New years Eve 2010 Gig log

0:01 New Year's Eve 2010 and ridiculous actually

Alright guys, New Year's Eve 2010 and ridiculous actually. First of all I cut myself shaving, me head. Normally when I shave I do this. Cut myself there. And then went to get a shirt out of the wardrobe and a bloody suitcase whacked me on the nose. So there you go. Look at that. Marvellous. Right, on the way to the function. Got a sat-nav. It's so funny these sat-navs sometimes, you know. Recalculating, recalculating. Apparently you can, which I'm going to do at some point. You can get different voices and whatnot, and some that are verbally abusive to you. That'd be marvellous, wouldn't it? Right, so I'm away there, and how about that for a view? Check it out, look at that. Yeah, alright. Hold your horses, darling. Look at that for a view. Right, I will see you in due course. Alright guys, still on the way there, and...

What I try and do at the beginning of gig logs is give some sort of tips. Now, you can take it or leave it. And if you do a gig log, maybe on the way there, chat a bit. Just tell us stuff, doesn't matter. But one tip I'm going to give you, and I have mentioned this before, and I would say it's probably one of the most important things about mobile DJing. Alright, forget your kit. Forget your music. It's about turning up on time. Now, not only turning up on time, but turning up early. You can have the best kit in the world, the best music. You could be an exceptionally brilliant DJ, but if you're late, then you've almost spoiled it. It's a bit like producing this wonderful meal. Starter, main course and suite. Starter's perfect. Main course is perfect.

2:18 All they want to know is that the person, the monkey turns up

If your suite's crap, do you know what? The meal's spoiled. Or more so, in this case, if your starter's crap, you know, it's spoiled. You see, especially when you're working in a venue where there is a manager up, for example, you're working in a hotel or you're working in a bar or something like that, you've got a manager of the venue. Now the manager couldn't give the monkeys quite often who they've got and theoretically they'd be happy if they had a monkey half the time. All they want to know is that the person, the monkey turns up. If you're there before the people arrive and you're there early, then you know what? Not only have you pleased the client, you've also pleased the management. And you do want to please them as well because they'll remember you. They'll remember you just as much, possibly even more if you turn up late. Because management in an establishment like the likes of a hotel or a restaurant etc.

It's timing. Timing is crucial. You know, if someone's late to work, then the manager will find out. If someone's early, the manager maybe not will find out, but they will appreciate that. So if you are early, fantastic. If you're on time, fantastic. If you're late, then that will be noted. So there you go. Thank you. Be early. Normally strip off. Okay, virtually finished. I had a bit of a deja vu thing when I got up the drive, because guess what? I've been here before. Right, this is what it looks like in the light. I've got the DJ skirts unit to go across there, because that looks as messy as bleh. That doesn't look too good either, to be quite honest. But I'll tidy it up a little bit, but again, bearing in mind when it gets dark, you're not going to see much except the video.

4:33 Modern day technology here

And the lighting. So, what I'll do now is come through here. Modern day technology here. These are the dimmer switches. Watch. On and off. There you go. How come that's still on? Hold on, I missed. Ah, there you go. So, it's a little bit blurred. Don't go blurred. There you go. Now, those four planes are very good. Show me. Because you've got one there. I mean, look, it's a small unit. I do like it very much so. There it is. And you've got one on that wall. Got two up the top there and one there. Now, right, first time I've ever said this, but is anyone else getting a bit bored with LED lighting? Because I sort of am. I think it's about time we've had enough of seeing LED lighting like that. Dots.

7:03 This is what it looks like in front of the console

There's loads of it. Let's have something different. X-Move LEDs at the top there. I've got my monitor. I've got three DVJs. Shit, tri-phase. I forget the damn thing sometimes. Hold on. LED. Yeah, tri. There you go. I've got the projector there. I've got my wireless, my radio there. Some crisps in the United States of America, known as chips. Over here, chips are French fries. And in America, French fries are chips. That's confusing. A bottle of water and DVDs there, along with a bunch there. Nice one. Right, this guy here from DJ Skirts. Now, it's not rocket science. There it is, the piping. And next frame, or next clip, will... This is what it looks like in front of the console. I'm going to use it tonight mainly to get the effect from the lighting. If we didn't have any smoke in the room you wouldn't see the pins of light with the lasers. It's a bit of a shame actually because most venues now have fire alarms, smoke alarms and of course you can't use them. Pretty good. I passed three and I was supposed to finish at two.

11:53 You know, not expensive stuff like a pin spot or a small table, but

There you go. Right. I don't know if you can see, but I'm back on the stage and all my kit's gone. But I'm back on the stage for a reason. And this is once you've got rid of everything and you know you've got everything in the van, then do yourself a favour and check again because it's happened to me. I've left stuff. Thought, yeah, that's it. I've got everything. And I've left stuff. So, you know, not expensive stuff like a pin spot or a small table, but... Right. Oh, see? Grub for the end of the journey, let's say. And I must have done a good job because they've left me in the capable hands of closing this place up. So, don't know what that does, but better turn that off. And here are the lights. There you go. There you go. See, they don't tell me these things. Is that over there? Sure ain't. Bit sick down there. Yep. Oh shit, it's dark. That's the blurry bit. That's the door. Right. Let's burn it. Nope. Holding. There's a lot of things here. Oh, look. I suppose a way of describing what's happening now is... There you go. Like I said earlier at the beginning of the video,

14:12 Um, they've had a few drinks

People like it when you're early and you're on time. But also, if they want you to do specific things, and they ask you to do specific things, do it! Don't think, ah, I just want to go home, I'm knackered, sod it, I'm not going to come here again, because guess what? You probably won't! It's quite funny that. Right, something else I've mentioned before in a previous vid. And, um, okay. So there you are. You have, um, you've got all your kit, expensive items, and you're very tired, um, and, phew, um, end of the night, you've got a couple or one person saying I'll help you. Um, they've had a few drinks. Uh, you have to politely say no thank you. And if they insist on helping you Then you have to say, well, I do apologise sir or madam, I think you've had a couple of drinks and with the greatest of respect, if I drop my expensive £500 amplifier, it's tough shit with me isn't it? But if you drop it, I don't want to go there. Now I was offered an accommodation for this evening, so I could have had a few drinks. Now again, it's not advisable to drink while you're working because you spill it all over the kit and stuff, just kidding.

You know, alright, alright, a lot of people do. There's nothing wrong in it. If you can still do your job, that's the main factor. I have done that where I've got pissed and haven't done my job. And to be quite honest, you end up being a complete tit, so it's a good idea not to drink. But tonight I could have done, I could have had a few drinks and I had accommodation, etc. So I had two options. One is to leave the kit in the van, in a place I don't know, which is not a good idea. The other one is to leave the kit in the venue. Now I don't know if you just saw, but I was able to lock up and shut this door with no alarms or anything like that. So did I really want to leave all my kit in that place with no alarms? Not really. So, you know, it's a bit like looking after your arm. You're not going to leave your arm somewhere and think, let the dog play with it for half an hour, I don't mind, come back knackered.

Look after your kit, look after yourself and yeah, happy new year. So there you go, it's good fun, very good fun. I'm going to go home now, probably won't be back for a couple of hours which will be half three, half four, half five and then just get up and do stuff, practice and enjoy. Thank you.

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