Cloud And Sun DJ Services Weekly Blog

Hi And Welcome to my regular blog. I will try and keep it humorous which may mean mildly colourful language at times. I hope you enjoy it and won't be offended. In order to protect the guilty; no Customers will be mentioned by name unless it's complementary and even then I may opt for anonymity. This is only because I wanted to impress you by putting in the word "anonymity."  If I can think of any other slightly more pointless and annoying rules, I will let you know in due course.


 

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  1. Hi all. Well it's half past one in the morning and I can't wait any longer to write this weeks blog. First of all I'd like to say a big thank you to Hazel and Stewart who really looked after me at the Burley Manor Hotel
    on Thursday night. Check out the video of the first dance. Very well done.
    Here's their testimony:

    Hi Mike
     
    Just like to say thank you for providing the entertainment at our wedding last night.
     
    I know that it was probably a bit of a challenge at times, due both to the lack of attendees, there were quite a few last minute cancellations; and a number of guests abstaining from the alcoholic stuff and therefore not loosening their inhibitions, problems associated with a mid week wedding; however, you managed the playlist exceptionally well and your choice of music made it impossible for the dance floor to remain empty for long.
     
    So, once again, thank you for making our wedding evening a fantastically happy and memorable one, you were simply greaaattttttttt.
     
    Best regards
     
    Stewart and Hazel L***


    Now the rest of the  blog that I wrote, I have deleted, as it was too angry. basically last night (saturday) I was driving the crowd wild with excitement but the venue owner ruined the end half hour by insisting that I turn the volume down to near zero for no valid reason that I was able to determin.

    Never mind
    all that. This afternoon I helped my mate Tim from Atlantic sound   set up for the Bognor illuminations. This is a large procession of floats that sets up in West Park Bognor and at 8:30pm sets off along Bognor seafront much to the aural and visual delight of all the locals. What a laugh. It was the first time I actually met Tim in the flesh although we've talked for lord knows how long on facebook and on the phone over the years and I found him to be a really personable bloke.  We had the job with various other deejays too of setting up a float on the back of a 23 tonne curtain side rigid truck complete with disco, lights lazors etc. and various banners and dancers. Tim's been a dj for a while now as was obvious by the suitcase loads of plug leads etc. that he carries around with him. I could never work like he does. I have everything hard-wired into cases and ready to go but he sets everything up from scratch, not even connecting hard drives to his laptop until he arrives at the gig. Top marks to him though, he reckons he can set the whole lot up in about 30mins, which is faster than yours truly.

    After what seemed like endless plugging,gaffer taping, climbing and hanging etc. we eventually set up a float and spent the next half hour trying to alter the set up so that the two generators could cope with the huge powerlaod being asked of them! We had to turn off a few old style halogen lighting effects that were drawing 250 watts each and rely on the LED ones which were drawing about 1 watt or something close. Thats progress for you. And they weigh a lot less too.

    Nothing can beat that moment of excitement when you get the first bit of music blasting out of a new/different sound system and everyone cheers.  And nothing can top the disappointment when it all cuts out again as the generators give up...Stick some petrol in Tim! Still, we got it working in the end and I met some interesting charactors, like a guy who used to be an engineer on radio Caroline in the 60's and became a dj who played to thousands at a time when mobile deejaying was in it's heyday. I left them all to it just before they set off but I've actually managed to take some shots and do a bit o filming so go here if you want to see it.

    Have a great bank holiday and I'll see you next week.
  2. Hello all. Well the other day a venue owner announced a few days before the gig that she needed to see my Pat test certificate (portable appliance test) in order to play at the said gig this weekend. I haven't had such a cerificate in all my nine years of business as a) i buy new equipment vertually every year making me exempt and b) I look after my gear so well that I haven't even had a fuse blow in all the time I've been a DJ/musician/producer and that's a long long time! 

    So I tell her the above initial bit and politely say: If there's anything else you need to know then don't hesitate to ask...
    She did. She wanted to see all my equipment warranties to prove it was all new. Oh my god! you don't get warranties on pro-equipment, just receipts and that meant going back through the diary to try and locate and scan them all. A big big job!

    So to cut a long story short, I decided that rather than do all that scanning and fuddling, I'd just get the damn stuff tested an certified. I met the pat test guy this morning and a thoroughly nice bloke he was too.  www.parkfieldelectronics.co.uk if you're interested...

    I hopelessly under estimated the total amount of equipment I had that needed testing making it double the price I expected and more, but he was cool and we did a deal which saved me some cash.

    So there you are. If you're wondering whether to book me because your venue's insurers want minimum responsibility get-out-of-paying-ever clauses written into their contract; fear not! I have big shiny stickers and certificates to show them. Oh, and they're laminated too so I can't forge them like certain other deejays do. You know the rules..No names. 
  3. Hi all,
             I've just realised today that My lovely lady Becky in Germany, shortly to be with me here at Cloud and Sun towers is following me on Twitter for the sole purpose of following me on Twitter. She doesn't post. She doesn't follow anybody else, just me. Sigh...how heart warming is that?...How could I have been so lucky? Do you know what the funniest bit is though? even though as mentioned she doesn't post, she already has 6 followers! Twitter. always an eye opener..

    Speaking of which I'm going to have to stop following Steven Fry. He posts so often, there's no room on the page for anyone else!

    I had a not-to-be customer tell me the other day after a bit of customer research type prodding that because I use "do your own site" online software that my site wasn't professional enough for him and that was one of the main reasons why he didn't go with me...I don't know. I personally would be more impressed with a tradesman that had built his (cutting edge thin client - latest way of using computers with online software) own site (if it was a good one) than a guy who had just bought it in as a service from outside. I have to say though, after having been constantly called up by companies that promise to get you up to the top spot on Google for £99 per month, I got a little curious about the professional web merchants side of things.
    How can they do this? Then I recalled one of my competitors who is always there at the top of the so-called natural positions on Google. I have a programme which I haven't bought yet but still gives me partial information on certain Search engine optimization methods etc. including competitors sites and what they are up to and low and behold this guy's site is as far as I can ascertain; "cloaked". This is a slightly questionable technique whereby the site you see is not necessarily what the search engine has seen on your behalf. It's usually designed that way for two reasons: 1. to fool the search engines into giving better results for your site and 2. To hide the efforts of the companies/web designers who have got the site up there by whatever means and don't want other optimization firms to steal their ideas! Fascinating stuff to all those who want the phone to ring off the hook! I spoke to a guy today from a media firm who promised to get my site up to the top of Google for 5 related search phrases (choose carefully eh?) for £99 per month and after researching the net for a while discovered that they have an identical sister firm also promising the same thing unless someone's ripped off all their text from the first website. Should I go with them? I don't know. I'm going to buy this software first and optimize the hell out of my site. It tells me at the moment that my site is only 18% optimized, so there's plenty of scope for improvement!