Can you be too old for music?

RWY

Well-known member
Have you guys ever either DJ'd to an empty room or gone along to watch a mate DJ to an empty room?

I've only experienced the latter and it's excruciating.

Both - I stopped caring about playing to an empty room after visiting Basement 45 in Bristol on two occassions around the age of 18 and seeing both Scratcha DVA and DJ Pantha headlining to deserted dancefloors.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Bristol was always bad for this actually, they had too many nights on in too small a city so a good quarter of nights we'd go to would be a total flop.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
You can’t be too old, unless you’re in you’re 80’s and it’s viagra for keeping the wife moist.

Speaking of which, the Bell Inn off Market Sq in Nottingham had a midweek jazz night full of the elderly. Bebop mixed with northern brass mixed with any number of tunes. One of the genuine pub chills around, no idea if it’s still going. Get gently drunk and eat scamp fries to while Eric from Mapperley does a double bass solo. C’mon son, gee eet some.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
That video that turned up from 1989 where the Moroder lookalike appears


You might’ve half-glanced but the drugs were too good.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
I've played to lots of empty rooms. The hazard of being bottom of the bill.

It is obviously quite good when it starts empty and fills up and people get into it. That's the best.

I did moan about always being bottom of the bill but then Melissa Bradshaw put me on at 4 in the morning after Chef and Benga B2B playing pure dubplates and I cacked myself. It turned out OK though.

There's no pressure to DJ well or get people to dance if no fucker is there, so you can just play whatever the hell you like really loudly and that is quite liberating.

Playing to a full room with nobody giving a shit is the worst though.
 

Leo

Well-known member
I've DJed a half-dozen holiday parties at this one place, once in the 12:45-1:00 am slot when the floor accommodating about 50 dancers was full and it was a blast but a bit nerve-racking because you really had to deliver. the rest of the years I did the tail end of the night, usually 2:00-3:00 am, and those were a lot less stressful because at the start there would probably be only around 10 people left but they were the hardcore and up for it, so it was a lot of fun. by 2:45 am, the room was usually empty.
 

catalog

Well-known member
I wouldn't do that though I'd play a great song. Everyone would love it. Except catalog and suspended reason. They don't like rap and R&B
If you played regulate by Warren G feat nate dogg or the rain by missy Eliot or you and me by chiara I might dance, but only if there were other people dancing
 

catalog

Well-known member
i saw kode9 dj for 8 hours straight in manchester, he only stopped once to go for a wazz what a trooper
 

luka

Well-known member
I can honestly say I've never enjoyed a DJ set or had any sense of, oh, this DJ is good, wow, what a journey he's taking me on. I don't understand that mentality
 

catalog

Well-known member
yeah but you don't like going out do you so that probably spoils it. the white hotel was good for that, they had it set up so you couldnt really see anyone
 

Woebot

Well-known member
i've had mixed DJ experiences over the years.

the best have been sublime - a five/six hour jungle set i played in 96 to bohemians under the railway arches on the faringdon road. showed the fever with which the middle classes embraced jungle when they finally got it. playing techno for tiny, breakdancing little kids in senegal (sieg heil).

the worst was completely clearing a wedding reception in belgium playing hardcore. there was only one guy left of the floor - gym body with long hair in a tuxedo doing powermoves. i should have been happy i guess but it was excruciatingly embarassing. also the time when we played a rave on a beach outside dakar and it was, well frankly disastrous. worse than embarassing.
 

Woebot

Well-known member
I can honestly say I've never enjoyed a DJ set or had any sense of, oh, this DJ is good, wow, what a journey he's taking me on. I don't understand that mentality
some of the derrick may sets i heard at pure in edinburgh were good like that. he'd always start with something like e2-e4 - build it up with some old skool house and techno (things you'd never heard before) then march it into the present before climaxing with something like his own remix of donna summer's "i feel love" seriously had you in the palm of his hand the whole way. crowd totally out of it and ravging hard like the scots know best.
 

woops

is not like other people
while doing a spot of warehouse living on the now site of the olympic stadium near stratford,

once the neighbours in the adjoining warehouse threw a new year's party. but when i got there they were playing total rubbish, "anthems" by primal scream and what have you. so what i did was go into our warehouse, turn on the sound system and start playing a load of timbaland productions. before i knew it the place was full of people from next door getting very funky on the dancefloor. so i suppose single-handedly establishing, filling and rocking the 2nd room was my most heroic dj move ever.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
some of the derrick may sets i heard at pure in edinburgh were good like that. he'd always start with something like e2-e4 - build it up with some old skool house and techno (things you'd never heard before) then march it into the present before climaxing with something like his own remix of donna summer's "i feel love" seriously had you in the palm of his hand the whole way. crowd totally out of it and ravging hard like the scots know best.

Pure was classic chaos.Think I heard May there too, e2-e4 with whale sounds reverbed out? Both sides of Glasgow, Leith’s nastiest cunts, students and people from all over Britain all with their guards down absolutely spannered.
 

catalog

Well-known member
i put grime on at a wedding and groom came and told me to get off. i'm one of thos ethat gets drunk and plays the same song over and over again.
 
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