Soul Source Rare and Northern Soul: Soul Source Rare and Northern Soul -> Bamburg 2008

“Wow” – that’s probably the most descriptive expletive to describe this weekender. Great people, great music, culture, and beer.

With a DJ line up that comprised the following you just knew it would be good:
Dave Thorley & Malayka, Lars from Hamburg (who also plays in a punk rock band he let slip), Marc Forrest, Ralf Mehnet & The Jan,
From Belgium - Thierry Boulanger
From the UK Butch, Soul Sam, Arthur & Maria, Adey Pountain and yours truly.

Friday morning the party of Brits fly out from Stanstead. First people I meet are Toby and Mandy at the queue for the X Ray machines…..and guess what my bag with records is held back for closer inspection. I hear the lady at the X Ray machine say to one of her colleagues “They’re records, but there’s something else in there”. I knew I shouldn’t have packed any acetates!!! …..anyway this guy runs a stick type instrument over the box, and checks it for something (presumably explosives), and I am given the all clear. All I can say is it’s a good job I don’t work in a quarry then! On the “far side” or “air side” as it is known in the industry we meet up with the East Anglian crew from Ipswich, Yarmouth and Norwich enjoying an early morning pint or two (it’s 7 am), then Claire and Jenny, Karen and Pete, Mr & Mrs Fenn and Sam, and finally Mr and Mrs Pountain.
On arrival in Nuremburg Malayka and Suzanne have arranged VW transporters to ship us Brits to downtown Bamburg – we also met Thierry from Belgium who I haven’t seen for a long time. We drop people off at their hotels, and end up at a house in the old part of town which is the Soulshakers HQ for the weekend. This house will be home to Dave and Malayka, Sam, Thierry, myself, Mr & Mrs Forrest, and Lars and girlfriend. We relax over a few drinks, and then Sam and I head off into town for some lunch. Bamburg has a lot of history and the old town looks to be largely unchanged since medieval times. There’s a wealth of history here, and even the Mayor’s house was built a long long time ago in the middle of a river bridge so as not to offend the local Lutheran and Catholic communities who lived either side of the river. Friday evening we all met up at a Tapas bar – it’s a lovely warm evening and there ends up being about 30 of us there out in the evening sun, and plenty boozo and Tapas are consumed.
…..
Keen as we are, we get to the soul weekender venue early before the 9.30 official opening. The venue was a three room event in an old building up two flights of steps - a smaller modern room, a long bar in the middle, and a large dancehall for the northern / 60s. There was also a large patio area for chilling and smoking (rauchen).
Music wise the 60s room was pretty much well…60s northern. The modern room was largely 70s and 80s with some boogie and the odd more recent tune thrown in for good measure. Historically the modern room had been quiet but for the first time this was to change this weekend. On Friday there were close to 400 through the door, and the dancefloor in the main room took a while to get going, but once it did, everyone was up for dancing all night, and this created a great atmosphere. The modern room was a bit more up and down numbers wise, sometimes it was nearly full, other times it had fewer than 20 in. There was no logic to this fluctuation other than the free movement of people back and forth between the rooms. Friday night was a very good night musically, and whilst some oldies did get played they largely weren’t the Top 500 variety. It would be unfair to single out any DJs for special praise as everyone did very good sets. There were no fillers or turkeys on this line up.

Here is what I played Friday
Friday Night Modern

Side Show “Sexy lady”
2nd Re$surection “You done let the daylight catch you”
Freedom “High on you”
“Will I get over losing you”
Robert Montgomery “I need you girl”
Guitar Ray “Don’t change your love” (cover up)
Dwight Franklin “Foxy Lila”
Morris Lewis “I love you”
Flashlight “Peace”
Phillip Wright “Keep her happy”
Veda Brown “I had a fight with love”
New Designers “We don’t know unless we try”
Thompson Brothers “You bought love into my life”
Ex Ta C “Squeeze”
Trace of Smoke “Treasure mind”
Double O’s “Cry one tear black” (Pt 2)

Friday Night Northern

Jimmy Burns “I really love you”
Kenny Gamble “The jokes on you”
Eddie Rey “I got something of value”
Appreciations “I can’t hide it”
Thelma Lindsay “Prepared to love you”
Al Williams “I am nothing”
Eddie Daye & Four Bars “Guess who loves you”
4 Pros “Just another girl”
Willie Kendricks “Change your ways”
Nat T Jones “Moving forward”
Ivories “Please stay”
Joe King “I don’t want to share you”
Roy Roberts “So much in love”
Richard Marks “Did you ever lose something”
Valentinos “Sweeter than the day before”
King Moses “I got this feeling”
Rozetta Johnson “Mine was real”
Sandra Phillips “I wish I had known”

Saturday morning we sat on the veranda of the house drinking coffee and basking in the sunshine and Dave T was keeping us entertained with tales of his record exploits in the southern States – fascinating stuff. We had a look around the street market – but the local record store delivered us no finds – though Sam is mulling over a European Led Zep Picture sleeve 45 . Then we headed over to the café bar for lunch – with music provided courtesy of several DJs. Again this was a very friendly, relaxed session and Sam and I agreed good tunes were being played once more by the DJs.
After a walk, lie down, and dinner (Italian), it was time for the Saturday night session.

If Friday was good, Saturday was even better with an unbelievably good 570 through the doors – more than I had expected. Again musically you couldn’t fault it, and one of the highlights for me of Saturday was Butch in the modern room. This certainly got the crowd in through the doors, and it served to remind me how many good records I still need to get. Mellow Madness was dedicated to me as the “best disco record ever” , and it was clear that the Europeans like their modern fast and uptempo. Meanwhile the northern room had filled nicely and the atmosphere was buzzing. I was on in the northern room after Marc Forrest and Marc had kept the atmosphere on the boil nicely. After me it was the turn of Arthur who kicked off with Mel Britt – I did chastise him though for back cueing the record – styrene – sorry Arthur.

Here’s what I played Saturday

Saturday Night Northern

Trends “Thanks for a little loving”
Chico Lamarr “What do you think I am”
Sammy Lee “What goes around”
Willie Hutch “Can’t fight the power”
Dee Dee Barnes “Do what you wanna do”
Gene Toones “What more do you want”
Royal Robbins “There’s something about you”
Jimmy Andrews “Big city playboy”
Appointments “I saw you there”
Ty Karim “Lighten up baby”
Willie Williams “HAve you ever been played for a fool”
Doc Peabody “Here I am without you”
Mixed Feelings “Sha la la”
Lee Fields “Take me back”
Nurons “All my life”
Al Scott “What happened to yesterday”

Saturday night modern

Ron Hall “The way you love me”
Rivage “Strung out on your love”
Africano “Satisfactorise your mind”
Reachers “I just wanna do my own thing”
Barbara Stant “You got to try it again”
Life “Tell me why”
Willie Dee “It looks like rain”
Danny Williams “All those lies”
Sex “It’s you”
Willie Feaster “Voices”
Psycho Frankie “Putting you out of my life”
The Mist “Life walked out”
Natural Impulse “She went away”

Sunday we had brunch at another hostelry, music courtesy of Dave and Malayka and Sam who played things like Ronnie Barnes and some nice slower stuff. Then it was of to the airport for our flights home, with Ady Pountain and his wife.

BUT the weekend is not over at this point as I am due to DJ in Bamburg’s twin town Bedford (how about that for a co-incidence) at the Welli Arms on Sunday night. I have calculated that my flight is due to arrive at Stanstead at 8.05 pm. Allowing an hour to clear customs, get the bag and get to the car pack, and an hour to drive to Bedford I should in theory be there by about 10.15 p.m in time to do my set. However…the plane is 15 minutes late taking off (no pressure then!), and as we are climbing to our cruising altitude a kafuffle breaks out near the front as some old man is taken ill. When the call goes up for a Doctor or “anyone with medical training” to come forward I start to quietly panic. I have visions of our flight turning around back to Nuremburg, or an emergency descent into Frankfurt or something, and start to see my DJ set in Bedford fading away in front of my eyes – with every passing two minutes that’s one less record to play. Fortunately after several large bags of unpleasant stuff are carried away from the old man, and he has been doused in water, he seems to be OK, and we keep climbing – but it was a close run thing I can tell you.

I did get to Bedford – albeit driving like a bat out of hell - and did my set there too. The Wellington Arms is in Da Hood, and serves a fine line up of real ales to savour the palates of the thirsty who have been flying and doing the bit for twin town relations – ha ha. Plenty of familiar faces in there too. When I take over DJing I apologise for being late, pointing out that I was doing my bit for cultural relations abroad DJing in the twin town of Bamburg, when Terry starts ‘booing’ . I thought this twin town stuff was supposed to be for the advancement of our differing cultures? When Martin A starts dancing energetically in front of the decks, I have to put out a reminder that although dancing is welcome, please refrain from po-go-ing in front of the decks as it makes the records jump.
Soon after 11 it was all over – a somewhat crazy end to the weekend, but well worth it.

Anyway Bamburg 2009 is a must, so get booked in now.