I am a teacher at a local high school who coordinates all the school dances. I have had experiences with Record Entertainment at 3 different dances and will probably never voluntarily work with them again.
The first dance actually went pretty well. The specific DJ we had was young and interacted with the kids and the kids really enjoyed the night. The only issue we had was that the DJ kept playing unedited inappropriate music. Eventually one of our principals had to tell the DJ to stop a song because it was blatantly referencing drinking and drug use.
The second dance did not go quite as well. The DJ shows up, and says to me "do you have a table?" What? You're a professional DJ and you didn't bring a surface to put your equipment on? So, me, being the only other person in the building at the time, and with keys that only open a few rooms had to try to scrounge up a table for the DJ to use. Eventually, I had to take a table out of one of my colleague's classrooms because otherwise there would have been nothing for him to use...
So eventually kids start showing up and the dance begins. And I notice something...nobody is dancing. Because the music is super quiet. I go and tell the DJ that he can turn the music up, he says "ok" and presses a button somewhere, but I hear no audible difference in the volume. Our dances are from 8 to midnight. The place was cleared out by 10:30.
Now for the third dance. After finding our preferred DJ was booked, I decided to give Record Entertainment one more chance. I get into contact with them and request two other DJs (anyone but the same guy from the second dance). I'm told that one of the two is unavailable but the other one is available. Great!
Fast forward to about 2 weeks before the dance. I get an email from the "head" guy at Record...."Sorry, so and so backed out, but we're going to get you someone else!"
So now, it's 2 days before the dance and I get a voicemail on my cellphone. It's from the sucky DJ from dance #2 (great!) and he'd like me to call him back just to go over a few things. I call him back, he doesn't answer, so I leave a voicemail for him. Ten minutes later, I get a call back on my phone from him. Here is the first 30 seconds of our phone call:
Me: "Hello?"
DJ: "HELLO?!"
Me: "Hello?"
DJ: "WHO IS THIS? DID YOU CALL THIS NUMBER?!"
Me: "Um yeah....this is ****** from ****** High School, returning your call...."
DJ: "OH OK....yeah..........."
...Talk about unprofessional.
So now it's the night of the dance. This time I'm prepared and had the custodians provide a table the day before, so that's taken care of. So he comes in and starts setting up. And this time he asks me "do you have a dolly?" And again I think to myself "you are a professional DJ and you don't have the equipment to do your job?? Really?!" But, being nice, I say I will go look and try to find one. But again, due to the fact that I only have keys to a few rooms, I can't find one. Too bad, so sad, buddy, you have to carry your equipment.
So now the dance starts, kids show up. At least this time the music was loud and the kids could dance. This time the dance also lasted to midnight, but there were probably only 20 kids left by 11:00, so it was pretty dead even though people were still there.
Now it's after the dance and I have to stay to lock up and shut lights off after the DJ packs up. It's almost time to go, when he says to me: "do you have a towel?" So I run to the bathroom and grab a big handful of paper towels. I come back, intending on giving him the towels, but he just points at a big puddle on the floor and says "I spilled my drink" and makes no move to grab the towels from me. So I get on my hands and knees and wipe up HIS spilled drink. Which, by the way was sticky all over my school's brand new gym floor...
So that's it. They had 3 chances and every experience was worse than the one before it. read more