100 Club Allnighter

A quieter night number wise at the 100 Club, possibly the combination of hot weather, holidays and other soul nights had an effect. Fortunately it had no effect on the quality of the music and the enthusiasm of those attending.

After meeting friends we had to queue for a while so got in a little later than usual, to be greeted at the door by Ady Croasdell, and not having the normal frisking by the bouncers. Handed over my money to Rolly and had both my hands stamped by Garry, then down the stairs to the music. Keith Money doing the honours for the first 30 minutes or so. He included the Gambrells' You Better Move, which I've heard nearly everywhere I've been lately.

Next up was Chris Dale, opened with one of my all-time faves Feminine Ingenuity and then the Shadows' My Love Has Gone. At this point I must say that the dance floor was possibly the best I've ever experienced there, nice and slippy, but not like an ice rink which it can be early on. And even better it didn't get sticky as the night went on, which sometimes happens. So lovely to dance on. There was a young couple sitting with us on our table, their first visit. Talking to them I found that they'd never been to the 100 Club before, and that the guy came from Nottingham. I told him I'd been there a couple of weeks earlier for the Quality Of Soul nighter at the Irish Centre. He told me that him mother had been to that one. The Tangeers' Let Your Heart And Soul Be Free came on and he checked Shazam on his phone to find out what it was, and the app found it. Choice Of Color's Your Love and Suffering Wrath by Rudy Love were others Chris included.

Butch followed Chris, playing a set that included some I knew and others I wasn't aware of. Johnny On The Spot, Little Tommy's Baby Come To Me and the version of Shadow Of A Memory by 21^st Century spring to mind as I write this. Dance floor busy as usual but room to dance which is nice.

Time for Keith's second set: classics like Somebody Tell Her, 1000 Wonders, Job Opening, Hipper Than Me, Too Late, I Won't Have No Babies For You. They give a sound picture of his set, superb Northern.

Ady stepped up to the decks for the first time this night, opening with the Gerri Granger cover up Why Not Tonight. Thanks for playing the Demures for me, when he announced it as for Geoff I was at the back and hurried to the dance floor. Other popular tracks included Voodoo Mademoiselle, Nancy Wilcox's version of He'll Be Leaving You, Oh Baby Don't You Weep and Out With The In Crowd.

Ethan Howarth, a young DJ, made his debut at the club next. Starting with Tony Galla's In Love, Willie Hutch's Love Runs Out and Brice Oldfield's Ain't That Right. As well as classic Northern he included some 70s tracks including I Believe In Miracles and both sides of Brown Sugar's Game Is Over. But after this slight excursion into these “disco” tracks, as a friend described them, lol, it was back to the 60s with Marie Knight's That's No Way To Treat A Girl.

For his second set Chris Dale kept the tempo to the medium pace with tunes like Ain't Gonna Give You Up, Pyramid, upping it a bit with I'm Waiting and I'll Rescue You, then back to mid pace with The Best Is Yet To Come by Bessie Banks, one of my late wife's favourites, and ended his set with my favourite record These Memories by Almeta Lattimore.

Time for Butch's second set, again mixing the lesser known with some favourites, e.g. Salvation, the Perfections' Just Can't Leave You and the wonderful Chuck Jackson cover up, what a tune! And he also played Sammy Lee's What Goes Around, one he's revived recently. At the end of this set he played a couple that I didn't know the titles, found out via Facebook that they were the Diplomats cover up Kiss Me Girl On The Way Out and the Shades Hit It. Doubt if there are many other places you'd hear these.

As resident Keith did a third set after Butch starting with Teardrops. Dance floor busy with tunes like Never Learned To Dance, I Need Your Love (Clydene Jackson), Big Lee Dowell, Papa & The Bears, Karmello Brooks, Vondells, etc.

At that point my phone's battery died, I'd been noting some tunes on it so not really sure what Ethan played except that his last two tracks were Jack Montgomery's Dearly Beloved and Dionne Warwick's Walk On By. Some may say the latter is too well known, I'd disagree, brilliant record that I'd call a beat ballad, Bacharach and David at their best.

As per usual Ady did the last 30 minutes or so, keeping the floor busy. Sweet Temptation, Don't Tear Me Down, etc led on to I'll Never Stop Loving You and finally Baby I Need Your Loving, which had nearly everybody on the floor. Lights on and it was Tony Clarke's The Entertainer playing as we prepared to say farewell and leave.

Out into the daylight, still very pleasant temperature. Thanks to Andy Gibb for the lift to King's Cross, sorry you had to go round the houses thanks to road works.

As I said earlier a bit quieter than usual but everyone was up for a good night, and we got it. Nice to see so many of my friends there, you know who you are. I danced more than I usually do, there was a bit more space which helped, and my legs gave me agony during Sunday night, the floor is a bit unforgiving. But despite that the night was great, nothing better in the world than listening and dancing to soul music with friends.

Thanks to Ady, the DJs and the staff of the club.