woebot's djing post

[mms]

Yes I am up for mad MCs.

But for DJing slots, I reckon let's all stick to the slots the promoter gave us and be cool. I DJ after shit DJs often but I don't give them a hard time, I try to turn up for my slot about 5 minutes after it was due to start and get out my records and then wait until they notice I am there.

As to what goes through people's minds when they are being selfish, I think it's something along the lines of ME ME ME I WANT WHAT I WANT NOW.

Perhaps you should refer me to the misanthropy thread but I think a very large proportion of people never move beyond the childish condition of believing themselves the centre of the universe and it never occurs to them that other humans are the same kind of things as themselves.

yeah ppl lie and are rude and aggressive to get on adn play their records, it sucks

 

[bun-u]

okay then - what about the flip side. You are putting on a night or house party, a guy has either asked to DJ, or you have asked them to ....and what they are playing is destroying the vibe, people are complaining to you - what do you do?

 

[Edward]

If you booked them then you stop them and pay them anyway. Just like any contract, if you offer someone a job and they turn up ready to work, you have to pay them even if you change your mind.

Why would you book someone who is gonna clear the dancefloor?

A couple of times I have been booked for completely the wrong events, like the promoter asks me to come and play an old-school hip hop set and it's a gabber club or something, the promoter was just thinking about what he wants to hear and not what will work in the club. In these cases, it's the DJ who gets all the abuse and I would be grateful to be told to stop playing.
In about 96 or 7 I played in Milan. At that time I was playing Detroit bass/electro/booty stuff like DJ Godfather, Aux 88 etc. On the way to the club the promoter said "so what kind of drum and bass do you play?". In the end I played 20 minutes and then they stopped me. But they still paid me and I guess they realised it was their fault for booking the wrong DJ and not my fault for playing the wrong genre.

If "they asked to play" then I dunno.... I only play when I am booked! Don't accept their offer to play in the first place unless you know they are good?

 

[viktorvaughn]

Slight aside, but for all of you who play out regularly is it just for the love/entertainment of it or are you making respectable Ps? Do we have any professional DJs in the house?

 

[john eden]

okay then - what about the flip side. You are putting on a night or house party, a guy has either asked to DJ, or you have asked them to ....and what they are playing is destroying the vibe, people are complaining to you - what do you do?

If it's a house party you have to:

a) Agree quite clearly on the sort of vibe you want.
b) Keep set times quite short.

If someone deviates from (a) or (b) you have a good reason to take 'em off.

I'm not really a dj (!) but whenever someone asks me to play I always have a chat with them about who else is on, what they play, what sort of crowd it will be. STANDARD.

 

[noel emits]

It's tricky because I think good DJing isn't necessarily about adhering to a style (although in context that's very important) but about reading a situation / crowd and finding where they are at so you can take them somewhere with you. If that makes sense.

Like booking a house DJ for your party who plays full-on bangers at the beginning of the night when there's only five people there who'd rather ease into things.

 

[Edward]

I do it for a living. I wouldn't say I make a respectable amount of money though, would be better off at McDonalds or probably even signing on.
But I have my time and I get to do something I like.

 

[don_quixote]

the best thing to do if a dj on next is giving you hassle is to try and work out what he's planning for his set and playing a spoiler hahaha. done that before. he wasnt happy and called us cunts but in fairness, we offered him a set of headphones and he said no, i dont need headphones. and we were like, fuuuck, this guy must be good, until he pulled out a list of all these perfectly timed fades and stuff.

 

[mistersloane]

I lasted less than a minute on the decks in the Electricity Showrooms in Shoreditch once, it was some really boring thing and I hated everyone there so I just plugged everything into the wrong channels and turned it all up. In spite of quite a large crew and some guys on the back starting to wave their arms to this full on noise, the owner told me I had to leave or he'd close the night.

One night at a Bar In The West End I didn't even get on the decks cos I got fronted out by some Big DJ who wouldn't let me on - the 'yeah. yeah. in a minute. right?' trip, so I picked up my records, scratched his Extemely Rare Italo Disco 12 and walked off.

Had a great residency in a pub in Camden though, I fucking loved taking requests and turning the music down during the 'scaramoosh' bit of Bohemian Rhapsody so everyone got embarassed. I remember looking over and seeing two goths, an Asian casual kid and two builders with their shirts off on the bar dancing to 'Higher State of Consciousness' and thinking that sometimes it's all fucking worthwhile.

 

[MankyFiver]

some of this makes me go red

i often ask a dj for a track, but i dont really care if he/she dont play it, its usually cos they played something i like and want to talk about it, but have unsurprisingly been places where they just ignore my head winks and eventually i just bop back onto dance floor