For the very first time in my entire DJ career, last Friday was a milestone for me…..and one which I will hopefully never repeat!
Working in conjunction with a very close friend and agent, I was booked to play a wedding in a large Suffolk country house hotel. All of the admin side of the booking was taken care of by my friend. I was given details of starting times, equipment requirements, First Dance choice, etc. But on the Thursday (24 hrs before the wedding) we received a playlist from the couple. Nothing unusual there, a list of fairly popular and oft-played tunes that I would have no difficulty in fitting into the night’s music. Well……no difficulty until I read the proviso underneath…….’The music MUST be played in the order presented.’
I do not confess to knowing everything. With ever-changing music trends, I’m always prepared to learn new tricks and styles. However, I certainly know how to maintain a dance floor’s ‘energy’ and I also know that no function can be accurately prejudged….and that was effectively what I was being asked to do. I had become an iPod for the night!
The tempos, genres and energies of the chosen tracks were all over the place, so music was leaping from downtempo R&B to 80’s Wham! party songs and then back to a ballad or two. The guests upon the dance floor soon dispersed when it was clear that continuity wasn’t the theme of the evening!
Happily, after an hour of this musical purgatory, the Best Man gave the Groom a very stern talking to, and persuaded him to ‘let the DJ do his job.’ I had the dance floor full within one song!
The best simile I can think of is this: “It’s like employing a plumber to watch you using his tools to install a bathroom you have little idea how to do.”
So if you are thinking that you’d like to pre-schedule your wedding music for the whole night……DON’T! I have been a professional DJ for 25 years and even I won’t do that! Every single event is different from the last, so put your trust in me to do the job right!