thenm bloody adverts to the right are needed I know but they sure do upset the flow of the post, I digress.
Some of you may not be aware but Steve J of spalding recently held a charity night and since last Friday has raised £1600.
I donated to the cause a framed print Ive had for donkeys, Steve is sending it back suggesting that it may make more cash if raffled off at a Peterborough event, I agreed.
The prints (as below) along with some raffle tickets will be available at The Peterborough Fleet Double Room night Novemeber 21st.
To give you a little insight to what this little all-nighter venue meant to so many locals Ive copied in a piece I did for a soul mag many years ago.
During the late 60's early 70's Clubs such as Peterborough's CLOUD NINE were platforms for many youngsters to venture to the TWISTED WHEEL MANCHESTER - THE LANTERN MK'T HARBORO - THE CENTRAL LEEDS or as in my case BLETSOE BEDFORD, Cloud Nine without doubt made a major contribution toward what is now one of the most respected areas for Rare Soul collectors and fans alike.
During the 70's numerous venues in and around the City opened their doors to this new sound that was sweeping the country, no longer was it confined to the North those from the south who had been traveling were bringing this wonderful music south in our case East and it all kicked off big time.
I have some fond memories of venues in the City such as THE SOUL 'OLE (Stanground), THE SOUL CELLAR, THE CAROUSEL CLUB, THE SPINNING WHEEL and THE CELLAR BAR STAMFORD. To comment on all the above clubs would be unfair as each one made a significant contributions to the Northern Soul Scene in Peterborough however THE CAROUSEL CLUB @ THE WIRRINA was the catalyst for scores of Peterborough youngsters to be introduced to the Northern Sound
THE CAROUSEL CLUB-WIRRINA - PETERBOROUGH
I first attended this venue in 1971, a Tuesday night and the venue was Soul Dance across the board, Pete Edwards and Ian Freeman worked together to keep the Northern Soul fraternity happy. The evening became so popular that 500 plus people attended and to be honest if you got there after 8pm you didn't get in, so much was the success of "The Tuesday nights" that The Wirrina opened the doors Sunday night for a purely Northern Soul evening.
The Wirrina was synonymous with Northern Soul so it seemed perfectly in order to ask Andy Giles the Manager if we could have an all-nighter, to cut a very long story short permission was granted and we planned our first Phoenix Soul Club all nighter for March 7th 1975...I remember Andy Giles asking us how many we were expecting "no more than 300" was my reply the surprise of seeing over 200 waiting to get in ONE HOUR before we had opened the doors, I WAS PETRIFIED, over a 1000 came in through the doors that night and our regular 1st Friday every month all nighters attracted massive crowds.
Peterboro Chaps outside the old Bus Depot nr the Wirrina
.
Resident D'j's included Gary (Spena) Spencer, Steve (Jonah) Jones, Andy (Smudge) and likkle ole me, Paul Donnelly. We were later joined by Tony Dellar and John Vincent, the word was filtering through to the North of England about this venue and Jocks such as Searling, Curtis, Levine, Evison etc all made visits to the club as well as many Live acts such as Billy Butler, Major Lance and not forgetting the Exciters which packed nearly 2000 into two rooms.
It was a truly wonderful experience and it would be fair to say that the Wirrina/Phoenix All Nighters never received the attention that it's illustrious counterparts in the North were receiving indeed a number of tunes perceived as "Bigun's from Wigan" were in actual fact discovered and played by 3 spotty faced kids from Stanground Peterborough sometimes weeks before they were ever played at The Casino, Tommy Bush being a prime example,
Our close proximity to Anderson at Soul Bowl ensured a steady stream of 'newies' which we took great delight in playing when Searling and the other big names came to town, there's not a drug in the world that can give you a buzz like Richard Searling walking over to the decks to cast his beady eye over something that he has never heard before, "yes!!!!"
The Phoenix Nighter came to abrupt end in 1976 when councilors were concerned about several issues, That last all-nighter was an eventful evening as Dave Mindham one of the co promoters insisted that no one should be told that it was the last one as pre ticket sales for Betty Wright had been received and he was not in a position to refund that night, however the other guys thought different and at 3am I was given the microphone to advise that this was the last ever Phoenix All-Nighter
Pauldonnelly 5 posts
macca 3 posts
Paul-s 1 post
Dean 1 post
thenm bloody adverts to the right are needed I know but they sure do upset the flow of the post, I digress.
Some of you may not be aware but Steve J of spalding recently held a charity night and since last Friday has raised £1600.
I donated to the cause a framed print Ive had for donkeys, Steve is sending it back suggesting that it may make more cash if raffled off at a Peterborough event, I agreed.
The prints (as below) along with some raffle tickets will be available at The Peterborough Fleet Double Room night Novemeber 21st.
To give you a little insight to what this little all-nighter venue meant to so many locals Ive copied in a piece I did for a soul mag many years ago.
During the late 60's early 70's Clubs such as Peterborough's CLOUD NINE were platforms for many youngsters to venture to the TWISTED WHEEL MANCHESTER - THE LANTERN MK'T HARBORO - THE CENTRAL LEEDS or as in my case BLETSOE BEDFORD, Cloud Nine without doubt made a major contribution toward what is now one of the most respected areas for Rare Soul collectors and fans alike.
During the 70's numerous venues in and around the City opened their doors to this new sound that was sweeping the country, no longer was it confined to the North those from the south who had been traveling were bringing this wonderful music south in our case East and it all kicked off big time.
I have some fond memories of venues in the City such as THE SOUL 'OLE (Stanground), THE SOUL CELLAR, THE CAROUSEL CLUB, THE SPINNING WHEEL and THE CELLAR BAR STAMFORD. To comment on all the above clubs would be unfair as each one made a significant contributions to the Northern Soul Scene in Peterborough however THE CAROUSEL CLUB @ THE WIRRINA was the catalyst for scores of Peterborough youngsters to be introduced to the Northern Sound
THE CAROUSEL CLUB-WIRRINA - PETERBOROUGH
I first attended this venue in 1971, a Tuesday night and the venue was Soul Dance across the board, Pete Edwards and Ian Freeman worked together to keep the Northern Soul fraternity happy. The evening became so popular that 500 plus people attended and to be honest if you got there after 8pm you didn't get in, so much was the success of "The Tuesday nights" that The Wirrina opened the doors Sunday night for a purely Northern Soul evening.
The Wirrina was synonymous with Northern Soul so it seemed perfectly in order to ask Andy Giles the Manager if we could have an all-nighter, to cut a very long story short permission was granted and we planned our first Phoenix Soul Club all nighter for March 7th 1975...I remember Andy Giles asking us how many we were expecting "no more than 300" was my reply the surprise of seeing over 200 waiting to get in ONE HOUR before we had opened the doors, I WAS PETRIFIED, over a 1000 came in through the doors that night and our regular 1st Friday every month all nighters attracted massive crowds.
Peterboro Chaps outside the old Bus Depot nr the Wirrina
.
Resident D'j's included Gary (Spena) Spencer, Steve (Jonah) Jones, Andy (Smudge) and likkle ole me, Paul Donnelly. We were later joined by Tony Dellar and John Vincent, the word was filtering through to the North of England about this venue and Jocks such as Searling, Curtis, Levine, Evison etc all made visits to the club as well as many Live acts such as Billy Butler, Major Lance and not forgetting the Exciters which packed nearly 2000 into two rooms.
It was a truly wonderful experience and it would be fair to say that the Wirrina/Phoenix All Nighters never received the attention that it's illustrious counterparts in the North were receiving indeed a number of tunes perceived as "Bigun's from Wigan" were in actual fact discovered and played by 3 spotty faced kids from Stanground Peterborough sometimes weeks before they were ever played at The Casino, Tommy Bush being a prime example,
Our close proximity to Anderson at Soul Bowl ensured a steady stream of 'newies' which we took great delight in playing when Searling and the other big names came to town, there's not a drug in the world that can give you a buzz like Richard Searling walking over to the decks to cast his beady eye over something that he has never heard before, "yes!!!!"
The Phoenix Nighter came to abrupt end in 1976 when councilors were concerned about several issues, That last all-nighter was an eventful evening as Dave Mindham one of the co promoters insisted that no one should be told that it was the last one as pre ticket sales for Betty Wright had been received and he was not in a position to refund that night, however the other guys thought different and at 3am I was given the microphone to advise that this was the last ever Phoenix All-Nighter
Edited by PaulDonnelly