Alex's Weekly Blog - 15th August

On Jack and Cam's show this week on Tameside Radio, we are talking wedding first dance songs. I was a mobile DJ for the best part of 20 years, and it's definitely brought back some mixed memories. I have to say it might look like the easiest job in the world to spin a few records at a wedding (or press play on a laptop, these days), but it really isn't!

I remember in the early days lugging incredibly expensive wooden record decks and speakers around, taking four cases of CDs from a multistorey car park in Leeds down several flights of stairs, setting everything up in hot function rooms whilst being pestered by hyperactive kids asking when the disco was going to start. That was just the prelude, as the task then began of working my way through request lists the size of the Isle of Man.

Sometimes, the bride and groom would ask for 'nothing cheesy', which is fair comment. It's their night. But try doing a wedding disco without playing Whitney, Wham, Bee Gees or Abba. And being honest, the word cheesy is subjective anyway! You could often tell that couples had sat down over a bottle of prosecco and gone through their Spotify, and come up with a list of songs they liked. That's fine, but do they work for the dancefloor? I'd sometimes be told to 'stick to the request list at all times', which meant it looked like I wasn't able to get the dancefloor going. In reality, maudlin, shoegazing indie is a tough sell when you're trying to please a crowd of 8 to 80 year olds.

One memorable disco in a marquee in 1996 featured a young guy pestering me for hours to play the number one single at the time, Firestarter by the Prodigy. For the record, I love that track! However, reading the crowd, I was pretty confident it would go down as well as a Katie Price Eurovision audition. I caved in the end, switching from trusty classics into the first Prodigy single to feature Keith Flint on vocals. What a disaster. A completely empty dancefloor...including the man who had requested it, who had mysteriously vanished!

There were some strange first dance choices over the years, including Whigfield Saturday Night (did they meet in Flares?), Roxette It Must Have Been Love (lyric check, anyone?) and Kaiser Chiefs Every Day I Love You Less And Less (I'm assuming that one was tongue-in-cheek).

I witnessed a couple of spectacular end of night scraps, I was also threatened once, and had a UV strip light thrown at me (but the groom did tip me £20 on the same evening), and I played a LOT of Love Shack and Come on Eileen. It's a real art to keep the dancefloor packed with a typical wedding mixed age crowd, so I'd urge you to be nice to the DJ at the next function you attend. Maybe even offer to buy them a drink. And please don't ask them to "play something decent".

Incidentally, my early fees equated to 1% of what a national radio DJ currently gets per show, according to recently released figures by the BBC. I do have a few claims to fame though. I was the wedding DJ for a Cheeky Girl, and it was one of the best gigs I ever did. I met Peter Kay once at a wedding in Wakefield, before he was mega famous, and we had a good natter about 80s music. Really nice fella. And I once worked with Jane McDonald at the Cedar Court Wakefield. She was also rather friendly. Oh, and I made the York Press after a bloke did some Russian dancing to Rasputin by Boney M at one of my discos, and broke his leg.

Aside from a handful of nights for friends, I've not done a disco since the start of lockdown, and I won't be returning to them any time soon. I prefer Saturday nights on the sofa at home, or at the cinema! Whilst I accept it's not the toughest job in the world, it is pretty exhausting to DJ a wedding. Especially when an amp blows up or you play the wrong Adele song for a first dance (both of which happened!).

I'll return to my earlier tip for life. Be nice to the disc jockey. As with most situations in life, be kind is a decent guiding mantra. Ladies and Gentlemen, the buffet is now open.