Weekend Review: Friday night dance party!

By time I finally got home on Friday I had just enough time to take a shower, get changed, put on a lot of eyeliner, grab my (sorry, our) VIAO and head out to Sanctimonia. The latter is a smaller, mini-club night run by the same people that do ARA. It's less clubby, more about watching movies and dancing a bit upstairs.

Even though the Mr., myself and our band of merry gentlefolk head out to ARA pretty regularly, we had yet to make a Sanctimonia. But we had purpose this time, I was meant to learn how to use the DJ equipment.

In October at the Manchester Requiem Game, I created a CD for the venue. The idea was Halloween nightclub and I wanted to give the Cammies something to listen to. Just a little atmospheric music, like the Monster Mash and others of its ilk. It went over well, one of the organizers behind ARA seemed to enjoy it and asked off hand if I wanted to DJ. My response was a very enthusiastic yes.

See, I love music. From my first record,Elvis Sings for Children and Grownups Too!, to indications my music taste grew away from NKOTB with Vital Idol and into Violator, music has been an, er, instrumental, part of my life. And anyone who's ridden in the car with us knows how much I like inflicting new stuff on everyone around me. DJ'ing seems the natural progression.

On Friday I learned a few things, like how to fade in and out, how to adjust the master volume, how to cue a song... and most importantly that it's a lot harder than it looks. I have a whole new respect for club DJs as well, who get stuck playing old classics like The Temple of Love instead of anything new. Thankfully I have a very patient teacher.

My lessons did eventually give way to hanging out in the church belfry listening to very old Depeche Mode with Kolyn and a bottle of Fairtrade Pinot Grigio. I have to say, I can't think of many better ways of spending a Friday night.