Pauldonnelly

Gary Spencer has asked me send over his condolences.

Gonna let you into a secret..its transpired since I wrote that piece that every nighter at the Wirrina I was connected with was illegal, and it would appear that Mr Giles and Mr Mindham had an 'arragemnent' Giles shat himself one night after some lad overdosed, ambulance and ob called and he told Mindham to go do one. Mindham at the time advised us the PCC had withdrawn the licence which was bollocks as the place never had one. I'm sure Ken Cox took it on and ran it properly so to speak in 77 then the local lads took it on however to the best of my knowledge they were all in the Gym which I really hated, if back in 75 we'd stayed in the small room rather than changing to that souless Gym then that little all nighter would now be spoken about in far greater esteem. I have some audio tapes of the Wirrina in full swing in the ballroom, The Trip, Timmothy Wilson, The Trip, the Gig, the trip, Debbie Flemming, the trip

If I'm honest I am slightly envious of those that find the energy to keep on keeping on at all-nighters, I guess I'm from another breed so to speak however if those that want to do it enjoy it, fair play to em. However what I find rather pathetic is the attempt by some to suggest that those that no longer wish to 'partake' go "do one" as they are 'second hand garbage' i.e. if you don't do niters you're not worth a flying a wank as a uk northern soul music supporter, imo its elitist to the extreme. Funny ole game en it Greavsie...its sure is Saint

The raffle prize is of the framed badge and photos of the Wirrina, not the print or photos of Macca and his 'firm' The raffle tickets are available now £2 each or £5 for a strip of five however it will be drawn at the fleet. Send cash or chq made payable to Paul Donnelly to, 204 Stonald Road Whittlesey PETERBOROUGH PE7 1QR Please ensure your full name and the address you wish the framed print to be sent too in the event you are the winner, allow 7 days for delivery. Many Thanks Paul Donnelly

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

Thats Peboooo for ya...great soul nights, shyte all nighters just as it has been for near on 20 years, next

nah outbid by Pete French with 2min 15secs to go...went for £1700

A64804 on mine....

going going gone. Pm your asking price please// Ta

Neal Bull use to come on the stage at the Peterborough Wirrina and ask me to play... "you aint got no TV" "YEAH OK NEAL WILL DO" after about a month he come us and says "you aint got it have you? "what" "you aint got no TV., I ask you every week and you never play the fooker" Two Records later I played "Sisters Love - learning to trust may man on Mowest" he comes running up to the deck..."you bastard you had it all the while"

"can you play cold cheese Mr DJ?" "what?" "can you play cold cheese?" "what the fook are you on about pal?" "don' t fooking patronise me mr dj I know what I'm on abouT, have you got Paul Humpries Cold Cheese"

as someone said to me last night.."you don't have to fly to Madrass to have a hot curry"

just to prove I read all of your sales list A Packet Of Halls Soothers - 1 Lozenge Missing From Packet(Slight Water Damage) VG- £0.10p The Lovables - You can't dress up a broken heart(Uptempo 60's Girly Dancer) - Toot M- £50 if this was one off £5k no problem, awesome Northern imo

bloody hell. Had some right laughs with Richie and Steve up at Droylsdon and Bradford. sad news

can anyone argue with Nick?...well I can. If this offends anyone I'm sorry. THREE years ago me and some ole Torch mates purchased some sulphate from some proper HELLS ANGELS we know, they warned us it was like rocket fuel, "yeah ok mate" Cut a long story short 7 of us did a nighter, two nearly killed themselves, I and three others spent two days wondering if we'd ever come down. We vowed then we would never do amphetimines again and sorry if you can't do a bit why bother staying up

The Festivals - Music Ive not heard that for YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

8)the remarkables/i can't give up on losing you/audio arts £15 is this the same as the incredibles EDIT--ignore me I'm having a twat moment..

last night alas that wanker from Cheltenham won the fookin thing with quite frankly a ridiculous bid Now then anyone out there tempted to sell me a copy of Tamala Lewis on BLUE Marton at a reasonable price? PaulDonnellyBP@aol.com

Not me I'd have to get up at 3am

apologies for the spelling I'm a thick twat... my point is I have no incliantion to support the UK niter scene it's an alien concept to me now. I keep an eye on, it and occasionly get some reports however the idea of doing what some on here do every weekend at my age I find bizarre, not a crticism just an opinion. I collect what I want, listen to what I want, go where I want and if some on here have a problem with that , tough shit

care to allaborate mate??

do you really have to be an all=nighter regular to appreciate soul music or even be a soul music supporter, I'll turn the question on its head why do people have to go to niters to enjoy soul music?