Alfreton Alldayer 10Th July

[Blue Lagoon]

if it dont say Ian Marriott Afreton Soul Club it aint Alfreton and btw pete (casper) glyn williams had nothing to do with the reunion of 2006 so please dont associate him to those events

sorry Ian ... have not seen or heard from you since 2006 thought you had left the scene ? would be nice to see you out n' about again .. to be fair that was a great re union in 2006 .. it was banging ! but really it's the people that come along to remember, re unite and re kindle that make it a re union , not the promoter ... ... though it would be nice if you and Glynn would one day put it all behind you and forgive n' forget .. life is getting shorter ... thats the one thing for sure .. and there are too many feuds on this scene at times ... and be probaly no one but yourselves can remember or even care what you fell out over ... but most would be only too pleased to see a friendship re bonded ... there is no better feeling..

pete

[Blue Lagoon]

Well said that man.

[Mak]

hi there mr brown will be seeing you very soon too long has past its time for me to get my arse back on the scene,looking forward to meeting glyn

[Mak]

I can't for the life of me understand all the shite being caused by a member on here . OK the day did not go as planned , much the same as 75% of events if promoters were honest .

1) The event WAS NEVER advertised as a ''Re-union'' , just an all-dayer. Nowt else and nobody's business except the promoters and the punters.

2)Just because an event was held at a venue previously used, does not mean someone has the rights to the latest event .

3) I know what immense effort Glynn put into the event , and although not my cup of tea nowadays I went ,I enjoyed and I never expected it to be anything than what it said on the tin . Thank you Glynn .

It is a fact that this region is synonymous with oldies and venues that openly flaunt the fact they play the dreaded ''boot'' , but of late I have seen a more than slight shift onto the rarer side of soul being played , and very welcomed to . Also some of the newer local DJ's are steering away from ''boots'' (thank fcuk) .

So it seems the local scene is moving on at last , why cannot everyone do the same.

Ian you know you would be welcomed back with open arms , but only for the sake of old friendships and the love of the music . NOT any other hidden agenda . Get back and show us all what you've bee collecting in the last 5 yrs.

Tony

[Guest allycat23]

Ok, here goes. Some days have passed since tezza initial post, i try very hard these days not to react knee jerk and to do some deep thinking and attach some empathy when something sour comes my way.

Since the post ive spoken to a lot of people in Alfreton on the day, i've had very frank conversation with some who i know and trust would tell me the truth without blowing smoke up my backside. I asked them if i really did get it so wrong.

i'll address each posting and critisism in turn, but before i do i think some context may help.

Tezza reports on Alfreton as a 'punter', however it's worth noting that he is a promoter - a promoter just a few miles away from Alfreton in Chesterfield and he's in bed with many other so called 'promoters' in this area too.

Other critisisms have come from someone not even present at Alfreton on the day and again someone with a vested interest in the scene. Just thought that you might decide for yourself if that was an issue..

I give you that there were a few problems on the day and i accept those, all large events have them - remember the whitby door forgery fiasco, the bar at brid weekender etc etc. however i do feel that a large majority of the critisism placed at my feet and the jocks on the day is very unjustified.

lets address them then

quotes:

According to the previous posts there were very few tickets left. From what we saw on the day there must have been a shed load left over.

truth: - show me a post where i said there were few tickets left. i said they were moving fast on the friday before the sunday and they were. at no point did i say they were sold out or even close to doing so.

Quote:

Bless Glyn for all his efforts but it was doomed from the start. £10 a ticket or £12.50 on the door. Usually, at a Dayer, the early ones leave early and the late comers, well, come later. £10 for 4 or 5 hours is a bit steep for some

Fair comment, but i wanted to deliver a bit more than the (well intentioned) locals with a box of pressings. Grosvenor all-dayer is priced the same, i took that as a guideline as a reasonably quality event.

Quote:

The room was less than half full

yep, spot on and the main problem of the event. here's why it was like that.

The marketing was not at fault, ive looked at this and heres what i did. 5,000 flyers, 12,000 targetted facebook messages, wall posts, fan page posts etc - soul source, dj plugs from here to scotland, radio airtime in local area, bbc sheffield, lancashire, radio trent (internet), many community station soul shows and solar radio too via Kev. i couldnt have marketed more than i did

The day before was setup day and this was crunch time, how many were coming. we had sold 138 tickets by Saturday - my network of DJ's and leaflet droppers were telling me that lots were coming, even friday night at the shed when i had tickets folks were saying it's ok, we'll pay on the door, not got cash on me ... etc etc - must admit i was suprised but then i also know that more than twice the ticket sales for many events pay on the door despite the extra cost (which by the way was to keep handbaggers out - worked too!)

Sat i could have set the room smaller by bringing the stage farward - but on Saturday the feedback was to expect 400-500 people so i set it at over 3/4 of the full room. out of the 140 sold by the day 127 came in - again that blew my mind - why would you do that? buy a ticket and not go? - 65 paid on the door making the grand total - thats why the room had bags of room. just look on the original thread "cant wait" "the boys will be there" "glad you're back glyn, we'll be there" etc etc - i could go on - all of those comments did not come - I truly believed this was the case. - i think the fact it was a glorious day may have played a part but it could have been anynumber of things. c'est la vie

Quote: post 1

the sound system was constantly an issue with feedback and 'humming' constantly

post 2:

The Sound System was atrocious, constantly buzzing and loads of feedback. Not to hear that you must have been outside at the Scram Van.

Well, i've asked people about this and i think it might be tinnutis Terry, trip to the doctors for you young man - sure we had a bit of squeal on caspers set which was remedied and some ambient bass pickup from the tonearms, i'll address these first.

Professional jocks deal with this problem whenever they use vinyl - its always a problem and differs from record to record. watch a pro at work and youll see they constantly tweak the system. Northern jocks are jocks because they have the music - most dont even hear any bass fb or sibbalence let alone know what to do with it. short of having a sound man stood there all night you will always get a problem arise which needs someone to go tweak that knows what he's on about. When it came it was QUICKLY sorted, often with me running across the floor - how many times have you seen a promoter do that?. in the end much of the bass was rolled off just for a quiet life and so i could take a piss now and again.

But Buzzing? buzzing? this didnt happen at all. buzzing is caused by the amplification of the a/c phase change or bad earthing, neither was present - im not just saying this because i can prove it - the entire day from 4:30 until 11:10 was recorded in high quality and ive gone over it. see a doctor terry. I'm going to share the recording on mixcloud when i get chance to upload and you can all make your own judgement

to say it was 'abysmal' made me piss myself - 12k of pure sound on a system used at top concerts - Take that have used that rig in the past - we ran it at 30% capacity and to my ears and many others ive spoke to it was sweeter than honey.

Quote:

the decks failed during Pete Taylors spot,

yep it did - funny story this. i took with us three technics sl1200's - two new and one old silver one - hooked up the new ones at test and on one deck a channel was down so replaced with older silver model - the silver one was fine till about 6:00 just as nige brown was finishing and it lost sync lock. at first we thought it was the slipmat but then it also speeded up and i knew it wasnt that.

i was on the phone for a replacement and i stood there changing records on one deck for pete whilst the brand spanking new deck was ripped out of the radio studios 4 miles away. Pete and i had to change four records before the deck was here, fully wired in and normal service resumed. ps, this is on video tape too and the gap was less than 13 minutes - Chris my fellow worker mustve done over a ton on the a-38

all gigs have problems, its how fast and ready you are to deal with them that counts.

from that point on the night was flawless. evidenced in the recording

Quote:

Pete Taylors spot, who had stood in for Brian Rae who couldn't make it. Bummer as I know a lot/few of the people had turned up as he was booked

yep, spoke to bran Saturday as i did to all jocks and he was fine. he called me at around noon Sunday to say he's woken up that morning with bad pains due to a condition but that he might be ok - in the meantime just in case i called pete who was a trooper as usual - much respect to him. brian actually confirmed he wont make it at 3pm, just as Pete walked in the door.

sorry, but our favorite DJ's are getting old, brian would like you all to know he's very sorry but it couldnt be helped. you wouldnt have liked him tho tezza cos he'd have played oldies you know rather than stuff you dont.

bummer eh .. rather disrespectful dont cha think?

Quote:

The music policy - whatever is played around at the moment - Alfreton 'reunion' ?? Don't get me wrong, I love the music, but everywhere you go .... Ask around and see how many say its getting predictable.

I specifically said in my posts that this wasnt a reunion Terry - (suggest eye check too at same time as tinnutis one).

Quote:

It is annoying that you have to pay an inordinate amount for these top named DJs who come along with a box of 50 records and play what anyone could bring from home. Their collections must be huge but still the same... Sean Chapman was his usual excentric self but what the hell was that track he finished with. Yeh, great wasn't it - no !! it was a bit of Ansel Collins !! Wasn't it advertised as a Northern Soul Dayer ??

i sent a policy message to all jocks of the day - i asked them to make sure they include a fair amount of 'underplayed oldies' in their sets, i asked them to play all original vinyl and advised that at Alfreton they don't have to do 'same old same old'

all but one played OVO, something you dont get from you bloke down the road with his box of pressings and the one who did play some got a proper bollocking for breaking policy. You seem to forget that the big songs today were indeed re-awoken by Alfreton back in the day - they were in the main Alfreton songs, there was nothing else around - however as i said, this was not marketed as a re-union.

As for your comments ref the DJ's that smacks of disrespect to me. Mssrs Evison, Taylor, Brown, Chapman and the others are legends in the scene and are representative of those people want to see - not someone stuffed inbetween the bingo in a miners welfare playing tracks no bugger wants to hear. Dave played a massive part in building this scene in Mr M's etc etc and you smear him as 'turning up with 50 records and playing what anyone can from home" - you made my skin crawl with that one, wheres your respect? Those jocks have forgotten more than you or i will ever know.

As for Sean and the ansel collins track - as you say, eccentric sean, dont we love him but did you see the floor reaction? no different to playing country roads really tezza - a rock track at a Northern do??

Quote:

This scene that we all claim to love is being kicked to death by the few who dictate what we should or shouldn't be listening to.

errm, isnt that just what you did - we shouldnt be listening to dave and ansell collins right?

Quote: Coops

we couldn't get terry but i respect your opinions so thanks for your honesty, i'll know what to do next time it's on. sounded a bit like some of the reviews for the first Winding Wheel and by all accounts, that's going from strength to strength so there may be hope for alfreton. xx

Well, here is the rub then. i was told this on facebook by the guy who likes blurry photo's that this whole post and attack was spurred by my comments on the first winding wheel night. so it's payback. now we understand. bit of a difference from speakers cutting off every five minutes for four hours and pissed slappers from the town taking the piss whilst listening to folks ';dee jayying' with cheapo presssings to a few teething problems dont cha think?

finally Terry to accuse Paul the t-shirt guy of giving his opinion just cos he's a dealer is laughable when your opinion is just cos you're a wannabe promoter. thats like the mouse accusing the cat of wanting the cheese

Paul knows full well that i wont be repeating Alfreton ever again in my lifetime. I dont invest time and money for zero return - it lost some money, it was a punt - i dont repeat bad trades.

Many seem to forget that these 'wonderful memories' of Alfreton you all talk about were made by me. I started Alfreton, it was my equipment on that very first night back in 97, it was my marketing that made it happen, it was I who put my stylus on the first record and played it through my speakers after having it promoted on the radio, in the papers etc etc - couldnt flyer back then because it was Alfreton and the Hollingwood - we had to work at it and Ian, Pat and i worked hard. - most of the soul nights around here were born at Alfreton, annesley, kingsway, mansfield etc - we made it look easy and made it easy for them to grow - we had to work at it

I built the place, Ian grew into the end poromoter. sadly ian and i fell out and we still have, but i built it and you all know that.

Ive received literally dozens of messages from those there on the day giving an opposite viewpoint. Far from getting it wrong I'm actually proud of that event on Sunday, I and the team put on a 'stonking event' as one visitor told me and i'm glad i did it. I wanted one more under my belt before i call it a day on the soul scene and move on to pastures new.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say goodbye to soul source. I won't be back on here because ive never met such a bunch of backstabbers mingled in with so many nice people too - how you ut up with each other i'll never know.

To those friends i salute you and will see you around, to the others i say "phuq you very much"

now wait for it, here comes Ian .... light blue touch paper ..... stand well back...... fizzzzzzzzz

Who do some of you think you are???????????

Pissed Slapper's from the town indeed!!!! Just insult your paying punters why dont you! Oh, let me see... I think i did pay for a ticket for the Whinding Wheel, so I have as much right as ANYONE ELSE to be there, along with paying towards lining your pockets!

I am fairly new to the Northern Soul scene, and so far am enjoying the music, well that is if 'new' people are allowed in this stuck up world some of you seem to live in! Those of you that feel, now what do you call us newbies, handbaggers,should not be allowed in, or discouraged from coming in to your events, let me ask you this, the Soul Artists that you love so much, would they be thanking you for your prejudice towards people that would like to be educated and learn more about Soul music, or did they make the music for anyone and everyone listen to? I think some of you should be ashamed of yourselves, yes you know who you are!!!

As someone else said on here, please stop being so childish and grow up. Its about the music and enjoyment, and all about that, if your in it for anything else then you are not true to the music in my opinion. And lets face it, this is after all, just MY opinion.

I will keep on keeping the faith - that people will open up their minds a little more please, let us in, or what happens when the 'old soulies' are all gone? Surely theres room enough for us all?

Ally.

[Guest]

Hey AllyCat, I thought I paid for your ticket, haha,

[Guest allycat23]

Hey AllyCat, I thought I paid for your ticket, haha,

Yes babe, you did! Thank you!

[Guest]

some people think they have a right to claim some sort of copyright or trademark on the word "Alfreton". Well they don't. Anyone can put on a night wherever the hell they like and quote the location of that event and no one can lay claim to a towns name which is what has happened in the past. An event will sink or swim on it's own merits or failings and the last thing any Promoter needs is someone with a big gob bad mouthing an event before it's started because they don't like a bit of competition, even if they are no longer active in the promoting game. Too many saddos out there.