Nobody's dancing! QUICK!!! What do you play next?

[The Boogie Doctor]

quinny, i think that you are sadly mistaken about this point. if a dj is regularly bleaching the floor of dancers, regardless of whether they are 'being adventurous,' they are not a good dj, period. a good dj can be adventurous but when they play the peripheral tracks that no-one is familiar with they tend to work; that's what makes them a good dj. clearing the floor means you have misread the crowd and the dimensions of their musical taste and have failed as an entertainer. a good dj keeps the floor rocking all night and doesn't take stupid risks with his dancefloor and thus his reputation. he or she must keep it funky at all costs.

[QUINNY]

Originally Posted by The Boogie Doctor

quinny, i think that you are sadly mistaken about this point. if a dj is regularly bleaching the floor of dancers, regardless of whether they are 'being adventurous,' they are not a good dj, period. a good dj can be adventurous but when they play the peripheral tracks that no-one is familiar with they tend to work; that's what makes them a good dj. clearing the floor means you have misread the crowd and the dimensions of their musical taste and have failed as an entertainer. a good dj keeps the floor rocking all night and doesn't take stupid risks with his dancefloor and thus his reputation. he or she must keep it funky at all costs.

I said nothing about regularly 'bleaching' the dance floor and this thread has nothing about that. However, my basic premise, that if you take chances you're more likely to clear a floor holds good, doesn't it? No-one is totally infallible...not even the very best.

In my time I worked with all types of DJs. The ones that kept the floor humming 'all night' were invariably the types that played nothing but known, safe tracks. A few of them managed to introduce the odd new/different track, but these tended to be future blockbusters. In all honesty, at times I wished I could be like those guys......they certainly had a knack of appealing to the lowest common denominator. I'd go to bed thinking about 'em, then I woke up and ivariably felt glad I wasn't one of 'em, even though I was wracked with self doubt. 14 years as a pro club DJ is, I believe, testament to me getting it mostly right!

So far as I was concerned, if I couldn't introduce new records on a regular basis I wouldn't have been doing my job, wouldn't have kept sane, wouldn't have been doing right by the musicians who were making the music. Sometimes records did bomb, even ones that 1, 2, 4 weeks later were considered by all and sundry, as the dog's bollocks. Playing them was an act of faith. This, at a time when records weren't totally generic and a new musical direction was being taken, being explored, with what seemed like virtually every other release.

Obviously you don't appreciate that part of true professionalism was having faith in what you were doing, even when times might have got a little tough.

[Videoskooter]

Originally Posted by The Boogie Doctor

clearing the floor means you have misread the crowd and the dimensions of their musical taste and have failed as an entertainer

That's a great remark! I'm always fascinated reading the experiences from different DJ's here.

And I always ask myself the question: for what kind of audience did they usually play??? From my experience (and yes I did many gigs, although I wasn't a professional): honestly, I usually had great success when I played club/underground vibes at clubs where I was an occasional resident and I bummed a few times when I was asked to entertain a "Partycrowd" (I clearly remember the first hour at the British embassy in Brussels in 1987 where they almost forced me to go for Chic, Kelly Marie, Boney M, Rick Astley and...yes, the Goombay Dance Band). I absolutely misread some crowds and therefore I'm a very limited entertainer. When my act didn't work, I simply lost control of the crowd. Perhaps that's why I never became a REAL DJ.

I think Quinny is a party-DJ and an excellent 1, that's why he's having so much trouble with people liking Costandinos, Cerrone, Midney and wiselike Disco. He didn't play it, he didn't get it and probably his audience never asked for it. People like Nick Nack played that stuff, for an audience that liked that stuff and so they are much more open for that kinda style. In the clubs that I frequented (and those were big ones, not small snobbish venues) people went dance crazy when the beat of "Accidental Lover" invaded the room. They asked for "Hollywood Swinging" not for "Celebration". Maybe that's why I'm very open minded about Disco, I dig Eddie Kendricks, I dig The Intruders but I also dig Madleen Kane and Queen Samantha.

The problem I have with Quinny is the fact that he just can't, won't and never will accept that there were other vibes than the ones he played and liked and that musically didn't cope with his perception of Disco. Don't underestimate the fact that he is a sound engineer and a Soul and Jazz addict and that he started in a somewhat other "era" than a lot of us.

My beef with him is that he doesn't tolerate other people's views here. He tries to slam the F from the fun that a great part of the members is having here. The board is not Discopedia.com, the main site is! There we have the facts and the figures, here we have fun, we learn, we discover and we connect.

Is it a Brit vs. Europe/Us thing? Nope! Look at what British DJ's like Headlamp and Greg Wilson, to name some of the members here, play and you'll notice that slight difference.

I like 'em all! The Jussiks, the Discoladies, the Nick Nacks, the Quinnies, they all blend together in what was and is called D.I.S.C.O.

[QUINNY]

Videoskooter: Doh! I thought I'd made it clear that instinctively I wasn't a party type of DJ (not all of my career anyhoos) and I actually took chances. Probably too many at times. Throughout my career, my aim was to entertain as well as spin records and to that end I used to play percussion, bop around, whatever, work bloody hard and NOT just be in a DJ booth looking ultra cool, to all intents and purposes like a DJ robot. Did I play Cerrone...YES, did I play Costandinos, Midney et al YES to some extent, BUT I honestly didn't like their music and nor did 99.9% of Brits. Like any DJ, I had a playlist that reflected my own tastes and those of the crowd I attracted.

Why do guys like you take my counter argument as anything other than what it is.... a counter point of view? It doesn't mean I don't think other people's views can exist, or that they're inferior and yes, I would like to know what credentials they bring to the table. I don't like Euro Disco and I do think that ultimately it will be viewed as tacky rubbish. If I write this in a post it's because I'd like all viewers of a thread (current and into the future) to have an alternative view i.e. read what XXX has written in praise, read what I've written in condemnation and THEN make your own mind up. To just read one side of an appraisal is nothing short of a type of brainwashing or mild hysteria.

[Videoskooter]

Q, thanks for clearing some things up. You see, if you write stuff like this, people get to know you better!

A question to show that maybe we indeed have another perception.

I know you like stuff by the Mike Theodore Orchestra. Now, in my perception (not as an engineer, musician but just as a listener) how do you reply when I say that f.i. "Cosmic Wind" sounds utterly Eurodisco to me? The strings, the choirs, the classical music references?

How do you rate the B-side of "Romeo & Juliet" which has a Jazzy edge?

[QUINNY]

Actually I don't like Cosmic Wind too much, nor High on Mad Mountain as I think they don't really go anywhere or do anything to excite me. I like 'The Bull' for its Spanishness, power and sense of fun. Hell, I'm probably just about the only person you'll meet who likes Devil's Gun by CJ & Co., but thinks the rest of that album was piss poor, even We Got Our Own Thing (a good to great groove that gets totally f**cked up once the verse kicks in IMO). My fave track loosely linked to Mike Theodore is Dennis Coffey's - Wings Of Fire. It's sooooo damned funky. A little too repetive at times, if I'm being ultra picky, but it never fails to make me wanna get movin' around. A true blinder of a track, head and shoulders above any of Mike Theodore's efforts in my books.

Here's some vaguely Euro things that I actually liked (this'll be hard to think about as not too many come immediately rushing to mind).

Suzi Lane - Harmony
3 Degrees - The Runner
Quartz - Beyond The Clouds
Space - Magic Fly
Donna Summer - I Feel Love
Cerrone - Supernature, Give Me Love (both with reservations though)
Voyage - Lady America + others with reservations.
Boney M - Do Ya Wanna Bump pt. 2
Champs Boys - Tubular Bells
Crystal Grass - Crystal World (or t'other way round...never can remember)
Kongas - Africanism/Gimme Some Lovin' (with reservations)
Macho - I'm A Man
Santa Esmeralda - Another Cha Cha
Ronnie Dyson - Me & Myself
Claudja Barry - Sweet Dynamite
Gibson Brothers - Cuba
Don Ray - Got To Have Loving
Ganymed - It Takes Me Higher
2 Man Sound - Que Tal America
Telex - Moscow Diskow (to some extent)
Disco Circus - Over & Over

Probably lotsa others too. Depends on what is meant by Euro Disco?

[ROMEO1]

The days of my DJ ventures mid to late 90s, these usually got the floor filled up.
Shout Isley Brothers
I'm Every Woman the Whitney Houston Version.

One party I did in the city (New York) at a restaurant, I played the The Hills of Katmandu and the floor filled up like a bandit. That song was familiar with those real disco freaks like myself and I was surprised to see so many of them when I played that song. I kept the genre up for about an hour and the floor remain filled for the rest of the night. Good feeling, wouldn't mind going back just for that party.

[paul]

Originally Posted by ROMEO1

The days of my DJ ventures mid to late 90s, these usually got the floor filled up.
Shout Isley Brothers

That must have been a rock crowd. I've noticed that they really like Shout and Rock Lobster.

[needlefingers]

If it was a lesbian bar,

Bette Midler - The Rose

Worked everytime.

Don't ask me why.

Ask a lesbian.

[JussiK]

Didn't usually need to dig up a surefire commercial crowdpleaser if nobody was dancing, quite the contrary. There was always the showoff who wanted to make a spectacle of him/herself and do it with maximum visibility on an empty floor. So, bring on the Ze records, some Cristina would be the ticket or any other quirky flamboyant thing. And sure enough, the fashionistas would gasp, raise their arms up, enter the floor sideways rolling their eyes in rapture and get the action going. Soon after, others would follow and the party would begin. A rare rainy night with not a wannabe starlet in the house? Well, maybe "Hot Shot" by Karen Young, that was not compromising it too much. But that was then and this is now, and now there's really no such thing as nobody dancing, what with the experimental space disco stuff that's so big. One minute after the opening give the first 3 people thru the door a fast pounding euro beat with lots of synth noises and 2 of them will dance.

[marmite7]

Brothers Johnson - Stomp
Rose Royce - Is It Love That You're After
George Benson - Turn Your Love Around
Raw Silk - Do It To The Music
Players Ass - Turn The Music Up


that'd get me jigging.

[Thereza bizarre]

OK lets see Mnn?????

Amanda lear..... queen of china town
Boney m...oceans of fantasy
Hazell dean....searchin (i need a man)
sarah dash...sinner man
Tasha thomas..shoot me with your love.......

that outta get em movin those old boney carcussus!....

[canadiantire]

This originating question sounds like a trap to me.

Before providing an answer, I would ask:

• What day of the week is it?
• What season are we in?
• What is the time of the night?
• What is the age range of the crowd?
• How many humans are in there?
• How many good dancers occupy the place?
• How was the general mood before the dance floor cleared?
• What was playing before it cleared?
• How much am I paid for being a DJ?
• What did I eat 2 hours before?

Depending on the answers, my proposed song would be different seconds after seconds.

Now think quick, flip through your titles and pray to have the inspiration of the moment that will bring everyone back into a trance.

Chances are that if you miss, you’ll feel like a miserable crazy frog.

Life is an inexact and unpredictable experience.

Being a DJ even for just a night can demonstrate that cruel reality.


- Marcus