Geoff

Looking forward to another musical masterpiece at this alldayer, always delivers great music and of course good to see my friends there.

Well done Yann Vatiste for putting on an excellent soul night that combined rare soul with a good selection of classic oldies. Not always easy to do. For those who don't know the Phoenix is a pub just off Oxford Street next to the John Lewis department store. It has been used many times for soul nights, Scenesville had nights there and more recently Yann has put nights on. I'm happy to report that last night was very busy, much more so than my last visit to this night. Generally the dance floor was busy, it's good, nice and slidey, no need for talc. Pleased for Yann that it was busy, it's a worry putting on a night, hoping that people turn up. Each DJ did two sets, mixing up the sounds, and each added a unique style to the night. Loads of my favourites played, thanks to Tony Smith who'd noted that I'd mentioned the Shadows' My Love Has Gone in my comments on the last 100 Club nighter. He played it for me and then followed it with the Adorables' Ooh Boy! That's my favourite oldie, When I left home I felt some aches in my knees, applied Volterol before leaving but didn't really expect to dance much. But as usual the music got into me and I had to get out there. The time went very quickly, Yann did the last hour, assisted by Rob Messer, think it was his birthday. When a friend said he'd be going in 20 minutes I thought we had an hour to go. When a night goes quickly you know you've enjoyed it. Very nice to see some of my friends there. Thanks to Shaun Arnold for his company on the tube home. My first use of the allnight tube, thought it might be packed but fairly quiet. Got a cab home from the station and was in bed by 4.05. Feeling tired now though. Thanks to Yann and the other DJs for a most entertaining night. Phoenix Got Soul is worth going to.

If I'm in London I'll come to this, the others have been very good.

A quieter night number wise at the 100 Club, possibly the combination of hot weather, holidays and other soul nights had an effect. Fortunately it had no effect on the quality of the music and the enthusiasm of those attending. After meeting friends we had to queue for a while so got in a little later than usual, to be greeted at the door by Ady Croasdell, and not having the normal frisking by the bouncers. Handed over my money to Rolly and had both my hands stamped by Garry, then down the stairs to the music. Keith Money doing the honours for the first 30 minutes or so. He included the Gambrells' You Better Move, which I've heard nearly everywhere I've been lately. Next up was Chris Dale, opened with one of my all-time faves Feminine Ingenuity and then the Shadows' My Love Has Gone. At this point I must say that the dance floor was possibly the best I've ever experienced there, nice and slippy, but not like an ice rink which it can be early on. And even better it didn't get sticky as the night went on, which sometimes happens. So lovely to dance on. There was a young couple sitting with us on our table, their first visit. Talking to them I found that they'd never been to the 100 Club before, and that the guy came from Nottingham. I told him I'd been there a couple of weeks earlier for the Quality Of Soul nighter at the Irish Centre. He told me that him mother had been to that one. The Tangeers' Let Your Heart And Soul Be Free came on and he checked Shazam on his phone to find out what it was, and the app found it. Choice Of Color's Your Love and Suffering Wrath by Rudy Love were others Chris included. Butch followed Chris, playing a set that included some I knew and others I wasn't aware of. Johnny On The Spot, Little Tommy's Baby Come To Me and the version of Shadow Of A Memory by 21st Century spring to mind as I write this. Dance floor busy as usual but room to dance which is nice. Time for Keith's second set: classics like Somebody Tell Her, 1000 Wonders, Job Opening, Hipper Than Me, Too Late, I Won't Have No Babies For You. They give a sound picture of his set, superb Northern. Ady stepped up to the decks for the first time this night, opening with the Gerri Granger cover up Why Not Tonight. Thanks for playing the Demures for me, when he announced it as for Geoff I was at the back and hurried to the dance floor. Other popular tracks included Voodoo Mademoiselle, Nancy Wilcox's version of He'll Be Leaving You, Oh Baby Don't You Weep and Out With The In Crowd. Ethan Howarth, a young DJ, made his debut at the club next. Starting with Tony Galla's In Love, Willie Hutch's Love Runs Out and Brice Oldfield's Ain't That Right. As well as classic Northern he included some 70s tracks including I Believe In Miracles and both sides of Brown Sugar's Game Is Over. But after this slight excursion into these “disco” tracks, as a friend described them, lol, it was back to the 60s with Marie Knight's That's No Way To Treat A Girl. For his second set Chris Dale kept the tempo to the medium pace with tunes like Ain't Gonna Give You Up, Pyramid, upping it a bit with I'm Waiting and I'll Rescue You, then back to mid pace with The Best Is Yet To Come by Bessie Banks, one of my late wife's favourites, and ended his set with my favourite record These Memories by Almeta Lattimore. Time for Butch's second set, again mixing the lesser known with some favourites, e.g. Salvation, the Perfections' Just Can't Leave You and the wonderful Chuck Jackson cover up, what a tune! And he also played Sammy Lee's What Goes Around, one he's revived recently. At the end of this set he played a couple that I didn't know the titles, found out via Facebook that they were the Diplomats cover up Kiss Me Girl On The Way Out and the Shades Hit It. Doubt if there are many other places you'd hear these. As resident Keith did a third set after Butch starting with Teardrops. Dance floor busy with tunes like Never Learned To Dance, I Need Your Love (Clydene Jackson), Big Lee Dowell, Papa & The Bears, Karmello Brooks, Vondells, etc. At that point my phone's battery died, I'd been noting some tunes on it so not really sure what Ethan played except that his last two tracks were Jack Montgomery's Dearly Beloved and Dionne Warwick's Walk On By. Some may say the latter is too well known, I'd disagree, brilliant record that I'd call a beat ballad, Bacharach and David at their best. As per usual Ady did the last 30 minutes or so, keeping the floor busy. Sweet Temptation, Don't Tear Me Down, etc led on to I'll Never Stop Loving You and finally Baby I Need Your Loving, which had nearly everybody on the floor. Lights on and it was Tony Clarke's The Entertainer playing as we prepared to say farewell and leave. Out into the daylight, still very pleasant temperature. Thanks to Andy Gibb for the lift to King's Cross, sorry you had to go round the houses thanks to road works. As I said earlier a bit quieter than usual but everyone was up for a good night, and we got it. Nice to see so many of my friends there, you know who you are. I danced more than I usually do, there was a bit more space which helped, and my legs gave me agony during Sunday night, the floor is a bit unforgiving. But despite that the night was great, nothing better in the world than listening and dancing to soul music with friends. Thanks to Ady, the DJs and the staff of the club.

I spent the weekend in Manchester staying with a friend, had a lovely time. As part of the weekend we went to the Sunday session of the weekender at the Ark. It's a large bar on two floors, ground floor was the Northern room, downstairs there was a bar playing more modern soul sounds, and another room playing upfront sounds. Due to the lack of chairs in the upfront room we spent most of the time in the Northern room. We got in just gone 4 pm, mainly better known oldies being played but what I'd describe as a thoughtful selection. As per usual I would sit and drink and chat and all of a sudden jump up and head for the dance floor when I heard something that made me want to move. A good selection was played, well done to all the DJs, but as usual my memory has let me down. I was most pleased when an old friend, Sue Parker, came in. I hadn't seen her for a while and we had a good catch up. Despite plans to get the last tram we stayed till about 11.35, had to get a taxi to Piccadilly Gardens to get the last bus back to Bury. Shows that we enjoyed the music and company. Well done to the organisers.

Musically and socially QoS goes from strength to strength, one of the best rare soul allnighters in the UK. Numbers were down a bit though, probably due to a combination of factors. Over the last few weekends there have been several weekenders, Cleethorpes, Blackpool and on this weekend Bridlington, certainly some regulars had gone there. And I think that some had gone on holiday to take advantage of lower prices before the kids break up from school. I travelled up to Nottingham by train and arrived outside the Irish Club at 9 pm, however the door was locked, but soon opened. I went into the downstairs room, where I usually spend most of my time, found somewhere for my bag and jacket, got a drink and got ready to enjoy the music. I forgot to pick up the DJ timings list so not sure of who played what. I did write on my phone a list of some tunes played but the battery run down quicker than expected so had to stop later in the night. The first three DJs in the rare and Crossover room (downstairs) played a mix of mainly mid tempo tunes, e.g. Dream Girl, I'd Think It Over Twice, Down And Out, Wind Kept Laughing, Breakaway (had to ask the DJ what that one was, it had totally slipped my memory), At 11 pm Nige Mayfield began his set downstairs with the Hesitations' Is This The Way To Treat A Girl, Call On Me by Barbara Mercer, and in the room on the first floor Calvin began his. I popped between them, danced to the New Yorkers that Calvin played but missed Like A Rolling Stone that he'd played for me, sorry about that. The trouble with two rooms is that you can only be in one place at a time. Nige continued with I Can Feel It, Ordinary Joe, I Thought You Were Mine, etc. Downstairs Nige was followed by 100 Club stalwart Russ Vickers, nice to meet his son and his wife whom I'd not seen since one of the very early MonuMental Soul weekenders. Russ played a set that I'd call fairly cutting edge, Jerry Washington, Grey Imprint for example, thanks for my request My Sense Of Direction Is Blown. But he also included more conventional NS tracks like Can You Win and Too Much Love. James Pogson, from the Inner City Soul Club and other London venues followed Russ. Starting with Who You Gonna Run To, he continued with Let Your Light Shine, Fluorescent Smogg, Alvin & Calvin Carter, Talkin' Bout Love, Love Tempo, Pro Fascination's Try Love Again, finishing with Sweet Memories. Next on downstairs was Cliff Steele who was effusive about James' set, and started off his selection with I'd Like To Get Near You, following with Love Is Gone and the Appointments' Steppin' Closer, You're Gone, My Prayer, and my favourite classic oldie Ooh Boy by the Adorables. In the Crossover style he played the Honey Bees beautiful Never In A Million Years and Reggie Soul's My World Of Ecstasy. The next one he played was New World's We're Gonna Make It. At that point I discovered my phone was about to pack up so my tune listing stopped. I do remember Cliff playing quite a few that I didn't recognise. He was followed by Andy Dyson, then Dave Thorley. I heard all of the latter's set, most I didn't know but really good. I did know What About Me, I Can See Him Loving You (another of my favourite oldies), Jewel's Paradise, and Welfare by Antonio Castro. Dave nuxed them up extremely well. When he finished it was time to finish in the rare room and go upstairs. Matt Sneath was just finishing and then Mick H took over for the last hour and 45 minutes. Thanks for including Pee Wee, Shucks & Huey for me, plus It's All Over Baby, Life Is A Miracle and many more favourites. The nighter ended with the club anthem Count The Days and I Have No Choice. Then we had no choice, we had to go home. I did have a long wait for a train and a slightly convoluted journey, but got home at 11.30, not too bad really. It is always good to see your friends at a soul night, even if you've seen quite a few of them the week before at Rugby and the week before that at Cleethorpes. Great to see you all. It was James Pogson's first visit to QoS, hope he enjoyed it, his music went down very well. Apologies to any of the DJs whose sets I've missed. And big thanks to Mick and Co for the night, and of course to the staff of the Irish Centre.

I don't normally comment on the Cleethorpes weekender, not because I haven't enjoyed it, but it's over three days and usually I have lost track of who played what and when. But this one was different: it was to be the last one run by Ady Croasdell, who knows what will happen in the future. There was definitely a very special atmosphere, we were here to enjoy ourselves and to thank Ady for his sterling work on our behalf. For me it was the best one I've attended, for so many reasons that I won't bore you to death with. Normally Paul and Helen McKay organise our caravan and Helen cooks lovely meals, but this year they're on holiday in Portugal so I stepped up to the plate, but made clear we'd have to make slightly different arrangements about food. Fortunately my caravan mates John Stubbs, Martin Thomson, and Dave Swift seemed happy with things. Thanks for giving me the room on my own, I'm sure you'd have loved me getting up in the night umpteen times to the loo, waking you up by my blundering about. One thing that did surprise me was that on Friday night I thought there might be a queue to get in, but our party was almost the first in, but almost immediately Dave was out on the dance floor while Peter Hulat got things going. Each DJ seemed to bring something unique to the mix, oldies, R&B, stompers, medium tempo. Butch played some of his most popular tracks over the last few years in his sets plus some that were new to me at least. I didn't go into the Modern room as much as I've done in the past, partly because I sat for quite a time with friends from my recent holiday in Zante, we continued the partying started there, with a big celebration of Debs' birthday. Quite late nights for me really, I think it was about 3.10 am Saturday, 4.35 am Sunday, and gone 3 am Monday, don't know how I got up this morning after that. Must be all that practice at nighters that kept me going, but the body feels a bit battered now. I've lost track of what was played, do remember jumping up when Butch played Don't Bring Back Memories and Joseph Webster, no surprise to those who know me. Pity we can't bring the dance floor from the Beachcomber to the 100 Club, I danced far more than usual and no real after effects so far on my legs, great! Mick Smith played a very enjoyable set on Sunday afternoon, loved those beat ballads: The Drifter, The Panic Is On, and Walk With A Winner, soul heaven for me. The Sunday night in the main room was a real party atmosphere. We were determined that it should go out with a bang. And it did. Some great oldies played, danced to some that I normally don't get up for, it was just right that night. Standing at the back I even managed to dance to You're Ready Now, but probably the alcohol intake helped. And the time had been increased by 30 minutes to a 3 am finish. Plenty of 100 Club favourites played ending with Don't by Marva Josey, Carla's I'll Never Stop Loving You and of course Baby I Need Your Loving by the Four Tops with every one dancing and singing along, just such a wonderful feeling of togetherness to quote a song. And finally Ady played the old Wigan ender I'm On My Way, so appropriate. Lights on, time to say farewell to friends and wend our way back to our accommodation. As usual great to see so many of my friends on the scene like Lisa Hurley and Andy Brazil who I rarely see these days. In my opinion the people always make the weekend what it was combined with the music; a perfect mix. I just hope that whoever takes it on can keep this special atmosphere, and hopefully keep Ady on as a consultant. I pray I didn't embarrass myself too much, especially belting up the dance floor whenever a record came on that I wanted to dance to; and of course singing along as well, good job the music's loud otherwise anyone near me might complain. So finally, thanks to my caravan companions for their presence and forbearance; and to all the DJs for fine work entertaining us. To Sidney Barnes for an excellent live performance, and he's still got his voice, amazing. And to all who attended, you helped make my weekend brilliant. Special thanks to Ady and his assistants including Gary and Rolly. Thank you. Sorry I've rambled on but it's hard to do justice to this weekender in a few words.When posting on here you are required to rate it by stars. Five is the max, but I'd give it 10 or 20 or more.