squeeam

I’m going with my stepson and his friend. We went last year and it was a great day out.

What I did, which was cheesy but effective, was this.

A month ago I played at a charity function. I knew I wanted to get as many people dancing as possible (obviously) so everyone would remember it as a great night. The audience were mainly 35-50 yrs old and many lived in my town so I was a bit nervous about screwing up.

I got my stepson to knock up a Calvin Harris minimix of his most popular songs knowing that this would get all the ladies on the floor, which it duly did. When it finished I picked up the mic asking everyone to show their appreciation to my stepson for his brilliant mix.

Then the masterstroke.

I knew that the men wouldn’t dance unless more drink had been consumed (this is England, it may be true of other countries). I then asked all the ladies to get the love of their life (or their husband) and bring him back to the dance floor. I explained I was going to revive a dance that had fallen by the wayside over the years.

I suddenly found myself walking and talking in the middle of the room and was worried that this was going to backfire and nobody would join in. Everyone was asking me what was going on and even my wife thought that I’d lost my mind. However the ladies had got their partners on the dance floor so we were able to begin.

I then gave my stepson the nod and True by Spandau Ballet (I told you it was cheesy) came out of the speakers. There was a mix of laughs and groans but now I had more than doubled the crowd on the dance floor. I was dancing with my wife and gave my stepson the nod and we swapped places. I played the next track, a rocker (Reef, Place Your Hands) which went down well and the rest of my set kept everyone on the dance floor.

I guess it worked because no one is expecting a slow song in the middle of the evening but because partners were brought together it got the party going quicker.

Last Night A DJ Saved My Life is definitely the one. I’ve almost finished reading my copy and the authors paint brilliant pictures of what was happening at the time of all of those pivotal moments, people and scenes. Highly recommend it.
PS Make sure you get the 2006 version as this had been updated from the previous (I think) 1999 version.

When I did my first set on Saturday night my brother-in-law, who’d asked me to do it, would have been happy with me picking the tunes and then using an ipod and letting it play. But I knew this wouldn’t keep the dance floor going. A lot of songs have long fade in’s and fade outs or sudden starts or take a while to get going. Fine for when you’re listening at home or in the car but when you’re dancing you want to get into the song as soon as possible.
Bearing in mind this was an ‘80’s concentrated set I set cue points for when the song gets going. So, instead of having the long synth intro, you have the big drum charge on Bon Jovi’s Living On A Prayer and everyone whoops immediately because they know the song has started. I also played Insomnia by Faithless and cut some of the build up to that, although I know that is a major part of the song, so that we can get to the beat quicker and people can dance.
Also, how can an ipod read the crowd, see what’s working , when to change the tempo. And an ipod can’t dance behind the decks/CDJ’s/controller and show everyone how much they are into it too.
I wasn’t worried about beat matching as I’m not proficient yet and wouldn’t yet inflict it on anyone else.
It is about the tunes but it’s also about executing them well so they flow and keep the party going.