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    DJ News & Stories

    It Shouldn’t Happen to a DJ

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    DJing can bring us into many different situations. Some of which can be exciting, some challenging, but most rewarding.

    Here are some stories from different situations I have found myself in.

    The Show Must Go On…

    I was loading into a less familiar local venue for a birthday party, and I worked out the most efficient load in. This involved stepping over an 18-inch-high wall, rather than wheeling up a longer ramp. My roadie was arriving independently and was nearly there. I stepped back over the wall to get more equipment from the car. As I stepped over, I forgot about a small slope of concrete along the length of the wall and went flying in the car park as I did so. I was in shock and some pain. People came running as they heard me yell. I received paracetamol, a stool for my knee or to sit on and ice in a tea towel from the venue manager and help with the equipment from my roadie. My ankle had a swell night and I called my husband who brought crutches and ice packs from the house. Did this stop me? Oh no! I played for the whole night. My husband later returned in an Uber to drive me, the roadie and equipment in my car home. When it seemed no better the next day, a trip to A&E showed a break. I made sure the following week I had lots of help, plus my husband had to do the driving for a few weeks.

    Coventry…

    When we were serving a famous clothing brand on a regular basis I went to DJ for the opening of a store. I set up outside the shop facing the open space in a pedestrian area. I thought it rather strange when a man started pacing up and down with a clipboard after putting some tape from one side to the other of the middle of the square space. I was even more puzzled when he came up to me with the clipboard and asked if I was part of the East or West of Coventry. I replied I wasn’t from Coventry, so neither. He then said “yes, but are you with the East or West side?” I just shook my head and said, “I am not from around here”.

    He seemed to be approaching others asking questions.

    I took a lunch break, putting on a mix that would last long enough for me to have a sandwich. I just got tucked in when I thought it odd the music had stopped… then the manager rushed upstairs to ask me to fix it. I came down to find the volume had been moved. I put it back up, and the clipboard man came back and moved it down again! I moved it back up, and when he went to touch my mixer again, I went in to tell the manager what was happening. She ran outside and said, “It’s Dom Jolly from Fool Brittania!” She was quite excited. It didn’t air.  It goes to show though, you can certainly get some surprises when DJing!

    End of the night surprise

    At a wedding I was happily leading up to the end of the night, preparing for the last song. I like as many people to be gathered for the last song as a finale to the party. All of a sudden, a bunch of young men started running up onto the balcony above me. I then saw that all guest’s eyes were on these young men and that many guests were cheering and pointing at the balcony. I asked a guest what was happening and was told the young men were stripping!  Soon I had the duty manager at my side as he had come to find out what all the cheering was about. As the venue had a strict end time policy I asked him; “Please can I play one more song?” The manager agreed it would be appropriate to do so. I asked everyone to make a circle around the dance floor and we returned the attention to the newlyweds.

    “Best Night of My Life” ….

    I was about to pack down after a wedding and the Best Man came up to me and said “thank you so much, it’s been the best night of my life!” to which I replied “I’m so glad you enjoyed it, would you like a card?” to which he replied “No but I’d love a hug!”

    I obliged. 🙂

    Working in Film and Television

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    I remember the excitement Sam and I shared when Dr Who were looking for DJ equipment for a wedding scene. I asked them if it wouldn’t be useful to also have an actual DJ on set to operate the equipment and play the part? The answer was yes! Sam was able to set up as he would for a wedding at Miskin Manor and experience the unique and exacting creation of film. You can see this episode here (Sam appears in the last 10 minutes)

    Doctor Who, Series 5 Episode 13, The Big Bang

    I had a similar experience some 10 years later, when DJ equipment was being sought for the drama series The Pact. I am in the background providing the DJ set up and lighting for episode 1 and 4 of series 1. This was in the middle of the pandemic, and mask wearing was a constant rule on set until the director said “And set…” Covid Testing was a prerequisite, as it still is in 2022.

    The Pact

    What is it like?

    There is a lot of preparation and testing, and at least one rehearsal for each shot. Sometimes there can be around 6 takes of the same scene. The reason is often that in order to get the multiple camera angles without getting crew in the shot there will need to be a repeat of the same action for each angle. There is also the fact that there are slight differences between each take in terms of how the actors and support artists perform it. There is a lot of discarded footage in the cutting room!

    Often actors and support artists will be asked to dance in silence as if there is music and the music is layered over the top afterwards. This is so that they can record the speech of the actors clearly.

    There are frequently long days and it isn’t possible to get an understanding of the whole story of a given episode, as each scene will only contain a small part of the bigger picture. If the story takes place at night and the filming occurs in the day, then windows need to be blacked out. If filming of day takes place in the dark, then often large cranes will supply artificial daylight through the windows. We have also provided equipment and DJ for two different scenes on the Sky series Extinction, for Casualty, and also equipment for Y Golau and Pobl Y Cwm.

    Silent Disco Haverfordwest

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    I was invited to provide both equipment and DJ services for Silent Event for a Silent Disco at Haverfordwest. It was such fun for both DJs and participants. We had a channel each, and each channel was represented by a coloured light on the headsets as dancers tuned into respective channels. My channel was red. I started out assessing the age group, and played predominantly dance music from 00’s and 90’s.

    Near the end it seemed appropriate to turn to more rock and pop music. This was the point when my followers began to increase. The spread of followers was pretty constant and diverse between the three of us, but by the end a majority were following me. I would thoroughly recommend this method of pleasing more people for more of the time!

    Our very own Baby DJ Louisa

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    What is hard for any new DJ, is to get their name out there and no one has done it quicker or bigger than our smallest and youngest little DJ, Louisa. At 8 months old, she takes to the decks (or rather Pioneer CDJ 2000 nexus) like a boat to water. From scratching to tapping play to giggling at her headphones falling off, she loves every bit of it. On the weekend I managed to get a photo of her in the mix and put it up on our SG Discos twitter page. It was not long until it was rewetted and shared across the world and later even mentioned by Pioneer DJ. Now if you don’t think she is really taking it seriously enough, then think about this, when taken away from the mixer she began to cry and in front of the controls she couldn’t stop laughing. Not only this, she was very careful with her milk and even managed to be sick (I was very worried for the equipment when that happened) away from the Pioneer CDJ’s, which obviously makes me happy as the equipment she was playing worth was worth in the region of £5000!

    This is possibly the cutest picture I’ve ever taken of a DJ, far better than any of my selfies (I don’t take those. Seriously I don’t!). DJ Louisa is one to look out for, I will try and get some videos of her soon!

    DJ Louisa spotted by Pioneer DJ on twitter

    DJ Louisa Spotted by Pioneer DJ on twitter

    Beyoncé+Jay-Z

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     The performance the entire music world was waiting for arrived last night. Yes it was the 56th Grammy Awards and everyone who is anyone in music is usually in attendance for the biggest event in the music calendar. However, last nights awards ceremony was special (not only because of the 34 couples that were wed and officiated by Queen Latifah) but because BEYONCÉ and JAY-Z put on (in our opinion) the best performance of the night!

    Screen shot 2014-01-27 at 09.58.03 The perfection of the performance was as expected from two of the greatest names in music, with Beyoncé performing one of her new tracks ‘Drunk in love’ from her most experimental and vibrant album Beyoncé. From surprising the world with the release of this album on December 13th, causing iTunes to go into meltdown, to having music videos assist every track on the new ‘visual album’; it is clear that Beyoncé has rightfully earned her place in music history.

    jayz and beyonce To top off her performance, she was joined onstage with her husband and superstar Jay-Z. From the moment he emerged stage-right, the chemistry between the two was evident. They not only looked comfortable performing together, they have heightened the expectation of live performances at the Grammys! Their steamy rendition will definitely be a performance that no one will be forgetting any time soon.

     

     

    Watch the performance below:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X38zrPYHx3c

    IKEA Cardiff Transformed into an adult play area and Nightclub!

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    Just been going through some old images and below is a little story about what we did with IKEA back in 2008/9.

     You’ll never look at IKEA Cardiff the same but at their request, we transformed their store into a Nightclub. A little unusual we will admit but something that we here at SGDJ jumped at the opportunity to do! With a little help from our sister company (Impact Effects) and in collaboration with Dragon Bouncy Castles and White Fusion, we provided a very different ‘day at the office’.

    Ikea 12

    Everything you would not expect to find in IKEA, you actually found! On the ground level there was our very own Rodeo Sheep, Gladiators and an inflatable slide and bungee run!

    On the first floor you were treated to a massive club standard sound system, a bouncy castle, sumo suits and over 2000watts of UV lighting on the Dancefloor! To top things off Staff were even treated to a FREE BAR!

     

     

     

    The Sound of 2014

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    “Nobody knows who I am, but most of the people in this country have heard me sing”

    You may not recognise his face but this man is no stranger to success in the music industry! Sam Smith, up against the likes of Ella sam smithEyre and Chlöe Howl awarded Critics Choice Brit Award and BBC Sound of 2014. This was not a surprise to us after hearing his beautifully haunting vocals. He gave Disclosure their first chart hit with Latch, he’s the voice behind Naughty Boy’s no.1 hit ‘la la la’ and was the supporting act to Emeli Sandé’s latest tour. This up and coming musician has released several superb solo singles, each showcasing his naturally born talent, faultless falsetto and tremendous technique. The 26th of May 2014 is the date set for the release of his first debut album: In the Lonely Hour, which can be pre-ordered from his website samsmithworld.com.

    Here’s a sneaky peak of what it will be sounding like. Watch this space!

    Most requested songs of 2013

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    It has now been a week since the majority of us drank ourselves to oblivion, sang ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and finished off the left over turkey.  While most of us partied, watched numerous firework displays or got overtly excited during the countdown for the New Year (as I always do), the time to go back to reality is finally upon us. The doom and gloom of January, the cold and grey feeling most of us experience, enhanced by our struggle to uphold our new years resolutions is something that makes January one long and continuous Monday.

     

    Nevertheless, the team at SGDJ has been putting their knowledge to the test to hypothesize what were the most requested songs of 2013? The outcome might not be what everyone may expect but with many mobile DJ companies like ourselves, we cater for those who throw an outrageous MTV style SweetSixteenths, to making someone’s wedding day extra special and even 70th birthday parties. Therefore it could be the smash hit ‘Blurred Lines’ up against an old time classic (or rather golden oldie) like ‘Sweet Caroline’. Thanks to the DJ Event Planner song request system, a comprehensive list has been compiled, giving us the top 200 most requested songs of 2013 based on over 2 million song requests!

     

    Below is the top 20 of requested songs but for the full list visit – Most requested

    Screen shot 2014-01-07 at 10.08.15