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Think i may have been at the same or a similar night.I think the answer comes down to the skill and experience of the DJs.When a its mixed crowd as you describe the key is to get the floor full with a
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Yep. People invariably create schisms, not music itself. The things supposed to be about the latter isn't it? Bit of inclusivity, open mindedness, tolerance and, most of all, passion and we'll be righ
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Start with a small room.
Predicting this will become an oldies V rare/underplayed topic, and if so, so be it, but here goes:
At a new Northern Soul event on Friday with a few friends. The DJ line up and the venue were very interesting to to my outlook. If you guess the event it doesn't matter, this isn't a slight at the event, on the whole I thought it was good with a few teething problems. But discussing the night got me to thinking.
The event was one room, that room was 70% dancefloor but due to the room layout felt like 90% dancefloor. There's a mixed crowd attending, and here I'm going to make some crass presumptions.
There's a good number of bags/ Flaired skirts, beer towels, hold-alls, vests and badges, that I'd associate with a predominantly oldies / NS top 500 night. There's not a record bar but there's a few label fanatic chin strokers (no apology for that one 'cos that includes me), and I'm sure various shades of grey between those two stereo-types.
It's a big dance floor venue, it's going to take to a lot of nerve to hold for a DJ to play to a smattering of 2 or 3 dancers. When a Northern Soul 'anthem' comes on the floor fills. I'm enjoying the records that don't get such a dancefloor reaction. I applaud the DJ occasionally to try and show my appreciation but it's a big room.
Is this type of event destined to become an oldies / top 500 night due to pressure to play to dance-floor reaction?
Is it possible to run a rare/underplayed night (whatever that conjours in your imagination) in a venue with a half-empy (at best) dancefloor? I recall when we were running The Attic some guy said to me "It's good but look at floor, you can't be playing to an empty floor at 10pm", we thought we could, in the long run perhaps we were wrong.
Is there a silent (as in not noticeable as a dance-floor group) crowd enjoying the tunes that don't pull the 'oldies' crowd onto the floor? I'll give that to the "oldies" crowd, it's certainly one on the floor, all on the floor!
I realise NS was predominantly a dance scene more than a soul music scene, but then it was a nighter scene with soul nights (often mid-week) as an introduction to some and social catch up to the initiated. Soul Nights are so much more abundant these days, with their direction driven often by dancefloor reaction.