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Vikky & Gemma’s Engagement Party

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Last Friday night was Vikky & Gemma’s Engagement Party.

I met Vikky & Gemma at the Rhinefield House wedding fair a few weeks ago and they requested a copy of my WOW Wedding Guide (email me if you’d like a copy ~ paul@thepartydj.co.uk). They came around for a chat and decided to book me for their engagement party.

Vikky & Gemma’s Engagement Party was held at AFC Totton’s clubhouse. I’ve played there several times before but not recently and they’ve changed the set up position for the DJ – it’s probably even better now. The team running the venue are always very helpful and it’s a great room for a party.

I suggested running a photomontage for Vikky and Gemma and they came up with plenty of great pictures – a lot of funny shots and plenty of romantic ones too. It kept everyone entertained from the moment they arrived.

We decided to go with a running order of …
Meet & Greet 7:00 ~ 8:30
Food 8:30 ~ 9:00
Cake, thank you’s and a group photo 9:30
Party 9:45 ~ 11:30
Finish 11:30

Vikky and Gemma had plenty of input on the music choices, we had lots of George Michael with some Shadows and Drifters for the parents for the background music, with plenty of their favourite dance floor classics during the party. The evening ended with Vikky and Gemma dancing to “Marry Me” from the new Robbie Williams album.

That was Vikky & Gemma’s Engagement Party, hopefully I’ll be reporting on their wedding in August 2018.

December weddings

Christmas Parties at The Port House

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This is my third year of Christmas Parties at The Port House in Port Solent.

The Port House is a cafe, bar and restaurant and home to the Portsmouth Harbour Yacht Club. It’s located in Port Solent passed the Broadwalk shopping and bars area in the heart of the marina.
CLICK HERE for more information about The Port House.

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Most of this years Christmas Parties at The Port House were for individual companies or groups from the Q.A.Hospital although we did have one night of mixed tables.
paul-taylor-a4-xmas-request-sheet
Every night I use these cards >>>
so that I get as many requests as possible – hopefully something for everyone!

I’ve found everyone to be really friendly and absolutely lovely but the cards indicate that around 80% of the guests attending have been naughty and this is usually borne out by what they’d like for Christmas (most of which I couldn’t write here for you!).

I’m actually amazed that my picture (at the bottom) has only been “tampered with” a few times and I actually quite like the additions that were made.

Guests usually arrive between 7pm and 7:30pm for arrival drinks and are then seated for 8pm ready for their meals. I cannot speak highly enough of the quality of food and standard of service by the team from Vanilla Catering at The Port House – it’s brilliant. There are several guests who attend more than one Christmas party every year and some of them have been coming for almost a decade – praise indeed. Christmas Parties at The Port House with Sally, Kit, Laura and the team is great fun.

I thought it would be fun to share my playlist from one of the nights, so here you go …

Following on from background music during the arrival and meal, I started the dancing at around 9:40pm
Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You
Van Morrison – Brown Eyed Girl
Pharrell Williams – Happy
Lou Bega – Mambo No.5 (A Little Bit Of…)
Michael Jackson – Rockin’ Robin
The Jackson 5 – I Want You Back
Stevie Wonder – Superstition
Dolly Parton – 9 to 5
Nolans – I’m In The Mood For Dancing
Which took us to 10:00pm
S Club 7 – DJ Beats: Bring It All Back
Bruno Mars – DJ Beats: 24k Magic
Justin Timberlake – Can’t Stop The Feeling!
Kool & the Gang – Ladies Night
Shalamar – A Night To Remember
Sister Sledge – We Are Family
Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive
OMI – Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix)
DNCE – Cake By The Ocean
Prince – 1999
David Bowie – Let’s Dance
Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk
Calvin Harris – My Way
Daft Punk – One More Time
Faithless – Insomnia
Five – Keep On Moving
Five – Everybody Get Up
Busted – Busted – Year 3000
Reef – Place Your Hands
Spice Girls – Wannabe
which brought us to 11:00pm and into the last hour …
Spice Girls – Who Do You Think You Are
Wham! – Club Tropicana
Whitney Houston – I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)
Robin S – Show Me Love
Jess Glynne – Hold My Hand
Lulu & Take That – Relight My Fire
Village People – Y.M.C.A.
Whigfield – Saturday Night
DJ Casper – Cha Cha Slide
Walk The Moon – Shut Up and Dance
The Weather Girls – It’s Raining Men
The Foundations – Build Me Up Buttercup
S Club 7 – Reach
Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta – Grease Megamix
Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen
Take That – Never Forget
The Pogues – Fairytale Of New York

Looking at it now, it appears I played 46 songs in about 140 minutes so an average of just over 3 minutes of every song. The reason I chose this night to share is that every one of those songs was requested by someone on the cards I handed out, obviously lots of them were track’s I probably played anyway but I love looking into this kind of information to help me work out what I might play next time.

Other more random songs I’ve had requested and managed to fit in over the party season include …
Curtis Mayfield – Move On Up
M – Pop Music
Coldplay – Hymn For The Weekend
Chumbawamba – Tub Thumping
Jim Jamison – I’m Always Here (Baywatch Theme)
Vanessa Amorosi – Absolutely Everybody
The Black Keys – Lonely Boy
Smash Mouth – All Star
DeBarge – Rhythm Of The Night

I’ve still got a couple more Christmas Parties at The Port House to go … I wonder what the request cards will bring up 😉

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8 Days Of 80’s ~ Day 8 ~ Crowded House ~ Love This Life

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And so we come to Crowded House ~ Love This Life for day 8 of my “8 Days Of 80’s” … it’s been a lot of fun, so thanks again Rory for the nomination. As I’ve mentioned before these are just 8 random songs that could have been totally different. I picked them for each for individual reasons and today’s is no exception.

To be honest, I didn’t really “get” Crowded House until 1991. We stocked all the albums and Michael again played them to many of ur regular customers, I didn’t really have any strong feelings about them either way. Around the time Woodface launched in 1991 our EMI rep, Steve, gave us a special double promo cd “Live at the Town & Country Club” and that really resonated with me. I had seen Neil Finn in Split Enz back in 1976, I’d even promoted “Six Months In A Leaky Boat” during my time with A&M, but it wasn’t until their that third album they I really connected – and then they became a bit of an obsession!

I’ve now seen Neil Finn in his various incarnations (Split Enz, Crowded House, The Finn Brothers, and solo) more than any other artist. The last show we saw was 22nd September 2015 when Neil was touring with his son Liam. I’d go again tomorrow if I could.

So, it’s back to the second album, “Temple Of Low Men” from 1988, for this beautiful song that I feel is an apt finale to my “8 Days Of 80’s”

Crowded House ~ Love This Life

Here’s the orginal album version featuring Neil, Nick and Paul (RIP)

And here’s Neil performing it live a few years ago…

For more about Crowded House TRY HERE for Wiki
Or TRY HERE for Friends Of The Enz

Thanks for reading my 8 Days Of 80’s and please “Love This Life”

P x

8 Days Of 80’s ~ Day 7 ~ Deacon Blue ~ Dignity

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Day 7 of 8 Days Of 80’s and I’ve gone with Deacon Blue’s “Dignity”.

Carrying on from yesterdays post and my time running the Disc & Tape Centre with Michael – such good times, so many concerts and nights out. Michael always had great ears for music and championed many new acts to our customers. Deacon Blue were one such act.

We had good friends at CBS who were very excited about Deacon Blue and frustrated by the difficulty they had establishing the band. “Dignity” has been officially released as a single three times. It was first released in May 1987 as the first single before the release of their debut album Raintown. The single failed to chart and sales on the album were slow to start. After the release of two more singles(“Loaded” and “When Will You Make My Telephone Ring”), “Dignity” was re-recorded late in 1987 and the new mix released early in 1988 as the fourth single.

On the 29th March 1988 we were invited as guests of CBS to see them at Southampton Top Rank, which closed not long after. It was a very good night, Fairground Attraction were support and their debut single “Perfect” reached number one a few weeks later. “Dignity” was finally hit too and things finally started to happen for Deacon Blue. This also meant their previous singles became very collectable which takes me on to think about record fairs and our involvement in the collectors market … but that’s another story.

I’ve seen Deacon Blue at least once more and would like to see them again.

8 Days Of 80’s ~ Day 2 ~ Champaign ~ How ‘Bout Us

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8 Days Of 80’s ~ Day 2 ~ Champaign ~ How ‘Bout Us

It’s day two of my attempt to pick eight tracks from the eighties and share them on FaceBook. If you’d like to take part message me and I’ll nominate you.

Champaign ~ How ‘Bout Us
This was released early in 1981 and was a top 10 hit here. The group named themselves after their hometown of Champaign, Illinois, and featured Pauli Carman and Rena Jones on vocals. “How ‘Bout Us” was written by keyboard player Dana Walden.

The significance to me was that it was one of the big ballads of that year, the year I went to DJ full time in Jersey and met Ce, my wife. This was the song we picked for our first dance when we married in 1983.

CLICK HERE to find out more about my time in Jersey.

Just to say …

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I can’t believe the incredible response I got to yesterday’s post ~ thank you!

More news very soon, but for now …

Christmas message JPEG

2014 ~ Part one ~ January to June

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Here’s the second of my 123/ABC vlogs.                                                                      It’s part one of my look back at 2014.                                                                            So, number two is part one.                                                                                            Are you confused yet … I think I am!

This year has been full of some amazing highs working with wonderful clients.
There was also some great training including spending time with Randy Bartlett at the 2014 Pro Mobile Conference in May.

Randy

So here’s my video compilation of some of my highlights from 2014 …

Part two to follow on New Years Eve.

2015 ~ Here I come!

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So, what’s the big announcement you ask.  Well for the last few months I’ve been working hard on … well actually it hasn’t really been me doing the work … well not all of it.

Here’s my new logo designed by Deon from deondesign.co.uk. Deon is currently finishing my new website which will go live early next year and I cannot speak highly enough of his service and attention to detail ~ TOP bloke!  Did you notice I’ve also got another version for my banner at the top of the page!

the-party-dj-1000 copy

But there’s more!  I’ve been putting together some new promo videos with the help of some footage shot by John from vision-weddings.co.uk. John doesn’t only do weddings, a lot of his work is in the corporate sector so if you know anyone who’s looking for a great local film maker send them to  John at vision-productions.co.uk

… and more!!

John recently filmed some of my couples talking about their weddings for a series I’m calling “Looking Back”.  First up are Charlotte and Simon who got married in July last year (2013).

There’s actually quite a lot more, but I think I’ll save that for later.

So finally for now, here’s my 2015 press advert.

TPDJ Advert

Saturday Night …

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While I was busy at Lesley and Sam’s wedding on Friday afternoon I got a message from a gentleman who needed a DJ for a private on Saturday. When I had a moment I called him back and we had a quick chat, I took his booking and 24 hours later I was setting up to play at his house. It was a lovely summer’s evening with the guests enjoying fabulous food and drink in the gardens before coming back into the house for a dance in the music room.

If you need a DJ at short notice I’ll do everything I can to help – If I can’t do it I probably know someone who can!

Alesford Wedding DJ

Prom Fun

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Travellers Rest

Today we played a lunchtime Prom for the leavers from Oak Lodge School at The Traveller’s Rest in Hythe. Oak Lodge is a specialist arts college catering for children aged 11 to 16 with special needs. This was the second time we’d been asked to play for the leavers party and it was lovely to share this special celebration again.

The Party DJ's

Once again Joe came along and did most of the hard work while I snapped a few pictures. It was great to see the sun shining as last year the weather wasn’t quite as nice.

prom limo

Two fabulous limo’s brought the VIP’s from school to the pub and a photographer from the Echo was on hand to take some pictures.

Limo

The team at Traveller’s Rest did a great job and transformed one of the bars where the children and their teachers enjoyed a lovely three course meal.

School Prom

Because it was a small party we just took the Bose Compact speaker which gave us more than enough volume. We also only used minimal lighting set to a slow fade across the colours as some of the guests don’t like flashing lights. Music played ranged from current hits like Robin Thicke and Daft Punk, to classic party dance tunes Cha Cha Slide and The Macarena, right through to Linkin Park and AC/DC! It was a great party and a lovely way to spend a Wednesday lunchtime.

Hythe DJ