9:16
New Year's Eve in Shrewsbury
On YouTube this video is called New Years Eve Gig Log in Porter House Shrewsbury SY1 2013
What this lesson teaches
A seven-course meal, seventy guests, finishing at two - and he comes back afterwards to say what he thinks.
Ask before you put anything on furniture
The practical tip, and it is a small professional detail worth having.
He is short of space, so the speakers go on tables - which he says he does not normally do, and he asked permission first.
And the reason to care: the cabinets happen to have solid rubber feet, so they will not move and will not scratch. A speaker with exposed bolt heads or a bare cabinet edge on a hotel's polished table is a bill.
His rule: never put speakers on surfaces without asking. The last thing you want is a conversation about scratches at the end of the night.
On New Year's Eve
The argument he is most forceful about, and he half-apologises for it as he goes.
If you cannot do New Year's Eve, he does not know why you are in the industry.
And the reasoning is not about skill: on New Year's Eve people are out to party. They have decided in advance to enjoy themselves. The room arrives wanting it.
So the only thing holding you back is your music knowledge - which he calls the key to any good DJ.
That is a sharper version of the point the whole of this stage makes. Most nights you have to build the energy; on New Year the energy is supplied, and all that is left is whether you have the records.
Against "a DJ just presses play"
His answer to the common jibe, and it is a list rather than a protest.
Psychology. Reading the crowd. You reacting with them and them reacting with you.
And then the mechanism: if you are happy, the crowd are happy. If you sit there like a lemon, they will take that from you. They will know if you are anxious - and then they will be anxious.
The age thing
A good observation on being briefed wrongly. He was told the crowd would be thirty to fifty. There were people of seventy and eighty - and one of them was rocking all night.
Worth remembering when a client describes their guests. The brief is a starting point, not a specification, and the person dancing hardest may be thirty years outside the range you were given.
The phone as a radio
A small, dated and still useful improvisation: he took a radio with him for the midnight bongs, and then realised he did not need to - a radio app on the phone, mini jack to RCA, into the mixer.
The general lesson being that the thing in your pocket is an audio source, and a cable costs nothing. For the one moment in the year when you must have live broadcast audio, that is the backup.
And the claim he will argue forever
His closing, and he states it as the biggest piece of advice he has.
You are the key. The person behind the decks.
If you do not enjoy yourself, if you do not come across as enjoying yourself, if you do not smile, if you do not move, if you just sit there - you will ruin the night.
You need vibe. You need passion for what you are doing. And if you can put that across, the crowd will have it too.
It is the same argument as the first-booking lesson and the too-old-to-DJ lesson, and after several hundred videos it is the thing he comes back to: the music is necessary and it is not sufficient.
Contents of the video
0:01 We're in Portahouse in Shrewsbury, we're all set up
We're in Portahouse in Shrewsbury, we're all set up. I believe there's about 70 guests tonight. Seven course meal and I will be finishing at 2 o'clock. There's a gentleman over there who's going to be playing during the course of the meal. He's the lucky one, he finishes at 9. I thought I'd run the 2000s today, 900 makes her. I don't normally put speakers on tables, but lacking in space here so I did ask them. These are Wharfedale, the Delta series, very nice cabs, 15mm horn and what's great about it is they've got good solid rubber feet on the bottom so they're not going to move and they're not going to scratch any surfaces. Always be wary, don't start just putting speakers on surfaces without asking, always get permission first. The last sort of thing you want is for problems with scratching.
2:35 I don't know why you're in the industry to be quite honest
The DJ tutorial by Ellaskins, The DJ Tutor. The DJ tutorial by Ellaskins, The DJ Tutor. So again, this is one of the houses in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. S-Y-1. I like how that's called. S-Y-1. Quite a nice place. If you get bored, you can always read a book. There's plenty here to choose from. Ah, okay. It's quite funny because I was here about... Oh my goodness, ladies and gentlemen. Oh my goodness. What a night. Absolute madness. It was just like the best fun ever. New Year's Eve. If you can't do New Year's Eve, then you just... I don't know why you're in the industry to be quite honest. I don't mean that in a nasty way. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to say that you're shit or you're crap but New Year's Eve people are out to party. They're out to enjoy themselves. They want to enjoy themselves. So the only thing holding you back will be your music knowledge. I think that is the key to any good DJ. Some people think that a DJ just presses play. Oh it's simple. It's not simple.
6:52 30 to 50 year olds, so pretty mixed age group
There's psychology behind it. There's reading the crowd. There's you reacting with the crowd, the crowd reacting with you. If you're happy, the crowd are happy. If you're sitting there like a lemon, they're going to just vibe off you. They're going to get your feel. They're going to know if you're anxious. So they will be anxious. But New Year's Eve, people go to party. What was so funny about tonight, well not funny really, but I was told that the crowd are going to be... 30 to 50 year olds, so pretty mixed age group. There were some people like 70 odd, excuse me a second. Hello! Happy New Year! 70 and 80 odd. There was one guy there, you might see him in the video, and he was like, well you might have seen him, he was just rocking. Oh shit. He was rocking all night. There's another one there, hold on. Happy New Year!
How can you hear? Oh dear, this is so much fun. There was one guy who was just dancing all night. He was absolutely up for it. So, you know, it was fun. Also, I took a radio with me. I'm thinking, yeah, you know, I need big bench arms. But it was like, when I was there, it was like, duh! You know, iPhone, radio app, radio 4, plug in mini jack into RCA into your mixer. Boom! There it is. So, what advice can I give you about New Year's Eve? What advice can I give you about DJing? I think the biggest piece of advice forever. This is the biggest piece of advice and if anyone disagrees with me, then I'm sorry, I will argue forever. And that is that you are the key. The DJ, the person behind the decks is the key.
Do not enjoy yourself. If you do not come across as enjoying yourself, if you do not smile, if you do not move, if you just sit there, then you're going to ruin the night. You need to have fun. You need to have vibe. You need to just have some passion. Passion for what you do. And if you can put that passion across and show the crowd that you're enjoying themselves, they will do too. Practice and enjoy. Thank you.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
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