Posted 17 August 2011 - 08:34 PM
I guess there were loads of people looking forward to Soul Sam's birthday celebration at Thorne on 13 August. And I'm sure it lived up to their expectations.
Having read on Soul Source about the change of venue and all I can say is "hats off" to Karen and Maria and the Canal Tavern staff who helped to sort out a very difficult situation. The replacement venue was great, good slidey dance floor and cheaper drinks.
I left home at about 10.40 to walk up to my local train station to make my way to Welwyn Garden City where I was meeting Rbman to commence the drive up to Thorne. On arrival at WGC I met up with the two ladies that Maria had asked Martin to give a lift to. We strolled round to the car park where Martin was waiting and off we went. The drive up there via the A1M took roughly two and three quarter hours, just one hold up in a traffic queue for which there was no apparent reason.
After we had arrived at the guest house we normally stay in at and were shown to our respective rooms, I popped out and got a couple of hot pasties, we were a bit peckish by this time.
Our lady passengers were ready so we then strolled to the new venue, The Coronation Private Members Club, about 15 minutes walk and arrived there at about 3.50 pm. On entering the bar we met Arthur Fenn who kindly bought us all a drink After sitting and chatting for a few minutes we went into the function room. In exchange for our tickets we were given a wrist band, "I love Soul Sam" on it. There were two birthday cakes on display, both baked and decorated by the girlfriend of Arthur's son. I do hope some pictures of it are posted, it was great with a model of Sam behind the decks on the top. There were also pictures of Sam in younger years scattered around.
Martin and I requisitioned a table, dropped off our jackets and niter bag, and strolled around and chatted to the early arrivals. While all this was going on Soul Sam was doing his first set. He played some lovely Crossover tunes, don't think I'd heard any before, they were all ones you could dance to, not like some of the two step stuff I've heard lately.
Maria was next on the decks, some nice tunes but I was busy drinking and chatting so can't remember what was played. Then Arthur took over, he played quite a lot of Modern Soul (70s/80s), a little similar to his afternoon sets in the Modern room at Cleethorpes. I went up and made a couple of requests, I'm Sure and Gotta Get Even. Next thing I'm Sure came on and I had to dance to it. Just a little later he slipped on Ruby's Feminine Ingenuity, don't know if he played it for me, but he knows it's one of my favourites. I just love dancing to that one.
We had been pondering what to do about eating, the Canal Tavern dinners are one of the highlights of our trips up to Boomerang, good food and plenty of banter, but it would have taken about 25 minutes to walk to it. The two Boomerang Babes (Maria will just love that expression!) had thought of this, and had arranged a buffet from the Canal Tavern. That was such a thoughtful thing to do, I'm sure everyone there was very happy with that. Lovely small Yorkshire Puds filled with meat, a meat pie, chips and mushy peas, plus pork pies, sausage rolls, etc. Thank you Karen and Maria, that was great.
The next DJ up was Butch, and he played an entire set of Crossover. I've never heard him play this type of Soul before, an eye opener. Some great tunes, I knew Eddie Whitehead's Just Your Fool, and one other that I danced to, but don't know title or artiste, all the rest unknown to me. An ear opener for someone like me who's only heard his sets at the 100 Club, Lifeline, previous Boomerangs and other primarily dance focussed nights.
Then Maria took over, playing records like Betty Wilson's I'm Yours, Hamilton Movement's She's Gone, Karmello Brooks' Tell Me Baby and Third Eye by the Universal Cosmos Band and She Went Away by Natural Impulse.
She did an hour's set and was followed by Arthur who opened up with Jesse James' Are You Gonna Leave Me. Later in his set he did play my request for Faye Hill's Gonna Get Even but I was by the bar talking to one of my friends whom I only see at Boomerang and so missed dancing to it, apologies to Arthur.
Arthur did an hour and then Butch came on for his second set, opening with the record I'd requested him to play, Shake Sheri by the Hopkins Brothers, the first time I'd actually heard it in a club. Great dance record I think. As usual he kept the dance floor full playing a great set including My Salvation (Cressida Watson), Don't Bring Back Memories (Tommy Knight) and The Hurting Is Over (Arthur Willis). His set was roughly an hour and a half.
As Butch said "the lad himself" came on for the last hour and half or so. Sam was in great form playing loads of his favourites from the sixties up to now. He included Joseph Webster, Mixed Feelings, Tiarras, Margaret Little, Jackie Wilson's I Only Get This Feeling, UBP's We Are One, Modern Soul classics like Beres Hammond's Do This World A Favour and Tolbert's I've Got It. He went back to the latter days of the Wigan Casino with Z.Z. & Company's Getting Ready For The Get Down and Al Williams' I Am Nothing. Also he played Mark IV's If You Can't Tell Me Something Good, which I think he said was his favourite record. I Need You by King George is one of his recent purchases and he played that to a full dance floor. He finally finished at about 1.15 am to applause.
It certainly looked as if he'd thoroughly enjoyed the whole afternoon and evening, a great tribute to one of the soul scene's best and most innovative DJs, and also a very nice guy. Long may he continue.
We made our way back to our guest house and I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Next thing it was almost time to get up. After showering and dressing we had breakfast and then we were on our way home. A fairly uneventful journey to Welwyn Garden City, no real hold ups, then got the train home.
It was a great soul night, nice to see friends, some of whom I don't see that often. The music was top class, and there was the usual friendly atmosphere that is a Boomerang trademark. My thanks go out to the DJs, the staff from the Canal Tavern who did a tremendous job behind the bar, Martin for doing the driving (cheers mate), and to Karen and Maria for organising a very memorable event.
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Great venue, great company 
. Some of the many photos taken of the cake are below, these are by Mick Cooper and Etsu.
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