Blackpool Soul Festival

A few days to reflect just confirms how great this event was. Big thanks go to Richard Searling and the organisers, the artists, the djs, the Winter Gardens staff, the traders and everyone who attended. All combined to make it a particularly memorable experience.

Three years ago I rushed to buy advance tickets when it was announced that Jimmie Delphs would be performing, and ever since then I was worried that the pandemic or just the march of time would put a spanner in the works. That's what happened to some of the other performers, but in the end we got two fantastic shows and sterling work as always by Snake Davis and the Suspicions.

Jimmie got us started on Friday and performed four songs, including an amazing rendition of his beautiful "Do you know what I mean", sung note perfect 45 years after the recording. "Dancing a hole in the world" ended his set in great style, and then we had a very classy performance from Jean Carne who gave us some of her PIR era hits and worked the audience like a true professional. The dimwits taking selfies and otherwise ignoring the stage action were the only minus ... despite a full set of rooms open elsewhere. Fortunately the message seemed to get through by Saturday, when we were able to enjoy in more respectful company Betty Harris and a returning Eddie Holman, who might be a senior citizen but who can still knock it out of the park vocally.

The variety of genres represented was wide and deep as before, making it impossible to follow the action everywhere. The Old Vic was predictably busy throughout, and Saturday afternoon's session with Nick Aravis, Dug Chant and Tony Monson was at a very high level, with Nick playing the kind of set that make his Saturday shows (now on JFSR) essential. Dug as always managed to play 70s tunes that absolutely should be played but are not, probably because many of them are album tracks and otherwise quite obscure. Tony meanwhile brought us firmly into the present day, which sounded quite refreshing by contrast, although I've heard quite enough of the Terry Green Project  (sorry Tony)

The amazing Spanish hall upstairs hosted some great northern sets, and special thanks to Mark Freeman and Butch for two great sets on Saturday. The Derham lounge hosted more modern sounds and here John Kane was on top form as usual. It's a real pleasure to see a dj who so visibly loves his work. 

The Pavilion hosted two sets by Derek Mead, who played a mystery version of "I get the sweetest feeling" by "Someone Else". Clearly the standard for cover up names has slipped a lot during lockdown. Also good to hear Denise Lasalle's take on "Right track". Keith Money's opening set on Sunday was tip top ... so good to hear Richard Caiton played out.

The Sunday afternoon Ritz revival session was packed from start to finish, and big thanks to Chris Box, Mark Grice and Neil Rushton for giving us a great set of selections that showed just how great an era that was musically.

We finished the Sunday evening in the Empress Ballroom with Rod Allsworth and Jimmy Scriv, followed by Richard and Kev to the close at midnight, rounding off a spectacular weekend. So good to see friends we hadn't seen for literally years and to meet new ones. Such a shame we had to wait so long, but in the end we were rewarded very handsomely.

Take a bow, everyone 👏