Ian Stewart Blog

Friday 29th May

I was in the Rosewood Suite at Stockbrook Manor Billericay, this was a full day, as they had also booked my toastmastering service, so I arrived at the venue for 12pm, so that I could set up all my disco equipment, just in time for the grooms arrival at 1pm, and then the bride just before their 2pm wedding.

a great day with some fun people, then at 7pm, a change of hats so to speak, and I became the wedding DJ for the evening, playing all those party anthems, with some UK Garage, RnB and dance anthems as well.

Saturday 30th May
Once again in the Rosewood suite for the evenings wedding disco, but we were also involved in 2 other events at the venue, in the Clubhouse we supplied the sound system for the speaches etc for a fund raiser for the NSPCC, and just as I was typing this, the following email arrived

"HI Ian,

Its Karen here from the NSPCC Charity do at Stockbrook on Saturday; i just wanted to say a huge thank you to you and to Sharon for all the help you gave us. I really appreciate it, don’t know how i would have played the music or shown the DVDS without your help. And Sharon was an absolute star as she stood by the speaker adjusting the volume all the way through my speech, please could you thank her for me.

Will get in touch with you re next years event well in advance!!

Bye for now

Karen"

it's things like this that makes me enjoy my job so much.

We also supplied the disco for the Upminster Rugby Club dinner dance, once again Murray did this one, as he has done for the last 3 years, and by all accounts it was a fantastic evening.

after 2 massive weekend with 5 gigs each weekend, and one of those being the excellent Loose Goose Comedy Club which we almost sold out, it is back to a more normal, or perhaps calmer weekend.

Wednesday a conference for one of my regular clients the IOD, who had a full day conference at Stock Brook Manor, and they had asked for a PA system, two lapel wireless microphones, and a large 50" Plasma Screen, all was delivered in plenty of time and left with them working perfectly.

Friday I had an Iranian wedding wedding to DJ at, now I have to admit that I am not at all knowledgeable on Iranian music, but the groom brought me some CD's so that I could mix between western music and Iranian, and do they know how to enjoy themselves. It was also my first gig with my new denon CD players. You will all be pleased to know that everything went to plan, with no problems at all

Saturday I love it when a plan comes together, and I was back in the Banqueting Suite at Stock Brook Manor, and was able to leave my gear set up in precisely the same place as the night before, and this was once again a storming party, with the dancefloor packed the entire evening with a mix of older classics, and some newer tunes as well.

Sunday what a busy day this was, the bride & groom had gone for the full works, and booked The Fairy Light Curtain, The LED Uplighters, and also asked me to act as the Toastmaster as well, so I arrived at the venue at 10am, to make sure that everything was set in time, for me to be present as the groom and his best man arrived. Once again a great night, these new CD players must be ny new Lucky Charms

Well us DJ's have longer weekends then "Normal" people as we are out there making sure that everyone has a fantastic time, and last weekend was no exception.

It all started on Thursday, as I was booked for a wedding disco at Stock Brook Manor Country Club, as normal I set up in the morning so as not to cause any disruption to the proceedings by walking my equipment through the crowd, and tonight I was using my new toy for the first time, my new white starcloth booth which when you look at the pictures you will agree that it really looks great in a room where there are chair covers.

a great night as well with a fantastic copuple.

On Friday I had a night off, so I decided to make use of my season and go see my team southend united, well at least they won, but really made hard work of it.

Now Saturday, that was Busy, both Murray & I were working, and both weddings had booked some aditional items, so we were up nice & early to deliver a van full of equipment to the Westcliff Hotel to set up for Murray's wedding disco, they had also booked 6 LED Uplighters & the Fairy Light Curtain so we set all of that up, then back to our storage unit to Load the van for my evening disco at Down Hall, this wedding had also booked the LED Uplighters, and extra sound system, as they had booked 2 singers to perform at their wedding, one of them being the superb Kenny Thomas, yes that Kenny Thomas from the 90's.

When that disco had finished, it was a case of then delivering some uplighters to Stock Brook Manor, as they needed them for their open day on the Sunday, and I finally got to bed at 3am.

Up Early on sunday to collect all the equipment from the Westcliff Hotel, what an amazingly busy 24 hours.

The week ending Sunday 22nd (Mothers Day)

Monday 16th March It was an early arrival at the venue to set up the audio visual equipment for a conferance.

From there straight to the Zeroradio studio's for my weekly radio show, the track listing will be on a separate post.

Tuesday 17th March the same as Monday, a 7am arrival at the venue for another conferance

Wednesday 18th March No conferances today, but it was my first Prom Disco of the year for KEGs school, I have DJ's for this scholl for the last 6 years, and they are always a riot (in the good way) and this year was no differant.

Thursday 18th March Yet another early start, I hade to deliver a PA for 100 people, a 50" large plasma TV, a LCD Projector etc for many of the head teachers from essex.

Friday 19th March yes you guessed it another early start, I arrived at the venue at 6.30am, for a regular client, the Essex branch of the IOD for one of their regular breakfast meetings.

I then had to travl to Stock Brook Manor Country Club, to set my disco equipment for that evenings wedding disco I then arrived back at the venue for a 7.30pm start, a real mic of music for this from the latest dance music, to your more traditional 80's wedding music, a real joy.

Saturday 20th March Something a little differant for me, and something that I really enjoy I was the disco for a charity ball for St Mary's School, for this I provide the Disco, a wireless microphone for speaches, do all the toastmastering duties, help with the fundraising games and then the raffle.

For this ball we had a game of heads & tails to get everyone in the mood for the evening, followed by a game of reverse bingo, at the end of the evening I believe we raised over £2,500

What a day, the open day was die to start at 9am, and I was not only exhibiting as a DJ, I was also showing the Fairy Light Curtain and the LED uplighters in the Banqueting Suite, so after getting home from my Saturday night gig at 1.30am, and getting to bed at 3am, I set my alarm for 5am, so that I could collect the curtain and Lights from the storage depot so that I could arrive at the venue at 6am.

I managed to get everything set up with the skin of my teeth, managed to get a quick shower before meeting with the first couple of the day.

Murray and I met some fantastic people, and we will be pleased to entertain them and their guests in the coming years.