Dave Rimmer

Aachen Soul Weekender March 8 / 9, 2013 So, my weekender started on the Wednesday night when I left work, because I had to go down to Wales to collect Jessica because she was quite ill, and didn’t think she was capable of the four hour train journey to my house on the Thursday on her own. However, she had never been to Germany, or a European Soul Weekender, so was desperate to come, and I thought the excitement of the weekend would see her through. When I arrived, she was in bed, where she’d spent the whole day with a temperature of 101.4 degrees. Hmmm, was she going to make it? I fed her, with food and medicine, made arrangements for someone to light her fire on the Monday, and packed her case for her. Now when someone says: “Four bra’s, the black or beige ones.” To me that doesn’t mean two black ones and two beige ones, it means any combination of colours……..So I packed four black ones. Of course I was wrong and should have correctly interpreted it correctly as two of each ! On the Thursday morning she wasn’t much better, so I made her stand in the yard whilst I washed her down with a hosepipe and we caught the 10 am train successfully. As soon as we got on the train Jessica went to sleep, and stayed asleep until we arrived in Wolverhampton, which was quite an achievement as we changed trains in Shrewsbury ! Back at my house, she went to bed, and slept through until the alarm went off at 4.15 am on Friday morning. She took her temperature and it was back to 98.6 degrees, and she felt much better. Result ! We headed out for the airport, met Johnny Weston at the check in, and everything proceeded smoothly until we went through the departures barrier. John and I both use the same type of record box to fly with, and we were in different queues. I was waved straight through, John was stopped and not only had to open his box, but also had to take every record out of it so the miserable sour faced customs woman could examine the box for a secret compartment that might have contained four illegal emigrants! It’s a box of records! What did she expect to find under the records? Ah well, we had to have a beer to commiserate with John. So that’s when the weekend really started, at 7 am, with a pint of John Smiths! The flight was fine and we arrived at Dusseldorf, and as we were waiting to collect the cases the exit door kept opening, and I could hear someone shouting abuse at us. I could have sworn it looked like Eddie Piller as well. When we had collected our luggage we went through, and it was Eddie Piller! He was DJing that weekend in Dusseldorf with Henry Storch and had arrived at the airport half an hour before us, bumped into Lazy and The Jan, so decided to hang around to say hello. The Strange World Of Northern Soul! Stefan, known to everyone by his DJ name of ‘Lazy’ introduced himself and performed the introductions to everyone else. The Jan was there, along with Andreas, and his wife Anne (better known as the DJ MS Dienel) Then we headed out to the van for the drive to Aachen. The drive took an hour, and Jan Drews gently poked fun at Jessica all the way, explaining that in Germany they had autobahns, and bridges, and boats, and Jessica naively, said that they had them in the States as well. We arrived at the hotel, booked in, and within minutes of getting to our room a guy delivered a goody bag from Lazy to our room. He also delivered a book. Now that in itself is quite a funny story. Jessica’s next door neighbour in Wales wanted to buy a book connected with his work. It was called something like ‘The Architecture Of Welsh Cottages’, and is out of print and quite expensive now, like £200 expensive!. However, he found a copy of German Ebay, at the equivalent of £25, but the seller would only sell to a German address. So the network of Northern Soul fans came into play, and the book was delivered to Lazy a couple of weeks before we arrived. The thing that really puzzled us though is why, and how, did a copy of the book end up in Germany? Still, that was a plan that came together. Once we’d settled in to the hotel we were met by Lazy and taken on a tour of the city. Now the city is one of the oldest in Germany, and twelve hundred years ago was one of the most important, because the king at the time, Charlemagne, thought the Spa waters were beneficial to his health, so he ruled the kingdom from the city. He also built an amazing cathedral! It’s hard to describe how amazing it is, but when you consider it was built in 800 BC, the workmanship and craftsmanship astound you. Then we went to sit in the sun and have a coffee, and in Jessica’s case, a Spaghetti Ice. She’s a bit of a foody really, and has a rule that if she see’s something on a menu that she’s never tried before, orders it. As you can see from the photo, it really does look like spaghetti, but it’s really ice cream! (And was very nice too!) Aachen is also famous as a Spa town, and Lazy took us to the point in the city centre where there are two outlets for ‘Stinkendes Wasser’ (I think that’s right!). Which were water pumped up from the ground, rich in sulphur, and as you can guess, it really is stinking water! A quick beer, to try the local brew; Bitburger, and then it was back to the hotel for a rest for a couple of hours. Around 6 pm I used my finely tuned navigation skills to find our way round to Lazy’s flat for a meal, and to meet up with all the other DJs. When we got there he wasn’t in, (He was driving back from Cologne station with some of the other DJs), so his girlfriend Daniela was host. She gave us all a beer, and explained what food was available, and left us to chat with the others that were already there. You couldn’t ask for more really. What a great start to the evening. The Hamburg crew were the next to arrive, so it was great for me to meet up with Ralf, Lars, and Tolbert again after a couple of years. Then Henning from Switzerland arrived, and John Weston performed the introductions there because they knew each other. The meal was a local speciality, and consisted of a stew with a special type of cabbage in it which is only available locally, and during the winter season. Jessica of course ripped me to pieces because I tend to have a preference for meals with meat in them, and she thinks I avoid healthy meals with vegetables in them! To my joy, I discovered there was a healthy quantity of good German sausage in the stew as well, so I wolfed my portion down with glee. The beer was flowing nicely as more people arrived. I think Marc Forest was next, then MS Dienel, certainly at some point another old friend, Peter Werhand, had arrived. As the time neared 9.15 pm, the mini bus arrived to ferry us all to the venue, and the weekender started promptly at 10.00 pm. As usual, with all my reviews of weekenders, I couldn’t tell you who played what, when, but I do have to say the music was of a standard, and variety that would have only been reached at a few of the current UK weekenders ! Jessica was having a ball though. As I’ve already said, it was her first time in Germany, and she was absolutely fascinated by the difference between here and the UK. In particular how much younger the crowd was than in the UK. Because of this, we played a game of spot the English people, and Jessica said one guy in particular had to be English because he was older than most other people. I said he wasn’t English because of the way he danced. She was also quite surprised by how many people spoke such good English. To my shame I’ve been DJing in Germany for over fifteen years now, and still speak almost no German (Although I can read a fair bit, and understand some conversations now), Jessica though, had made a valiant attempt to learn some useful phrases from her 1951 edition of the Collins ‘Useful German Phrases’ book. (More about that later though!) I DJ’ed at 1.15 am, and am pleased to say managed to keep the dancefloor busy, and then we stayed for another hour or so, and then surrendered to the need for sleep. We’d been up for twenty two hours, and had to go back to the hotel. Breakfast was served up until 11 am, so we made an appearance at about 10.30 am, and Jessica’s spirits were immediately lifted to discover that they served ‘Everything’ Bagels as part of the help yourself buffet breakfast. Now I’m not a big fan of bagels, so I contented myself with the fresh rolls and ham and cheese. Jessica though, loves bagels, and regaled me with stories of having bagels for breakfast in New York (I did tell you she was a foody!). We did the sensible thing after breakfast and went back to bed for a couple of hours because the alldayer didn’t start until 3 pm. Around 2 pm we met Johnny Weston in the foyer, and wandered off into the town to do a little exploring and shopping. Jessica bought a huge pile of Aachen Printen, which are a kind of gingerbread biscuit made in all sorts of different varieties, chocolate covered and so on (Do you see a theme developing here…Jessica and food!), I bought some tobacco, and Johnny boy bought a round of beers in the Irish pub! Good to see we took the healthy option. Onto the alldayer, again at the Jacobshof, with Miss Twist from Utrecht DJing, record sales in the bar area, and a hot buffet provided for the DJs. I got the beers, whilst John started digging through the records, and then Jessica and I wandered through to the food area. It was a very tasty spicy pasta, with salad, or an extremely peppery mushroom soup. I was hungry, so I had both. Having eaten we wandered back into the bar area, only to find John had gone in search of food. He reappeared ten minutes later, with sweat on his brow, and his tongue hanging out. His face was also rather red: “Have you tried that soup! They were all laughing at me in there, because it was burning my tongue.” I did wonder why he carried on eating it if he found it that hot, but this is Johnny Weston, so thought better of it. Jessica meanwhile was practising her German. Now I’ve mentioned her 1951 phrase book, that was full of useful phrases. I particularly like the one in the aeroplane section which asked “Do you mind if I open a window?” However, it was more about trying out her pronunciation than actually saying anything meaningful. Anyway, all her new German friends got collared and had to try and decipher what she was saying. I think Lazy got the most confusing one. He was asked something along the lines of “Can you strip and degrease the engine in the motor car.”. The look on his face was classic! Jan Drews had had to pay import duty on a record the day before, so Jessica tried him with “I will pay no tax”. Several other people got trapped by her though, and I was helpless on occasions just watching the expression of confusion crossing people’s faces. Jessica actually spoke to the guy who she had said was English the night before. He was from Belgium! So that was one-nil to me! Johnny Weston, having been in the venue for two hours by now, suddenly realised it was the same venue as the night before, but looked different because the lights were on! I ask you, what is he like? Then there was the cake! Daniela apparently had spent the whole day previously baking. What a superb selection, not wishing to be greedy, Jessica and I only tried small portions of three different ones, and each one was delicious in it’s own way. Back to the hotel around five for a few hours sleep and then back to the venue for the Saturday allnighter. As is typical with all my reviews, I again have no idea who played what, I know I did two spots, both of which went well. I know we drank more Bitburger on the Saturday than we had on the Sunday, and we stayed to the end of the allnighter. I made Jessica practice her German by sending her to the bar everytime we ran out of beer, so at least she now knows at least one useful German phrase! The rest is just a blur, of laughs, conversations, and fun. We just made it for breakfast on the Sunday morning, and to Jessica’s disappointment there were just ordinary bagels, no ‘Everything’ bagels (It’s something to do with the topping on the bagel I’m informed.) and then despite my protestations that nowhere would be open, we went for a walk round the town again. Having walked past all the closed shops, we were back at the hotel in time to pack and be ready to leave the hotel at 3 pm back to Dusseldorf airport. Andreas and Anne were with us, as they now live in Sweden, so were catching a flight after ours. We said our goodbyes to Lazy in the car park at the airport, and went to check our baggage. We then had a last cigarette with Andreas and Anne, and went airside. This time it was my turn to be stopped by the border control and be asked to open my record box. I tried pointing out Johnny Weston, in the hope rthat they would grab him as well and make him empty his record box again, but no such luck. They just made me open the box though, and swabbed it for drugs, but didn’t ask me to take any of the records out, so that was ok. A quick beer and a sandwich, meant we were ready to fly, just as they announced boarding. On the plane it was a female pilot, so Jessica was treated to all the jokes we used when travelling to Belfast last year….have trouble with the pedals because of her high heels, extra mirror for her makeup, and most upset that other people were wearing the same outfit etc, etc! I have to say though, it was obvious that a man was doing the actual flying and she was just there to make the announcements because we landed right on schedule in Birmingham. UK Border control. The queues were horrendous, fortunately the queue for the automated chip reading control barrier was the shortest, so that’s where we headed. Now you may have noticed that this review doesn’t contain any classic Johnny Weston moments.,…well here it comes: There are huge signs over all the kiosks, they say three things basically. 1. You have to have a chipped passport. 2. You have to be over 18 years of age, and 3. Your passport has to have the logo on the front of it to say it’s a chipped passport. So John’s behind me in the queue, and he’s grumbling about people who can’t use the self service passport scanner, and the number of people in the queue with children. Fair point I suppose! I scan my passport, and the facial recognition software recognises me and lets me through. Jessica was in front of me, and waiting for me, so we wait for John. And we wait, and we wait. Then we see the Border Control guard gesturing John towards the huge queue for people who can’t get through. We left him to it and went to collect the bags. We had time to collect both bags and sit down and wait for him. Eventually he turns up. The conversation went: “Show me your passport.” “No” “Show me your passport, I want to see if it’s got the logo on it.” “I just followed you, I didn’t know my passport wasn’t chipped.” When Jessica and I had stopped laughing we trundled out of the airport for a cigarette and said our goodbyes to John. It had been a fabulous weekender. Everything was organised for the DJs, down to the last detail, the food was great, the beer was strong, and free! And it’s like a breath of fresh air to DJ to a crowd that have no hangups about Oldies or Newies, or Funk, or R & B. If it’s a good record, they will dance and enjoy it! It was also good to see so many of my German friends again, and people from Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and to make new friends, from all over Europe. And if you include Jessica from Wales, and John and myself from England, that means people travelled from ten different countries to be at the weekender. Lazy and Daniela especially, what a great couple, the amount of work they both put in to make the weekender a success is phenomenal, and the whole weekend is a credit to them both. I knew what to expect in Germany, and anticipated a good time, but Jessica was blown away by the whole weekend, and is now a sure convert to the European way of doing things. We’ll be back to Aachen again, and probably several other European destinations over the next few years. Hopefully we’ll see our friends again later this year in Manchester, when they come to visit the UK.

I was delighted to receive an invitation to the wedding of Jim McCracken and Trisha Brown, and to be asked to DJ as well. So, on the Thursday evening I met up with Sian and Dean from Rugby to catch a flight to Belfast City airport. The weather was horrendous, strong winds, lashing rain, and to Dean's horror, a small propeller driven plane. His reaction when he saw the pilot was even funnier though "That's all we need, a woman driver !" She did a great job though, taxied out to the runway, a little pause so that she could touch up her makeup and then it was high heel to the metal and off we took. Forty five minutes later we landed in Belfast and were collected by Phil Shields. I have to at this point say a big thank you to Phil. Not only did he open his home to us for the weekend, but actually gave up his own bed so that the visitors could have the beds and he slept on the settee for the weekend. Sian was continuing her bizarre medical experiments on Dean by trying to burn his eardrums out with some drops that were supposed to be washed out of the ear after a minute, but she'd forgotten to tell Dean that bit and told him to stop whinging when his ears started stinging. As Phil had to be up for work at 6.30am on the Friday morning and we were in effect sitting in what was his bedroom for the weekend, drinking beer, we decided to have an early night. Only for everyone to be woken by my mobile ringing and vibrating on a wooden floor 45 minutes later by Keith Money saying they had also arrived safely. Friday, the big day for Jim and Trisha. We arrived in good time at the City Hall in Belfast for what turned out to be a very quick ceremony, followed by photos in a very impressive setting. Jim scrubs you quite well and Trisha looked radiant. I did wonder why she was carrying a bunch of leeks (And it turns out every fella I spoke to thought it was a bunch of leeks), but was informed in no uncertain terms that they were flowers not leeks ! As we'd stolen Phil's car for the day we weren't on the coach to the reception venue and Sian had programmed the postcode in the Satnav so off we set. Half an hour later we pulled up outside Trisha's house because Sian had put the postcode for the RSVP off the invitation in, not the venue postcode ! I supplied the right postcode, and an hour after leaving the City Hall arrived at the Cottonmount Arms. Speeches over, some nice food, and the music started at 7pm. Jim had lined up some of the cream of Irish DJs, North and South, Steve Cato, Chris Morgan, Keith Money and me for an allnighter. Sadly, it didn't happen. Despite the venue being owned by Jim's Uncle, at 12.30 last orders was called, and at 1.30am the music stopped. I understand a similar thing happened when Jim organised an allnighter here previously. All a bit of a blow really, as Keith was down to DJ at 2am and me at 3am, so it was a long way to travel, and somewhat expensive as well, to not get to DJ ! That said we still had a really good night. Keith and Sandra have been friends of mine for nearly twenty years, and although we are often in the same venue, we rarely get the chance to have a good drinking session, we made up for it tonight though, and Dean was struggling to keep up towards the end of the night. Mostly because when we asked if he wanted another drink he couldn't hear us due to Sian's evil experiments, so we got him one anyway ! 'Sian's Executive Limo's' used the company Kia to drop Keith and Sandra off at their hotel, and came back for us having passed through a Police roadblock three times on the way. A couple more beers at Phil's and then off to bed. Saturday morning we had a ride out to see Kev up in Newry. We took the scenic route there (Sian put the postcode in the Satnav again), and the sun was shining brightly. I was introduced to Kev's charming wife Ann, and she took us on a guided tour of the beautiful part of the country she lives in. A few beers in the pub, and then a nice buffet meal provided by Ann, and then we set off back to Belfast. Kev was hoping to come with us, but Sian had persuaded Ann to say she was coming instead, so she got in the car and we drove off leaving a very disconsolate Kev waving goodbye from the door. Ten minutes later we came back, and Ann relented and let Kev come with us instead. We followed Kev's directions and it was major A roads and Motorway all the way so took twenty minutes less to get back to Carrick Fergus where Phil lives. We settled down with a few beers, and Sian took the Company Kia out again to collect Keith and Sandra first, then straight back out for Chris and Carlos, and Olof and Jo. She managed to get stopped by the police yet again on the way, and despite ending up in the middle of a marching band at one point, returned safely with her cargo.Phil did the first DJ spot, followed by me, and then Keith Money gave us a wonderful two and a half hours, especially considering he didn't have a record polisher assisting him (Ask Keith when you see him) leaving Chris with the next spot, and then Phil finished the night off for us The beer was going down well, and because there was one less chair than there were people, we sort of did a disorganised game of musical chairs all night, so you ended up talking to everyone for part of the night. It really was a great night. I know we all talk about having good nights with mates, but this was one of the best I've ever had. The music was superb throughout, there was as much food and beer as you wanted, and the company was great, and at some point in the night we realised that even though there were only eleven of us there, we had Irish, English, Welsh, Scots, Swedish, and Mexican people present. So it really was the inaugural allnighter of the Carrick Fergus International Soul Club ! I was going to post playlists, but it all got rather messy and I haven't a clue what I played anyway, so that's not going to happen I'm afraid. Sadly, around 6am, Keith and Sandra had to leave. Now on Thursday night when they arrived Keith had managed to leave his glasses behind in the taxi. After much searching, the hotel rang the taxi firm who said yes they had found them, and would deliver them out to Keith at the Cottonmount Arms. After they left Phil's there was a pair of glasses left on the mantelpiece. Nearly everyone there owned a pair of glasses (It must be an age thing !), and everyone said they had theirs, so we naturally assumed that Keith had lost his glasses again. When Sian returned Chris, Carlos, Jo, and Olof also decided it was time to leave, but not before Chris, Olof and Kev gave us all a rousing, completely out of tune, rendition of 'Hit The Road Jack', allegedly the version that Tony Clarke would have recorded if he had actually ever recorded it. I thought Little Wee Jo was actually going to wee herself she was laughing that much !!! Sian dropped them off and returned to tell us that the glasses were actually Chris's. He'd checked whether he had his case with him, but not whether he'd put the glasses in the bloody case ! Bed for a couple of hours, only to be woken by Sian conducting more medical experiments, and Dean screaming (That's not true actually, but it sounds good). A leisurely morning spent listening to a few more records, and then an afternoon spent watching the Rugby League whilst finishing off the last of the 24 cans Sian had bought for me (She had, quite cleverly I thought, done an internet shop at Tesco and had the weekend's food and beer delivered to Phil's house in Carrick) The horrendous weather had returned by Sunday, and when we got the the airport Sian was relieved to find that the plane was a jet and not a propeller driven one. She actually said though "They have probably swapped it because it's so windy" I asked her "Where do you think they got the jet from then ? The 'Spare Jet For Windy Weather Cupboard' ?" Honestly ! A good flight back got us into Birmingham early, and I was home by midnight. All told, despite not actually DJing at the wedding, this was one of the best weekends I've had for a long time, and I know everyone else thought so as well. So, to all my friends, I salute you, I feel like death today, but it was worth every minute of it. Oh, and Sian left a pair of shoes behind.

Well it's taken ten years, but I've finally managed to hit 1500 discographies and label listings on the Soulful Kinda Music website. My thanks to everyone who has contributed over the last few years, in particular Bosco Asanovic, who not only has added probably half the total, but also goes through everything I add, and corrects it The additions since the beginning of this year are as follows: Artist discographies: Gloria Taylor, Josephine Taylor, The Ikettes, The Brothers Of Soul, The Jackson Five, Hamilton Bohannon, Sam Hawkins, Tommy Bush, Ann Byers, Lorraine Chandler, Kenny Gamble, Diamond Joe, Leon Haywood, Little Sonny, Pat Lewis, Sir Mack Rice, and The Invincibles Label Listings: Sound Of Soul, Brewtown, Bronco, Golden Eye, Sound City, Blue Star, TMP-Ting Yorktown, Mercury, Arnold, and Gone. As always, contributions, and corrections are welcome from anybody http://www.soulfulkindamusic.net/

No Tulips from Amsterdam, but a whole lot of soul. When I asked on Soul Source for the dates of European Soul nights, Jos from the Amsterdam Soul Club was the only person who replied. As I'd never been to Amsterdam before I soon arranged a date with Jos, and that date was the 19th November. So here's the lookback: In the intervening weeks I had offered my services as a DJ for the night and Jos had offered to provide me with overnight accommodation, so I was all set for a weekend in Amsterdam. Of course things never work out quite as planned, and without thinking of the date I accepted a booking at Sonic Soul at Lutterworth for the Friday night. I really enjoy Sonic Soul, and wanted to do the booking, but this meant I couldn't fly out to Amsterdam until the Saturday morning (and it meant very little sleep on the Friday night as well !) Nevertheless, I caught the flight on time, landed early in Amsterdam (And a quick tip for anyone considering going to Amsterdam, all the Budget airlines that fly there are cheaper initially, but once you start to add on booking fees, card fees, baggage fees, it turned out that the scheduled KLM flight was about £20 cheaper), and contacted Jos by phone. He came out to the airport and collected me, and via a combination of train and tram we arrived back at his apartment, where I was introduced to his wife. Jos then took me upstairs to the other apartment where he showed me what his hobby in connection with Soul music was, but more of that later. Jos then took me into Amsterdam for a quick tour of the tourist sites. I was amazed that there were loads of 'Coffee Shops', that you couldn't get a coffee in ! And there were some rather strange odours wafting out of the doors. We also did a tour of the red light district (Without stopping before you ask). It was strange to see what were often beautiful girls standing in windows wearing very little, and whilst I appreciate it's an accepted part of Amsterdam (and some of the girls were really fit) it did come across as a bit of a meat market. The other thing that astounded me was the sheer number of people riding bicycles at breakneck speed on the Cycle roads. Each road had what we would call a cycle path on each side of it, and you literally do have to dodge the cyclists (It probably didn't help that I automatically looked the wrong way first though). So, all I needed for the full tourist set was to see some clogs, and yes there were tourist shops selling souvenir clogs. To be honest Jos is a proud Amsterdamer though, and provided a running commentary all the way, on architecture, history, and events that had happened, so it really was an interesting tour Back to the apartment, and a lovely meal prepared by his wife for a group of people all of whom would be attending the Soul night later. I was introduced to Paul and Mandy, and as they were originally from Shrewsbury, we found we had lots of mutual friends. By now it was approaching 9.00pm, so we set off for the venue in Jos's van. De Badcuyp is a fairly small and intimate bar, which when the tables were moved was all dancefloor. There is an upstairs balcony, but very few people used it. A fairly good range of draft and bottled beer, and I was advised to try a Belgian beer called La Choofe as it was the closest beer to English bitter. Very nice as well, except it was almost twice as strong as the typical English beer ! Very quickly it seemed the room filled up, most of the early arrivals were all ex-pats, quickly followed by the core of the Dutch Soul fans who support the venue. I was introduced to almost everyone who arrived in the first half hour, and promptly forgot almost everyone's name (I'm blaming the strong beer !). The first spot came from Jos himself, and this is where his hobby came in. For a living, Jos works for the Dutch Television News company, thus is well versed in video editing. For his hobby, he appears to have scoured the world for video clips of Soul artists. He then edits the clips, improves the picture quality, and in many cases removes poor quality sound tracks and replaces them with the original recording. This is where the editing skill comes to the fore, because not all live recordings are word perfect reproductions of the records, as we all know. Jos though has done a fabulous job, and I found it fascinating. Several venues in the UK have made use of screens to show clips of artists, but none have actually shown the clips of the artists performing the song that was being played at the time. Not only that, but Jos has some really, and I mean really, rare clips, that I had never seen before. I think my favourite was the one of Edwin Starr performing 'Agent OO Soul', but there were so many that I hadn't seen before that it was an absolute delight. Next to the decks was Pete45, an ex-pat from Manchester, (also a Man U fan, but we won't go there !). A great set of Club Classics, Oldies and R & B, all on original labels as well. Then it was time for the first of my two sets. Jos had explained that the club attracted people of all ages, with a huge range of knowledge of Soul music, from those who only knew the Motown hits, to out and out anoraks, so the first set was a bit of a jump into the unknown. Here's what I played: Set 1: (Both set lists are approximate !) Mickey Champion - What Good Am I - Musette Roy Wright - Hook, Line And Sinker - Mica Bobby Bland - Yum Yum Tree - Duke Bud Harper - Wherever You Were - Peacock. Invitations - Watch Out Little Girl - Mgm Ted Taylor - Someboduy's Always Trying - Okeh Slim Willis - No Feeling For You - CJ Ted Taylor - Miss You So - Ronn Five Royales - Catch That Teardrop - Home Of The Blues Johnny Sayles - I Can't Get Enough - St Lawrence Cooperettes - Shing A Ling - Brunswick Joanne Courcy - I Got The Power - Twirl Edwin Starr - Back Street - Ric-Tic Bobby Freeman - Never Fall In Love - Autumn Fascinations - Girls Are Out To Get You - Mayfield Edward Hamilton - I'm Gonna Love You - Carrie Jack Montgomery - My Dear Beloved - Sceptre O'Jays - I'll Never Forget You - Imperia Edwin Starr - Gonna Keep On Tryin' Till I Win Your Love - Gordy Marvin Gaye & Tami Terrell - Two Can Have A Party - Tamla Valentinos - Sweeter Than The Day Before - Chess It must have gone ok because the dancefloor remained full (As it did all night actually), and nobody threw anything. The beer kept coming, and every time I tried to buy a round I was told I couldn't. In fact Jos gave me some drinks tokens to buy beer with, but I gave them back to him towards the end of the night because I hadn't had chance to spend them. Jos and Pete both did a second set each, and then at 2.00am it was down to me to finish the night off. A few of the younger crowd had started to leave by this time, but the room still had healthy numbers, and the requests from the ex-pats were coming in thick and fast, so the second set was a bit more on the rare side than the first. Set 2 Magnetics - I Have A Girl - Ra-Sel Dena Barnes - If You Ever Walk Out Of My Life - Inferno Brooks Brothers - Looking For A Woman - Tay Frank Dell - He Broke Your Game Wide Open - Valise Billy Hambric - She Said Goodbye - Drum Tony & Tyrone - Please Operator - Atlantic Betty O'brien - She'll Be Gone - Liberty Ike & Tina Turner - Dust My Broom - Tangerine Patience Valentine - If You Don't Come - SAR James Robbins - I Can't Please You - Mica Doug Banks - I Just Kept On Dancing - Argo David & Ruben - (I Love Her So Much) It Hurts Me - Warner Brothers Tommy Navarro - I Cried My Life Away - De Jac Bob & Fred - I'll Be On My Way - Big Mack Troy Dodds - Try My Love - El Camino Sam Fletcher - I'd Think It Over - Tollie Soul Brothers Six - I'll Be Loving You - Atlantic Seven Souls - I Still Love You - French Epic Jimmy Wallace - I'll Be Back - Alpha Fantastic Four - Can't Stop Looking For My Baby - Ric-Tic Johnny Mae Mathews - I Have No Choice - Big Hit Ray Pollard - The Drifter - United Artists When my set finished I sort of helped load the van up (I actually stood around chatting making sure nothing was stolen). To my amazement, a considerable number of people got on their bicycles and rode off into the foggy night, including at least one ex pat. By this time I was seriously the worse for wear. I'd had little sleep the night before, it had been a long day, and the beer was strong, and arrived with startling regularity, so I was pleased to get back to Jos's spare apartment and get some sleep. I woke early the next morning of course, and spent a couple of hours reading before going upstairs to get Jos out of bed. After a breakfast of bacon and eggs (Which they had bought specially for me which I thought was a wonderful touch), we all set out for the city centre again. Jos's wife is a lawyer, and despite it being a Sunday, had to work, so Jos and I went on a tour of the Heineken Brewery. Great fun, and a lot better than the Guinness tour in Dublin I might add, which meant we got back to the apartment in good time for Jos to give me a lift to the airport. The fog from the night before was still around, and although my flight was delayed for an hour I still managed to fly out at 5.30pm. which was a lot better then the people who were on the morning scheduled flight because it was cancelled. I eventually arrived home around 7.15pm, tired but happy having spent a marvellous night in Amsterdam. I have only two regrets, firstly it appears that you cannot buy Old Holborn tobacco in Holland anymore, and I didn't see a single Tulip ! Seriously though, if you are looking for a great night out, in a wonderful city with lots of history, I would thoroughly recommend Amsterdam Soul Club. I had a great time, and I'm sure you would as well. Pinched from a website about Belgian Beer: La Chouffe 8.0% Champagne like mouth feel & spiced caramel aroma are the highlights of this blonde, dry pale malt character. Light hops. A burst of peach in the palate. This is the flagship ale from Brasserie D'Chouffe for a good reason.

What a great time we had. Johnny Weston and I left Birmingham airport at midday on the Saturday with brifght sunshine and 26 degrees. We arrived in Edinburgh to dull overcast skies and by 5pm rain ! It didn't dampen our spirits though, Derek collected us from the airport and we went on a magical mystery tour to collect some speakers and cables. After a fish supper and a couple of beers John and I left Derek to finish setting up, and we jumped a lift to the Spiders Web where John was doing a spot. Great little underground cellar Soul Club. I know it's been running years but this was my first visit. To my surprise I probably knew 80% of the people in there, including the Italians and Germans ! Didn't recognise George Wallace at first though, because he's shaved his beard off !! Back to the MacRobert Pavillion for the niter. When we arrived in the afternoon I thought it was a huge room and would need a lot of bodies to fill it, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the room well over what I was expecting at 11pm, Virtually all the seats were taken and the dancefloor was warming up nicely. A few more beers and then it was time to DJ. Derek came to me and said a few people had been saying there was too much midtempo being played. No problem, straight into it with a few banging Oldies. Floor full ! Job done. I left Johnny Weston with a full floor and went straight through to the R & B room for my second set. Now whilst I'm known for playing R & B in my normal set, I don't consider myself an R & B DJ, especially when I'm up against the best of the Scottish & Irish R & B DJs. So I was outside my comfort zone with this one. But that gave me the nervous edge you need to put a good set in, and I was quite pleased that not only did people not throw things at me, they danced right though my set. Quite a few people came and looked at what I was plying as well, so that gave me some quiet satisfaction. In fact I was really pleased with the way the set went, and it gave me a real buzz doing it. Back into the main room for some more beers, until the end of the night, to find Johnny Weston DJing in the Modern room, virtually to himself. Not that it bothered John, he just played what he wanted. A lift back to the airport, to try and get a last beer with Andy Dennison, but strangely the bar wasn't open until midday on the land side, but opened at 6am on the airside, so we said our goodbyes to Andy and went through to have a liquid breakfast. Overall, a great night. Derek Robertson did a fantastic job pulling it all to gether, and I think everyone who attended it really enjoyed it. So thanks to Derek for inviting us, thanks to all the people who had a chat and a beer, and thanks for the Scottish hospitality. See you all again soon. Dave can read more views amd post comments via the events own thread in the soul source event guide

It was a pilgrimage ! Down to worship our religion at the 32nd Anniversary of the 100 Club allnighters. On board we had Gospel Bob, Dave the Bishop Of Banbury, the Reverend Rimmer, Sister Sharon the dancing Nun, and Verger John. Despite a late start we made good time down to London, with no hold ups for traffic. This was of course expected, we were on a Mission from God ! As we pulled up at the back of the 100 Club, Ady 'the Godfather' Croasdell was just arriving as well. We paid our respects, (although I told John that trying to kiss the hem of his robe was a little over the top), and I gave Ady a lift down the stairs with all the Anniversary singles. I did actually try to run off with one box, but he caught me. I helped Trickster put the tables out, all fourteen of them, and then sat down with a beer to wait for the music to start. As with all the Anniversaries it was mostly Oldies, but less this year than others I felt. To be honest, Butch and Keith played pretty much their normal type of spots, Roger Stewart provided the link back to the early days of 6Ts by contributing a couple of good spots. Ady debuted the new Pied Piper recordings that he has recently unearthed (And there were such a lot of good, no, great tracks, that I can't wait for the CD), and that left Mick Smith. For me, Mick Smith made the night. Three spots through the night, and he showed that if you want quality, rare Oldies, delivered with enthusiasm, this was the way to do a spot. A new record was set as well. Where I sit selling records you can always tell how many of the women haven't been to the 100 Club before because they come towards the Gents toilet whilst looking for the Ladies. We count how many do it each Anniversary. Last year it was ten, this year there was a 33% increase, as the number rocketed up to thirteen. I often wonder how do these people hear about the Anniversary, and where do they get their tickets from ? Talking of which, who the hell let the 6'5" East European in. Not only was he huge, he was completely hammered and kept asking if I had any Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd records for sale. Oh yeah, and kylee made a new friend who's extremely good at projectile vomiting ! The last laugh of the night came in McDonalds though. I introduced Charlie Mac from Banbury to Jessica from New York. He asked where she was from, and Jess replied Wales, where she has been living for several years now. You could see the cogs turning and the strong smell of burning as Charlie tried to associate Jess' strong New York accent with Wales. Eventually the look of confusion on Charlie's face was only cleared when he actually said "That's not a Welsh accent is it ?" As always I thoroughly enjoyed the music, the company, and the Anniversary single. Well done to all the DJs, and everyone else who made the night such a success. Dave site info the top photo is from Spirits soul source photo album can view all pics and also John Westons pics from the nite via links below and can read all the event discussion via soul source event guide entry