Aug282009
Here are a couple of dates for your diaries over the next few days as its a bit of an action packed bank holiday weekend.
First of all, get yourself over to Platform Six where you can download the latest episode of my fortnightly radio show. Special guest mix this week from none other than Electro house DJ Piqué !!!! As always, the special guest mix is sandwiched between two very phat choice slices of hand cut funky house mixed by myself. Its a great show that also includes one of the latest tracks from Shola Ama and a bumpin’ cut from Crimes Against Disco!
Now on to the live events… Kicking off with TONIGHT. Yes yes, tonight you can catch myself on the decks up at the always funky, Funky End bar in Aldershot alongside the hairless wonder that is Tom Upton closely followed by the lanky legend Mark Masters. Free entry all night with music pumping out from 9pm until late.
If you haven’t got your fill of fresh upfront Funky House tunes by then, you can continue the party TOMORROW NIGHT over at the HaHa bar in Guildford. Usual suspects of Tom Upton and Mark Masters will be in control of your dancefloor, plus I will be there too to spin a couple of tunes. Once again, it’s free entry all night so to be fair you have no excuses not to turn up. Saturday will be a good one as I plan to have a couple of beers and dance around like a lemon.
Hope to see you there! Keep it funky.
Aug022009
When promoting yourself as a high profile DJ, you want to be putting yourself in the best light possible. One of the best ways of doing this is to add a picture of you to your website, Myspace or Facebook pages.
The old cliche of a picture tells a thousand words still holds true today along with the fact that your photo is the first impression that your clients will have of you - so you want to make sure it looks good and also that you stand out.
Try to stay away from using dodgy blurry shots of you taken on a cameraphone. You want to portray a professional image and the only way you can do this properly is to hire yourself a professional photographer to take some great portfolio shots that you can use again and again.
Getting hold of a photographer does not have to be as expensive as it first sounds. Perhaps you already know someone with a passion for photography. This is always a good start as you can negotiate a low cost rate or even a free photo shoot.
Get in touch with a local college or university. There is literally a world of student photographers out there who are looking to increase their portfolio and will only be too happy to take some pics for you in exchange for the use of your image in their latest work.
Don’t forget that you can always offer the photographer the option of adding their URL in small lettering to each photo which can help to negotiate a lower price.
Make sure you get written confirmation from the photographer that you have 100% rights to the images that they have taken. This is important in case any copyright issues crop up at a later date.
Ensure that you get a mixture of photos too. Not everyone wants to see a sweaty DJ hard at work - although DJing is what you do try to get some shots of you relaxing and having fun away from the turntables so that you can portray your own personality too.
If you want to go that one step further, find yourself a graphic artist that will add those special finishing touches to your image. Check the images below for great examples of this from House DJ Piqué and Hard House DJ Andy Whitby.
I have permission from my own photographer to share his details if you would like to use him for your own promo shots. If you would like to get in touch you can drop an email to Chris Silk at info@chrissilk.co.uk or view his portfolio at http://www.chrissilk.co.uk/.
