Monumental Soul - 30 June

[Geoff]

It seemed ages since I'd been to MonuMental, missed last month because of Blue Skies the next day, so was suffering withdrawal symptoms.

John Stubbs said he'd like to come along, so he drove round to my place and we went up in my car. I knew John liked 70s crossover and Modern, but did wonder if a whole evening would be too his taste, despite us spending at least half our time at Cleethorpes in the Modern room.

When we left my place it wasn't raining but by the time we got up to the City of London it was cats and dogs. Good job I had a big umbrella in the car.

We were the first in there, followed by our mate Dave Swift, shows how keen us Northern Soul fans are to hear good music. Niki was on the decks, and set the tone for the evening by playing some really nice tunes. John seemed to be enjoying them, I was relieved, you tell your friends how much you enjoy an evening, but you always worry that they might not enjoy it.

Mole followed Niki, and opened his set with Dark End Of The Street, the Percy Sledge version. To be honest, I assumed it was James Carr, but John said it sounded like PS. Then Mole followed it with another slowie, didn't catch the title, so hopefully playlists will be posted at some point. It was good to hear these tracks, you don't often hear a really slow deep soul record at a night out. This is a difference between the soul scene now and the one in the distant past of the 60s, where slow records were often played, you'd then get in close and personal with the lady in your life. None of this gliding around the floor to slower tracks, beat ballads, etc. He carried on with his set, including my request.

Then there was a problem with the sound, not quite sure what happened but it did get sorted out, but I think one speaker didn't seem to be working, hope I've got that bit right, might be my ears of course.

Gareth followed, more good music, including Gene Chandler's Without You Here, one of my favourite records, can't hear that one enough. He also played Save The Children, by Belally (or some similar name, naturally I can't remember this morning). John had heard it at Cleethorpes and liked it, nice 12 inch single. Hopefully he will be able to get it.

Then Bob Cosby, the guest DJ did his set. Quite a few I didn't know, but he did include Daybreak's I Need Love and Jean Battle's I've Got To Come In, the latter being played in Hertfordshire by Steve Guarnori. These 2 are the type of records that can be played in both the Northern and Modern scenes. As Bob is a stalwart of Soul Essence some of his tunes took me back there in my mind.

Niki took over for the last session, and kept the dance floor busy. Lots of favourites, Girl I Love You, Come See, If You Want A Love Affair, etc. Ending with These Memories, dedicated to myself and couple of others there, just love that record, lyrics so true. Then it was time to go, after saying farewell to friends, luckily enough the rain had stopped.

It was great to see so many of my friends there, nice to meet Karen Heath for the first time, sorry our chat was so brief.

The good news for smokers was that they were allowed to smoke till MonuMental finished at 2 am, didn't affect me being a non smoker but I do appreciate the difficulties some may face.

Niki was so proud of the pictures of her daughter, they were lovely, so happy for you and Neil.

Once again a great night at MonuMental, thanks to everyone.

[Paul McKay]

Well done Geoff! Great write up as usual. Sorry we missed it.

[Guest Karen Heath]

I needn't do a write up as Geoff has everything covered but Monumental was up to it's usual exquisite standards!

Nice to meet you Geoff...will have a longer chat next time if we are not interrupted!

Edited July 2, 2007 by Karen Heath