THE MODERN SOUL SCENE RETURNS
The Rantings of Chairman Jim
Late May Bank Holiday 2007, where better to spend the holiday weekend than well.... Birmingham? That's right, in the vast open spaces of car parks that surround the NEC, it is THE best possible location for any soul lover, as we attended the 9th Luxury Soul Weekender with the prospect of 3 days and nights of quality entertainment. Proceedings started in the Lounge (earlier than advertised of course) with my traditional weekender warm up that consisted of plenty of new tunes, and of course some choice oldies to get everyone in weekender mood, and forget the M6 hold ups. Ladies man extraordinaire Mark Grice followed with some eclectic jazz and boogie, with the "other" dancing DJ John Kane playing great tunes in between speeches.
At this point I was dragged away kicking and screaming to eat some Hilton cuisine (I don't eat much as you may have noticed), it was at tea that I realised that one of our party had forgot her happy pills, the esteemed door lady Anne - where's the f**king knives? and that a certain official photographer was completely leathered from his "pints" of red wine. Straight after a few mouthfuls (I really don't eat that much, honest!) it was time to watch rehearsals with Ashford and Simpson as guest of Victoria Wilson James (ex Soul to Soul) who was very complimentary about my afternoon set - I love Americans - shame about their leaders. First thing that strikes you is how youthful they look, in fact they seem younger now than back in the eighties, the next surprising thing is how great Nick Ashford sounds, Valerie you know is going to be fantastic and doesn't disappoint, but Nick takes centre stage more often, and both are complete professionals, even rehearsing ad-libs which may spoil the magic for one or two of you. We were enjoying the spectacle until the aforementioned photographer - who is by now totally incoherent - took one too many pictures, thus getting us both asked to leave in no uncertain terms.
The night time entertainment took place in 3 venues, and the live music started in the larger Westminster room with Leroy Burgess dressed in an immaculate red stage suit as he ran through many of his boogie tunes including "Keepin On", "Mainline", and "Get Loose" which all served to promote his new Soul Brother album which quite amazingly is his very first. I'm sure his uncle, Philly legend Thom Bell would of been proud of his nephew's energetic performance and it was Mike Stephens who followed with a full - on set of bass heavy newies, and classic anthems. I was contractually obliged to stay put as I followed, and I love winding Mike up telling him he was my warm up act, but he always gives as good as he gets, and of course we are back working together @ www.seductivesoul.com on July 21st at our NEW venue www.saracenshead.org in Lymm, Cheshire with ace lensman / carpet fitter Chris Priestley. My spot seemed to go down well (Thanks to Steve Handbury from Echoes for the big up in his column) as did Andy Davies who closed the room with his usual sterling selections. The lounge brought us all back together with big tunes from Ged Lunt, bigger tunes from my favourite "Jock" Bob Jefferies, and more from Andy who was dead on his feet at 6am, I don't know these Southerners, so I had to go on for a last push until nearly 7am when the plug was eventually pulled.
Later on Saturday, well 12pm the music started again with Glynn Thornhill kicking off proceedings in the Lounge and the whole afternoon was fantastic, Bob Hinsley opened the Terrace at 2pm and was superb as always, and I'm happy to report that he is one of my guests @ www.soulbythesea.co.uk on August 11th at the newly refurbed and re-vamped Marine Hall in Fleetwood. There was also superb Jazz from the Ron Jeremy of the soul scene - Mark Grice - and Tony Cooney with assistance from Colin Curtis in the Colonial. After having just a bit of an appetiser (look I really, really don't eat much) I bumped into Ralph Tee who asked me if I would like to warm up for Ebony Alleyne and Ashford and Simpson, well you don't have to ask twice so I started to play the tunes at about 9pm with Showtime set for 9.45. Well things ran on a bit so we got Ebony on at 10.15 - I'm a stickler for punctuality - as I nervously cued up the CD backing track. Ebony is incredibly beautiful and has an amazing voice and although she only played 3 tracks off her new Expansion album "Looking Over My Shoulder", "Second Look" and "You Caught Me Off Guard" it was the perfect way to start the live show. Ashford and Simpson came onstage soon after for a show which I will never forget. Two words "Who New?" Well obviously the promoters did as this was one of the best shows I have ever seen, professional, visually stunning, vocally faultless and a knowledgeable crowd who were held in the palm of their collective hands. The song selection was flawless "Bourgie Bourgie", "Found A Cure", "I'm Every Woman", "Aint Nothing Like The Real Thing", a superb " Don't Send Nobody Else" which was even more incredible as they had only really learnt it on the Friday. Plenty more followed with "Top Of The Stairs" and "Reach Out And Touch" leading into an encore with "Solid" and "You're All I Need To Get By" finishing off an incredible show, and I had almost lost my voice by the time I got the crowd to "Give it up one last time for Ashford and Simpson!".
From the Queens I legged it to the Westminster to kick things off in there, some had beaten me to it but we got proceedings going just after 12am and the room filled up incredibly quickly, being completely packed soon after, and it stayed that way till the 5am close with Bigger and Barry Maleady adding to the Friday line up. This gave me the rest of the night to enjoy all the other rooms, and of course those pints of wine and it all became a bit of a blur, but i'm told I enjoyed myself. There was an incident later on in the night where I was wearing a Kaftan for reasons I cant quite remember, in fact I only really remembered halfway through Sunday when some kind lady said if I was going to start cross - dressing I need to sort out my make - up. It was a Kaftan not a dress your honour, not a dress I tell you, I was never confused! Sunday came and went far too quickly and all the DJs were fantastic as they were all weekend, if I haven't singled you out I apologise but it was my honour to finish the weekender off at 2am in the company of Ralph Tee who along with Richard Searling, Ian Tolley and all the team who worked so hard to make the ninth luxury soul weekender an absolute classic. Role on number 10, 4th - 6th January at the Blackpool Hilton with Jean Carne, Miles Jaye, Shirley Jones and Cherelle, book now on 01253 754403.
Jim Hargreaves.
How are you?
"I'm fine",
Been keeping well?
"Not so bad - how have you been keeping, your looking kinda peaky?"
Well I can see your not feeling yourself, perhaps your suffering from a lack of updates from the premier soul website of all time?
SORT IT!
Oh is it you again? I wished you had called, I'm not just a piece of meat you can use and abuse, take, take, take, - that's all you want from me.
I've been busy, how busy? Busier than a busy bee on overtime with targets to achieve. First off I want to chat about the 3rd anniversary of Soul by the Sea at Fleetwood's Marine Hall, which had one of the best nights of any modern events in the world - "ever", I think after 9 years with this moniker we know how to run a modern event. This is the only event that I am involved in that has professional west end quality sound engineers to set up the equipment (supplemented by thousands of pounds of theatre owned P.A.) and kudos to all who made the event. We had a ball, but for some strange reason there is reluctance from our "Northern Soul" friends to attend one of the best venues in the country, hey your welcome to your views, and indeed mistakes were made with local advertising in our infancy circa 2 years ago , but if you attended the February event there or our next event June 23rd there is NEVER such issues, indeed we have nothing but praise from ALL guests (basically a who's that? - sorry who's who? of our scene punters & Djs). So don't be a Baa Baa, support a professionally run, fantastic event.
Now what else have I got to tell you, oh yes, your looking marvellous, and also there is another event that is possibly the best thing EVER/EVER that's right I'm talking about The Howard! (Jim, that closed years ago), no I mean Seductive Soul, Lymn Cheshire (www.seductivesoul.com ) which returns April 14th with some djs I've never heard of, and really we look forward to seeing you beautiful British people at a venue soon.
The Diary of James Hargreaves (age 36 3/4 ) Calendar & DJ dates (subject to updates) April 2007
TSOP (Prestwich) 6/4/07 - I was supposed to dj this night, but you will just have to wait till 1st June for me to learn how Barry's new CD players works.
Soul Intent (Sheffield) 13/4/07 - click onto www.modernsoul.net to see how fabulous this night is with Geoff & Martin and myself, kicking it "Yorkee Stylee".
Seductive Soul, Nags Head Lymn Cheshire (www.seductivesoul.com )14/4/07 - Its Back! MISS IT - MISS OUT!! John Kane is the 50th birthday boy, For Identification purposes, I'm the slim one, Chris plays that bloody ten minutes record.
KGH Blackburn 21/4/07 - I still get mails/comments saying I should be on the bill, don't tell me, tell RICHARD!! richard.searling@smoothradio.com New Format, Blakey's playing Studio grooves with my tip for the top - Andrew Davidson.
Lots more coming up but PLEASE book for Birmingham Hilton ASAP 25th-28th May as this is proving to be massively popular as I'm djing - no really it's Ashford & Simpson live + many other things I can't tell you about (cos I've a big mouth and nobody will tell me anything these days ). Full details at http://www.luxurysoulweekender.com/
Please don't send me away...
Jim Hargreaves.