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Back in the day, in the early 70's all my mates used to travel from the North East over to Wigan Casino for the all-nighters. At the time I had no interest in Northern Soul, I liked soul music but as there was generally no wider release of these records they were unknown to me. I was 17 and more into what Roxy Music, David Bowie and the like were doing at the time. I never really got the Northern Soul thing and couldn't see the attraction of a 3 hour bus ride to Lancashire to take drugs and dance all night. When I went to the local discos at the time and they put on things like Skiing in the Snow and The Bandwagon's Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache I would see my some of my mates doing some of the most amazing acrobatic dance moves. It always intrigued me. I did a disco in the late 70's and was occasionally asked to play some Northern Soul, I only had Fathers Angels and Robert Knight and a couple of others perhaps, plenty of other soul though but the Northern stuff just wasn't widely available, my mate lent me 3 of his records, he emigrated and I've still got 'em (sorry Andy if you're out there you can still have 'em back!!). Disco was popular at the time though and most people i played to just wanted to hear Donna Summer, Trammps Disco Inferno, Parliament, Herbie Hancock and the like, oh and Lynyrd Skynrd!. Skipping forward to now I have been doing a disco again for the last 6 years, in that time after hearing some of the Northern Soul that is now so widely available on CD I have fallen completely for this music and wished so much I'd made that trip to Wigan all those years ago to see what the fuss was about. I have quite a large collection of Motown, Atlantic, Stax and especially Northern Soul on CD now. I would like to do a Soul Night, too this end I have a venue booked with a large wooden dance floor, Bourne Corn Exchange in Lincolnshire. However, after talking to one of my old mates who is still into the Northern Soul scene in a big way he reckons Northern Soul fans won't come and dance to it if it's not vinyl and I'm not known on the scene, which I'm definitely not. After taking some advice from the people also who promote events and run the Corn Exchange I am on the brink of pullling the whole thing as they reckon I'd be lucky to cover my costs. I wasn't intersested in making money from this event, I just wanted to do it and try to make a success of it and make a donation to the British Heart Foundation after covering my expenses. I'd be interested to hear anyone's s thoughts on this.