Playlist of a Xmas night party (gay party)

[Westwood]

This Xmas I went to a big gay party in the french-speaking part of Switzerland and I was pleasantly surprised by the great music I heard playing (it was only later I found out the floor of the disco I was in was the Best Of Disco theme). This is a sample of what they played:

Donna Summer: Hot Stuff, Bad Girls, She Works Hard For The Money, I Feel Love (Rollo & Sister Bliss Remix, 1995), Love To Love You Baby (3 min.)
Gloria Gaynor "I Will Survive" (one of thoe AWFUL 90s remixes, yuk, totally takes the soul out of the song)
Dalida "Laissez-Moi Danser", "Parole Parole"
Madonna "Hung Up" mashed up with ABBA "Gimme Gimme Gimme", this one they played at least 4 times and everybody knew them both, "Vogue", "Express Yourself"
Sylvester "Do You Wanna Funk" and the other one that goes "Energy" lol
Liza Minnelli "New York, New York" (i know!!! but they all sang along)
Evelyn King "High Energy", Miquel Brown "So Many Men, So Little Time"
I danced like mad along to the songs lol.
I was surprised there was no Salsoul or no other disco legends, it sounds like this dj didn't know much of disco.

Now my question is: what can a dj play? What about the rights to play records in a public place, do the clubs pay a certain fee and they can play whatever they want?
I have a huge music collection and no doubt I could do some fab playlists even though I have never mixed but honestly, I still need to go to a club where songs are mixed into each other in an acceptable manner, although I care more for the songs themselves. How hard is it to get someone to let you be the dj lol? I might know a way and was wondering the above. Please enlighten me.
x

[RetroRuss]

I'm sure you will get lots of replies to your questions nut here's my view. If I was you (which I was a few years ago), with a good collection of tunes - go and buy a couple of decks (assuming you have vinyl) and a mixer - you can plug it into your amp at home & start practicing....it will not sound so good to start but you'll get the hang of it eventually - then you can start 'mixing', I wouldn't suggest going to the DJ of the biggest club in Switzerland asking for a go until you have had a stab at it-maybe start by doing a few house parties for friends & record them to hear how you think you are doing....as for the legal situation the way it works in the UK is that each venue pays the Performance Rights Society an annual fee to play music. For house parties you don't pay anyone anything!

In the UK it is such an anachorastic system than no-one really bothers with the PRS...the licencing system needs total overhaul rather than the patchwork we have at the moment but thats another thread for another day!!

[Westwood]

Hmm well I do have a lot of vinyls, but most disco I have is on cd. Also, the guy at this club, which I don't know if it's the biggest, defo not, was using CD mixers.
So I guess that should not be the biggest problem.
And.. I live in a small city, and the clubs are small and play crappy music so I would be a highlight here lol...that is if they knew good music, which they dont...