St. Ives

[coops]

I don't often enjoy a venue where I can sing almost all the words of all the tunes I'm hearing, but there are two exceptions to this.

Exception one is the Kingsway Hall in Forest Town once infamously described (by me!) as the Wigan Casino of the 21^st century, and the other is the St. Ives reunion.

The first exception is steered by the atmosphere created by and the clothing worn by the majority of those gathered to pay homage to the Classic Oldies genre of this great and diverse scene of ours and I am always carried along by this.

The latter because St. Ives is the St. Ives of the 20^th and 21^st century. The original venue (not a shopping centre in sight) some of the original dee-jays playing some of the tunes I first heard originally at this fantastic venue some thirty four years ago. Mix this with the fact that many of the faces there are those of friends of yesteryear and for me, a perfect pool of warm and soulful memories to dip ones toes in once each year.

The 'Theatre' wasn't used as an 'oldies room' (circa 1975/76/77) but as a sort of 'modern oldies' room full of 'oldies' made in the 70s, 80s and in some cases the 90s. This would normally by room of choice providing my genre of choice and although I did pop in to hear Adam Buchan (or a small part of his set) it was the main ballroom I parked my enormous net used for the purpose of capturing yet more memories to go with those of my youth.

St. Ives reunion, as with the St. Ives Evolution are, in my humblest of opinions, not to be missed.

And when I die and St. Peter calls my name at the Pearly Gates He'll just have to wait until the last few notes of Herbert Hunter fade from the St. Ives speakers before getting my gum-chewing and foot-tapping attention.

Long live St. Ives, it more than works for me.

images on https://ournorthernsouls.org

Edited October 4, 2009 by coops

[Guest shellie]

Had a fantastic night

[Guest smudgesmith]

Well what can i say............I had an absolutely brilliant night.............at "Boston Assembly Rooms"

[Guest StefMalajny]

Well what can i say............I had an absolutely brilliant night.............at "Boston Assembly Rooms"

[Guest StefMalajny]

Djaying with Kev Roberts again ???

[Guest StefMalajny]

Posh lost and I had to go to Christening so not a great day hope everyone attending had a nice a time as Coops

[coops]

Djaying with Kev Roberts again ???

[Guest StefMalajny]

I just had to mate, Smudge must have been more obligated to Martin at Boston when he had to DJ with Kev Roberts than he was to Dave last year, it makes ya chuckle

[Guest red or dead]

Well what can i say............I had an absolutely brilliant night.............at "Boston Assembly Rooms"

Well post that on their link then

[alanthesoulie]

This has been the first year in which I've been to both the "Evolution" and "Reunion" events. Skegness Weekender was still catching up so didn't quite do justice to the fastest tunes this time, but the event is a must to get to even if it was the week immediately after Skegness. Enjoyed great tunes and company as always.

[Suinoz]

This has been the first year in which I've been to both the "Evolution" and "Reunion" events. Skegness Weekender was still catching up so didn't quite do justice to the fastest tunes this time, but the event is a must to get to even if it was the week immediately after Skegness. Enjoyed great tunes and company as always.

REUNION !! More like a clearout from the local nightclubs by the look of some of the dancers. Sorry guy's it just did'nt cut it for me AND they doubled up on a lot of the tunes. I did'nt see many faces from the old St. Ives day's and don't remember Hammy

[Pauldonnelly]

I was banned by Coxy attending St Ives nighters so I never felt the urge to attend a reunion for a venue I never patronised, though I did manage to get in via a window with the help of Tony Dellar to see Gloria Jones. Just thought I'd throw that piece of useless information at ya

Tony, Hammy was one of the most upfront DJ's EVER at St Ives...

[Suinoz]

REUNION !! More like a clearout from the local nightclubs by the look of some of the dancers. Sorry guy's it just did'nt cut it for me AND they doubled up on a lot of the tunes. I did'nt see many faces from the old St. Ives day's and don't remember Hammy

as i was saying before i got cut off mid sentence... i don't remember Hammy being one of the original resident deejay's and you would have to be at least 50 to have gone to the original venue back in the early 70's. Numbers were well down on last year, i even got bloody frisked on the way in.. FOR TALC !! Advertise it as a reunion, make it a reunion. Whats gonna happen next year?? Same old, same old ?? Before you say ' well you did'nt have to go ' i was in the door before i realised what was going on. A big let down sorry to say. And no it ain't sour grapes, just the way i saw it. Tony T BONE Edgley. ex Peterborough soulie and one of the original Ivo lads.

[coops]

as i was saying before i got cut off mid sentence... i don't remember Hammy being one of the original resident deejay's and you would have to be at least 50 to have gone to the original venue back in the early 70's. Numbers were well down on last year, i even got bloody frisked on the way in.. FOR TALC !! Advertise it as a reunion, make it a reunion. Whats gonna happen next year?? Same old, same old ?? Before you say ' well you did'nt have to go ' i was in the door before i realised what was going on. A big let down sorry to say. And no it ain't sour grapes, just the way i saw it. Tony T BONE Edgley. ex Peterborough soulie and one of the original Ivo lads.

point of view respected Tony, we can't all like the same thing or Tescos would be full of just Cheese and Onion crisps and no other..... but, Johnny Barr, Kate Rudd, Johnny Cockrell, Georgina Archdeacon, Carl Boddington, Marco etc. etc. those and many more that night were St.Ivo lads and, for me, hopefully still will be once night each year.

[coops]

I was banned by Coxy attending St Ives nighters so I never felt the urge to attend a reunion for a venue I never patronised, though I did manage to get in via a window with the help of Tony Dellar to see Gloria Jones. Just thought I'd throw that piece of useless information at ya

Tony, Hammy was one of the most upfront DJ's EVER at St Ives...

my memory not being as it was but were you not on a bus to st.ives coxy ran from stamford via the 'boro?

i took the money on that bus and am sure you were on it along with fifteen or so other 'boro boys?

[Guest Catfish]

Bit late posting.. just forgot to do it! Spent most of the evening in the modern 'oldies' room, where we heard a fairly good variety of sounds. All the DJ's played danceable tunes and kept within the 'theme'!! Dave's set stayed in the centre of the pavement as such with a good selection of 70's disco and modern soul tunes; no veering off towards any funk or jazzfunk sort of feel (despite Karen and Dave's virtual playlist planning the week before on facebook!). But all good fun. A nice laid-back vibe in the room. Less handbaggy than the last one I went to. Actually not handbaggy at all.

Towards the end of the night the modern room sort of lost it a bit.. not sure what happened.. perhaps in the last hour a change of genre would have freshened it up a bit and kept some people in there. Maybe it was me.. we just all got a bit bored and wandered into the main room! Anyway I needed some proper exercise, as a whole evening of dancing that amounts to nothing more than shuffling a few inches this way or that had not really worn me out enough.

Karen & I worked off some calories in the main room for the last hour, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

One thing, I think there is more room for individual expression in the modern room; I know it's billed 'oldies' but to keep people's attention there needs to be contrast. Great tunes were played all evening, but I felt that at least 2 of the DJ's were constricting themselves due to the 'modern oldies' theme and not letting themselves play as wide a variety of music as they would normally. I'm fairly sure that Adam is capable of being a bit more adventurous. If he was the last spot in that room and had been playing full tilt with the kind of set I heard him play in the modern room at Cleethorpes, there would still have been a full room at 2am. Harder, dirtier, more funky jazzy sounds please!?

Anyway it was better than last time- the wider timespan allowed more variety for starters.

Are the DJ's given strict instructions and asked for playlists in advance, or something? (If so, break the rules! No-one will tell.. we'll be too busy dancing).

Thanks for a good night anyway, and good to meet 'red or dead' and see the usual friendly faces from around up this way.

[CAMBRIDGE SOUL]

Back from the sunny Asia, left on the Sunday evening feeling good after the great atmosphere from Sat night.

Thanks to all the DJ's that did a great job on the night , Molly I hope you are feeling better after your op ............. numbers down on last year but I expected a fall due to lots of other things on locally and stoke plus last year's record turnout was always going to be hard to get close to.

Thanks to all that came and great to see some faces that have not been for a few years.

I thought there were lots of old original faces there and as I did not promote the event in the main town there were less non soulies there than last year.

All the DJ'S in the main room apart from Martin Stanford were residents DJ'S at St Ives in the 70's & 80's , sorry you did not enjoy it Suinoz, but you should have got there a early as you missed some great spots. And sorry I could not fit you in with a DJ spot that you requested, maybe another year.

A big thank you too all the people that helped out Bridget, Helen, Jim, Vaughan, Angie, Mags, Sharon to name a few, see you all at Fulbourn on the 24^th Oct and Evolution @ St Ives on the 24^th April 2010 !

Have put some photos from the night on face book just add me via my email cambridgesoul@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks again

David