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New Years Eve nights are not typical nights for most so you cannot really guage someones show on that night. FOr one thing the larger than normal amount of singers makes the wait between songs (provided you even get to a 2nd song at all) very long - we had over 45 singers NYE. Plus we do an annual 7 singer contest (for nearly 10 years now) plus it's the only night i'll do any kind of dance set - usually around 15-20 minutes around the midnight hour - this gives people time to start pumping up (dance floor was PACKED), finding their companion/friends for their NYE kisses plus I don't want someone singing while everyone is counting down and yelling while someone is trying to sing. Plus the few minutes afterward people are still scurrying around hugging everyone so no point in getting someone to sing right then either. Usually about 10 minutes, it starts dying down to where i'll get someone back on stage.

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Rob Star,
No problem. I totally understand your point about the UK karaoke scene on NYE. My post was strictly talking about my regular karaoke shows, not NYE. If I was doing one on NYE, I would probably do some things a little differently just because it's NYE. On NYE, people want to party, get drunk, kiss their significant others at midnight and dance.... so yea, it seems to me that a karaoke gig on NYE would really take a lot of juggling work to make it all gel together. Not something I would look forward to. Glad I didn't have a karaoke gig this NYE. Instead, I was running sound for a band.

You are correct about Friday night. But not about the sour grapes. It's a very small pub, 40 people and its full!!!! No dancers on NYE at all. The guy, oh by the way, he is an old friend of ours we've known him for 30years, always does Saturday night, and we were looking forward to the evening, although I was a bit concerned, as I've been in on a Saturday night and knew how he operated. Not to worry it's NYE, he won't do it like that. He did.
My reason for asking the question was that my misses got a text from a friend of ours who was there asking what we thought of the evening as she, and her boyfriend was not impressed. She prefers my way of doing things. If you've got singers let 'em sing!!!! That's what they've come in for!
PS The landlady has offered to pay me for what I do for the pub on a Friday night, but I've refused as I do it because I like doing it, and if I didn't no one else would!

here's a slight take on the same thing.

How do you handle if a major sporting event falls on your karaoke night?

All the bars around here will pre-empt karaoke for hockey, especially if its the playoffs. Sometimes karaoke won't start for another hour after its regular time because someone went into over time.

It ticks the regular singers off to no end, but the last time I was at a karaoke where someone tried to turn the hockey off there was practically a riot from the non karaoke singers..

oh boy JC,
the last time i tried to start karaoke during a game of any kind....even college, they tried to tar and feather me.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

sorry if this post sounds aggressive or objectionable but you know the way he normally works , you have known him for 30 years and you thought he was going to change his style?
He has been paid by the pub for a while (i get that from he always does the saturday night) the pub are obviously fine with having different people on different nights with different hosting styles rather than every night being the same.
If he is no good why hasn't the pub dropped him? in UK pub land its very easy to get another KJ and often someone cheap or like yourself free.
pubs in my experience are not sentimental when it comes to profits and will change and drop people very easily.

They obviously have a full on karaoke night on Fridays for karaoke fans and a pick and mix night on Saturdays to give a little bit for everyone ..

Having so many people working for next to nothing or for free is a massive issue in the UK it makes it hard for professionals like me who earn a full time living off being a DJ/KJ



Funny enough all my friends who have my mobile number or my wife's think I am better than anyone else at my job ...I don't believe them , they are my friends and will be biased ,I have had people stirring things in venues where there are other DJ's/KJ's on different nights especially if they are karaoke friends and not your average punter .

This was NYE i am pretty certain if there was a table of people moaning in front of me about lack of songs and the way he operated and i knew the guy on the table was comparing his night he did for free with mine ..i would get upset .I often look at the crowd and i can get all that from body language and lip reading . The pressure of NYE is enough without a fellow colleague moaning and conspiring in front of him and from someone who is devaluing the work.



also you would be accountable and she may say things you wont like , i have seen many pubs be quite happy with the free KJ but as soon as they start paying them , they suggest this and that and change attitude as soon as you take money you become accountable.

I know all this sounds a little harsh but i am playing devils advocate and showing that not everything is obvious as you may have thought and things often have many sides ..be very careful of friends stirring and massaging ego's.

as for the sporting question ...Boxing is often on Saturday nights so again i am guessing that falls into that Saturday night guys style .

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"Your Never Fully dressed without a smile."

To Visit my website Rob Star Entertainments Click the link in my profile

"Strangers are just friend we haven't met yet"

I simply turn the sound down on the sports televisions and start karaoke. If anyone complains, I ask them if they understand how the game works or if they are blind because it's not necessary to have the commentators voices present if they understand the game. It ain't rocket science.

In my case, the agreement is, I get paid the same rate for sports nights as any other nights. My start/end times stay the same, but if there is a game on that people want to see, I delay start for the end of the game. I simply end on time and get paid the same.

Of course, I am Saturday night only, so....
Football on Saturday only happens a couple times a season.
Seattle has no Basketball team
Seattle has no Hockey team
Seattle has no Baseball team.....yea....I said it!

-Chris

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-Chris

Unless it's local playoffs or superbowl type games, we just turn the tv's down and start karaoke. You don't need to hear what is going on, just see it the majority of the time. And since a good portion of the people watching the game are singers, not so much of a big deal in that respect.

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Seattle has no FOOTBALL team !

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Must be an echo in here...

here..

here.


Oh, and Seattle has really bitter snob-coffee...

Lonman, Seattle does have a Football team...they're called "The Sounders!"

As far as sports, I'm lucky, a dozen monitors in the bar and not one is hooked up to show broadcast TV, so no sports at all!

I've said this before, time and again, but there are hosts, Lonman included that will insist on non stop karaoke.

This may work in their venue... it won't work in a few of mine. I'm a 5 night a week KJ. I've got one bar that non stop works, but my friday night is a younger crowd, and I advertise it as, "Dundalk's best Karaoke and dance mix."

Now, if i've only got one singer, I will get up and sing, and then get them up to sing... make announcements, but then play some filler music based on the crowd. As I get more singers, less filler music.

The key is to be flexible, and make sure everyone is having fun... its that simple. If two people out of 50 are having fun you've got a problem.

Can you get people up dancing even if its not 'booti call'? Can you beat mix a dance set.. that might be 6 different song in 6 minutes, and get applause at the end? Maybe as a Karaoke host you don't think you need to learn this, but my experience tells me that if you are truly intent on learning your craft, you need to learn how to entertain, and be entertaining, and catering to the crowd in front of you, not the one you would like to have.

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

I agree. I'm not a KJ as of yet, but if I become one, or when I go out to sing and dance, I would prefer a KJ who is an entertainer, one who can sing, emcee, give good introductions making people feel comfortable and who could spin good dance music that gets people on their feet and having a good time. Part of what I love about some Karaoke clubs is that I get to feel similar to how I felt in the early 80's when I would hit the discos for dancing and fun. I live in San Diego (Mission Bay) and would be happy to have any tips on the best Karaoke/dance scenes in the area. Thanks!

Koyote,

That's an interesting take on the subject. I believe whatever expectation you set upfront is what you end up getting in the end.

When there is only myself and another singer, I do play a little bit more filler music until I get more singers signed up, but I really try to keep it to a minimum. I might play a full song, but if I do, that's it.

The reason is because I don't want to discourage anyone out there who may be sitting in their chair "contemplating" whether to sing or not. If I start to play a lot of dance music, then that will kill any intention they may have had on getting up to sing. Then next thing you know, you have people coming up asking, "Hey, can you play this song? No, I don't want to sing, I just wanna hear it."

So now you have set the expectation to the crowd that it will be an evening of dance music with some singing weaved inbetween the dance music. Since that is the expectation that was set, that is what you get. You get an evening of people "expecting" to hear dance music inbetween the singing. Any singers that have come to your show expecting to sing a lot that night will be put off and probably won't come back to your karaoke show ever again.

I am not knocking what you do as I used to do it that way for a long time. I was just never able to build up a real singing type of crowd that way and always found myself spending more time djing than running karaoke. If it is working for you, then by all means, keep doing what works for you. Now that I don't rely on, or hardly play any filler music anymore once the singing begins, I have way more singers signing up to sing each night. It's kinda like a wildfire. The more singing the crowd sees going on, the more they want to sing.

I've never said that dance music doesn't work just advertise it as such - which you do.
When I started working in the club i'm at, dance music was needed here & there as well because we had little singers, the singers eventually overtook the need for dance music so we dropped it entirely and now our crowds are there for karaoke and not so much dj music because they dance just as much with people singing karaoke.

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If you have that many, fine. But most places, without the singer core, will have very few. The singers are what end up bringing people out.

Had one tonight where start time was ignored. After 50 minutes, I finally asked the bartender if there was any other place in the area that had karaoke...

Evening ended up to be fun for me. I was on my own because I am out of town. The people liked my singing, and the owner came over and introduced himself. He wanted to buy me a drink, but understood when I told him I don't do alcohol. He and about 10 other people asked me to come back, which I may, as it turned out to be a place with decent food and a very good crowd. Format was DJ/Karaoke, since we had only two singers. I got to sing 6 songs by 11:30, so ultimately no complaints...

I really need to get Johnny and Kuelman to come down here -- the crowd would eat it up.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

and i bet the wonder why they need to play dance music.

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

And this is exactly what I'm talking about with many on this forum.

Vince, no offense to you, but no, its not that way... I've been at this bar for four years, and the show has evolved as the years have gone by. I did not start out that way.... I've had a lot of singers from the get go... I'm very lucky. But.. there were also a lot of people who wanted to dance, and act crazy. This show is an evolution, that i've worked very hard to mold into what it is today... I set no expections in the beginning, and ran it as a straight karaoke show... and I guarentee you, I would not have this gig today if I hadn't been flexible enough to see I needed to evolve, and savvy enough to figure out what skill set I needed to develop.

I only play DANCE music. If someone comes up to request 'Some Skynyrd' its not getting played. They can sing it, but I'm not playing it. I also reserve to reject some dance requests.. the show is mine to command! (laughs manically. )

But seriously, I honestly believe that part of the problem with karaoke is too many are happy with the status quo, or afraid to innovate. I mean, how can you support your show, indefinately, over the long haul, if you have the same folks coming week after week singing the same songs. "All right, lets get Buddy up here to sing 'Turn the Page.' " That gets borning and the show stagnates. I see it time and time again.

The evolution for me was something like this... The owners wanted me to play more dance music... but I've also got 25+ singer rotation... but last Friday for example, I had 100+ people in the bar. How do I make everyone happy?

First I set the format.... ONLY dance music for music breaks, and I annouce it like that when I'm hosting.
Second, I never play more that two songs in a row, unless the rotation is small, then I might play three IF there's a lot of people dancing.
Third - After a time, I added music dance VIDEOs. People went crazy and loved it.
Forth - I leaned how to beat mix. Now, in a six minute set, I can run through three or four songs with the same BPM, seemlessly mixed together, thus satisfying the dance folks with a variety of songs, but keeping the singers happy by not having the dance set take too long. I knew I was right on this the first time I got done with a mix set and got APPLAUSE!

The result is this four year old show is not only steady, but growing... in both singers and dancers. Honestly, the biggest complaint I get is from the singers because the rotations are so long, I normally can only run through three... and what KJ is going to say... "Darn, I've just got too many singers."? That said, they always say, "I had a great time."

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Good music, good friends, howling good times!

Great post koyote. I agree with you.

I have come across what in my area we call "karaoke chasers" these are folks that gauge a night by how many songs they sing..
think about that..
not if they enjoyed listening to another singer or if they heard the worst singer in the world or if they met some old friends or new friends and had a laugh and fun with people, but solely on the amount of songs they sing.
They are so focussed on rotation and don't clap for others because they are generally self obsessed and are focused on what fun they will get, they are not the sort of people who take joy and happiness from seeing others enjoy themselves, they are the sort who would never smile at a laughing small child chuckling away or will take a joke about themselves in good fun.
so many bars in my area are karaoke Disco nights that karaoke singers of this type go from venue to venue singing the same songs on the same night.
so they will start off in a venue sing the two of three songs they sing then leave , go to another venue and as its later in the night and a different crowd they will sing the same songs they just sang, then they often pop back into the first venue they went in and now the bar has filled up and is busy they will ask to sing the same songs again. They gauge the night by how many times they sing a song and are so busy checking rotations and travelling its hard to see what fun they are gaining.They do get handshakes from the crowd and the odd free drink.

Now here is the kicker often these are groups of no more than two or three people they want to sing to a full audience ..which they wont at the karaoke booths in the city centre where they can sing as many songs as they wished

This may appear to be a dig at mckyj57 but it is most definitely not... I myself went out this friday ..I travelled miles to a venue where i am not known ..It was a Karaoke disco night and i sang five songs ..i was offered drinks myself ..thats not what i am on about

Its the type of karaoke singer who is obsessed with how many songs they sing and isnt up for having fun ..The night i went out the last hour and a half was a packed dance floor , i stayed until the end to shake the Kj/DJ's hand and say what a great night i had had, i commented on the venues facebook page ...now i know that on a Tuesday that venue has a strict karaoke night and is full of karaoke singers some of them chasers. This is how i found out about the venue one of my acquaintances is a chaser and told me about this pub

On Fridays those people are not there but people can still get up to sing , (which several did)just not as much and in between music , the Friday night is much much busier , but its bound to be its a Friday , but the people in the place are more light hearted and out for fun , where on a Tuesday its quite competitive, imposed by the fussy singers themselves...

so many karaoke only nights and venues the singers take themselves too seriously , forget its fun and think its an audition or music hall or x factor even the messing with props is considered and repetitive.

Now here is the kicker often these are groups of no more than two or three people they want to sing to a full audience ..which they wont get at the karaoke booths in the city centre where they can sing as many songs as they wished

A full audience is what they live for , they wish to impress with there limited song repertoire to a crowd ..but The venue would not be full if it was a Karaoke only venue , how do i know because i tried it and so have several others ..These chasers would come into my karaoke only venue and then disappear after singing their two or three best songs to other venues , could fill a night and it was not fun, too many singers took it too seriously , they all wanted to sing songs like Valerie or Adele etc or what was singable in the charts and would throw hissy fits if someone put the request in before them for "Their song" and other people in the venue would get annoyed that it was all karaoke.

I found karaoke disco worked better in many venues on weekends , it lightened the tone, it meant for fun for the most people , the chasers would still get to sing and the intense pressure from the geek element of karaoke was gone.

I will and have done mid week and sunday Karaoke only shows but an average pub on friday saturday night they want a mix in my part of the world

If as a singer you wish to sing 12 songs in a night for it to be a good night then either become a singer or hire a booth and sing away..

again folks dont take this as gospel if the night is flowing and the atmosphere is working I will get people up for complete karaoke i am adaptable as a entertainment conductor to see this and adapt to what the majority of the crowd need and want..if its all karaoke that's what they get if its a bit of music that's what they get if its a lot of music that's what they get, if its New Years eve and i have a few karaoke fans , i would cater to them but not pamper them as its new years eve and the vast majority want to get drunk and get off with someone or reminisce with a partner. Karaoke only on New years eve is not something that would get you re hired again by a normal pub in my area ..

So it seems things are very different in different parts of the world ..if we were all the same it would be a very boring place

Whatever way you do it ..as long as your safe ,your customers are happy and you are all having fun and making a decent living ..the rest doesn't matter.

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"Your Never Fully dressed without a smile."

To Visit my website Rob Star Entertainments Click the link in my profile

"Strangers are just friend we haven't met yet"