Andy Clarke
Client: Andy Clarke
Event: 50th Birthday
Venue: Cobdown Sports Club – website
Date: June, 15 2013
Package: Plug & Play with Creative Mood Lighting & Photo Projection upgrades
Music Requested: 70s, 80s, Soul, Latest Charts, Guest Requests,
All images on this website © choicedj.co.uk & soundproofweddings.co.uk
And so to the the eagerly anticipated 50th birthday bash for Andy Clarke with surprise guests Stavros Flatley, who gained fame from Britains Got Talent in 2009. It had been organised by wife Sherrie and daughter Laura who had been keeping it a secret from everyone for some time, over the last couple of years I’ve worked with three celebrity acts, firstly “Navi”, the worlds number 1 Michael Jackson impersonator who had been booked by Andy’s friend Anita as a surprise for her husband Mark on their wedding day in 2010 at Chilston Park, then Andy’s daughter Laura was surprised by her parents with two dancers from Strictly Come Dancing for her birthday in 2011, with Stavros Flatley completing the set tonight. So there’s definately something of a theme materialising when this group of friends get together, they certainly don’t do things by halves.
daughter Laura
We got into the venue around 630 which gave us about 90 minutes to set up the disco, set the uplighting, organise the mics for Stavros Flatley and Andy’s photo projection which we projected onto a 60″ screen, I think I heard Sherrie say there were about 400 so you could say a wide range. It had been a bit of a whirlwind week, I spoke to Dimitri Stavros on the Thursday to discuss the music that they were playing for the 13 minute act and he told me “we’re on our way to a gig now then we’re off to Cyprus tomorrow and back on Saturday morning for this one”, the plan was to meet them backstage in their hideout at the venue and finalise everything then, they wern’t bringing any kit as such just themselves and their wigs so I was sorting out the sound system, a live microphone and a dummy microphone for their act. By coincidence the Clarke family had all been to Cyprus during the week and had only been back a couple of days, a tanned Laura told me on her arrival at the venue, “Dads been picking out people all week on holiday that he thought looked like Stavros Flatley so he’s going to be shocked when they run on”.
Dimitri and his son arrived at 8pm and were taken to their hideout by Laura which was an outbuilding at Cobdown Sports Club, I popped over to meet them straight away and cover the music, basically it was three tracks mixed into one file so it just needed stopping at various points. We were chatting for a while whilst they were getting changed and I couldn’t believe it had been 4 years since they had been on Britains Got Talent, Dimitri said “We were doing 6 jobs a week after the show and are still going out 3 times a week now, I had a couple of businesses before but this has turned into a living after starting out as a bit of a joke”. As far as I’m concerned I would struggle to remember anyone else from that year on Britain’s Got Talent, they definately caught the public’s attention with their act, despite the fact his son had grown up quite a bit since 2009 the show is still in demand and going strong, good luck to them cos they are genuinely a nice down to earth couple of guys.
Dimitri Stavros makes his entrance
Andy arrived at around 730 with the guests filtering in slowly afterwards, the schedule was to play some background music playing and kick off the night at 9pm with the surprise. To confuse Andy slightly his brother and Anita’s husband Mark had been drafted in as Stavros Flatley look-a-likes in blonde wigs, the plan was when the show music started they run around for a bit before the real act run on.
Just after 9pm I played the show intro and in they ran …
The video below contains the full Stavros Flatley show from Andy’s 50th including the original opening material used from BGT2009 .
And that was it, a short but memorable 15 minutes or so, before the pair left they remained for a meet and greet session (including photographs) and as the evening moved on with the disco their presence was still very much on the premises with several guests donning wigs used during the show. Well done to Laura and Sherrie for getting that all organised and a very happy 50th to Andy, I hope you thoroughly enjoyed your surprise as much as we did.
Next week we are back to the wedding season for Hannah and Richards reception at The Little Silver Country Hotel in Tenterden.
If you were at Andy’s 50th how about leaving us a comment at the bottom of this page
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SETLIST
Stavros Flatley Set
Celebration Kool & The Gang
Fantasy Earth, Wind & Fire
Night to Remember Shalamar
Give Me the Night George Benson
Rhythm of the Night DeBarge
Need U (100%) [feat. A*M*E] Duke Dumont
Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) Beyoncé
Rock Your Body Justin Timberlake
Valerie (Feat. Amy Winehouse) Mark Ronson
I Don’t Feel Like Dancing Scissor sisters
Blame It On the Boogie The Jacksons
Le Freak Chic
Let’s Go Round Again Average White Band
Sexy and I Know It LMFAO
I Gotta Feeling The Black Eyed Peas
Good Feeling Flo Rida
Gangnam Style PSY
Feel the Love Rudimental
Drinking from the Bottle (feat. Tinie Tempah) Calvin Harris
I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) Pitbull
Run the World (Girls) Beyoncé
Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (2003 Edit) Michael Jackson
We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off Jermaine Stewart
September Earth Wind & Fire
Copacabana (At the Copa) [Long Version] Barry Manilow
Can’t Hold Us (feat. Ray Dalton) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Dance With Me Tonight Olly Murs
Scream & Shout (feat. Britney Spears) will.i.am
Super Bass Nicki Minaj
Pound the Alarm Nicki Minaj
Levels Avicii
You & Me (feat. Eliza Doolittle) Disclosure
Footloose Kenny Loggins
Beat It (Single Version) Michael Jackson
Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now McFadden & Whitehead
Wake Me Up Before You Go Go Wham
Apache (Jump on it) Sugar Hill Gang
Get Down On It Kool & the Gang
Staying Alive Bee Gees
Hot Stuff Donna Summer
Respect Aretha Franklin
ABC Jackson 5
Mr. Big Stuff Jean Knight
I Wanna Dance With Somebody Whitney Houston
Black or White (Single Version) Michael Jackson
Y.M.C.A. Village People
Down Down Status Quo
I Love To Boogie T-Rex
Let’s Stick Together Bryan Ferry
Step On Happy Mondays
Locked Out of Heaven Bruno Mars
Blurred Lines (feat. T.I. & Pharrell) Robin Thicke
Get Lucky (Radio Edit) [feat. Pharrell Williams] Daft Punk
La La La (feat. Sam Smith) Naughty Boy
Titanium (feat. Sia) David Guetta & Sia
Sweet Nothing (feat. Florence Welch) Calvin Harris
Don’t You Worry Child (Radio Edit) [feat. John Martin] Swedish House Mafia
212 (feat. Lazy Jay) Azealia Banks
I Need Your Love (feat. Ellie Goulding) Calvin Harris
Feel This Moment (feat. Christina Aguilera) Pitbull
Harlem Shake Baauer
Low Flo Rida & T-Pain
You To Me Are Everything Real Thing