It's currently a very difficult time for anyone working in the events industry. The last time I worked was back in March 2020 and there seems to be no end in sight at the moment. I look forward to seeing all my clients when the world returns to some kind of normality. Most of this years events have been postponed and this must have been especially difficult for those who have been planning their wedding for such a long time. All the good times and celebrations from the past now seem like a dream, perhaps the world has changed forever only time will tell. Until we return, keep the dream of making new memories and magic moments with friends and family firm in your minds. As the great Freddy once said "the show must go on" and I'm sure it will, one day :(
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My music selection spans over the last 100 years! Although I am as comfortable playing the golden oldies as I am the latest charts, I think it’s important to demonstrate to my potential clients I can also use the old 1’s and 2’s in the mix if your event or music taste requires it. Therefore, I have included a few of my recently produced mix tapes right here for you to sample, I hope you enjoy! Feel free to call me anytime on my mobile or drop me an email if you have any questions, or indeed would like to check my availability for your event. Most of my work is conducted in the North West of England, Cheshire and Yorkshire, but I’m happy to quote a price for anywhere.
 Manor House Hotel Alsager DJ Dave Jones AKA davesdisco.co.uk professional wedding and party DJ My work as a DJ gets me to so many places, this weekend I was working at the Manor House Hotel Alsager. This hotel has a lovely function room, the hotel is extremely well kept, friendly and professional staff and certainly a very worthy place to host your function.
The setup in this picture is the ‘ultimate setup’ and includes 10ft wide LED curtain and truss, 2 podiums, 4 moving heads,10 LED lights, extra speakers and sign written DJ booth. The sign written DJ booth continues to be one of the most popular add on's I offer. (other add on's include more podiums and room mood lighting) The function room at the Manor house is slightly awkward in terms of acoustics, the seating is set to each side the direction the speakers are facing. However, I was able to combat this issue by installing more speakers around the room and the result was fantastic. There’s a few elements that need to come together in order to make your party a success, these include great sound so people can really enjoy and feel the music, a room that compliments the audio delivered by a high end speaker system, a dynamic and vast music selection, a great ‘Bo selecta’ (DJ!) that's willing to take requests and slightly intoxicated number of invited guests. If all of these 5 elements align, then it’s guaranteed to be a great night. There is one more important element that I strongly suggest you checkout before booking a venue and that is the dreaded sound limiter! Although there’s no need to blast the volume, sound limiters in venues that have them are almost certainly set very low, and low volumes can sometimes have an impact on the party atmosphere. Thankfully, the Manor House Hotel do not have a sound limiter installed, but those venues that do have one usually due to complaints from residential neighbours or the hotel rooms are above the function room. What my clients often don’t realise is that hotel managers who have sound limiters installed will often approach me and ask for the bass to be turned down or even off to avoid any chance of complaints from neighbours and this also has an impact on people being able to enjoy the music. (Sound limits are usually enforced by the local authority) In conclusion, no bass and low volumes!! One of my irritations is venues not being upfront with their clients about sound limiters during the booking process. If you have not already booked a venue, I would suggest asking if they have a sound limiter installed before committing any payment. (there’s not much you can do if you have already booked your venue by the way) If you would like a quote for your event, simply drop me an email or call me anytime, I cater for weddings, corporate events, birthdays, anniversaries, in fact, any event! I’m as comfortable playing the oldies as I am in mixing up the latest house music, my music selection spans the last 100 years! Thank you for visiting my blog and website Best wishes DJ Dave Jones daves disco January and February seems to be that time of year where the phone starts to get very busy with wedding enquiries especially. As each year passes, I look back and remember all the wonderful people I have met and feel lucky to have experienced the pleasure an honour of being part of peoples celebrations.
I would like to express a big thank you to all the amazing people I have met over the past years, I'm so looking forward to the many more years ahead of me working as a wedding and party DJ at events all across the North West of England and beyond. If anyone has any questions or indeed would like to enquire about booking my services for their wedding, party or corporate event, then please feel free to call or email me anytime. January and February seems to be that time of year where the phone starts to get very busy with wedding enquiries especially. As each year passes, I look back and remember all the wonderful people I have met and feel lucky to have experienced the pleasure an honour of being part of peoples celebrations. I would like to express a big thank you to all the amazing people I have met over the past years, I'm so looking forward to the many more years ahead of me working as a DJ at events all across the North West of England and beyond. If anyone has any questions or indeed would like to enquire about booking my services for their wedding, party or corporate event, then please feel free to call or email me anytime.  The sign written DJ is such a popular add on. The total cost for the sign writing on the DJ booth is £30. This particular picture was taken at the Deanwater Hotel in Wilmslow in the Balmoral suit, a wonderful winter wedding and such a fantastic day with fantastic people. A big congratulations to Mr and Mrs Lawman. It might be worth mentioning if you are considering hosting your event at the Deanwater Hotel that the Balmoral suit is a fairly large space and acoustically this room seems to absorb the volume like a sponge, To get around this issue I used extra speakers. If you have booked another DJ, this might be well worth mentioning. There's only so many weekends in a year, Saturdays remain the most popular night for weddings and the obvious peak demand is spring to autumn. Looking back through my diary, August is certainly the most popular month year on year, if only I could sell every Saturday in August over and over again! I never take advantage of this data, my prices remain consistent throughout the year, however this data may prove very useful to you if you are planning on getting married during this peak time. Book well in advance all your wedding suppliers and if you have a preferred wedding venue, it pays to get your date booked well in advance to avoid disappointment of your preferred date has already been taken. (Sundays are also very popular on bank holiday weekends) Out of the wedding season, I tend to fill my diary with birthday parties and corporate events. Incidentally, December has slight increase in weddings, but there’s also a high demand for Christmas parties too. Perhaps one of the biggest worries for winter weddings is the unpredictability of the weather. The best wedding suppliers and most desirable venues tend to be in big demand, so my simple advise is book well in advance if you can.  This brings me onto wisely choosing a wedding venue, having spent many years of being a wedding and party DJ in the North West, and working at most of the regions different venues, I have developed a fantastic sense of what can only be described as ‘venue feng shui’ From a clients prospective some venues have a striking visual aesthetics which certainly contributes towards the overall feel and the decision to actually booking the venue. However, there are other aspects of a venue that can only be gained by the wisdom, insight and experience from playing at so many venues. Acoustics, room layout and sound limiters are three important considerations that probably wouldn’t even cross the clients mind when viewing venues, but these important considerations can help make or even quash the evening celebrations and party atmosphere. Room layout: The ideal room layout would contain all the guest in one main space as opposed to a few separate rooms. It’s very difficult for DJ’s to create a party atmosphere when guest are distributed between two or more rooms. In order for a DJ to know they are playing right kind of music and build a rapport with the audience, it’s essential the DJ can see most of the audience. (Awkward shaped rooms can sometimes be a challenge, but this can be overcome by adding extra wireless speakers) Acoustics: The acoustics are extremely important, sound bouncing and echoing around a room most certainly is not pleasant experience for your guest. As the Tesco catch phrase states, every little helps, and good acoustics means an enjoyable musical experience for everyone. Bad acoustics can also make it difficult to gain guests full attention when making important announcements, for example, the announcement of the first dance at a wedding or guests not being able to hear clearly when the speeches are in progress. It can be difficult to decipher what room has good acoustics without actually testing it with a PA system, but as a rule of thumb, if it’s a large hall, stone walls, or very high ceiling and not much soft furnishing, the chances are the room may suffer from bad acoustics. However, some of these issues can be improved slightly by distributing extra speakers around the venue. sound limiters! These pesky nuisances are often installed where venues have residential neighbours. Some venues have them set extremely low and as people absorb sound, the more guest you have, the quieter the music will sound. Most venues will not be forth coming in volunteering the fact that they have a sound limiter installed. It’s always a good idea to ask the venues co-ordinator if they have one before making your decision to book. For those who are not sure what a sound limiter does……if the volume goes beyond the set limit, the mains power is cut to the DJ or band! I hope the above is helpful, feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Best wishes DJ Dave Jones edit.   DJ Dave Jones AKA davesdisco.co.uk on if it Is necessary for a DJ to be able to mix you may very well wonder if it’s completely necessary for your DJ able to mix dance or RnB tunes or indeed you may not have even gave this subject much thought? My personal answer to this question would be to picture this scene, the dance floor is rocking. Now lets imagine this part of the night from the party peoples prospective, a group of friends ask for a few songs, as they return to the dance floor, the DJ has found their requested tracks, cued the first one up, and starts to mix it into the tune that's already playing. Now it’s very often the case that certain songs are special to groups of friends and as soon as they hear them, something special happens, I know this from experience. As you start to mix in the requested songs, watch the atmosphere become electric, fun and energised. To steel a catch phrase from a well known super market, every little helps! That moment the atmosphere became electric is a moment that people will really remember and talk about in the days that follow and concrete a special memory forever. On the flip side, it’s also vital to have a DJ that is just as happy playing all other genres that don’t require mixing skills, for example indie music or golden oldies, in other words, don’t book a specialist house music DJ that can not cater for all other styles of music, the ability to mix is just a bonus. If your event has various ages groups, ages and different music tastes, it’s essential you book a DJ that can keep everyone happy, remember to consider your guests. A good life is made of good memories
DJ Dave Jones AKA davesdisco.co.uk As autumn starts to descend upon us, I once again find myself fondly looking back on this years events. Another year will be over soon and it reminds me of how time passes by so quickly. I often refer to my favourite saying ‘A good life is made of good memories’ and this saying is so true! Creating those magical moments at an event need a few factors to fall into place, good friends and family, alcohol, a venue with great acoustics and music specifically designed to suit the event. Perhaps many people overlook the importance of the music selection, but there’s so much thought and effort that goes into this from my prospective. From keeping up with the latest releases, to making sure I can cater for all taste, genres and decades to being able to use my vast experience into what to play next to keep people on the dance floor is just the tip of the iceberg. I carry over 140,000 high quality music files and there’s even some basic psychology goes into each selection of the tracks. For example, when it’s early evening at a wedding when the happy couple are still meeting and greeting evening guests, the music is naturally kept fairly low at this point. Most of the younger people during this period tend to be too busy socialising to pay too much attention to what songs are playing, however, the much older guests tend to listen to what's being played. Therefore, I often cater for the older generation at this particulate point in the night. This is all about retaining the older guest, if I was to play music that was too new, too soon and too loud, older guest tend not to enjoy the listening experience and as a result may even make their excuses and leave early. On the flip side, if they have enjoyed the music, they are more likely to stay and pretty much dance to all styles of music later on. People watching is part of my job, looking around the room to see who is tapping their feet or singing along to the music is a typical observational tool I use. Having said all of this, not all events are the same, the example I used above suggest a chilled meet and greet section of the evening, but sometimes, especially if people have got married early in the day, by the time 7.00pm comes around everyone is ready to party, or indeed there may not even be any more guests arriving. Extracting all the finer details from my clients makes a massive difference as to how I choose music. Another important factor is inviting guests to requests songs, I may have years of experience and intuition of knowing what to play, but the best judge is the guests, they know what they like and what they want to dance too. I love all sorts of music, from the 50’s right through to the latest dance music, so it’s always a pleasure to take request and sometimes drift away from the usual tracks that get the hell played out of them. Perhaps my personal favorite decade is the 80’s and this is the decade where I perfected my mixing the skills the hard way, I.e on vinyl. It’s all digital nowadays, but the digital turntable replaces that replaces the old analogue format still rains as king when mixing techniques are required. Incidentally, I still have turntables and all my old records! If you would like to discuss booking me for your event, please feel free to email or call anytime, I would love to hear from you. I am so lucky to work in a job where I get to meet so many amazing people and play music for a living, peace out! davesdisco.co.uk weddings  Brockholes nature reserve is a bit of a work out for wedding DJ’s! Who needs the Gym when you have a the task of carrying heavy equipment across the Brockholes complex, this workout should be part of the SAS selection hahaha…..putting the difficult load and the moaning of DJ life to one side, the venue us pretty unique for a weddings. You are surrounded by nature in all it’s forms, the acoustics are great and for those choosing to sit outside on the summer nights, the music can still be heard. Its also pretty unique in the sense that it’s Lancashire's only floating wedding venue!
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Dave Jones (DJ)
I often take the time
to blog about venues and experiences relating to the many functions I attend,
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certain venues or simply seeking information on any of the subject matter that
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May 2024
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