Producer Martyn Ware Seeks Memories of Tony’s Ballroom

Remember the very first tonys nighter run by guy and ion  awesome night first time butch unleashed mellosouls Walter and admirations devotions imperial c.s to name a few  plus ion playing .and Elsie strong who cut love Line  Freddie & turbines bernadine and guy and keb on top for great times musically :-):-):-)

I’ve already supplied them with flyers.  Currently putting a playlist together for them for a show. 

the news item gives an excuse for a dig round the old town part of soul source and two bits come up at first dig

From 2003 - saw the very last one

an account of that night can be had here

while Pete Coulsons' Soul Essence' fanzine featured a review of the Allnighter by Big Mick way back in 1999

Quote

Hi Martin, feel free to private message me for info on Tony,s ballroom all niters I promoted it from Oct 1991 till May 2003 put on 144 monthly allnighters 12 midnight till 8am Sunday mornings

ML

 there be a fair few odds and ends scattered around the site over the years

here's a few that showed up

https://www.soul-source.co.uk/gallery/image/4084-blackburn/

a previous topic

Csc at Tonys 2001 (yep 17 years ago)

sure there's a lot more
good luck with the project Martyn!

Blackburn Tony,s fulfilled at the time from 1991 a regular monthly Allniter when there were few and far between, Bradford was winding down at that time, Tony,s did its best to give people a regular venue where you could the feel of a dark atmospheric soul club, it kept going through some highs and lows and eventually found its own identity and became a firm favourite with its own crowd but always welcoming to new visitors, it always had an across the board play list from numerous DJ,s established and up and coming to make things a little different and was always a safe and friendly environment , a lot of people had great times there with memories that last for a lifetime

Great Memories 

ML

1. A little story about Tony,s what only a few people know a few years in it was visited by Health and Safety who advised the family who owned it that it was too dark and advised that they get a big white bulb diractly over the dance floor , that bulb had to go it was stealing people's happiness the problem was it was about 15 feet in the air, I Solved the problem . The next Allniter I got there early equipped with a 22 air pistol first record in on first spot before anyone started dancing I shot it second shot the glass shattered over the dance floor I told the owners that it just shattered and it was lucky there was nobody dancing or they could have been seriously hurt they never replaced it and we got the atmosphere back and that bad white bulb bit the dust
2. ML

two links to what this request was for...

https://festivalofmaking.co.uk/news/listen-to-martyn-wares-church-of-rare-souls-soundscape/

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/16328740.tonys-ballroom-was-the-heart-and-soul-of-dancing-in-blackburn-across-the-decades/