[b]IF YOU HAD YOUR TIME AGAIN[/b]

[QUINNY]

This forum has a mixture of ex-disco goers and ex DJs together with a few that were writers or involved in some other way on the Disco scene.
So, to the big question.
If you had your time again what might you change/have done differently? Anything at all?

For me personally, I don't think I would have spent quite so long as a DJ (although that would mean that I'd maybe miss my favourite period in disco). The trouble was that I was still earning money and generally better than most of my contemporaries (technically at least and for sheer professionalism, but maybe I sometimes fell foul for music selection; a little eclectic at times).
I think I would have paid slightly less heed to the 'fashion' aspect that invariably led me to play many tunes that I didn't like and got me into trouble occasionally.
I would have asked for more money. DJing in the UK was never a brilliantly paying job (unless you got lucky or worked 7 nights a week). DJs were definitely exploited and treated like S**t. Club managers and owners always had us by the short and curlies.
I would have read James Hamilton's Disco column (in Record Mirror and a great column it was too!) more closely. According to the posters here I obviously missed out on loads of great records or maybe not. Perhaps they wouldn't have been to my taste or that of the dancers here. Who knows?

Otherwise, I'd probably do it all over again.

[wow27]

Just a thought! why dont you consider going back into d.j ing in today's clubs? because these days the club dj's can command a fortune as 'superstar dj's'-the only snag is, you have to play today's club music and not the 70's etc.. but none the less, if you are preparred to overcome all that sentimental nonsense then the riches are there for the making!

[QUINNY]

Wow: I think the practicalities of being a club DJ again would be overwhelming. I've missed so much music that I'd have absolutely no idea of what to spin. If I did club DJ again, I don't see why I couldn't do some kind of retro set. It wouldn't have masses of appeal, but might carve a small niche for me.

However, I am seriously considering trying to get back into radio as there is a living to be made there on one of the smaller stations (ideally located somewhere sunny like the Costa Del Sol or similar), when I decide to move again. With my 15 years as a pro DJ and 20 years recording and small P.A. experience there ought to be an opening, somewhere. If not as a DJ then maybe as a station assistant/recording engineer/producer.

At my age, quality of life becomes a prime consideration, and quite frankly I don't know if I'd like the smokey atmosphere or the late nights. Making lots of money is less of a consideration for me, but a little more of it would have been useful all those years ago.

[wow27]

I am not having a go at you Quinny and i know we have hit it off bad recently, but what i say to you i just say as a constructive comment/suggestion etc...
I dont doubt for one minute that your era was the late 70's etc..but the world has moved on and them times are never going to come back no matter how sentimental one gets!
(Not that there's anything wrong with that!)
With respect to the music you obviously have the passion for etc..there is no longer much of an audience for that music anymore apart from the small 'focus' groups so to speak, like the residents of this site and sites like it who remminis back to those days etc..(not that theres anything wrong with that either!)
If you really did want to get back into dj ing etc.. then you would have to overcome the sentimentalities of all that and appeal to the masses of today-not the masses of a bygone era of which with the greatest due respect are a dying out breed! The riches and fame etc..(assuming you wanted that) would be there for the first part, not the second in my opinion! But hey-each to their own and thats just my opinion!

[StuckIn1979]

I know one thing I would have done differently was taken even better care of my music, collected more of it....this time brand new, not used.

[paul]

Well, keeping it strictly in the context of disco:

1 - like Stuckin1979, I would have not sold some of my vinyl. I would just have to find another way to get food to eat :)

2 - this wont surprise most of you. I would have had my way with some of the women that I stupidly :-? passed up at the clubs and parties I attended as well as my next door neighbor who had just gotten divorced.

[bobbchap]

I would have never sold part of my collection, I would buy more, I would meet more people, I would party more, I would dance more, AND I would never have gone to Michaels house! :evil:
Yes, doing it over would be great, I would.."Live, live, live, life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving.."
I know that's from a movie, but that's the way it is...