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Really feel for you two Dave and Val, your right its all about baggy trousers with buttons oldies and revivals. The guys that run them are raking it in, fed by a load of clowns attending them, playing
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I've had some brilliant nights at The Wilton, heard some fantastic music, many you don't get the chance to hear on your usual nights out. I've seen some fantastic acts, all quality, in one of the bes
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Absolutely gutted. From the early days at the Carlton club, Wilton All nighters and then The soulful sessions, these nights have been a big part of my life. Always supported by similar minded people w
Wilton’s Soulful Sessions - Richard Caiton Concert
The event was fantastic – Richard performed 14 songs and an encore backed by our band PUSH, Yes! our band, these guys love the Wilton events and have always done a fantastic job of making their arrangements sound just like the original recording. They love the music our artists created and all the music that’s played by the DJ’s on the night. We have been so lucky to have these guys involved with all our artists; we must thank the band, especially band leader Ernie McKone, not forgetting our celebrity keyboard player Mike Talbot and all the other members.
We would like to thank all of you, the fans, for attending and supporting us over the last five years of the Wilton’s Soulful Sessions events. We have had some great artists perform for us, some that have never performed a full concert in front of a UK soul crowd before.
We kept the Wilton as a soulful “specialist” event (you know what I mean); the music is not Northern Soul oldies and sadly, today, it’s hard to survive with an event based on this policy. The attendance of 230 at our last night made a very good night for Richard, but was very much down on previous ones, mainly due to the amount of events now on the soul calendar, many on the same night, targeting the same crowd that normally attend the Wilton events.
We had our date confirmed in February this year and the artist confirmed in March. Looking at the soul events calendars at that time, we were clear of any major clashes, but through the year that changed and affected our ticket sales dramatically. The result was that ticket sales were short of the financial breakeven point, losing nearly £2,500. We never wanted to make a profit, just get close to breaking even, unlike many other promoters.
At this point we would like to thank Mick and Mo, Martyn and Lynn for their collection skills and all your donations on the night, which resulted in £522 being presented to Val in a Champagne Bucket. Your donations helped us out but we still lost a lot of money, and as a result we have decided to end the live acts at the Wilton.
It just too expensive to risk when the initial support isn’t there anymore. To agree a performance fee with an artist, pay for his flights and sometimes additional flights for a partner, hotel and meal costs, the fees for the band and their hotel and meals, the fees for the PA guys, artist’s work permit, venue hire and whole lot more, is a lot of money.
I know our regular supporters will be disappointed but we can’t continue. We had lots of plans for other artists including Chuck Bernard, Patti Hamilton (Lovelites) to name just two, but without support from the fans this now won’t happen. It’s very strange to me that these artists’ records can fill a dance floor, but can’t fill a venue when they are brought to the UK (Yorkshire) for a live concert!!! In a lot of cases it is more about who is going, or a reunion of a past venue, or a charity event - not about the artist who recorded the music we all love.
Richard had an experience at the Wilton that he will never forget; he performed songs that he had never performed live before since he recorded them some 40/50 years ago. You gave him something very special, you showed him how much his music is appreciated by UK soul fans. He left the UK on Monday a very happy man – Thank you.
We would like to thank all the people who have helped us stage our events, The dj’s – Soul Sam; Arthur Fenn; Mike Charlton; Mouse. The girls on the door - Kath and quite a few others. Stewart and Steve for help in setting up the room. Mr MC – Tim Brown, and everyone who helped with ticket sales and promotion. We would also like to thank the Wilton (Greywood Hall) Managers – Grant & Gilly and their staff, who have always accommodated us with every request we have made.
It’s hard to keep the faith.
David and Val