Alisons Blog from 2005

My First Blog - What A Weird Weekend

Posted by , 03 May 2005 ·

What a weird weekend we had; in parts wonderful, in parts really crap, and other parts there was both good and bad to be found.

Start off Saturday with a 4 hour round trip to collect my son from Buckingham, back to the house and a mad dash to get ready for the weekend ahead which was to comprise of the Stafford reunion in Stoke and then a mighty trek up to the North East to spin at an alldayer in Gateshead.

So off to Staff-stock - arrive at our hotel to find I had booked us into possibly the worst hostelry in Staffordshire - the Stop Inn in Newcastle Under Lyme. I'd booked on t'internet and had been unable to use one of our regualr choices like the Holiday Inn as they were fully booked - but this place had seemed like it would be a similar standard to a Travel Inn or Premier Lodge, it was certainly the same price. Wrong ! Arrived to find they had no record of our booking, even though I had the proper confirmation in my sweaty hand, so they gave us one of their annexe chalets. It reminded me of a Bulgarian youth hostel, or one of those truck stops where burly builders working away from home have fist fights after too many pints of Wifebeater. In fact, one of those burly builders fists was still embedded in the bathroom door - charming It was Grotsville of the first order, the whole place needed a steam clean, if demolition was not an option - the wardrobe resembled something you would find in a skip, and the bed was lumpy. I decided not to check too closely because I just KNEW it would have some unsavoury stains

Quick wash and brush up in a bathroom that needed its own wash and brush up and off to the Queens Hall. Presented with a massive bouquest of white flowers and a gift bag of goodies from Janine and Dave (including Gene Chandler - Without You Here on Curtom - a record I've been after for a while - thanks my darlings) A fab social night filled with faces from the past and present and I found myself in a state of hysterical laughter on more than one ocassion - unable to comment on the music as I think, bar a quick sourjourn to listen to Budgies spot upstairs, I was mostly in bars, corridors etc gassing for England. The night gets a thumbs up for high enjoyment factor, 10 out of ten for bestowal of birthday pressies, and a for my bag going walkies.

Having planned to leave earlyish so we could get a reasonable slumber, but my handbag had disappeared and after a fruitless search we ended up leaving about 6.30, without both our mobile phones, make up and other bits and pieces that were unforutunately in the missing bag.

Decided to take on the receptionist at the hotel in my most courteous manner - ever seen that Little Britain sketch where "the computer says no " ? Thats the long and short of it - an automon with a chirping "I'm sorry you were disappointed" left me with no refund for the shocking facilities and a desire to punch in the manner of a burly builder.

Headed up to the Newcastle and got strangely excited when I saw The Angel of the North - but closer up its not so iconic. Dont know what I was expecting but I was a bit underwhelmed. A chill out at the Travel Inn (clean, tidy, no burly builders punch marks in the doors) and over to The Federation Brewery for the alldayer at the Lancastrian Suite. My god - what a FANTASTIC venue - marble halls, plush facilities, plenty of tables and chairs, magnificent dance floor overlooked by a balcony and a great stage, high above the floor with plenty of room to set up for a spot and bright enough to see your records clearly.

Wasn't as full as the venue can cope with, I think the lads were down on usual numbers but with Soul Sam & Bob Hinsley on the bill, and Colin Curtis downstairs in the Modern room - there were high hopes that the venue would fill up by evening. Guess the numbers peaked at around 300 - great for most venues but this is a spacious place. Rostered to go on after Robbo who was playing madly gutsy fast paced Northern, which I dont collect ! I wasn't overly worried about changing the pace as I'd been booked to play a crossover set and the gig had been billed as all genres. Kicked off with Towana & the Total Destruction and waited for this evergreen favourite to benefit from a little appreciation from the floor....and....ooops, it was a total choker.

Persevered for a few records with the like that would normally be in my playbox before resorting to the obvious oldies which did actually get a far warmer response. Very frustrating.

Decks were a tad bouncy, the arms needed more weight but as long as you didnt back cue or attempt to mix a la like Grandmaster Flash this wasnt a problem. Must admit that was by far the toughest audience I've ever had to play to. I've never spun anywhere before where people simply dont dance to anything other than oldies ....and they didn't seem to know an awful lot of was what in my box - most the events I attend or play at, that would have been a very safe set ! Some of the biggest records in the UK practically cleared the floor for Soul Sam at one point (Margaret Little, Belita Woods C/U, Joseph Webster and Hamilton Movement), and whilst he had them up dancing to Northern oldies it was the one of the safest spot I've heard him play out, but to each their own , the crowd responded so thats the job done well by Sam :-)))

It's as disheartening to travel on a ten hour round trip at a lot of personal expense and find yourself faced with people who wont even dance to a class Northern track like George Hughley, as it is to sit in a venue with your arms crossed unhappy because the DJ isnt playing Saxie Russell ! In the main what was popular with the floor is not my kind of music, certainly not what I choose to spend my record money on and the promoters knew that I am a crossover collector & DJ - not an oldies spinner - and thats what I was booked to play, although I purposely filled out my box with some extra Northern for the trip and gave it a spin - think the Fed crowd and I are a mismatch musically, which is a great shame as I know that the lads specifically promoted it as all genres and they very much want to progress the music policy there.

On the bright side I had a lot of people come up to tell me how much they liked to hear something fresh, the folks in Gateshead are very friendly, the venue is fantastic - one of the loveliest I've ever been to, and the promoters are all top blokes.

Playlist - in the main well known, safe stuff and mostly of the Northern vein not crossover.

Towana & Total Destruction - Wear Your Natural Baby - Romark

Continental Four - Way I love you - Jay Walking

Moses Smith - Come on and let me love you - Cotillion

Dave Love - Baby Hard Times -Worlds

San Franciscan TKO's - Make Up Your Mind - Kent

Ruby Winters - Better - Diamond

Othello Robinson - So In Luv - Era

Linda Jones - My heart needs a break - Loma

Betty Lloyd - I'm Catching On - BSC

Mamie Lee - I can feel him slipping away - MGM

Choice of Colour - Your Love - APT

Trumains - Ripe for the picking - RCA (request)

Rhonda Davies - Can you remember - Duke

George Hughley - Thats why I cry - Buddah

Harold Melvin - Get Out - Landa

Barbara McNair - Your gonna love my baby - Motown

Deon Jackson - Love Makes the world Go round - Atlantic

Almeta Latimore - These Memories - Mainstream (request)

Minits - Still a part of me - MGM

Spartans - I dont need another lover - Era

Wee - Try Me - Owl (request)

Our soulmates Adam, Mick and Jason who all live locally came to give me the warm hand of support and the ocassional glass of wine (and by god I needed it) as did Karl Rhodes and Debbie who trecked up from Stockport, bless them. Met up with one of my female counterparts, Lianna, who reguarlly spins up in the NE, and her sister Donna - great girls who were real sweethearts, especially when I was so despondant about the reaction the set got. Felt miserable that I had let the promoters down, but also felt that I hadnt got a proper grasp or brief on what was needed to please their regulars - if I'd known I was playing to a died in the wool oldies crowd I probably would never had accepted the booking, certainly not one so far away.

Next morning we filled our boots at the Breakfast bar (having literally forgotten to eat for the previous 2 days) and headed home, on a bit of a downer, thinking about my poor performance at the Fed, my missing handbag, and the lack of mobile phones to contact home (my 17 year old son was at a rock concert in London and I wanted to make sure he'd not been molested by perverts or press ganged by white slave traders) when the Lucky Nightingales got shafted one more time.....unmarked police car on the M1 in Sheffield pulled us over with John having been clocked at 95 mph. Bummer. As we were in Sheffield we decided that it was Shanes fault

Final insult was that I hadn't packed enough knickers and had to wear a pair of One Trouts boxers (its all right, they were clean) on the way home.

So all in all a weekend of highs and lows.......next weekend to look forward to. The 3 Greyhounds in Middlewich, a brand new crossover venue which will be right up my street.

Alison