Jim!

Over the years I’ve had a number of DJ partners.  This is the very first one, starting back in 1979 or so.  My best friend was Paul Watson (who, oddly, used to lived directly around the corner from where I live now).  All of our equipment was self-made with the exception of the mixing board, which was a Radio Shack (Jim hangs head in shame).

We had to make the metal cards by hand, and each one took a couple hours to make.  As a result, there were a LOT of paper cards given out, and I think this is one of maybe five metal cards in existence.

(Side note:  ”L.E.D.” didn’t really stand for anything, we just liked the sound of it and back in 1979 LEDs were new and awesome.)

For our very first DJ job we did the wedding reception of a friend and I was, at the same time, the Best Man.  (Actually I’ve been both Best Man and DJ several times.  Never again.)  If this reception was the one that would have determined if I’d ever DJ again the answer to that would have been a resounding NO.  I move along…

There are two things the come to mind to reinforce this point:

1. A gentleman brought his accordion and wanted to jack into our sound system so he could play it for his family.  We didn’t see any harm in that, so we said “OK”.  It was a chance for us to take a fifteen minute break anyway.
   Paul and I were outside talking to guests and friend when we heard PPPFFFFFFZZZZZTTTTT coming out of our sound system.  When that sound comes out of any DJ’s sound system you will see that DJ run faster than the speed of light.   We go back inside to see this guy unplugging the audio cable from the accordion sticking it in his butt!  That particular gentleman we escorted off the stage…luckily with his accordion still in one piece.
2. In front of one of our speakers sat, for most of the evening, a little old lady.  The kind of little old lady who needed a walker to get around.  After about 3 hours of sitting directly in front of the speakers she eventually stood up and make her way (extremely slowly) to the stage where she said “Excuse me, young man, but can you turn that music down a little?  My hearing aid is buzzing”.