DJing gone wrong!

[audiolive]

it didnt happen to me, but a firend of mine, whe i lived back in the states, was playin out at alocal bar when some drunk as all hell chic walked up, said she liked the music, then ripped the tone arm off the left hand deck... hows that for epic?

I would have fully Chuck Norris chinned her ass

chuck-norris.jpg

[beisi]

Was DJing a bbq in a mates backyard and had the decks and mixer setup on an elevated balcony thing overlooking some grass where the people were. The wind kicked up and blew the records off the decks about three times, given that I was raised overlooking everyone this had the effect of:
a) stopping the music with a krrrrrrrrrrrrhhgggghhhhhh, so everybody looking at me with the WTF face...
b) firing the record frisbee style down into the group of people

This happened about three times before we switched to the one CDJ I had for a while. Needless to say there were a few heeeeeehhh sorry kinda shrugs that day.

Also it was really hot that day and we had a little makeshift awning thing setup over top of the decks to provide some shade. As the day went on and sun moved about the shade got less and less and eventually a couple of records started to warp while they were playing (one time code, one battle may they both RIP).

Annnnnd finally, as the shade went away so came the sun upon my pale as face until I turned a nice shade of lobster for everyone to have a laugh about later on.

[ThinkAboutIt]

it didnt happen to me, but a firend of mine, whe i lived back in the states, was playin out at alocal bar when some drunk as all hell chic walked up, said she liked the music, then ripped the tone arm off the left hand deck... hows that for epic?

what happened the girl afterwards?

[beisi]

Another one... house party, 100+ people (biggest party of my life at that stage).

Someone runs up to me and says "shit bro gotta turn it down, neighbours have called noise control", someone else then comes up say "no worries, false alarm". I keep playing stuff for another 20 minutes and then three people run down the hall and say "quick grab your stuff, noise control are coming we locking the door but they brought the cops!"

Anyway, a mate grabs the CDJ starts running back down the hall (while it is still plugg in -cringe-), I grab my laptop and am runing to down the hall to the bathroom to stash it. As we are running down the hall amid the panic we run right up to the council noise control officer guy and a cop walking back the other way. They instruct us to put the stuff back and proceed to confiscate everything EXCEPT the goddam amp and speakers (and thankfully my laptop). That pretty much ended the party, was funny tho, heaps of ppl were sticking up for me and thanked me afterwards.

3 months and 250buck fine later I got my stuff back, the next party there they asked if I wanted to play again, I passed.

[VirtualLogic]

a mate who was standing behind me at a party garbed my headphones of the table while i was mixing, next thing i know he forgets he has them on and goes running out of the booth, he bought the whole mixer to the ground, and almost my laptop.

[sarasin]

a mate who was standing behind me at a party garbed my headphones of the table while i was mixing, next thing i know he forgets he has them on and goes running out of the booth, he bought the whole mixer to the ground, and almost my laptop.

OUCH!

I woulda smashed him....

[RickNash]

Had a couple. I don't believe any DJ who never claims to have never had a fuck up, but how and ever.

In one club I worked in, the manager loved to hang out in the DJ booth, just to watch what the DJ did. I think he always wanted to be one. Anyway, he'd talk the ear off you and, since he was the boss, I thought (at the time) that I couldn't exactly tell him to fuck off. Nowadays I would, but this was my first residency.

Anyway, once he's chatting away and I'm crossfading into a quick cut. Of course, I pull the fader in the wrong direction and, still listening to him, it takes me a couple to seconds to realise that I'm after plunging the club into silence. Everyone turns to face me, of course you get that moment where your heart stops and it takes forever to realise the simple mistake you've made, then I just fade back. People are looking disgruntled, so I get on the mic and say, "Nothing happened. So shut the fuck up and dance." They laughed and got on with things.

Another time in another club, the assistant jock used to occasionally mess around with the EQ on the mixer (well, he soon learned not to after this). I mix with an S4, so I set the levels at the mixer at the start of the night then EQ from the S4.

At the start of the night, he's warming up as the first people are walking in and I've gone for a piss. I'm chatting to one of the staff as I come back out the floor and having a laugh, then I hear the music kinda chopping. "Ahh, he's learned how to use the gater!" I think, as I'd been showing him how to incorporate FX into live sets. But it kept chopping. So either he had the FX on fully throttle, and then some, or something was wrong. I legged it out and found him standing there like a deer in headlights as the few people in the club were looking confused. I ran over, and literally just pulled faders and twisted knobs until it got back to normal. It wrecked my head but there were people in the club, so now we were at "hope it doesn't happen again and figure it out afterwards" stage.

It was one of those gigs that was bumpy at the start but turned into a great night. The crowd were very split: they either wanted full-on, cheesy commercial or heavy and hard stuff. So you keep the middle ground until we're peaking. As a result, the heavy crowd hated the commercial and vice versa, but we won everyone over in the end. We got the 'one more tune' chant, and I always do play one. So I save a mash-up I'd been keeping for the right end of night until then. It was perfect: a real slow start that'd leave everyone going "HUH?!?", then it kicks in hard and the whole place would jump. That was the hope anyway. And it worked! One of those times where there's a proper HEAVE when it drops, you know?

Until it gets to the big vocal breakdown, which is a sing-along bit. I turn the volume down slightly for that, they sing along, then back up as it built back up. Then it happens. Chop. Chop. Chop. Originally people think I'm adding effects and are reacting to the chops, then it quickly becomes apparent that it's not. Then I realise what the warm-up guy had done: the gain on the main mixer was on nearly full blast. It's a miracle it hadn't chopped all night, I must have turned it up too high when I pulled it down then back up again. It was killing the speakers.

I fixed it, get on the mic and say, "Let's rewind!", to the sing-along bit. They're happy again. Phew. But those few seconds: going from a spectacular end to what was a tough gig, to losing it all at the final hurdle, to getting it back again. It took at least 6 months off my life.

[dripstep]

^when anyone asks you what makes a DJ, THAT is what makes it. When you can successfully pull out of a catastrophe, and still keep the crowd jumping, you have made it.

[RickNash]

^when anyone asks you what makes a DJ, THAT is what makes it. When you can successfully pull out of a catastrophe, and still keep the crowd jumping, you have made it.

Ah stop . I'm just a worrier who prepares for the worst. Cheers though!

[shr3dder]

Well.

The first time I used an S4 was in a dark club I had a residency in and for a special festival after party I was sharing the decks with the other resident, now I usually played off the CDJs and he used an S4, however as we were playing b2b I told him I would just use the S4 as it was easier for me then him adjusting to the CDJs (I already had lots of experience with Traktor).

Anyway. It was dark, late, and I'd had a little smoke or two and at some stage towards the end of my set my fingers had dropped down a level on the EQs and without noticing I'd spent the last 3-4 songs using the Filters as Bass, Bass as Mids, Mids as Highs and so on..

Now this wouldn't have been too big a deal as it was late, everyone was pretty messy and so forth, however the kicker came when the next DJs, tapped me on the shoulder laughing and informed me, these next DJs however happened to be some guys from the festival... Diplo, A-Trak and the guys from Magnetic Man. I got a lotta shit for the rest of the night/morning from them, and still get shit from everyone involved in that venue today.