A Pub Quiz to Warm Up Your Crowd There is a strange period at many evening events. Dinner has finished. The plates have disappeared. Everyone is pleasantly full. The bar is doing reasonable business. And the DJ is ready to go. Unfortunately, nobody else is. Starting the disco immediately after a three-course meal can sometimes…
I have a confession to make. As a professional DJ, I don’t particularly like playlists. There. I’ve said it. That’s not because I don’t want to know what music you like. Quite the opposite. Knowing your musical tastes is enormously helpful when I’m preparing for a wedding, birthday party or special celebration. But there’s a…
Mention Essex to somebody of a certain age and several images may spring immediately to mind. White stilettos. Bleached blonde hair. Ford Capris. Romford Market. And, more recently, The Only Way Is Essex, which apparently confirmed to the rest of Britain that everybody in Brentwood spends Wednesday afternoon having their teeth whitened. We’ve taken a…
Booking a DJ ought to be straightforward. Find someone who plays good music, agrees to turn up and doesn’t spend the evening shouting “MAKE SOME NOISE!” at people trying to eat their pudding. Unfortunately, there’s rather more to it. Whether you’re organising a wedding reception, birthday party or corporate event, here’s my checklist for choosing…
A beautifully restored barn can make a spectacular wedding venue. Exposed beams, fairy lights, countryside views, a courtyard for drinks…and a DJ quietly wondering where the nearest plug socket is. I’m joking. Mostly. Barn weddings have a character all their own. They can feel grand without being stuffy and relaxed without feeling thrown together. But…
There is a particular person who attends parties. I don’t know their name. I don’t know where they spend most of the evening. I don’t even know if they’re actually invited. But at precisely the moment I play the final song, turn down the music and wish everybody a safe journey home, they appear. “ONE…
Walk into a shop on an ordinary Tuesday morning and silence is perfectly acceptable. Walk into a product launch or promotional event and hear nothing but the air conditioning and somebody opening a packet of sandwiches, and suddenly things feel rather different. Music creates atmosphere. More importantly, it can tell people that something is happening.…
There was a time when getting engaged meant showing your parents the ring and receiving a new toaster from an aunt. These days, quite rightly, it’s an excellent excuse for a party. An engagement party occupies a rather nice spot in the celebrations. It doesn’t have the formality of the wedding itself, there are no…
t seems only yesterday we were looking at Easter eggs in the shops, and now here we are in September talking of Santa Claus and festive celebrations! It may feel ridiculously early, but September is precisely when many UK businesses begin planning their corporate Christmas parties. Venues are booked, menus are chosen and somebody in…
My choice of career still holds a certain amount of fascination with some people (and family members!) If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard the expressions, “It’s not a proper job” or “How can you call that work?” I would probably have a brand new van. And even more speakers. I’m not…
And so it begins! Another new year, a new set of challenges awaits us mobile DJ folk; a recession, venues closing down week by week, the ever-increasing costs of throwing a party or funding a wedding, and the constant irritation of have-a-go bedroom DJs charging ridiculously low fees and then ruining events with their unprofessionalism…
Ever since the Terminator movies, there has been a rippling undercurrent of dread that one day, machines will take over the world and make all human activity redundant. The supermarkets are certainly trying their hardest to leave us facing just a screen and a scanner, Amazon keep promising aerial parcel drops from robotic drones and…
I’m currently enjoying a very restful Bank Holiday Monday afternoon. The DIY around the house has been sorted this morning, so it’s time to kick back and relax after a full-on all day wedding yesterday. If you think that DJs just turn up at 6pm to party, let me put you straight! On behalf of…
A belated Happy New Year to you all! All successful small businesses are built on plans for the future, even mobile DJs! Even though 2025 started very slowly indeed in terms of wedding bookings, the last couple of days has seen a glut of dates added to the diary. Having spoken to a large number…
Yeah, yeah…I know it’s only late September but now is the time to secure the services of a top professional DJ for your corporate Christmas party. Below are a few tips to ensure your big festive shindig is the best it can possibly be! Book A Professional! I know it sounds a bit obvious, but…
Good Songs For Weddings – End your reception with a bang! You’ve chosen your all-important First Dance for your Wedding Day, you’ve given your DJ some ideas of your music tastes for the evening…but when it comes to good songs for weddings, have you thought about the very last tune of the day? It’s not…
An Unforgettable Wedding Party, and how to achieve one! Every happy couple dreams of their totally perfect wedding day….dry and warm weather, excellent food and drink, a wonderful idyllic setting with friends and relatives enjoying the day and of course a totally banging wedding party to finish! Over the next few paragraphs, I hope to…
After many years of hosting successful wedding receptions in Essex, Suffolk and all over the UK, I’ve listed below some useful tips and observations to ensure that your wedding disco is totally memorable! Your Wedding Venue It’s incredible that some couples overlook the ‘party worthiness’ of their wedding venue, in favour of architectural beauty and…
The First Dance is the traditional curtain-raiser at almost every wedding reception. It not only provides an unforgettable romantic moment for the new happy couple, it also signals the end of the formalities of the Wedding Breakfast and the start of the evening celebrations. After all the pomp & ceremony of the day, the time…
Let’s begin with the good news…Essex is a fantastic place to get married! As one of the UK’s ‘Home Counties’ it is served by excellent transport links and benefits from being so close to the capital. Essex boasts a diverse collection of wedding venues, ranging from large modern four-star hotels to small rural barns with…
There’s no doubting that music has its place in almost everybody’s life. It soundtracks our youth, our best nights out, evokes memories of lost friends and family and acts as both a comfort and a joy when we need it most. Everyone has their favourites, everyone has an opinion. And that’s where a truly skilled…
It’s your big day and, naturally, you want everything to be perfect. In a county with so many options, how do you choose your ideal Essex wedding DJ? It’s a very important choice to make, given that their services could be taking up six to eight hours of your wedding day. Your DJ shouldn’t just…
Are you fair-weather or fanatical about music?! I thought I would try my luck on the (relatively) new pop music quiz on BBC Radio 2 recently. It’s called Ten To The Top, hosted most weeks by Vernon Kay, and it’s the replacement mid-morning challenge for the legendary Pop Masters formerly presented by Ken Bruce. Once…
As a mobile DJ in Essex, one of the loveliest gigs we can have is when the event is just two miles from home! It doesn’t happen very often (an Essex wedding DJ like me will travel for miles and miles!) but when it comes around, it’s a real bonus. On Saturday, I was taking…
