Sad News - Ian Prinsen 'Prin' RIP

For those that may not have heard the sad news, Ian Prinsen, my beloved 'Prin', passed away suddenly & unexpectedly of heart failure on 17 August aged 47 years. His funeral was on Tuesday 6th Sept and he had a great send-off with a scooter escort & many of his mod & soulie friends were among those who attended the service. 

Together we had put on our Steppin' Up nights 4 times a year since Sept 2012 - Soul based with a mod twist, we wanted to reflect our love both of old soul music and the mod scene. We had been together as a couple since 1990 & both attended many northern soul & mod do’s & rallies over the years, & enjoyed DJing together & separately at many scooter club, mod do’s & soul nights. But it had been a while & following a low turn in our lives with redundancy etc. starting Steppin’ Up was a significant turning point in our lives, for it symbolised in Prin’s words, the start of getting back to who we were again. 

When 2 years ago we were looking at a car to buy together for the first time our key consideration was plenty of room in the back to load our DJ gear – which we would kart up the stairs at Bournbrook & Selly Oak Social Club (incredibly steep, narrow ones too - until we started taking them up the main stairs)! the wonderful club with the lovely room & massive sprung wooden dancefloor. We always hoped to fill the large room one day…there always a lot of things on nowadays though…We got a lot of support from a lot of people including ‘regulars’, fellow DJs & people traveled & they spread the word. Thank you all…

Back to the devastating news – I asked a friend to take me to ‘the club’ where Mick & Elaine always treated us like honorary members. When they greeted me they had already heard via Steppin’ Up regular John Wilson (thank you John x). They took us into the back where it didn’t seem 5 minutes since Prin & I had been sitting talking to Mick & after saying how sorry they were (I know they thought a lot of Ian) without hesitation offered us the downstairs for the ‘wake’ (for want of a better word), so after the funeral we congregated at the club where we were given the warmest welcome in the world & their catering lady had put on a great spread. The room was packed with family, lots of friends & love. 

It is still so hard to take in. Just to say I have cancelled the 1st Oct date we had booked (that being too soon & my birthday) and I am currently considering whether to proceed with the Nov 19th date, so will update you when I can.  

Jo x