Trouble At The Booth

[Forrrce]

As a variation on the 'Bedroom DJs' theme and Quinny's response, has anyone been involved in or witnessed incidents in or at the booth, which resulted in someone getting evicted from a club? Even the DJs themselves? And if so, do they always stem from the DJ's choice of music/drunk punters' inability to accept there's no Jason Donovan tonight?

I can't personally think of many, but here are a couple of (luckily) minor examples.

A pal once got constantly hassled by a muscular chap for contempoary R&B during a soul/jazz/disco set and the indignant meathead reached over the booth and grabbed my mate's arm while he spun. He (mate) was understandably scared and didn't want to incur the wrath of this worrying big guy - who was eventually warned off with a quiet word and steely gaze by a pint-sized punter. So, it didn't get heavy - but this apparently went on for some time and I hear no bouncers were present.

Again with the arm... :roll:
Some years earlier, I got similar attention from a Luther Vandross fan, who grabbed my arm with quite a strong grip. He wasn't a big guy and I'm fairly tall and very stocky, but he repeatedly ignored my requests to leave me alone. I wasn't actually angry with the guy and didn't want to hit him (fisticuffs at the booth? I couldn't think of anything worse), so I beckoned someone over and asked them to get the doormen. Two heavies came and dragged this drunk bloke away and I was finally free of his grip. I actually felt a bit sorry for him as he protested on the way out - I think he truly believed he was being reasonable and to be fair, he was neither loud nor abusive...just tanked up and a bit too tactile.


Maybe Quinny can retell his story?

[hoellihozb]

hmm...


I once listened to a 5hour Carl Cox set at a festival in LINZ/Austria. In Austria beer is cheap, and I was quite drunk and tired. It was around 6am. I sat on a barrier, directly in front of the decks. After two hours of sitting there I fell asleep, and tipped over. Two guys grabbed me, and saved me from falling directly on the turntables.

I can`t imagine the amplified sound, of myself falling, and lying across the turntables....
Not to mention all the people and securities, looking up to me...

But Carl just smiled, no bad word at all! :D
Great Guy!!!

[QUINNY]

Forrrce: I try not torepeat myself so I'll recount another story. This wasn't really heavy, but it was somewhat annoying.

In my latter years I worked in a venue where I had to do the 'ladies night'. Women were let in either cheap or for nothing, and hen nights were encouraged. Not my favourite night, but it was work.
On this particular evening there were lots of hen nights in the joint. One particular soon to be wed kept on pestering me for a record, something I didn't have. I had to keep on apologizing etc but as she got more and more pissed with the drinks her mates were pouring into her, the more agressive she became. Her solution to my polite refusal was to lift the tone arm off of the record. The first time she did it was on the record I was trying to mix in. The second time was on the record actually playing, with a drunken comment along the lines of "why don't you play my f****n' record, you wanker"!!! I remember shouting something like "you dozey cow" at her and just quietly putting the tone arm back on after a few seconds silence. I don't remember her being thrown out but I remember her friends looking on in total astonishment and their embarassment. That's not to say that I didn't go a shade of red too.

[the whistler]

One particular kept on pestering me for a record, something I didn't have. I had to keep on apologizing etc but as she got more and more pissed with the drinks her mates were pouring into her, the more agressive she became. Her solution to my polite refusal was to lift the tone arm off of the record. The first time she did it was on the record I was trying to mix in. The second time was on the record actually playing,

This happened to me last Saturday :evil:

[DJ-Pir]

A nice one :

A sunday night somewhere around '91 or so....
Wile playing the top40/disco room in a 4 disco venue i was
called to the booth side by a drunk guy that wanted to hear something
rock/alternative like, when told that the rock deejay was in the room 60 feet
to the left he got really pissed and argumentive.
The discussion got so heated up that he was going to throw a 8" ceramic ashtray
on the turntable if i hadn't grabbed his arm, thereby giving him the opportunity to
hold my arm firmly over the glass side watching the playing record run out and thinking
"where the f** are the bouncers when you need them ?" :evil:
At the booing screams of several hundreds of people he let go and i could continue with a red face... :oops:
Lesson learned : stay away from drunks and never reach out of the boot.

Peace, Peter