The best. request. ever.

Tips and techniques of the trade

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mousethief
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#151 Post by mousethief » Tue Feb 22, 2005 2:10 pm

I had one a long time ago. We had a vintage only dance. It was advertised as 100% classic music, no new music, guest DJs etc. The phrases "pre-1945" and "nothing after WWII" were used in promoting it.

At this point, I should mention that I am not DJing, as my entire collection was stolen maybe a week prior.

The night is going over very well - a lot of new faces, some old faces, numbers up across the board. One of our then-regular dancers comes up to me as I am standing maybe 3 feet from one of the guest DJs.

MR X "Hey, could you get them to play something a little different?"
KALMAN "How do you mean?"
MR X "Well, something more... you know?"
KALMAN "Like...?"
MR X "Well, they are playing crap now."
KALMAN "I take exception to that and I'll point out that he's right behind me."
MR X "Well maybe they could play some JAZZ."

*Kalman loses grip on sanity*
KALMAN "______, they are playing Count Basie. That is classic, swinging jazz."
MR X "They are playing crap. Maybe they could play something different."
KALMAN "______, this is an all-classic event. We play other music all the time."
MR X "Maybe they could play some Lou Rawls."

Ugh. This during my defined "groove" period, too.
Last edited by mousethief on Tue Feb 22, 2005 2:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"The cause of reform is hurt, not helped, when an activist makes an idiotic suggestion."

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Mr Awesomer
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#152 Post by Mr Awesomer » Tue Feb 22, 2005 2:28 pm

Last night while standing in front of Sugarfoot Stomp an old man walks by, stops and asks "Is this the 1940's night?" I reply "No, it's the 1930's night." A little confused he asks "Do they play Glenn Miller in there?" I reply "No, it's mostly Chick Webb, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sidney Bechet, Fats Waller... guys like that." He kept walked down the street even more confused.
Reuben Brown
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Swifty
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#153 Post by Swifty » Tue Feb 22, 2005 2:28 pm

Damn.

Lenny Love
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#154 Post by Lenny Love » Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:00 am

Campus Five wrote: "Tuxedo Junction"
I have a 'regular' who always asks me to play this and, although the Ersine Hawkins version is the one I usually spin, just for a change/devilment, I recently played the King Curtis recording of it which went down extremely well.

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Lippy
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#155 Post by Lippy » Sun Mar 20, 2005 1:57 pm

Every once in awhile I do a themed set. My most popular one is at Fizz in Chicago on the Monday closest to Christmas, where I play only Christmas or Winter related music. This is an advertised event, so people should know what to expect when they show up. There was about an hour of NON-Christmas music playing before I started my set. An Hour and twenty minutes into my set, someone came up to the DJ booth and made this request.

*Guy - "Can I make a request?"
*Me - "Sure, what do you want to hear?"
*Guy - "Something NOT CHRISTMAS!"
*Me - "Ummmm, in case you haven't noticed, I'm in the middle of an ALL Christmas music set. Why would I change that now?"
*Guy - "Well, me and my friend have been here since the beginning of the night, and we're getting sick of Christmas music."
*Me - "So then you got to hear an hour of non-Christmas music when you got here."
*Guy - "You Are the worst DJ Ever."

I try to wear my new name with some pride. Ahhhhh, the worst DJ ever. It has a nice ring to it.

BTW - The guy had his friend come up to me and give the same request a few minutes later.

Roy
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#156 Post by Roy » Sun Mar 20, 2005 2:46 pm

One time I made a pretty bad request. I was at an event 4 years ago in Detroit ran by a promoter who most of you might know. She had advertised that she would have a band on Friday at the start of a weekend Lindy Hop event with Lindy Hop insturctors, but there was no band. What was worse was she was DJing, and she played all music that Westies would like. Most of the visiting Lindy Hoppers were not dancing and everyone was asking the locals if there was anywhere else to go.

Finally after an hour and a half of nothing that resembles swing, I walked up and asked if she could play any swing music. She said like what? And not knowing what she had I said " how about Splanky, or anything else that actually is swing music. " She got pretty pissed, but played it anyway. Then went right back to the westie preffered music, so just about everyone went home soon after.

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Bob the Builder
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#157 Post by Bob the Builder » Sun Mar 20, 2005 3:02 pm

Last time I DJed I got asked to play that “Old MacDonald” song.
It took me about 2 seconds to work out what she was talking about.
I said to her, Ahh, I’m not sure if it will fit into the night.
“Why” she said.
“Because it won’t” I replied nicely.
She kind of walked of looking a bit grumpy.
I was the last time we were running that event (after a year going) and I was DJing the last hour.

Brian
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Toon Town Dave
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#158 Post by Toon Town Dave » Sun Mar 20, 2005 3:56 pm

Last weekend, I was DJ co-ordinator for PLEX (Paririe Lindy Exchange). One of the guest DJs from out of town was spinning her 1 hour set and I received a request from a local to play Cha Cha Slide (I know it's not swing but the local wannabe westies like it).

Anyway I reply to the local that I would play it after the end of the set. Her response was "why can't you play it now" to which I responded "I'm not going to interrupt ___'s set, it would be quite rude, I'll play Cha Cha Slide between sets". To which our local replied "you don't have to be a a--hole about it" ... and they wonder why I don't like requests!

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LindyChef
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#159 Post by LindyChef » Sun Mar 20, 2005 6:37 pm

The other day I got a request for Wade in the Water ... didn't say what artist, though. In goes the Johnny Griffin and Edwin Williams version ... :twisted:

julius
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#160 Post by julius » Fri Apr 01, 2005 1:49 pm

Roy wrote:I thought to myself "come on 160 and 170 is hardly fast."
*tears hair out*

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