Kings Hall Stoke All Nighter

Stoke is either good or great ...never really bad, and you will be sure to like at least half the stuff played in either room no matter what your taste in northern is.

It is pretty well run and only occasionaly does a beer monster get in!!

This one was good and yes there were one or two younger guys doing the "look at me ain`t I a great dancer" routine BUT didn`t we all go through that in our early years ? ...I guess I did so I just smile and let them get on with it  as my feet still work fine but as I am now pushing the late Fifty mark... the splits, swallow dives et al are beyond me.

PS. Really good to see Pep back on the decks , as he and Soul Sam were two top DJ`s back in the early and mid Seventies with awesome playlists of classic oldies and were worth the entry fee alone at the Tiffanys all- dayers circa 1975/78 in Newcastle under Lyme

Top night at the Kings Hall.

Managed till 4am,from 9pm,legs and feet could

take no more.

All the DJ's played great sets.

Dave Evison's spot was amazing,forgotten and

underplayed Wigan oldies galore,loved it,thanks

for Little Carl Carlton.

Andy Dyson did it for me also,uptempo heaven

Thanks to Ginger for comments on Ian Gee

and for William Powell.

Thanks to Pep for Tamala Lewis.

Brilliant,loved it.

KTF

Ron

Always well worth the effort to get to Stoke. We go to a lot of nighters and there's nothing really quite like it. Even on a ( not great ) night there's stuff that make the whole thing worthwhile. Last night it was Ted Massey upstairs Andy Dyson downstairs and a masterclass from Ste Cootes on the floor. 

Kings Hall Stoke Allnighter Feb 20 2016

OK first things first, Kev Roberts’s eats babies, Kings Hall Stoke is full of beer monsters throwing ale all over the dance floor and the music is rubbish.

OK now that we have the preconceptions out of the way I shall precede with my revue of this Allnighter that is celebrating its twentieth anniversary, the first Kings Hall Stoke was 1996! Way before most where on the internet and the landscape was very different back then with no social media and a fledgling Soul Source, to be honest it is a miracle that any Allnighter became successful back then but I digress.

Saturday evening starts with us pulling up to the car park, the sight of that queue still flicks my switch, I was only a visitor to Wigan Casino, I missed that and here I can experience a cathedral of Northernsoul, if I have to be brutally honest the baggy pants brigade have pretty much changed and there is a more dare I say genuine Allnighter fan enjoying what I feel is a very special experience.

My routine is to enter the main room to say my hello’s and I do enjoy meeting friends old and new, the environment has mellowed over the years, there is a skip in the step and a real feeling of welcome, fun and smiles, a great atmosphere and the people who are there are all pretty much focused on the music and dance, I think the only poser there last night may have been me?

Into The Windsor Suite and John is cranking it up playing some off the beaten track sounds and setting the tone for the evening, The Windsor Suite is a Nighter within a Nighter and gives another dimension to what is happening in the Main Room, I find it exciting and unpredictable and dripping with quality, there is a trifle of flavours laying out to be enjoyed with every year visited giving the dancer an opportunity to enjoy a full spectrum of sounds and decades played by some very well informed DJ’s, Julie takes over from John and my night begins, the dance floor is small and cosy, you can do your own thing without having to care. Musically The Windsor Suite has to be up there with the very best offering the dancer a real experience of rare and underplayed dance with many pleasant surprises to boot.

The punters drift in and out enjoying both rooms, some stay longer than others and there are regulars who spur the DJ’s along to play their discs, all ages are present with no hang ups, it is an event to be savoured and I certainly do. Carl & Maria Willingham dazzled me, Ted steps up and the quality line is extremely high, The Nuclear Weapon is Soul Sam who is firing on all four cylinders and that is a pleasure of the highest order.

The small hours for me are then spent in the Main Room dancing to those tracks we all cut our teeth on, I love it! One day this may all be gone, if you haven’t been then go, if you don’t go because of some misconception then you should revisit, I think most of the criticisms have been about the etiquette but I would suggest that thinks have changed, they always do and there has been an evolution at Stoke, I will certainly be back.