DJ work in London-Advice appreciated

After hanging up my tunes a few of years ago I'm eager to get back out into the city and play some places. I regard myself as competent with a broad sweep of musical interests likely to appeal to the late 20's-late 30's crowd. A few gigs over the last 12 months have gone down well and I now find myself with free evenings and the desire to earn an honest crust.
Gumtree has little or nothing and I suspect most venues needs are sorted via word of mouth so does anyone on here know of a good way of getting some work? I've been a stay at home dad to 2 girls since 2006 and have literally just stayed at home so my knowledge of London nightlife is not yet at full tilt.
Cheers, Northern Rob.

Two hopes

Bob & No

Unless you wanna play 'commercial/lounge grooves' to teds in Clapham that wouldn't know Larry Heard from Thora Hird.............

Thora is banging.

Bar of s...

ha, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah ha
praise be to Thora God love her rest her soul etc etc

Why on earth has Northern Rob 'no hope'?

Good luck Rob.

I would get thee to some of the swankier bars in town with a mix disc... I dunno.

Or get an agent?

Every man and his dog still wants to be a DJ nowadays, join the queue

Well, there's DJs and there's DJs.

But yeah I guess if you have to ask on here, you may be up against it.

It's all about who you know Rob.

It's all about who you know Rob.

Thread Ends

99% of the DJ's I hear nowadays are shite but their mate is manager/owner of a bar or club

Every man and his dog still wants to be a DJ nowadays, join the queue

Haven't they for the last 10 years?

It's all about who you know Rob.

Definitely helps.

You need to be prepared to put some graft in to get gigs if you're starting from scratch. Do a few mix CDs, send them to bars/clubs/promoters you'd like to play for. Accept that you'll have to 'ask' for a few gigs and probably won't get paid much (if at all) a lot of the time.

Oh yeah, and good luck.

Thread Ends

99% of the DJ's I hear nowadays are shite but their mate is manager/owner of a bar or club

Too right. Even in some places where you'd assume they'd want a proper DJ.

Haven't they for the last 10 years?
.

And the rest...

And the rest...

Yep, you've been trying for at least 15. ;)

It's almost a cliche nowadays with the 'youth' of today. They're either in or wanna be a Personal Trainer, 'Work in promotions' or DJ. The ambitious ones wanna be 'In Property'

Yep, you've been trying for at least 15. ;)

Saucy cunt!

gets a box of drawing pins ready for the Brighton Ride and aims to ride in front of Rik

Saucy cunt!

gets a box of drawing pins ready for the Brighton Ride and aims to ride in front of Rik

You were really good when you warmed up for me at The Lodge that time.

What did he say? ^

It's almost a cliche nowadays with the 'youth' of today. They're either in or wanna be a Personal Trainer, 'Work in promotions' or DJ. The ambitious ones wanna be 'In Property'

It's the ones that want to be "in fashion" you have to despair of...

Yeah, belters>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Thread Ends

99% of the DJ's I hear nowadays are shite but their mate is manager/owner of a bar or club

Its depressing really, people who have no concept of taste but happen to own some of the right equipment. I had an awful moment in some place in shoreditch last friday when they started playing shed loads of hip hop from the 2000 - 2004 era and over some Dickheads talking about how they love this old skool stuff... feels old

I think if i DJ'd it'd have to be a mix of all genres, from four tet to melt banana and back again.

After hanging up my tunes a few of years ago I'm eager to get back out into the city and play some places. I regard myself as competent with a broad sweep of musical interests likely to appeal to the late 20's-late 30's crowd. A few gigs over the last 12 months have gone down well and I now find myself with free evenings and the desire to earn an honest crust.
Gumtree has little or nothing and I suspect most venues needs are sorted via word of mouth so does anyone on here know of a good way of getting some work? I've been a stay at home dad to 2 girls since 2006 and have literally just stayed at home so my knowledge of London nightlife is not yet at full tilt.
Cheers, Northern Rob.

And it is true - you wont get that far if you're not mates with a bar manager or promoter.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to DJ. Too many and too few spaces to play but it doesn't stop you trying and in the mean time you can host mixes on soundcloud, etc and get a bit of a following.

Oh another good tip is to start your own parties.

If you have a few friends who have a b day at around the same time hire a pub/bar and throw a party for them. If it's good they will tell other mates and come to your next one...

So DJing is my second job, I play out between 3 to 4 times a week...however, in order to do this and actually make money from it most of the places I play at are quite commercial (many in the Clapham area as mentioned earlier..lol)

So you need to decide what type of music you want to play.

I still make mix CDs and hand them out to bars. That works.

Forget agents, they aren't interested unless you are already established, both of mine find me pitifully little work anyway.

Putting on your own parties works. As does going down the production route (write a hit song, then every club will want you to DJ)

Finally...try being a no hope c-list celeb/t4 presenter...you dont even need to be able to mix then (bitter me...never lol)

Seriously though, if you are good and you network hard it will happen