Rare Soulirish Club Nottm

After the disappointment of the cancellation of the 100 Club nighter I was looking forward to QoS more than ever.

I travelled up to Nottingham from St Pancras and arrived at the station at about 8.55pm. It was literally five minutes walk along the canal to Wilford Street where the venue, the Irish Centre, is situated. There were loads of people in the bars on the other side of the canal from the side I walked on, Nottingham is a very lively place.

Just after 9 I went into the venue in the downstairs area, and the first record I heard was I Can See Him Loving You played by Australian visiting DJ Denny Johnson. He included other classy oldies like Your Love by Choice of Colors, the Hytones' Bigger And Better, and the Constellations' I Don't Know About You. He induced me onto the dance floor fairly early when he played the Poets. Later he also played I'm Gone by Eddie Parker. He said to one of my friends that he'd been doing a warm up set, some warm up with tracks like that.

While Denny was playing I rushed around giving out flyers for Boomerang, I had more than usual as there'd been no 100 Club to give some out in.

Nige Mayfield was next, I hadn't heard of him before the first QoS but he plays some very nice tunes. Although something did go wrong when he played Ooh Boy and the sound went a bit haywire and he had to stop it, much to my irritation as it is a favourite of mine. Another he played was the Exits' You Gotta Have Money, heard that quite a few times again recently. He ended with I Can't Go On by Deon Jackson.

After Nige's spot I've got a bit confused with the order the DJs played. No doubt someone will put me straight.

As far as my memory goes it was Andy Dyson next. He opened with the Moments' Baby I Want You and included Sir Joe's Nobody Beats My Love and Cressida Watson's Salvation. Thanks to Andy for playing Like A Rolling Stone for me. Surprised I was the only person dancing to it.

That was something that did surprise me during the night, some records I thought would fill the floor only had a few out there, but others, often ones I didn't recognise got many up. I find it interesting what people dance to, we're all different.

Roger Banks did an hour's set and included quite a few Crossover and slower tunes. I remember Under The Streetlight but not sure which version, also the Hesitations' Is This The Way To Treat A Girl, one of the most popular Crossover tunes I think.

Cliff Steele took over and played a set that really mixed the styles. First up was the Appointments' Keep Away, and later he played there (Funny Feelin') Stepping Closer. Early on in the set was Richard Marks' Love Is Gone. He played Sly Slick & Wicked's Surely Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby and some Latin records starting with Too Late by Black Ice, followed by 3 or so others. I like a bit of Latin but too often it's the same ones, but Cliff's weren't the usual ones. Later he played another Latin tune, Listen To Me by Ray Terrace. He'd played it at the last QoS, that was the first time I'd heard it out. He also played a couple of Modern Soul records that sounded as if they were quite recent recordings and they had quite a few dancing to them. His last record was the Martiniques.

Following Cliff was Matt Sneath. He played what I call a pounding nighter set, with most tunes not known to me but did hear You Don't Know by the Paramount Four. He kept the dance floor action going.

Mick H took over for the final hour of the downstairs room. He concentrated more on medium tempo like I'll Let You Slide but did include Shake Cheri, but something went wrong, think he accidentally took it off, quickly followed with Things A Lady Ain't Supposed To Do. He dedicated Bernard Drake's I've Been Untrue to me, lovely record, he knows the sort of tunes that I really like. Towards the end of his set he played two of my favourite records, Kae Williams' Our Love Is Dying and Eddie Billups' Ask My Heart; the former a beautiful song for when love goes wrong and the latter has in my opinion one of the best love lyrics of all time. For his last track downstairs he played a new discovery by the Soul Aces which fitted in just right as an ender. Then we all went upstairs to the first floor to the other room to end the night.

I'd only popped up there a couple of times during the night, it's not easy when there are two rooms and you'd like to be in both.

Matt Sneath did the hour between 4 and 5 playing an uptempo set including Clarence Murrray's Let's Get On With That and Charlotte Tillman's Baby I'm Serious, thanks to Kev H for identifying those two for me.

Then it was Mick again for the final hour, he ended with the all time favourite Count The Days by the Magnetics. Then it was time to go home.

Took a stroll to the train station and got the first train to London at 7.29, got home at about 11 am.

As usual at QoS loads of my friends were there, great to see you all. It was nice to meet Mick H's two sons.

I enjoyed the night very much, both on the music front and socially. I hope I didn't ramble on too much to my friends. Hopefully see many of you at Spirit in a couple of weeks. If I've got anything wrong in this review please let me know, maybe wrong record played by wrong DJ, etc. My memory seems to go blank after a nighter.

Thanks to Mick for organising the night, and to the DJs who entertained us, plus the bar and security staff.

The next one is 29 October, I intend to be there all being well.

Fantastic people..music could av been alot better,to much competion stuff needs to wind up a touch,let the dance floor folk dictate..empty floors means nowt to me.....some good DJs,out there who dont get a chance,an should do..nowt personel dudes..x