anyone seen rihanna live recently?

[spazhammer.livejournal.com]

sorry if this sort of thing isnt allowed here... (feel free to moderate my ass if its a problem)

has anyone been to see rihanna on her UK tour?

what sort of music was being played in between bands? I've just been asked to DJ her nottingham gig tomorrow night, and tbh, i'm bricking it... The most i've ever played in front of is 800 or so people at a freshers ball, so going from that to an arena full of people is going to be a bit scary!

I'm thinking obvious pop... britney, justin, sugababes, beyonce, etc, but i was wondering just how far i could push it (dolly parton/stevie wonder? rogue traders, mandy moore, TATU, robyn?)..

anyone who has seen her recently and cares to share any thoughts/advice?

(i do a monthly pop night in nottingham, MMHA! - http://poptunes.org for examples of the sort of stuff i play)

/plug

Comments

[koganbot]

Lex to thread!

(I have no objection to you asking this question here at poptimists. If not here, where else?)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

HAHA omg this is a v pertinent question! How did you get chosen incidentally? And how much of a free hand have you been given? (If you're being given a completely free hand, the same would have applied to Wembley, in which case EVEN MORE SHAME on the DJ there.)

Anyway. It was a combination of videos on the big screen (the videos were mixed into each other in a kind of weird visual beat-matching way?) and tracks with no visuals. Oh yeah haha and a skin cream advert which totally lowered the tone but um I guess at least they knew their demographic, loooots of spotty teenagers there. Videos included 'Ain't No Other Man', 'What You Waiting For?', 'Boom! Shake The Room', 'Jump' by Madonna, 'I Don't Feel Like Dancing', a mashup of 'Milkshake' and 'Professional Widow' - dunno if this was handled by Rihanna's people or not.

Tracks played included 'My Love' (Timberlake not Ciara), 'You Know I'm No Good', 'The Way I Are', 'Maneater', 'Gimme More' (the biggest success, whole of Wembley seat-jiving); more bizarrely, 'Boyz' by MIA and 'You Take My Breath Away' by The Knife wtfwtf. Those two were lead balloons and felt really inappropriate (and I like them). Though I guess that might have been Sara and I being cunty hipsters, everyone else just seemed to ignore them.

...OK, here's the beef. There were "technical issues" (possibly a diva tantrum) which meant that Rihanna was delayed for an hour. This should have been a MASSIVE OPPORTUNITY for the DJ - but what we actually got was 'Maneater' three times, 'Gimme More' three times, fucking MIA like four times ("I KNOW HOW MANY FUCKING BOYZ ARE IN THE PLACE"). Did my head in after a while - it's not as if there's a shortage of pop-r&b hits around.

Anyway you can probably get away with quite a lot - Parton definitely (though come to think of it ALL the stuff played was from this decade...). tATu and Moore, probably not. Robyn, well, Sara and I won't be there to hate on it so I guess. If it had been me during the dead time I'd've played Amerie, Sugababes, Dizzee Rascal, Kanye, Fergie Ferg, Destiny's Child or Beyonce, Sean Paul, Soulja Boy...

[spazhammer.livejournal.com]

i got chosen because of my popnight, because the dj who was supposed to do it pulled out (dont know if its a tour dj, or locals at each venue), and because i'm good friends with one of the biggest promoters in nottingham. when SJM realised they needed somebody, they called him, and he called me :)

i would never stoop so low as to play the same song twice in such a short period of time. i'm used to doing 5 hour DJ stints, and its not very often i will repeat stuff (unless i played it early on when nobody was in)

and the knife? wtf indeed!

i dont know how much free reign i have, but when the organiser called me earlier, they didnt give me much of a guide on what to play, although that may change when i get to the arena tomorrow night. all i know is they want me to MC "scream if you want rihanna!" or somesuchshit. this is what is scaring me the most... i deliberately dont use a microphone when DJing.. its all about the tunes, not how much i can hype up the crowd by talking shit!

boom shake the room? nice, i play that in my normal set anyway :)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I don't think the DJ at Wembley had to hype up the crowd. if they did they must've only done it once or twice, or very quietly. that'll be fine I'm sure...

I had a look at yr normal setlists and you should be totally fine! (I wish there were more pop nights as hip-hop-friendly as that.) the r&b-orientated 12-2 section of your night looks most ideal. omg play 'big pimpin' for me!! I'd've LOVED to hear that. tell us what you play, anyway...

[spazhammer.livejournal.com]

I'll probably record the set and post it somewhere.

if youre ever in nottingham on the second saturday of the month, give us a prod and i'll sort out some guestlists or something :)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

i will bear this in mind, cheers!