Members steve mac Posted May 12, 2017 Members Share Posted May 12, 2017 I have a music mix that lasts a few songs on my iPad, so when I am set up, I take over the house music. It means I decide when it goes off and also decide what are appropriate tunes are played leading up to my set. After a have finished I play another ten minutes or so of mixed songs, which as they are ending I ask the staff to turn back on the house. Works for me i.e. It gets me on and off "neatly". With regards to tellies, although I have never failed to get them switched off completely, I have been given quizzical looks as if I am asking them to cut off their arm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ski219 Posted May 12, 2017 Members Share Posted May 12, 2017 I think it's $1 for 3 songs which makes it 33 and 1/3 cents per song, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ski219 Posted May 12, 2017 Members Share Posted May 12, 2017 We have a half hour programmed on an ipod that we play for our break. When we hear Martina McBride singing "Let Freedom Ring" we know it's time to go back on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Notes_Norton Posted May 12, 2017 Members Share Posted May 12, 2017 "Smooth Jazz" and other forms of light jazz IMHO are perfect for a restaurant. They are not complicated enough to need your full attention, not too boring, but still lively enough to keep the mood up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Notes_Norton Posted May 12, 2017 Members Share Posted May 12, 2017 I knew it was time to stop playing restaurants and bars when we had to compete with the TV sets. When I first started gigging years ago, there was no such thing as TV screens in the venues we played. Then it became something they had for sports events on off nights or before the band started up. But when it got to the point where they would refuse to turn the TV sets off and we found ourselves competing for the customer's attention with the basketball game in the corner? Yeah.....time to find another approach. I too remember when there were no TVs in bars. Quite a few years ago we were playing in a hotel lounge that had a wide screen TV over the stage where the band plays. In the years we've been playing there (usually 2 or 3 months per year) they never had the TV set on while we were playing. One week we went in and the manager asked us that since it was world series day and a lot of the hotel patrons were asking for it would it be OK if he turned the TV on with no sound. The manager was a nice guy and we never had a problem with him so we said OK. So we're playing our sets, since the TV was above us, we had a view of the customers' chins and noses, and in the middle of a slow, beautiful love song that Leilani was singing, something obviously happened on the TV because way too many of the patrons jumped up, pumping their fists in the air and cheering at the top of their lungs. After that night, if anyone asks if it's OK to keep the TV on, we say no, it's not OK. We play a club were we are in the dining/dancing room and it's open to a bar that has the TV on (with no sound), and even though it is visible from our room, it's on the back wall and in the other room so people can't watch us and the TV at the same time. Most TV folks go into the bar. That's OK with me. George Orwell was pretty right about the TV sets in his 1984, he just missed it by a couple of decades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted May 12, 2017 Members Share Posted May 12, 2017 When I hear that song I usually know it's time to go do something else... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pogo97 Posted May 12, 2017 Author Members Share Posted May 12, 2017 The instrument (the telescreen it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely. The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. 1984 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted May 12, 2017 Moderators Share Posted May 12, 2017 Notes..I remember there were some venues in the early 70s that didn't have TVs, but nearly every corner bar in NYC [yes, I frequented them all at one point before I left ] had a b/w up in a corner somewhere in the bar. Some even had color! When I came to LA, the 'serious' music rooms did not, and thankfully there were plenty back then. at least the TVs are not watching us...despite what the paranoiac/conspiracy crowd tells you...now your web cam, that is a very different story, and VERY 1984...as to the 2 minute hate...we get that during the news from DC daily... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pogo97 Posted May 12, 2017 Author Members Share Posted May 12, 2017 but they *are* listening: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31296188 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MartinC Posted May 12, 2017 Members Share Posted May 12, 2017 I've been asked to play all originals in a restaurant so they wouldn't have to pay the fee. What I hate is when they play music during the break that the crowd likes better than what we are playing........and they play it louder than what we allowed to play. Once when I was doing a corporate, I put on some flamenco. I personally hate doing the break music. I figure dealing with leading a band, playing, setting up my gear, that is enough without being responsible for break music. So I put on a cd I like, and went to eat. Shorty thereafter, the event planner comes running in to where we are eating and says we have to go back on. They don't like the break music. I said "Because they don't like the break music, we don't get a break?" She said "YES!" I went back into the room and there coming out of the pa was some serious flamenco cante(singing) I know most westerners consider flamenco singing nothing but screaming in a foreign language, so I turned it off and we went back on......my own fault. After that I told the agent break music is 200.00 extra. That usually got me out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted May 13, 2017 Moderators Share Posted May 13, 2017 Yes, if you are lazy enough to use the voice activation on your smart TV [or your Echo, Dot, etc] you deserve to have your conversations floated onto the net... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted May 13, 2017 Moderators Share Posted May 13, 2017 years ago I delegated break music, with the admonition that it had to be in our genre, and not on our playlist... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ski219 Posted May 13, 2017 Members Share Posted May 13, 2017 We were recently booked into a new room by a guy who is an agent/DJ. He set his gear up next to us and played music from our genre that was not on our setlist for the break. Years ago I was in a classic rock band and 1 place we played the bartender loved 80's hair metal bands. She cranked that stuff whenever we were on break and I don' t think anybody really liked it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted May 13, 2017 Moderators Share Posted May 13, 2017 except the bartender...and Rule No.1 is: NEVER, EVER argue with the bartender... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pogo97 Posted June 16, 2017 Author Members Share Posted June 16, 2017 except the bartender...and Rule No.1 is: NEVER, EVER argue with the bartender... I believe this is known as the "Robert Johnson" rule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Notes_Norton Posted June 17, 2017 Members Share Posted June 17, 2017 The bartenders and wait staff are your friends. You are helping them to make a living, and they are returning the favor. When they speak kindly to you to the management, you are more likely to get re-booked. And remember, they are also your "partners-in-crime" -- the more the audience drinks, the better the band sounds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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