D'ya play de ballads

population

So if I get asked this question one more time at a gig I am going to f***ing scream!!!

I play solo doing covers in pubs and always try to do a good mix of tunes to try cater for most tastes, but am I wrong in refusing to play "de ballads". I mean for starters I dont know any to play, nor do I care to. The whole Luke Kelly fascination aint my scene.

But older folk asking I can accept and try pawn them off with excuses and a few 60's tunes but f**k me I cannot get over the amount of guys in their late teens and 20's demanding to hear this stuff and getting mouthy when you dont oblige.

I am in my 30's and always thought it was a pre-requisite to be at least 100yrs old, stink of whiskey and have a beard down to your balls to be into that fiddley dee.

I just do not know where they are getting this musical frame of reference from! I thought the point of music was to not listen to the music your oul fella did?????

GhostInTheRuins

population wrote: »

I thought the point of music was to not listen to the music your oul fella did?????

Eh?

Liam Byrne

population wrote: »

am I wrong in refusing to play "de ballads". I mean for starters I dont know any to play, nor do I care to.

If you are indeed trying to cater for all tastes (your statement, not mine) then yes, you're wrong.

There are 4 or 5 classics that might do the trick without alienating anyone - e.g. "Streets of New York", "Red Rose Cafe"....

population wrote: »

I thought the point of music was to not listen to the music your oul fella did?????

Haven't a notion WHERE you got that idea from ........crap is crap, and decent is decent, regardless of who listened to it.

If the above was a real criteria, we'd all be listening to Westlife or X-factor rubbish, since my dad NEVER listened to that.

population

Liam Byrne wrote: »

If you are indeed trying to cater for all tastes (your statement, not mine) then yes, you're wrong.

There are 4 or 5 classics that might do the trick without alienating anyone - e.g. "Streets of New York", "Red Rose Cafe"....

Haven't a notion WHERE you got that idea from ........crap is crap, and decent is decent, regardless of who listened to it.

If the above was a real criteria, we'd all be listening to Westlife or X-factor rubbish, since my dad NEVER listened to that.

Dont get your Westlife point at all. There are other types of current music out there.

Anyways might have been a sweeping Dads statement, but the point I was trying to make is that isnt your teens meant to be a musical hotbed of malcontent. Isnt your Dad meant to see you listening to Bad Religion, Metallica, Prodigy or whoever and say "Thats ****e".

Oh continue listing ballads though because I will take the advice and learn em.

Liam Byrne

population wrote: »

Dont get your Westlife point at all. There are other types of current music out there.

Agreed. But my point was that if ".....the point of music was to not listen to the music your oul fella did?????" then the fact that your oul fella wouldn't listen to Westlife would make it somehow appealing to you - which I doubt.

Likewise, I know young[ish] people who wouldn't listen to The Prodigy or Basshunter in a fit, even if peer pressure tries to imply that it's cool.

Basically, everyone makes their own choices; or at least they should. "The Galway Girl" was around for YEARS before it suddenly got "popular"; "Don't Stop Believing" was a rarely-played classic until it appeared in The Sopranos and got played to death.

I've been involved at both ends; resurrecting old gems and breaking brand new music, and good stuff is good stuff, regardless of genre or age; and peer pressure as to what's "cool" or "rebellious" is bumping up a lot of rubbish to beyond the status that it should have.

Red Sleeping Beauty

Play Mrs McGrath, that's a good tune.

stovelid

Bit off topic, but I was in a well-known late bar that plays a lot of indie a few years back. A friend's colleague (nice girl, but terrible taste in music) asked (shouted at. really) the DJ to play Fields of Athenry. The DJ without even looking up, just casually replied "fuck off" and went back to his records.

Perhaps you had to be there.

Rigsby

If you are playing solo covers in a pub, I would have thought it inevitable that you'd be asked to play some ballads at some stage. FWIW, I hate ballads, but I assume you are there to please and entertain the crowd, so if that's what they want (regardless of age) then learning a few ballads might be prudent.

nyarlothothep

stovelid wrote: »

Bit off topic, but I was in a well-known late bar that plays a lot of indie a few years back. A friend's colleague (nice girl, but terrible taste in music) asked (shouted at. really) the DJ to play Fields of Athenry. The DJ without even looking up, just casually replied "fuck off" and went back to his records.

Perhaps you had to be there.

Yeah! He should be given a medal.

Liam Byrne

nyarlothothep wrote: »

Yeah! He should be given a medal.

If he was anywhere in Munster he'd have been shown the door and they'd have gotten someone decent in to play to the crowd.

Plus, whatever about the pros and cons of playing something, any employee who tells a punter to f**k off should be sacked on the spot. "Sorry, don't have it" / "Sorry, wouldn't suit the crowd" / "Maybe later (with no intention of playing it)" are all acceptable responses, but "f**k off" based on a simple valid-if-unwelcome request isn't.....it's about as unprofessional as they come.

Brush Shiel's version makes a regular appearance around the times of the Munster matches, and rightly so.

stovelid wrote: »

Perhaps you had to be there.

Glad I wasn't, by the sound of things.

stovelid

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Plus, whatever about the pros and cons of playing something, any employee who tells a punter to f**k off should be sacked on the spot. "Sorry, don't have it" / "Sorry, wouldn't suit the crowd" / "Maybe later (with no intention of playing it)" are all acceptable responses, but "f**k off" based on a simple valid-if-unwelcome request isn't.....it's about as unprofessional as they come.
.

I'm sure he doesn't see playing a few tunes in a grotty basement as a profession, if he has any sense. I'm also sure (if I was the kind of person that bugged DJs to play tunes) I wouldn't have found it very funny. Even if it wasn't very nice, it made me laugh anyway.

Red Sleeping Beauty

anyone ever see that baldy fella with an acoustic guitar doing the auld choones in that pub on Westmorland Street opposite the ESB and beside one of them knaff tourist shops ?

Take me up to Monto, Monto , Monto,
Take me up to Monto, Monto , Monto,
Langeroooooo..........

davylee

stovelid wrote: »

Bit off topic, but I was in a well-known late bar that plays a lot of indie a few years back. A friend's colleague (nice girl, but terrible taste in music) asked (shouted at. really) the DJ to play Fields of Athenry. The DJ without even looking up, just casually replied "fuck off" and went back to his records.

Perhaps you had to be there.

good point stovelid. f**k off might have been a bit harsh but i certainly understand his frustration. i do discos from time to time and say i play the galway girl, within 5 mins i have someone come up to me saying play the galway girl. It's like by playing the song you're only giving them a reminder to request that song. All i'm saying is that drunk people shouting (not saying that the girl in your case was ) bullsh1t at you all night does get on your t1ts from time to time.:mad:

Red Sleeping Beauty

Dj's 2favourite words are fuc`k and off

St Bill

Is it not all part of the job? If you're working in a pub/at a gig, you're always going to have drunken people asking for songs that don't fit in with what you like. If it's getting to you that much, you should just stay at home and play for your own pleasure. Or failing that, go work in a grotty basement where apparently (according to a post here) a basic knowledge of social skills doesn't have to be part of your job description.

Rigsby

davylee wrote: »

good point stovelid. f**k off might have been a bit harsh but i certainly understand his frustration. i do discos from time to time and say i play the galway girl, within 5 mins i have someone come up to me saying play the galway girl. It's like by playing the song you're only giving them a reminder to request that song. All i'm saying is that drunk people shouting (not saying that the girl in your case was ) bullsh1t at you all night does get on your t1ts from time to time.:mad:

As I said in an earlier post, I assume you are there to entertain and please the crowd, which means playing what they want. If you're not happy with the job and what it entails, then do as St Bill says and give it up.

Nailz

"De ballads!" Sounds like something I'd hear around my part of the country... Farmers love "de ballads" don't they! :rolleyes: If some cûnt in a reflecter jacket walks up to me and then asks me to play, "November Rain", I'd gladly tell him to "fück off"! I don't mind G'n'R, but their power ballads are excrusiationly shįt (aswell as the other ballads). Worst thing about living in Cavan. It's just great not everybody here is like that!

stovelid

Rigsby wrote: »

As I said in an earlier post, I assume you are there to entertain and please the crowd, which means playing what they want. If you're not happy with the job and what it entails, then do as St Bill says and give it up.

It's reasonable to assume that 'entertaining and pleasing the crowd' in an indie venue (one that is clearly known as such) doesn't include playing the Fields of Athenry. What about the 95% of punters that have came to hear the music you would expect in the venue. A few spins of stuff like FOA and I wouldn't be going back.

I also would never bug DJs for requests unless they knew me, or I was chatting with them.

I should point out here I just found the reaction funny. I wasn't claiming that the DJ was right to be rude. The girl is question is sound enough, and saw the funny side eventually, and, I can assure you, would be the sort to pointedly ask for the song again (or others like it) at more stages during the night.

St Bill

stovelid wrote: »

It's reasonable to assume that 'entertaining and pleasing the crowd' in an indie venue (one that is clearly known as such) doesn't include playing the Fields of Athenry.

Yes it is reasonable to assume that, it's also reasonable to assume that you 're not going to receive personal abuse because your taste in music doesn't match that of the 'demi-god' dj. Music snobbery at it's worst.

Rigsby

stovelid wrote: »

I also would never bug DJs for requests unless they knew me, or I was chatting with them.

I never go to DJ places, but what's wrong with asking ("bugging") the DJ for a request. Is everyone supposed to listen to whatever the DJ wants to play ? If this is the case then St Bill is right in that they do consider themselves "demi-gods". :rolleyes:

Rigsby

stovelid wrote: »

It's reasonable to assume that 'entertaining and pleasing the crowd' in an indie venue (one that is clearly known as such) doesn't include playing the Fields of Athenry. What about the 95% of punters that have came to hear the music you would expect in the venue. A few spins of stuff like FOA and I wouldn't be going back.

I also would never bug DJs for requests unless they knew me, or I was chatting with them.

I should point out here I just found the reaction funny. I wasn't claiming that the DJ was right to be rude. The girl is question is sound enough, and saw the funny side eventually, and, I can assure you, would be the sort to pointedly ask for the song again (or others like it) at more stages during the night.

The original poster said he was playing covers in a pub. What's your view on wheather he should play ballads if asked to do so ?

stovelid

Rigsby wrote: »

I never go to DJ places, but what's wrong with asking ("bugging") the DJ for a request. Is everyone supposed to listen to whatever the DJ wants to play ? If this is the case then St Bill is right in that they do consider themselves "demi-gods". :rolleyes:

By DJ, I don't mean some big name ponce, just a lad playing tunes.

I go to that particular place sometimes, because I like most of the music. The guy is paid to play music in the bar. He's not there to provide a personal soundtrack for me on request. Or for any other drunk.

Again: I simply said that I laughed because I found it funny. I was relating an off-topic story.

I wouldn't do it.

I also wouldn't like it done to me, but it will never will be because when I go to a bar with a few hundred other punters in it, I don't drunkenly badger the DJ to play music especially for me, unless I know them.

Rigsby

stovelid wrote: »

By DJ, I don't mean some big name ponce, just a lad playing tunes.

I go to that particular place sometimes, because I like most of the music. The guy is paid to play music in the bar. He's not there to provide a personal soundtrack for me on request. Or for any other drunk.

Again: I simply said that I laughed because I found it funny. I was relating an off-topic story.

I wouldn't do it.

I also wouldn't like it done to me, but it will never will be because when I go to a bar with a few hundred other punters in it, I don't drunkenly badger the DJ to play music especially for me, unless I know them.

I still cant understand why a DJ cant play a particular song (I'm not saying a set list) if requested to (if he has it ).

Also if you are working in a bar you can (should) expect to be approached by drunks. Does it not go with the job ?

stovelid

Rigsby wrote: »

The original poster said he was playing covers in a pub. What's your view on wheather he should play ballads if asked to do so ?

Dunno? Depends on the night. My mum and dad go to see a lad that plays covers sometimes, and it's more of a shout-your-request thing, which is fair enough. Or in some places, there is an unspoken consensus about some songs. A song that the whole place wants, say, on a given night like sports events.

But if the lad has a set in mind, and you want a specific tune played, especially one that's at odds with what the rest of the place expects; what gives you the right to drunkenly bug the guy all night to play it?

stovelid

Rigsby wrote: »

Also if you are working in a bar you can (should) expect to be approached by drunks. Does it not go with the job ?

Not really. He's paid to play music. If the majority of the punters are happy with the music that's been played, why should he be pestered all night by people who want a specific tune just for them?

St Bill

Yes a dj/musician/whatever is paid to play music and not be pestered, but sometimes being pestered is part of the job. I'm sure there are perks that go along with the job too (just like any job). However, regardless of the type of job you do, the position you hold does not give you the right to personally abuse someone. It ain't funny and hardly equal.....I'm assuming that dj/music-man/whatever you call him had a microphone to hand to totally degrade the person asking for the 'shock, horror' Fields of Athenry?

Rigsby

stovelid wrote: »

Not really. He's paid to play music. If the majority of the punters are happy with the music that's been played, why should he be pestered all night by people who want a specific tune just for them?

I think we'll have to agree to differ on this. I'm glad I dont like DJ venues,(even more so after this thread), so I'll just leave them looking down from their ivory tower on all the "drunks".

stovelid

Rigsby wrote: »

I think we'll have to agree to differ on this. I'm glad I dont like DJ venues,(even more so after this thread), so I'll just leave them looking down from their ivory tower on all the "drunks".

You'd hardly call it a 'DJ venue' if you had seen it

Rigsby

stovelid wrote: »

You'd hardly call it a 'DJ venue' if you had seen it

Maybe not

But I'm talking about "DJ venues" in general.

Kold

Fair play for refusing tbh. Just because some loud twat wants it, doesn't mean everyone there wants it. You're the DJ, they're the cretin that only knows 4 songs.

Rigsby

Kold wrote: »

You're the DJ, they're the cretin that only knows 4 songs.

Yeah, that attidude seems to sum up the DJ alright.

Executive Steve

population wrote: »

Dont get your Westlife point at all. There are other types of current music out there.

This is boards - there's only "classic rock" or "westlife" and nothing in between, unless you're karl hungus and have several dozen gigabytes of j-pop on your hard drive to supplement the classic rock

davylee

Rigsby wrote: »

As I said in an earlier post, I assume you are there to entertain and please the crowd, which means playing what they want. If you're not happy with the job and what it entails, then do as St Bill says and give it up.

Exactly your paid to do a job, to entertain the crowd and who do you reckon knows more about entertaining - dj or some pis faced as5hole??
There's no problem with someone requesting a song but sometimes it goes a lot further when they won't stop. Thats why i said i understood stovelid's point.
I would never tell a punter to f**k off. Thats harsh as i said before. But the owner is paying you to a job.
If the pub or club starts to empty who gets the blame. The dj.
I might play say 6/7 from every 10 requests i get. If i think the song will go down well and fits into what i'm doing i'll play it, otherwise no. Personal taste never comes into it. It can't imo

population

Man this thread kept going! Just checked back now.

Just to clarify a couple of things. I have no issue with ballads per se. Yes it isnt my personal thing and yes I accept peoples point about just biting the bullet and learning a few, but here is the thing which I probably didnt make clear earlier.

Most of the pubs I play have a mixed crowd so I have worked a long time to get down a couple of different sets that suit everybody. I respect the crowd and I try play the best gig I can for them because after all ultimately they pay my bills. I play Galway Girl every gig because people like it, not because I do because frankly I cant stand it but thats the job.

But if I have spent the whole night playing stones, beatles ,kinks, dylan etc for an older crowd and they have really got into it and then for some odd reason a vaguely threatening young guy starts screaming for ballads, then not only is he hassling me, but he is killing the mood of the night and interfereing with other peoples enjoyment.

If you can only respect the setlist that you have in mind then just bring your ipod to the pub!

davylee

population wrote: »

Man this thread kept going! Just checked back now.

Just to clarify a couple of things. I have no issue with ballads per se. Yes it isnt my personal thing and yes I accept peoples point about just biting the bullet and learning a few, but here is the thing which I probably didnt make clear earlier.

Most of the pubs I play have a mixed crowd so I have worked a long time to get down a couple of different sets that suit everybody. I respect the crowd and I try play the best gig I can for them because after all ultimately they pay my bills. I play Galway Girl every gig because people like it, not because I do because frankly I cant stand it but thats the job.

But if I have spent the whole night playing stones, beatles ,kinks, dylan etc for an older crowd and they have really got into it and then for some odd reason a vaguely threatening young guy starts screaming for ballads, then not only is he hassling me, but he is killing the mood of the night and interfereing with other peoples enjoyment.

If you can only respect the setlist that you have in mind then just bring your ipod to the pub!

Good point. It happens to us all. I no it's easier said than done but ignore that idiot. Don't give him the time of day. If he requests a song i say don't play it even if you know it. Chances are you'll be hounded for the night. Some publicans are ass holes. they often just laugh off these twats without warning them or throwing them out. We've had loud mouths shouting abuse up and i completely ignore them. i dont tell them to f**k off or open my mouth to them. Not as much as a look. Eventually more often than they piss off after a while

ottostreet

davylee wrote: »

Exactly your paid to do a job, to entertain the crowd and who do you reckon knows more about entertaining - dj or some pis faced as5hole??
There's no problem with someone requesting a song but sometimes it goes a lot further when they won't stop. Thats why i said i understood stovelid's point.
I would never tell a punter to f**k off. Thats harsh as i said before. But the owner is paying you to a job.
If the pub or club starts to empty who gets the blame. The dj.
I might play say 6/7 from every 10 requests i get. If i think the song will go down well and fits into what i'm doing i'll play it, otherwise no. Personal taste never comes into it. It can't imo

true. and well said. thats what i dont understand. the stance when a customer requests something to be played and i go "sorry, i cant, i played it ten minutes ago/its too slow/too fast/etc etc." and they go "but im the customer, do you want us to go elsewhere?"..well, you're caught between a rock and a hard place then arent ya? they never actually really leave but it just creates bad feeling. i ad a oman make a formal complaint about me refusing to play wham-wake me up at 1:50am last night, because its on the banned list of songs in that venue. the owner was there and asked me to play arctic monkeys-sun goes down, i played it, she didnt like it, and off she went to complain.

having said that, im pretty tolerant at this stage. i get annoyed but ya learn to deal with it. and if ya cant, then you are in the wrong job. DJ'ing is a job just like any other, standards are required, and roughly 50-60% of people dont realise that. i dont tell teachers/managers/accountants etc. how to do their job, why do they feel they know more about how a crowd will respond to evanescence/pink floyd/the doors than i do, in a venue that i know well? i can honestly say ive never told anyone that i dont know to **** off, and i feel that kind of attitude is uncalled for.

davylee

ottostreet wrote: »

true. and well said. thats what i dont understand. the stance when a customer requests something to be played and i go "sorry, i cant, i played it ten minutes ago/its too slow/too fast/etc etc." and they go "but im the customer, do you want us to go elsewhere?"..well, you're caught between a rock and a hard place then arent ya? they never actually really leave but it just creates bad feeling. i ad a oman make a formal complaint about me refusing to play wham-wake me up at 1:50am last night, because its on the banned list of songs in that venue. the owner was there and asked me to play arctic monkeys-sun goes down, i played it, she didnt like it, and off she went to complain.

having said that, im pretty tolerant at this stage. i get annoyed but ya learn to deal with it. and if ya cant, then you are in the wrong job. DJ'ing is a job just like any other, standards are required, and roughly 50-60% of people dont realise that. i dont tell teachers/managers/accountants etc. how to do their job, why do they feel they know more about how a crowd will respond to evanescence/pink floyd/the doors than i do, in a venue that i know well? i can honestly say ive never told anyone that i dont know to **** off, and i feel that kind of attitude is uncalled for.

Everyone knows your job better than you. At least they think they do.
The lad who's paying you asked you to play a song. That's a toughy. What do you do?? Only a fella looking for no work would refuse.
Btw fair play for not playing wham