Togetherness Modern Room Late 90s

[Daved]

Now that the Soul Togetherness 2015, the 16^th in the annual series, has been released it made me think back to what inspired the compilation. It was essentially the tunes that became anthems n their own right played in the modern room at Stoke’s Togetherness allnighters. Before the first compilation was released in 2000, the modern room had built quite a reputation for playing the best new release soul. The events, beginning in Feb 1997, only occurred twice a year initially, in February and October. It was common practice in the 90s to have modern rooms attached the main rooms at northern soul allnighters. This practice worked well, especially for people like me who are big fans of both styles. Over the first three of four years, the DJ line up consisted of arguably the best in the country at that time. From memory the line-up ran as follows:

 

Roger Williams

Dean Johnson

Richard Searling

Andy Davies

Terry Jones

Soul Sam

Gary Dennis

Gavin Page

 

Mike Stephens and Colin Curtis joined sometime later. There may have been a couple of others too.

 

The room itself was as good as pitch black. The bar was outside and the only light in the room was a red light on the DJ stand. You couldn’t see from one end of the room to the other. It was fairly big compared to others then and I reckon it could fit about 150or so  in. The music was loud, very loud. In fact, in my usual spot at the front beside the speaker, the bass to be so hard, it made my chest shudder. The atmosphere was fantastic and everyone was incredibly friendly. Despite the event only being on, twice a year certain tunes quickly became anthems and packed the dancefloor. The late 90s was a fantastic time for new releases. So much so, that only a small proportion of 70s/80s soul was played. I think this eventually led to the modern oldies special in July and the tent at The Fleetwood weekenders to cater for those whose taste in modern only stretched as far as 1982.

 

Here’s a list of songs that I recall were massive before the first Togetherness CD was released and inspired it. Some of which got included in the series.

 

Ivan Matthias – Somebody Knows How You Feel

Kashif – It’s Alright

Frank McComb – Wasting Your Time

Al Green – Keep On Pushing Love

Gerry Devaux - Front of the Line

Rahsaan Patterson – Where You Are (Silk's Old Skool Mix)

Darwin Hobbs – Everyday

Be Be Winans – Thank You

George Benson – When Love Comes Calling

Patti Austin – Totally Unacceptable

Lenny Williams – Gotta Lotta Luv

Sean Oliver - You and Me

Ann Nesby – In The Spirit

Maysa – The Bottle

Ali – Feelin’ You

Soul Bros feat Joi Cardwell – Let It Go (Deep Soul Vocal Mix)

Donna Allen – He Is The Joy (UBP Classic Mix)

Masters At Work feat James Ingram – Lean On Me

Edited October 18, 2015 by daved

[Sutty]

Even more impressive is that fact that they were playing James Ingram before it was even recorded 

You're right though, those tunes were massive everywhere, I never went to Kings Hall but certainly heard them out regularly, and you were often there Dave!

 

cheers Sutty

[Daved]

Ha ha, I thought I may have got my years mixed up one one or two. I mentioned Stoke because I used to go all the time and saw always packed dancefloors to those tunes. However, when I got out and about a bit more and heard the same stuff I guess that because Stoke,was only on twice a year, that to some degree they were playing the current "best of" tunes.It was a fantastic period for new music, a real golden era.

[dean jj]

Sean Oliver, recorded in Canada, came to me as a CDR from the UK distributor the week of a Stoke allnighter  so I defo played that at Stoke before it was out.

dean

[Ian Dewhirst]

Now that the Soul Togetherness 2015, the 16^th in the annual series, has been released it made me think back to what inspired the compilation. It was essentially the tunes that became anthems n their own right played in the modern room at Stoke’s Togetherness allnighters. Before the first compilation was released in 2000, the modern room had built quite a reputation for playing the best new release soul. The events, beginning in Feb 1997, only occurred twice a year initially, in February and October. It was common practice in the 90s to have modern rooms attached the main rooms at northern soul allnighters. This practice worked well, especially for people like me who are big fans of both styles. Over the first three of four years, the DJ line up consisted of arguably the best in the country at that time. From memory the line-up ran as follows:

 

Roger Williams

Dean Johnson

Richard Searling

Andy Davies

Terry Jones

Soul Sam

Gary Dennis

Gavin Page

 

Mike Stephens and Colin Curtis joined sometime later. There may have been a couple of others too.

 

The room itself was as good as pitch black. The bar was outside and the only light in the room was a red light on the DJ stand. You couldn’t see from one end of the room to the other. It was fairly big compared to others then and I reckon it could fit about 150or so  in. The music was loud, very loud. In fact, in my usual spot at the front beside the speaker, the bass to be so hard, it made my chest shudder. The atmosphere was fantastic and everyone was incredibly friendly. Despite the event only being on, twice a year certain tunes quickly became anthems and packed the dancefloor. The late 90s was a fantastic time for new releases. So much so, that only a small proportion of 70s/80s soul was played. I think this eventually led to the modern oldies special in July and the tent at The Fleetwood weekenders to cater for those whose taste in modern only stretched as far as 1982.

 

Here’s a list of songs that I recall were massive before the first Togetherness CD was released and inspired it. Some of which got included in the series.

 

Ivan Matthias – Somebody Knows How You Feel

Kashif – It’s Alright

Frank McComb – Wasting Your Time

Al Green – Keep On Pushing Love

Gerry Devaux - Front of the Line

Rahsaan Patterson – Where You Are (Silk's Old Skool Mix)

Darwin Hobbs – Everyday

Be Be Winans – Thank You

George Benson – When Love Comes Calling

Patti Austin – Totally Unacceptable

Lenny Williams – Gotta Lotta Luv

Sean Oliver - You and Me

Ann Nesby – In The Spirit

Maysa – The Bottle

Ali – Feelin’ You

Soul Bros feat Joi Cardwell – Let It Go (Deep Soul Vocal Mix)

Donna Allen – He Is The Joy (UBP Classic Mix)

Masters At Work feat James Ingram – Lean On Me

It's funny because over 45 years of going out to Soul clubs, there's some periods of one's life when one is caught up in the other stuff - Marriage, Responsibilities, Children, Careers, Unemployment, Jail etc, etc, so I've always made a point of at least trying to keep in touch with what's going on whilst I'm other-wised engaged with other stuff. So those comps always kept me abreast of those years and I keep 'em for reference purposes as well. If it was 2000, then I had a 6 year old daughter and was working for Simply Vinyl re-issuing lots of classic Pop & Rock albums mainly and doing 10 releases a month, so I certainly wasn't hopping up North much. So these releases were invaluable to me which is why I love Ralph Tee so much!

 

Ian D  

[richardf]

Colin Curtis played the first one. I remember because he followed me. Ian Palmer was on the bill too.

 

[Mark R]

3 hours ago, richardf said:

Colin Curtis played the first one. I remember because he followed me. Ian Palmer was on the bill too.

 

From my archive! LOL

 

Cheers,

Mark R

Edited November 13, 2015 by Mark R

[Soulandy]

What was the free 7"? I have a few freebies but not this. I was there but obviously not one of the first 1000. I seem to remember a jazzy version of ordinary joe, Terry callier, getting played in the main room. Great memories and the modern room opened up my ears to something different :-)

[richardf]

1 hour ago, Mark R said:

From my archive! LOL

 

Cheers,

Mark R

Nice one, Mark...I even remember Colin starting off with Southside Movement...bit strange when I can't remember what I went to the shops for these days   :-)

[Daved]

16 hours ago, soulandy said:

What was the free 7"? I have a few freebies but not this. I was there but obviously not one of the first 1000. I seem to remember a jazzy version of ordinary joe, Terry callier, getting played in the main room. Great memories and the modern room opened up my ears to something different :-)

It was a version of "I Need My Baby" on Goldmine 7s. Can't remember by who.

[Chris Robinson]

I ain't been Stoke for years. Is the upstairs still used at any soul do's? It was very empty the last couple of times i went about 10 years ago  shame