How did you get to play on your first gig?

[DJAdeSands]

Went to a local youth club and asked. Did first gig for free. That was 20 years ago. Rest is history...

[Eden Constance]

I remember to be very nervous then. My hands were literally shaking and I thought up to this day that I did pretty okay. Well at least to me.

[Dj Modless]

Mine was when my DJ mentor got me into under-age event in a club

[Raging Taco]

Well... it was an interesting time...
I was 13, and I had a friend who'd started his own party photography company. He was doing alright and would provide lighting, photography and a DJ to people's house parties. But once, two of the DJ's he'd booked decided to cancel on the night of two house parties - so that's 170 people with no music.
He'd somehow managed to hear about me being a DJ and hired me for BOTH of the parties. It was extremely short notice, but I managed to record a 5 hour mix for one of them and plan one for the other one (at the time I was only playing experimental and unpopular genres, so I needed to "buy" a ton of music). I was extremely relieved when it got to the day of the parties because I'd organised everything, but when I arrived and set up all my gear, Traktor decided that the audio should start stuttering
I had to open up Ableton without stopping the music and set up a live set in it. I also had to map some basic functions onto my controller before the first track ended so I could actually mix it. I kept mapping and mixing for the whole party.

k guis. that's teh story guise

[AlicardRosewood]

School mingle (A night where people get drunk and make bad mistakes) I had the biggest speakers so I was volunteered and I was originally just gonna do a playlist but, I bought a controller about a month before so I used it and mixed tracks, the next day 4 people were wanting me to DJ at their parties.

[MUTEDSP3AKER]

Halloween house part '06.... Crazy dance parties at that point

[csurfleet]

Chatting to a promoter at his own event - made friends then after coming to a few in a row requested a set. He kindly said yes. Did that one set and was asked to be a resident. Now he DJs at my gigs haha!

[Stephen Nawlins]

Well I was the first one of my friends having a fast ADSL Internet (56k Modem was fast at this time) and I always was a huge Music listener, but with fast Internet and the World being just a fingertip away...Wow.

So I was Surfing weekly on all the Hitparade Websites I could find, no matter which Country, I was seeking the Novelty which hasn't allready made his way to Switzerland. At the same time we were used to hang at the same Club all the time and becoming Regulars we started knowing everyone from the Bouncer to the Owner and finally to one of the Resident DJs.

He was the Kind of guy jumping in his car Saturday morning to go to Italy (Milano) to get the newest tracks to Play them the same night at the Party (6h traveling for a Hand full of novelties).
He was a Party-DJ playing everything from 50's RnR untill Charts.

I started talking to him, that I was kinda making the same Thing than him but on Internet, that I then downloaded everything over Emule (At that time nobody was Aware that it was illegal) and could provide him new stuff easyer. As fast as it was said he accepted, so weekly I burned a Cd with the New Tracks that I thought would have a certain potential.

When 3-4months later I turned Jobless and at same time the Club was looking for a new DJ, he directly thought of me and I had the opportunity to warm up for the residents and later in the night to make another 45min set when the Club was full.

The GF of the Boss which was also co-owner of the place told me from the beginning that my sets were the parts of the night she, but also all her female friends appreciate the most...and there's no secret that if Girls like what you Play you rule the parties.

This was 16 years ago, everything else came step by step in between I played from 30 People house parties untill 2'000 People corporate Events

I never had a serious problems except end of 2009 when I had a DJ-Burnout playing to many gigs (every Friday and Every Saturday during 4 months 'cause of the Money) at the same place for the same crowd, turning into a Robot playing the same tracks from night to night in exactly the same order.
Then I realised myself I have to be more selective in the amount of gigs and that I Need some creative phases in between to enjoy the "Discovering of new Tracks" process again.

[NoBasicSound]

toronto through a friend. started no basic sound to kill time. just wanna spread the musiccc

[Vladimir Lem]

My first gig was my College's Flash Mob party in a Shopping Mall. Students from our college were performing the dance [Flash Mob] so a guy i knew was also into that Flash Mob thingy so he recommended me to play for that day. Since it was in a Mall and there were glasses used for the shops, the authorities told us not to use the Subs so i setup 4 X JBL SRX 715 [Tops] and no subs and it went well