Gig log .2.8.2008 Oswestry Fitz bar

0:00 One bar, go to another one

Alright folks, another gig log for you. Today is the 2nd of August 2008 and I'm off to Osra Street to that place called Fritz's Bar. The bar itself is sort of a halfway house for people. You know, you go to one bar, go to another one, go to another one. But the difference is with this one, you've got a DJ playing music, people dance. Normally rammed by, from sort of 10 up to about 12. 12.30 starts to disappear, you know, people disappear because they go other places and to places that are open a lot longer. But anyway, for all the people, because there's always a few, who are watching this for the first time, this is a gig log. It's basically a working DJ going out and doing his thing. Are you a DJ?

Have you got a video camera? Do you do mobiles? Well go out and do your stuff. Take your video camera and let's see you doing your thing because it's great fun. I mean basically, people learn from me. People get advice from me. Tips, tutorials, demonstrations, whatever. But seriously, I look at other DJs and I think, shit man, that's a good idea. I'm going to do that. So, you know, this is what it's all about. I mean, I am getting so much information from other people. I'm quite happy to say that. It's true. Now also, what was I going to say? Yeah, this is cool. Mobile beat function in Las Vegas next year, which is 2009 in February. Well, I have been invited to... Thank you for watching.

3:09 It is, well, it just happened

Pro DJs who haven't got the time of day for you, then you're wrong because we're just two regular guys who enjoy what we're doing and we have a little bit of fun. And one of the worst things in the world for me would be for no one to come and say hello. What would be fantastic is for someone to walk up to me and go, alright Jonathan, give me a bar of chocolate and buy me a beer. Yeah, that's cool. Right, so I'm up goodness knows where now. I'm on this really small tiny little road and I'm going to pause the camera for a second, excuse me.

Just want to show you this. What about that for a view? That's the van. There's my mate there. Alright, Doris! Righto, back again. I want to talk a little bit about kit. There's a lot of you out there that think, my god, how much kit has he got? What's he got now? Is he rich? How can he afford all this kit? Well, truth of the matter is, I can't afford it. Full stop. It gets given to me. Why does it get given to me? Well, lots of ways of looking at it, I suppose, but... One way I look at it is, well, it just happened. All this shit, man, happened. Some of it, I've asked for, but 90% of it has just happened. I mean, I didn't know I was going to get loads of hits. I didn't know that companies were going to think, wow, we like what you're doing, we'd like to help out. I get free kit, I demo it, I show people how to use it in my own wacky way as much as I know about it, and in return...

You know, I get to use it, get to keep it, get to take it on the road. But I suppose more importantly, people watching get to see how the kit is used and how to use it. I mean, talking about that, I've got some more kit to use tonight, which is fantastic. Also, I've got another few items that are very interesting. One of them is really wacky actually, and you're going to love it. That's from a company called Sony. And looking forward to that. I'm just going to turn a corner here, hold on. So that should be quite interesting. I'm not going to say anything about it at all but just watch out because it's got nothing to do with DJing but it's got quite a lot to do with music and also lighting. Great, you know. I mean, you see, in a sense, if you think about it, a new product comes out and the companies want to promote...

5:28 Admittedly, the colours are samey, you know, red-green

We're targeting a certain audience and, you know, I'm showing you this piece of kit how it is. I'm not making it all fancy in a proper dark room and, right, camera, lights, action! You know, and there's five people on makeup and there's, you know, the gripper, whatever that... Bagger does and, you know, you've got a caterer in the corner and you've got the director. It's just me doing my thing and in a sense I think that's what people like because they want to see how it is from a real point of view. So that's what I am doing and other people are doing and if anything, if there are people watching this, companies watching this, get your act together and realise the potential of real people doing music.

Real demos, not you guys, big company, saying to people how wonderful your products are when we know you're going to do that because, you know, you want to sell your product. So there you go. I mean, one of my interests at the moment, along with a lot of other people, is the LED lighting. Now, OK, admittedly, the colours are samey, you know, red-green. Blue, it's like, ooh, red-green-blue from that light, same sort of colour from that light. Different styles, different effects, but it's quite savey. But the way I look at that, like I've said in previous videos, you know, years ago we used to take these huge power cans out, they'd be really hot, the bulbs would always go and they take a lot of power. Now what have we got? We've got these lights that do just as good a job and guess what? They'll last near enough forever.

7:43 They'll have a video showing people how that item is used as well

Plus the fact they don't take much power and they don't get hot, so that's very good. I'm going to pause the camera again. Right, also what's happening as well is I've been having other companies contact me and ask me to do tutorials. And there's one website out there that I shan't mention at the moment, I will in the near future, but they've asked me to do some more pro tutorials. And again, I do not at all class myself... As a fantastic DJ, by a long shot. No way. But maybe I've got a certain amount of knowledge. Some of it's good, some of it's relatively okay, some of it's outrageously terrible. There you go. You know, you don't have to watch the terrible shit, but there you go. But there's a few companies out there who like what I'm doing and have seen the potential and thought, yeah, we want you to help us. So that's what I'm doing as well. I'm going to pause the camera again. Still on the way there, folks.

Right, another quick one. Also what's been happening over the past couple of years, or well, mainly a year, and that is that shops around the world have seen the potential in videos made by what I would class as, when I say real people, I'm on about me and you. People who, you know, we don't belong to anyone. And what they've realised is that if I am, or you, or someone, is using a piece of DJ kit... What the shops can do is link or embed that video on their website underneath that piece of kit that they've got for sale. So, you know, no longer now will a shop just have a picture of an item. They'll have a video showing people how that item is used as well. Now that's good. Comes up to me and goes, are you that guy on the internet? And I said, well what do you mean? DJing stuff. He says, yeah I do. Alright, what's your name? And then I said it. And that was it, walked away. And then someone took my picture. Oh dear, that is so funny. But look, I mean, again, you know, I'll be honest with you, sometimes like with Brian's videos, and I'm sure with every other person out there who's doing a gig log, you know, we can't

I really spend hours recording, editing and stuff, you know. At the best, what we do is we're doing our function and then it's like, oh shit, yeah, we'd better do some videoing. So we do a bit of videoing and then you've got someone going, excuse me, can you play this or you've got to do this, that. So you haven't really got time just to sit there with a video camera. But it sort of gives you a general idea, you know. This job is not easy, full stop. I mean, alright, we could get a bit of a discussion here, which is more hard? A club DJ or a mobile DJ. Well, hope for the best, smile and make sure people enjoy themselves. Practice and enjoy.

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