Description
Dave Bradley
Dave Bradley is a very popular wedding and function DJ based in the North West. He has over 20 years of experience working in the Disco and entertainment industry. A DJ who has won the much coveted Unit One DJ of The Year Award. He has a good idea what you the customer wants from an evenings Disco entertainment on what might be the most important day of your life.
Having a DJ that you can feel confident in is essential. Your particular requirements can be varied. You may require a DJ that is inconspicuous or low-key, on the other hand you may want the complete opposite, a DJ that is the life and soul of the party. Dave can do either. Knowing when to shine and when to real himself in.
He has previously won the DJ of The Year Award and the much converted Tony Thomas Award. The latter was instigated in memory of the founder of Unit One Entertainment, the much loved DJ Tony Thomas, who unexpectedly passed away suddenly in 1997.
Dave has been very lucky to be involved with, and cover some very special celebrity events (that for privacy reasons we cannot divulge). The fact that he has been asked to perform at them is testament in itself, and reaffirms the high regard that he is held in. All this come about due to his commitment and overall love of the job. Most good DJs like Dave will tell you that it is less of a job, and more of a vocation.
You may also see Dave representing Unit One at Wedding Fayres throughout the North West as he is our Wedding Fayre specialist here at Unit One.
Weddings
Dave is vastly experienced at performing in his capacity of DJ at all forms of wedding, traditional English, Civil Partnerships, Hindi, Greek, Spanish and many more. He understands that every such occasion demands to be evaluated and catered for in their own special way, whether it be for formal, religious or purely personal reasons. Not just the right music, but the right aptitude and approach has to be take in every case, to give happy couple a day to remember for all the right reasons. Dave is more than capable of performing to any age group with any style of music you wish to mention, from the 50’s right up to the latest party thumping favourites. He advise you on some of your musical choices and incorporate a pre-chosen play-list if you have one into a selection of music that he knows goes down well. For more information on play lists please see the section below marked “Play lists”. He will take time out at various stages throughout your evening to check with you that everything is running just the way you want and if you have any thoughts or concerns he will do his best to alleviate them for you. He may point out at certain times things you might want to say to your evening guests or even remind you of something you wanted to do. General announcements and introductions are the norm for any good DJ like Dave and maybe inviting you guest to participate in the buffet, as well asking your guests to fill in the “Guest Book”, which sometime gets overlooked and even forgotten about otherwise.
Client Comments
I am just sending an email to say a Big Thank You to D J Dave Bradley who did our Music for our Wedding on 9th July 2011 at the Village Hotel in Cheadle.
Not only did he provide excellent music but also provided us with some memorable photo’s.
I just want to say a great Big Thank you and hope you will let him know how grateful my wife and myself are.
Thanks
Dave Whitaker
Quiz Nights
Winner of the “Quizmaster of The Year Award“, Dave is also a very proficient quizmaster and can tailor a quiz when needed to a company, group or specific venues. He designs new quiz material and come up with brand new ideas for fun and interactive quiz nights that have since been copied by others. His quiz has been played and endorsed by professional funny man, actor, radio presenter and TV quiz show host, Ted Robbins.
Dave follows “The Chase” quimaster extraordinaire, Mark “The Beast” Labbett on tweet and Mark in turn follows him back. They have and do still have chats about quizzing.
Dave was one of the first Quiz Night presenters to adopt and use very successfully and exciting “Smartphone Quizzes“. A completely cheat free format that is played by teams using their very own mobile phone on a dedicated Wi-Fi next work, using Apple or Android based phones. The same format also works extremely well on iPads of all types and Android based tablets. For more info on Smartphone Quiz Night from Unit One’ “Phone Quiz” – CLICK HERE!
In his traditional, but these days less popular Paper Quiz, he includes all the traditional rounds you would expect within his quizzes, general knowledge rounds, music rounds and picture based rounds, whilst introducing aspect that are totally unique to all quiz nights. Dave can provide an eco friendly, green and totally recyclable quiz every week, with the clever use of special quiz materials not used by any quiz DJ or quizmaster’s anywhere else. The quiz is also in full colour and printed to a very high standard. When engaging Dave to provide a Quiz Night for you, you will realise right away just how much work he puts into it and how professional it is in it’s presentation.
All Dave’s Quiz Night packages, in both formats are completely self contained, all you have to do is provide a socket and he’s away. On request Dave can also include on a residency, “Play Your Cards Right” (aka the Higher or Lower game).
Play lists – Help, Advice & Tips
Dave welcomes you to supply a play list for your wedding evening. To work well, please keep in mind this should be treated only as a “Suggested” play list and not one that should be strictly adhered to. You may have specific tastes in music but not everyone will share your love of certain tunes. Remember a DJ is a professional entertainer that has had lots of experience at performing at weddings and many other types of functions and would know what people are expecting, what type of music will work and most of all will know what type of music wont. However it is always useful to provide a DJ with a play list because this will give him a good and clear idea of what you yourselves would like and therefore what music to include in his successful tried and tested repertoire. A good and simple way of putting together a simple and effective play list is to add a small request list to each invite that you send out, asking each guest or each pair of guests to pick three tune that they would “dance to”, not like to hear, but “dance to”. You can then compile a suggested play list out of the one’s asked for, editing out the tunes you absolutely hate in the process. Try to keep the play list as brief as you can as a long one may disappoint someone who doesn’t get to dance to their particular tune. Try to keep the play list as mainstream as possible, tunes played on normal everyday popular radio stations, tunes that are familiar with most people so as not to alienate anyone. Throughout an average night (7pm – 12 midnight), there is only time to hear about eighty to a ninety tunes, this includes as people are arriving and the buffet, so don’t go overboard when putting a play list together, leave something for the DJ to play out of what he know works. You can then give this suggested play list to your DJ, safe in the knowledge that he will then have a selection of music relevant to the people that are there. You could as you compile this list also add the names of the people who have asked for each tune, giving the DJ something further to work with when introducing each track.
A DJ’s experience is an essential part of the evening when it comes to play lists and he can select which suggested track would fit in best at various points throughout the evening. He may embellish on some of the tracks suggested by adding similar tracks, maybe from the same artist or era to enhance the desired effect. It goes without saying that if a suggested track doesn’t appear to be working and clearing a dance floor, as an experienced DJ he may change it for something that he feels would be more suitable or would bring them back. He may also in sometimes query or question a suggested track with the Bride or Groom before he plays it, knowing that it may not have the desired effect. He may in some extreme cases advise against playing a track completely.
As a rule these days you will not find a DJ that would play what some people incorrectly class as “cheesy music” without the express request of a Bride or Groom. To clarify this further “The Birdies Song “, Superman”, “Aggadoo”, “Bob The Builder”, “Barbie Girl” and alike are complete no no’s to most modern DJs – unless expressly asked for by the Bride or Groom. There can be a time and place to play them, but this may not be your wedding and a good DJ will understand this fully. To clarify by rule of thumb most professional DJs would class “Cheesy Music” as “Dancing Queen”, I’m In The Mood For Dancing”, “Nine To Five”, “Feels Like I’m In Love” and alike – “Hen Night” tunes if you like.
There is also the “Party Dances” section of music that some couples feel is not what they want at their wedding celebrations, track like “The Cha Cha Slide”, “The Time Warp”, “Oops Up Side Your Head” (the row your boat song), “The Grease Megamix”, “Saturday Night” and “The Macarena” this is optional and if not required should be mentioned to the DJ before hand.
All good DJs will accept requests and dedications on the night from anyone of your guests and Dave is no different. He actively invites people to ask for requests throughout the night as the feeling, mood or atmosphere generated on the night can be different to that of a pre-requested list of tracks. It also gives everyone the opportunity to come up with tracks that might otherwise have been forgotten about or overlooked beforehand. Dave always carries his whole collection of music (around thirty two thousand tracks) with him so this is not a problem.
Most couples who have seen Dave work before are quite happy for him to judge what to play, covering music for all ages and all tastes, a little bit of something for everyone, music that he feels with get people up dancing. This complete with one or two speciality sections for the lads and the girls. If you have a general theme or era of music that you would like Dave to concentrate on he can without any problems. Everyone has their own ideas on how they would like their night to run and Dave is here to facilitate this.
Dave will openly discuss any aspects of the music you would like playing at your wedding especially your first dance with you over the phone, normally four to five days before your big day. He is always available to talk to during the day in the weeks leading up to your wedding. The best time to talk to Dave is generally in the daytime as he tends to work nearly every evening. Play lists
can be sent to him via E-Mail anytime.
Top 20 Venues he Has Worked At:-
The V & A Hotel – Manchester, Central Pier – Blackpool, The Palm House – Liverpool, Old Trafford Cricket & Football Ground – Manchester, The City Of Manchester Stadium – Manchester, Mottram Hall – Mottram St Andrew, Shrigley Hall – Pot Shrigley, The White Hart – Lydgate, The Joshua Bradley – Gee Cross, The Blue Bell – Gee Cross, The Palace Hotel – Buxton, The Quay Hotel & Spa in Deganwy, The Oaklands Hotel in Northwich, The Ramada Hotel in Wrexham,.
Public Liability:- Yes – Due to reasons of privacy and to help prevent illegal copies being made by others, this is only available by direct request to the Unit One office.
P.A.T. Certificate:- Yes – Due to reasons of privacy and to help prevent illegal copies being made by others, this is only available by direct request to the Unit One office.
Speciality & Themed Discos:- Yes – James Bond, Star Trek, Rock N Roll.
Speciality Discos Lighting:- Yes – Lasers, Moving Heads, various D.M.X. Lighting, PC Monitor Displays System.
Speciality & Themed Quiz Nights:- Yes – Hotel & Pub residency quiz nights with custom built and fully tailored corporate quiz night/days.
Other Information:
Dave has performed at the UK’s first fully themed Star Trek wedding, which has been featured on the daytime TV show “This Morning“, in “The Daily Star” and “Manchester Evening News“. As featured on the TrekMovie.com web-site and in the local press The Metro, The Middleton Guardian, Manchester Evening News, The Daily Star and The Mail on Sunday. Dave is also used by both Granada and the BBC in his capacity as a DJ and has been seen in many different TV dramas. He has worked with James Bond villain Robbie Coltrane, Harry Potter star Timothy Spall, former Dr Who aka Tom Baker, Royle Family’s Sue Johnston, Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes star Philip Glenister, Coronation Street’s corner shop owner Jimmi Harkishin, Waterloo Road star and Loose Women presenter Denise Welch and Oscar winning director Danny Boyle. You may have also seen him on BBC TV on New Years Day a few years ago with Donny Osmond on TV Gameshow – “Identity“.
