Black Lion in Manchester: Zero Tolerence Plays, review and more -Shirley

The promoters of The Lime Street at Duckinfield made a few changes to their monthly soul night in May. Firstly the promoters themselves were rearranged the contacts now being Sid Jones, John Purvis & Joan Livesey the resident DJ line-up was re-vamped slightly to the format above, what else, oh yes they moved from Duckinfield to that Great Northern Soul Metropolis of the North West, Manchester.

Review of the new soul night at the Black Lion in Manchester.

New Venue Alert 08/05/04 - ZTSC Black Lion Hotel, Manchester

Guest DJ: Carl Willingham

Residents: Eddie Engel, Jumpin’ Joan, Alex Jones, Sid Jones, Colin Wood

The promoters of The Lime Street at Duckinfield made a few changes to their monthly soul night in May. Firstly the promoters themselves were rearranged the contacts now being Sid Jones, John Purvis & Joan Livesey the resident DJ line-up was re-vamped slightly to the format above, what else, oh yes they moved from Duckinfield to that Great Northern Soul Metropolis of the North West, Manchester. They also decided to give the whole set up a catchy name Z.T.S.C.!!!! more on that later.

So firstly the venue, situated in a room over the Black Lion Hotel at the corner of Chapel Street and Blackfriar Road in Manchester. The room has a bar at one end and a small raised stage area at the other whilst in between there is ample seating (no wise cracks about my ample ar**e thank you very much) and a central dancefloor, size and capacity? well let’s just say that the room is on the bijou side and leave it at that, all adds to the ambiance don’t cha think Records on decks about 8.00 ‘til late.

Now what does that acronym ZTSC mean well for those less anorakky soulies, oops sorry I mean not as well informed or (more likely) those soulies who couldn’t give two hoots about the vernacular of the record collector, ZTSC apparently refers to the letters & numbers found on vinyl. This code reveals to those in the know all manner of information such as the year of pressing, the records origins, the location of the pressing plant, the contents of the record plant workers sandwiches…….blah, blah, blah…… don’t know ‘bout you but I tend to look for more obvious and easier clues like the ones usually to be found on the bit of paper stuck onto the centre of the vinyl. Artist and title are usually enough for me and I gotta say I find this method of identifying a record much easier on the old brain cells, not to mention the old eyes )) hmm!!

I can sense some of you may be losing the will to live with all this inane banter about ZTSC markings still I’ve managed to get in five references to ZTSC, (six and counting ))) It’s called subliminal advertising I think and if this crude tactic gets any of you to come and have a look see at what this soul night is all about it’ll have been worth it. Quite a few soulies turned out for the ZTSC’’s (still counting) inaugural event, and of these soulies many had travelled a fair distance, some had made the journey from Mansfield and one soulie had even ventured from as far away as Cambridge.

Now what other music could fire up emotions to such a degree that they lead to soulies traversing the country every weekend for just one night out? I know when I mention our travels to “normal people” they consider Col & I to be slightly crazy, and not just for the distances we can go over any given weekend to get to and from a soul night, I’ve also noticed “normal people” don’t seem to understand how passionate we soulies are about the whole scene or is it just me that is actually crazy ))

Enough musings, back to the job in hand. What is the relevance of ZTSC and what does it mean? Well it simply stands for Zero Tolerance Soul Club, clever stuff eh, eh?!!!! ) And now I’ve revealed the acronym, the music policy has probably become a little clearer, yup that’s right the music policy is that there is no music policy, it’s really all about unashamed out’n’out across the board great Northern Soul of the lesser played variety. It’s the sort of soul night where DJs are DJs and soulies are appreciative. So for those of you who would like to know if the DJs delivered a good cross section of spanking toons John, Dawn & I managed to jot down a few toons played so here are the playlists – apologies in advance for any omissions, errors or mis-credits on the list, it’s bad enough trying to work out what I wrote down without the added fun of deciphering someone else’s notes especially at a later date. (there now I think that’s the blame for any inaccuracies nicely shifted on to John & Dawn )))

Alex Jones

Buster & Eddie – Can’t Be Still

Fantastic Epics – Let’s Get Together

Tootsie Rollers – Give Me Love

Para-monts – Come Go With Me

The Venturas

Clarence Townsend – I Found A Love

Eddie Engel

Otis Clay – I Gotta Find A Way

Gino Washington – I’ll Be Around

Carol & Gerri – On You Heartaches Look Good

Barons Of Soul – You Need Love

Joys Of Life – Goodtimes

? - This Misery Is Killing Me

Bonnie Herman – Hush Don’t Cry

Ronnie Mcneir – Sitting In My Class

Limitations – I’m Lonely, I’m Troubled

Servicemen – I Need A Helping Hand

Candi Staton – Now You Got The Upper Hand

Cautions – No Other Way

Skull Snaps – I’m Your Pimp

Vicky Baines – Country Girl

Len Jewell - Bettin’ On Love

Sid Jones & John Purvis

James Bell & The Highlighters – Amazing Love

?- No More Heartaches

?- One More Night

Capitols - Don’t Say Maybe Baby

Donald Height – Rags To Riches To Rags

Colin Wood

Houston Outlaws – Ain’t No Telling

T J Willimas – Baby I Need You

Jenny Wren – Chasing My Dreams

Sophisticates – I Can’t Stand It

Fabulous Downbeats – Life Goes On

Night Train – To The Bitter End

Parfays – You Got A Good Thing Going

Esko Affair - Salt N Pepper

Presentations – Call On Me

Moses Smith – Try My Love

Delilah Kennebreuw – Bright Lights

Gloria Jones - Finders Keepers

Ithacas – If You Want My Love

Rock Candy – Alone With No Love

Sony Til – Tears & Misery

Curtis Blandon – In The Long Run

Donald Lee Richardson – Palm Of Your Hand

Butlers – Laugh, Laugh, Laugh

Helen Shapiro – He Knows How To Love Me

Chimes – The Beginning Of My Life

Joe Douglas – Crazy Things

Carl Willingham

Toni & Lynn

Matadors – Say Yes

Frankie Beverly & The Butlers – Because Of My Heart

De-Lites – Lover

Oxford Knights – Where Can My Baby Be

Soul Inc – Teardrops

Fascinators – In Other Words

Masqueradors – That’s The The Same Thing

Ellie Greenwich – Baby

Topics – Hey Little Girl

Carl Spencer – Cover Girl

Phonetics – Just A Boys Dream

Lou Pride – I’m Coming Home

Soul Machine – Hang On

Athens Rogue – She Could Love Me

These toons were played but not sure by whom )

Caroline Anderson – Taking My Time On Love

Robert Martin – Good Thing Going

Eugene Jefferson - Pretty Girl Dressed In Brown

Connie Questrell – Give Up Girl

Magaret Mandolph – Something Beautiful

Drake & The Ensolids – Please Leave Me

Billy Hambric – She Said Goodbye

Johnny Watson – Ain’t Gonna Move

All in all an enjoyable evening – good company, good DJs playing great music. Thanks to Eddie for the lift tonight and of course on previous occasions, you know we’re always grateful.

Final ZTSC count including this 10. ))

Shirley Stewart

Thanks to Shirley and Colin for giving ok to yet pass on another great review from the pen of Shirley

Originally posted on Soul Talk Email List