Hi everybody. It's been a busy summer (recession, what recession?) and things are starting to quieten down a little now before the deadness but crisp magic of November and fireworks at Arundel - Always look forward to that! I've seen my fair share of fireworks in this job but I love going over there to the football field all floodlit up and waiting with everybody else for them all to suddenly switch off and the (what is now competitive with Lewes) display to begin. I'm always with a good friend and this year whoever I'm with, we're going down the pub afterwards.

So...Autumn... An ideal time to have a trade show for us deejays right? Well guess what? There's one on right now as I type this. Am I there up in Birmingham at the N.E.C. coming to you "live"? Nope. I wanted to go and check out all the latest tech. and make a video as things are moving fast in the DJ industry (technical area) right now but guess what? Unlike the bedroom Deejays that come up to me and admire my stuff at gigs, I'm a working DJ and I had a gig last night. Most weeks I have several all at the weekend. So what in the name of God possessed the guy who set up this event to hold it on a Saturday and a Sunday? Could there EVER be a worse time to hold a trade show for folks who (and this is the clue here) work at the weekend? My mate Ian drove up last night after his gig and booked into a travel lodge probably at about 4am. Sod that! I could have driven from Barnham to Birmingham over night (eyes open with matchsticks) but to hell with it. I already have a cutting edge show and until they put it on on a Monday and Tuesday or some other time when I'm like NOT WORKING dude.., I'm not going out of principal. It's a bit like holding a conference for vicars on Christmas eve at around 11pm. I'm going to have to email the organiser and give him some reality I think. It seems so unbelievable that he hasn't thought of this. Does he get more customers if he holds it at the weekend as there are so many "bedroom" deejays and not ACTUAL deejays? We'll see.

I have a booking "floating in the air" at the moment as the customer concerned doesn't seem to want to give me her phone number despite me asking via email. Should I turn up to the gig anyway and hope she's there? She says she wants to book it but I haven't had an answer to my pleas to talk to her on the phone to just "touch base" and get a few final details like how she's going to pay?. I'm going to have to include "obligatory phone number" in the enquiry page as this seems to be happening too often of late and these things drag on forever. I hate having unfinished bookings and paperwork on my desk! Speaking of which, I must get on!
Have a great week all! 

Hi all, Just wanted to start with a testimony from one of my clients the other week (wedding party):

Mike,

 

Hi there, how are you? I just wanted to expend our gratitude towards you for the excellent job you did at our wedding. The guests were most complimentary about the evening’s entertainment, and we certainly wouldn’t hesitate to recommend you to anyone in need of a DJ for an event. Apologies we weren’t in touch sooner, it took at little while for the dust to settle after the wedding, honeymoon etc.

 

Is there somewhere we could perhaps share our recommendation such as a web check or directory sort of thing?

 

Thanks again, you capped off an amazing day brilliantly.

 

Regards,

 

Andy and Katy (name witheld)

Anyway, Another great week of gigs this week. Friday was a 13th birthday party in Barnham (nice to get one just down the road!) and they were over the moon with the show. Saturday (wedding party in worthing at the dome) they didn't want me to leave which was a bit disconcerting as the management were wanting to go home. After playing two "one more songs" they begged me to do another (!) I said no, I have to pack up now,really! So then the groom throws down a not inconsiderable sum of cash to play one more track and I said: OK. but please promise me that this is IT! Shake on it. And he did and honoured it thank god! Oh well I made some extra and the staff at the venue were ok, as they actually couldn't believe how quickly I managed to pack up afterwards.

Totally unrelated last night I got a call on Skype from a desperate Chinese lady who's English (Chichester) almost husband had vanished without trace.

I tried to call him without success and even contacted the police here to see if he was on their system (thanks to the helpful bloke at Chichester police station) and he wasn't, so a least he wasn't dead or imprisoned!

I phoned him this morning and decided I had nothing to lose if I left him a message pleading with him to contact me so we could clear this up. I didn't leave a message last night as I thought he would be curious enough to call me back to see who I was. Never mind!

It turns out his business has folded and he is in complete apathy and can't confront contacting her. I managed to persuade him to put her out of her misery and at least explain it to her whilst I did the same by email which I have done. Then it occured to me that there was more that I could do and it's copied down below:

Hi Grace,

I forgot to tell both you and Cliff,

If he can do anything at all to save his business, it is to promote promote promote! get his message out there to as many potential customers as possible. It's one of the rules by which we Scientologists live all the time. I did it earlier this year with my business and almost immmediatly i pulled in another £3000.00 worth of business. But he needs to come out of apathy...He needs to know that it WILL WORK if he just keeps promoting his skills. If he's a freelance researcher then it might be as simple as just constantly phoning round all his contacts every week to ask if any jobs are going. It will keep him in peoples minds when they are looking for someone. You can use this email if you like and forward it to him. After all he has a choice now. He can either live and fight, or give up and die. There is no other way to go!

go here for more advice: http://www.wise.org

I thought about calling him back and telling him this but I thought it would be better coming from you.

All the best!


Mike.


There you go. Free advice to you too if this is happening to you. If I can, I'll let you know how it goes.

See you all next week. Do well!

Mike.

Hi all, Well another successful week of business. I've included another page this week on mood lighting or LED uplighting as it's otherwise known. basically you hire these units for the night and I place them around the edge of the dance floor or venue and aim them up the walls. They can be set to change colour at random or set to one static colour. They can also be set to slowly change colour together although this will require some notice plus extra setting up time on the day. They are taking off right now as the most popular add-on to the standard party package and no wonder as they change the whole look of the venue. People have commented on how impressive they look and thank god as I spent a flippin' fortune on them!


Last nights hotel wedding gig was great although the guests in the rooms above set out to spoil the party by asking the staff to make me turn the bass right down. Shame, as this is the main human driver to dance to a piece of music. That and good melody of course. Tunes without much singalong appeal usually get greeted by a clear dancefloor. The former reason of a badly constructed sentence or two, is why I invest so heavily in bass capacity....And why speaker suppliers charge me accordingly! I always worry that I'm not going to have the sheer power to fill a venue (maybe I'm just going deaf) but all too many times these days with the same system that I've had for a few years now, I'm often asked to turn it down. I don't mind if customers ask this (they almost never do) but when people book a room in a hotel above the dance floor they should be told about the party and made to agree not to give hassle over the music. Aah but that requires the hotel to a. communicate and b. to have "balls". I know at least one manager of a hotel who does all this. Good man!
The other interesting thing is that I played new years eve in this same hotel in the same spot at full volume and was NOT asked to turn down the bass. I guess that whoever was staying above was either at the party or had looked up the definition of "party" in the Dictionary. Definition 1. not 4. if you're reading the "Oxford Concise".

Have a great week. See you next time!

Mike.