I contracted with a reunion company for my high school class's 50th reunion, so it wasn't a direct…read morehire of LTMP. I had no choice. LTMP hired a DJ, Larry, to work our reunion. All went well initially with communication with Alan, the head of LTMP, until the week before the reunion, when I needed to speak to THE DJ who was going to be working the reunion, about the music for an In Memoriam (Powerpoint slide production of those who have passed away) I planned to do, and have the DJ play music to accompany it. The presentation was longer than the music I had selected, so the music needed to be repeated. There was also another issue regarding a classmate who would be attending who fancies himself an "entertainer" (NOT) possibly wanting to take over the mic or the program during the reunion; and when the dancing would begin during the evening; and that we wanted music from 1960-1972.
Finally, four days before the reunion, I was able to get Alan to have Larry contact me after a few failed attempts. The conversation went well, I thought, with Larry agreeing to do a dry run rehearsal of the In Memoriam after he had set up at the reunion venue, agreeing not to let anyone take over the mic or the program, but he then TOLD me he would be playing dance music at a low volume during dinner or while these almost 70-year-olds would be talking (Hearing issues are a problem). I said no, I didn't want dance music played until the actual dancing was to begin - I wanted low and slow music. He then said he would be my slave for the evening (which I now believe was extreme sarcasm).
After arriving at the venue, Larry refused to do a practice run through of the music for the In Memoriam. As a result, halfway through the slide presentation that evening, using a wonderful instrumental rendition of Tears from Heaven, the music abruptly stopped, there was electronic screeching noise, and after about 30 seconds, it continued. A complete failure on Larry's part to segue into the replay of the music, and he spent that 30 seconds fumbling around like he didn't know what he was doing. Drinking? Drugs? I have no idea what the problem was. At the minimum, gross incompetence.
As for the music played during the evening, a good part of it was NOT 1960s to early 70s music. So Larry had his own agenda and own playlist for the evening. For someone who told me he'd been doing the decade of the 1960s reunions for many years, one would think he would have a playlist of many slow, medium and fast tunes prepared to play as appropriate during the evening, and understand that we of a 'certain age' can't hear one another speak with background 'noise' which included a high volume of other people talking, PLUS too loud music. The whole idea of the reunion was for people to reconnect. Larry had his own agenda.
I spent most of the evening asking the DJ to turn the music down. Fortunately, a representative of the reunion company was present, and I went to him for help. He spoke to the DJ, but a while later confirmed with me that Larry wasn't listening to him any more than he had listened to me. And, when the dancing began, Larry INTRODUCED the classmate I had warned Larry about not letting take over the evening, so this person could act like an idiot out on the dance floor. What he ended up doing was driving everyone else off the dance floor.
The final straw was that Larry, who apparently also fancies himself a singer, began singing a few bars at the beginning of one of the pieces of music he played during the dancing timeframe. Fortunately, it didn't last, as he was horribly off key. REALLY??
While most of my classmates were unaware of the issues during the evening (because I repeatedly had Larry tone down the music), they were all aware of what occurred during the In Memoriam and that he had introduced the idiot classmate. Most classmates were too classy to say anything to my face but later on I received 2nd hand information as to their thoughts on Larry's job as DJ, and they gave him an F.
So while Alan wasn't the DJ for this last reunion of people who really wanted to see and talk to as many as possible that night, it was Alan who hired the worst DJ ever. The following Monday, the reunion company representative and I both voiced our complaints to the reunion company higher-ups, who took it to Alan, who communicated our displeasure to Larry. Larry then sent me a disagreeable email about the fact that I had complained about him, which I forwarded back to the reunion company and Alan, who then promptly fired Larry. Larry then sent me another negative text message telling me that I had had him fired. Nice. That too was forwarded back to Alan and the reunion company.
My complaint with Alan and his company Let the Music Play is that he even had such a person working under the LTMP umbrella to work at a once in a lifetime LAST gathering of classmates. If you are a heading up a reunion or other function, and Alan isn't going to be the DJ, think twice.
