A New Years Eve Celebration 2015 London

For me the New Year’s Eve allnighter held at 229 The Venue, Great Portland Street is one of the highlights of my soul year. This one is either the fifth or sixth I’ve attended and each one carries on the tradition of excellence. There are a number of reasons for this in my opinion.

Firstly the venue is very good, a big room with a dance floor to die for, it just makes dancing so easy, thus there is less strain on one’s legs, it’s slidey without being dangerous. There is a disco ball on the ceiling that casts a strange shadow on the floor which makes you think the floor is moving. The sound was okay, to me it felt a bit too much treble but others may differ on that.

Secondly the people who attend are up for a good time, many of them are my friends from the 100 Club, in fact the left hand corner near the stage was full of denizens of that club.

And thirdly the DJs are of the highest order. Last night’s complement were (in no particular order) Soul Sam, Arthur Fenn, Keith Money and Dave Flynn. Overseeing proceedings was the promoter of the event and a DJ too in his own right Yann Vatiste. With a line-up of that calibre we knew we were in for a soulful  treat.

I’m not going to go through the DJ list and mention tracks from each individual set, just too much for me to remember, suffice to say the music was top notch and had me dancing more than at any time recently.

I got up there at about 8.45, met my friend Suzy, had a quick drink before we went in and got into the club at about 9.25. I noticed there were slightly less tables around the edges of the dance area than the last time I’d been there, for Crossfire in October. But we managed to get seats and drop of our bags and coats. Then it was down to the serious business of dancing, drinking, chatting to friends and having a good time and celebrating the arrival of a new year.

Soul Sam did three sets; and included quite a few of his top tunes, e.g. the Poets, Foolish Girl (both requested by me), Who’s The King, Ruff Nut, Sha La La, Let The Light Shine, Love Tempo, Life Is A Miracle, Love Finds A Way and many more. Quite a mix as you can see. Not too many of the funky tunes that have divided opinion recently, but all the DJs included at least one track in that genre.

Keith Money of course is one of the regular DJs at the 100 Club so is a big favourite of most of us. Again Keith included many of his most popular records such as Job Opening, Ask My Heart, I Need Your Love by Clydene Jackson, and what I presume is a fairly new addition, El Corol’s Chick Chick which got me dancing, it’s pretty fast. Thanks to Keith for playing my request for Little Anthony’s lovely beat ballad  It’s Not The Same.

One good reason for attending this nighter is that it is the only time you can see Dave Flynn in action here, the rest of the year he’s working in Japan. He always includes in his set the Allan Sisters’ I’m In With The Downtown Crowd, a record he used to play at the Capitol Soul Club, he’s the only person I know who’s got it. He played it in his first set, and followed it with another one from the CSC, Judy Hughes Fine Fine Fine, similar tempo to the Allan Sisters, went well together. During his sets he included quite a few other Dome tracks, including Wake Up To The Sunshine Girl, you either love it or hate it. Dave also has quite a few records on the Shrine label and played some: the Prophets’ One Gold Piece, just sublime, Ray Pollard’s This Time and the Cairos’ Stop Overlooking Me. And let’s not forget he owns a copy of the Mello Souls’ We Can Make It.

Arthur Fenn is one of the most accomplished DJs in the country in my opinion; he mixes 60s and 70s sounds seamlessly and always keep the dance floor working. His sets included records like She’s Gone, Love Is The Answer, Reality, Wind In My Sails, Running Back, Good Times Bad Times and many more.

Yann  Vatiste played some of his popular tunes too: I’m Yours, Fascinating Girl, My Life, Old Man Me, and the wonderful Dream My Heart, my favourite on Shrine.

For the last 45 minutes Yann and Dave double decked, mixing some lesser known tunes with classics, ending up with Dave playing the Mello Souls for a second time, but who cares most were up for dancing to that again.

And that was it, all over for another year. Time to say farewell to friends and head home. I was lucky and got a tube to King’s Cross and caught my early train, got indoors at 7.05.

There seemed slightly less people in than last time, not sure why. A few notable absentees but no doubt they had other commitments. Also there was a nighter at the King’s Hall. I did pop into the R&B room, that was very busy. Each year I intend to check out the psych beat room but the music in the main room is just too good to miss. It was good to see friends both from the London area and elsewhere in the country. We all seemed to be having a good time.

Finally thanks to Yann and the other DJs, you did us proud. Any playlists would be most welcome. And thanks to the staff of 229, very friendly I found.

I hope there will be another of these at the end of 2016.