do apologise Mrs Edwards from number 26 if you thought Martians were landing. So there you go. Now I'm going to finish on a bad note.

Do apologise, but I am really pissed off with one item I used tonight. And that's this frigging van. I think the alternator... No, the starter motor's going. Because I got in it. Right, got in it, get in it. Let's start to load up, back it up a little bit. Heater plugs, nothing. Not even a click. So you may be able to help me here. I'm quite sure it's the starter motor. I rocketed about a bit and then it started. Definitely not the heat... Well, I don't know. I don't think it's the heater plugs because... The lights go on, they go off and then you start it. Off it goes. It wasn't having it. Well, it's having it now of course because everyone has it eventually. I feel like it.

So it eventually went. So there you go. What can I tell you? A bit more info. Little bits of info are always handy. If you've got small amounts of kit don't stack it in the back of the van at the back of the van. Stack it For a lot, and I mean a lot of items, what I would recommend you do is you get ratchet ties, tie ratchet, whatever they're called, and almost ratchet sections of the kit to the back of the van or to the sides. So it's almost as though you've got like three or four sections. You may have all of your speakers up against the bulkhead There's another layer, ratchet that and then so on and so on. And also really, really important is breathe. That's very good.

In fact, I highly recommend it. In fact, when you've stopped watching this video, if there's one thing you will carry on doing, that is breathing. So practice and enjoy, a lot of fun. And I'm going to go home to bed now. It's about half past three in the morning. I finished a little bit early.

Thank you for watching.

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