Jump to content

Running my first gig


jaylo

Recommended Posts

Im gona be running my 1st gig here in dublin in nov and its gona be called INTRUSION.

I have been trying to get orjan nilson,sent of booking details to his agency but still no replie, was thinking marcus schossows girlfriend Nifra but not many people have heard of her here have any of u lot,

Right so im turn between ali wilson, lee haslem or sophie sugar

Who would u lot go for and why

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lee Haslam for me. But I like Ali Wilson too.

I'm afraid most of the female DJ's don't do it for me. Don't feel their presence behind the decks, unless they've real Charisma like my select few. Lee Haslam has Charisma and a party vibe imo. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

depends on the sort of night your looking at runnning but jordan suckley always plays a good set

ali wilson, jon o'bir,, sophie sugar

pretty much any dj thats uk based will be heck of a lot cheaper to book

Link to comment
Share on other sites

depends on the sort of night your looking at runnning but jordan suckley always plays a good set

ali wilson, jon o'bir,, sophie sugar

pretty much any dj thats uk based will be heck of a lot cheaper to book

Depends what your budget is really.

Jordan Suckley is relatively cheap - and should be fairly well known in the UK. Remember, its not just the DJ fees - but a lot of them insist on a flight, hotel, meal, transport to and from their hotel, airport and venue, etc - plus whatever their rider requests are (usually drinks, a meal the day after the event before their flight home, etc) - so all of a sudden, that £500 DJ fee suddenly becomes £900. They'll also tell you what hotel they want - you can't tell them. You might want to stick them in a £40 Travelodge room, but they'll want a £130 a night Hilton Hotel.

Also, a lot of them work their fee around the size of the venue - so if you say your hiring a 1000 capacity venue, you could find the fee higher than if you'd gone for a 600 capacity venue.

Lange is excellent value for money. Other DJs around his sort of status quote double what he charges. Genix is also fairly cheap, as is Jon O'Bir.

Not really sure if Lee Haslam would be that well known in Ireland.

Some DJs are fairly cheap for their reputation - others are really expensive - for example, for some bizarre reason, JFK and Mark Eteson both charge more than Lange :unsure:

Some DJs also have some sympathy with new, up and coming nights and try to help them out by lowering their fees or by dropping some of their 'demands' - then there are others that really couldn't give a toss and will just grab every penny they can.

To be honest though, in Ireland, I think you'd be better off going for someone like Paul Webster or Bryan Kearney. They're both reasonably priced, they wouldn't need flights (and posisbly not even hotels) - and they probably have more pulling power in Ireland than any of the lower-profile English/Scottish DJs.

PS: Mark Sherry may be worth a try too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lee haslem is gona cost €450 + flights,booking fee 15% and hotel min double room 3*

ali wilson 500 and same

Sophie sugar 500 and same

Never taught of genix his productions are top notch

Not a kearny fan his sets are the same every time he plays alsi paul webster hr always has a lot of gigs here in his home town so i want some one who has never before been here

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lee haslem is gona cost €450 + flights,booking fee 15% and hotel min double room 3*

ali wilson 500 and same

Sophie sugar 500 and same

Never taught of genix his productions are top notch

Not a kearny fan his sets are the same every time he plays alsi paul webster hr always has a lot of gigs here in his home town so i want some one who has never before been here

I have also been looking it to starting a small night and one of the things I have found is that people like to be 'entertained' in other ways than just the DJ.

There have been a ton of nights who spend most of their budget on a DJ and then hope that his name will bring in the people and make them want to come back.

My advice would be to get a good DJ in for as cheap as you can and spend a bit of money in making your night stand out from the others. Wether this be by decoration of the club, face painters, entertainers/dancers etc...

Thats what I am thinking about doing, music is obviously the most important thing but I also want to create something that people will remember and will want to book tickets for the next event because they know that it is something different to the norm.

If anyone else who has ran a night before has anymore advice like Briggsy then those would be welcome for me as well! :thumbsup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With the promoters I recently helped out with, they do get dancers/fire eaters/angle grinders and lighting, ice cannons and visual displays.

I think the venue plays a large part in the amount of people who'll attend these days, especially if you don't want to take the 'happy hour/ alcohol bargain" route.

This Saturday we're putting on Michael Woods who ( unless you're a proper clubber ) you wouldn't necessarily know. Luckily he produced the latest number one track by example and we're hoping that will pull em in, we also have a partly outdoor venue this time, so we won't lose half the crowd to smoking, as unfortunately losing the smokers did affect the overall atmosphere at our Marcel Woods/Tall Paul/Jon o'Bir night. Despite all 3 DJ's playing cracking sets. We've aimed smaller now and hope to build a reputation up and up. :).

It's also in an area that has a fair amount of general footfall, so as not to rely on preplanned nights out. Sometimes spur of the moment decisions on where people will walk or drive to can be good. Fingers crossed!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds good, I am sure Michael Woods will be a great booking and would also think that anyone who follows the prog/house scene will have heard of him mentioned quite a lot.

Having a bit outdoors is also a good idea as well I think as it gives people a chance to go outside for a bit and cool down, have a smoke etc…

I have been looking about for venue’s around where I am from and there is next to nothing. A few guys are attempting to run a night in a pub/club but I really can’t see that working as its just another night out with different music to most people and they don’t draw in a crowd really.

What I am thinking about is renting an old building or another location close by but far away enough not to bother anyone and try and start from there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Id love to do something outdoors aswell ffor the smokers alrite but its on a busy street across from a police station and also jugglers and fire eaters and stuff like that its a low ceiling building.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Id love to do something outdoors aswell ffor the smokers alrite but its on a busy street across from a police station and also jugglers and fire eaters and stuff like that its a low ceiling building.

Last event I was at had someone doing facepainting as well as a guy making cocktails, both of these were free to hire as they made their money on the night. Not saying these 2 will be good for your night but just idea's to make your night something different. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best of luck to you both!

The scene needs more new nights to get started - many of the big brands have become so stale now that they need shaking up!

I'd imagine it's so, so difficult to get the thing off the ground - either risk it all with big money (relatively speaking) or go for the underground vibe with untested DJs. Both have merits and both have drawbacks - it all depends on your angle really.

Briggsy is probably best placed from this board (or Cliffy who occasionally posts as he runs Digitized who put on some big nights a couple of years back)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The most important things to look at when booking DJs are:

1. Is the town you're hosting your night in going to be clued up enough to know the DJs you're going to book?

2. Is the fee your paying your DJ going to be recoverable?

Sadly, I ran my night in the small market town of Banbury. There are so many DJs I could have afforded and would have liked to have brought in - but in reality, they'd have had zero impact in Banbury - unfortunately, the only 'Trance' names that would pull people in in Banbury are Jules or Dave Pearce because they are commercial and known to the average man in the street there. I wanted to bring in Matt Hardwick and Lange - but they just wouldn't have pulled people in in Banbury - whereas those 2 in Yorkshire, where Trance is popular and the crowd are more clued up, would pull in a fair amount of punters.

There was a night in my hometown of Coventry called Classique, which regularly had the likes of Richard Durand, Greg Downey, Adam Sheridan, Super8 & Tab, Matt Hardwick, Marcel Woods, etc - yet 100 people would turn up. On some of the line-ups they had, if the event had been hosted in a more clued-up town such as Leeds or Sheffield, they would have had busy (possibly sell-out) crowds. Classique has now stopped running because it wasn't pulling the people in despite, in its more recent times, having good strong line ups.

So my point is, there's no point booking your favourite DJs - you have to book the DJs that will work for you. DJs are the most expensive part of running a night - and, unless you have lots of money to play around with, you can only take so many hits before your money is gone and you have to call it a day.

In an ideal world, at Beat Logistix, i'd have brought in the likes of Patterson, Kearney, Askew, etc because musically they're right up my street, they're the type of DJs I like to hear, and they were within the budget I had towards the end when the nights were quite busy - the reality was, if I had brought them in, the people of Banbury wouldn't have bothered turning up to see them and i'd have lost a lot of money.

I'm not trying to be negative by the way - i'm just trying to highlight that its all about finding the right DJs for your night - whats right for one brand, doesn't always work at another (for example, Digital Society used to fill a venue using C-list DJs such as Dash Berlin, Manuel Le Saux, etc - but if you'd have put them on at somewhere like Godskitchen, the club would have been half-empty (if that!).

If your DJ costs £500 for example, and you're charging £5 a ticket, thats 100 paying customers you need just to cover the DJ fee.... thats the way you have to look at it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like im gona be booking lee haslam now he is the cheapest out of all the djs i was looking at.

I was in a bidding war with genix agency he started of at £600 after lots of emails back and fort we settled at £525 but in the end i realise its my first gig i cant afford him lee is £400 + min 3* star hotel.genex wants 4* hotel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jesus! Genix was £300 two years ago - he hasn't do anything significant since then to justify the doubling of his fee (apart from switching agency..... hmmmm).

Unfortunately, agencies are a con and although they claim to take a "10 percent booking fee" - they actually take a good chunk of the DJ fee that they quote. You realise just how much they take when the agency quotes you one figure, then when you speak to the DJ directly, they quote you a much lower fee. Unfortunately, most DJs won't deal with you directly though - they insist on going through the agency :(

Some of these Djs need to get real with their fees though. Its no wonder half of them don't get gigs on a regular basis - they (or their agency) price themselves out of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ali wilsons agency nu-tech wanted £600 for nifra come on she not that well known jus because she dates marcus schissow shes a warm up dj hiw can u justify that price for some one who done warm up on a few eastern european gigs

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ali wilsons agency nu-tech wanted £600 for nifra come on she not that well known jus because she dates marcus schissow shes a warm up dj hiw can u justify that price for some one who done warm up on a few eastern european gigs

Never even heard of her to be honest :confused:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ali wilsons agency nu-tech wanted £600 for nifra come on she not that well known jus because she dates marcus schissow shes a warm up dj hiw can u justify that price for some one who done warm up on a few eastern european gigs

That's outrageous!

It's good though for you mate - saved you a few bob as I doubt she would pull in much of a crowd

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I taught i heard some of her productions but i never did glad i didnt book her alright i think lee's gona be a good choice hes knocking out some great sounds past 2 years and he seems like a nice chap goin by his video podcast i seen of him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

She's had a few decent productions, one came out on Coldharbour a few years ago called 'Ready' which was pretty cool - but that doesn't mean she's going to get anyone remotely interested in coming along.

Lee is a much more prudent booking imo

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...