Event Clash: Gold Medal Winner

[Guest chorleybloke]

Apart from the one I'm currently attending, there are 2 Northern Soul weekenders in the Southern hemisphere this year to my knowledge...

1) The Australian National in Adelaide, been running annually for 15 years and attracts 250 to 300 enthusiasts from around the world.

2) The Thailand Northern Soul weekender in Pattaya, a new event.

Incredibly, both are being held over the same weekend in November (9th, 10th & 11th). On any one of the other 51 weekends, there would probably have been about 50 made the trip from Australia to Thailand, its within easy & quick reach and cheap as chips when you get there.

I'm currently at the inaugural Asian rare soul weekender in Hong Kong with 35 other Australian based soul fans and there's a fair bit of bewilderment about this clash, mainly borne out of frustration that we've been deprived of the opportunity to go to the Pattaya gig. Everyone I spoke to will be supporting the Australian National.

Having spoken to Guy & Kev I'm pretty sure this is unintentional and its simply an oversight. But is it a world class one or what?

Cheers.......Pete

[Kevin Cox]

Pete,

I dislike getting into these "he said she said discourses" on a public forum, however I'm making an exception on this occasion as I have to say I find this post somewhat incredulous; considering that both Guy and I discussed at length this with you when the issue arose some weeks ago and also your offer to future co-promote

To clarify, so there is no ambiguity regards this subject and to put everyone else is in the picture who may now be questioning our motives as to why we chose these dates, I'll present the reasoning behind our decision here.

Obviously the two events do clash and this is a great shame, however be sure there was neither any naivety nor deliberate intention to do so; with many years promotional experience between us it was certainly not an oversight.

We have a small window of opportunity in Thailand to host this type of event predominantly due the following:

Thailand's climate is tropical, high both in temperature and humidity, and dominated by monsoons. April and May are the hottest months of the year, when even the locals are moved to complain about the heat. June sees the beginning of the South West Monsoon, and brings with it the rainy season, which continues intermittently until the end of October.When we say rainy season consider sitting under your power shower at full blast day in day out for 3 months, hence last year's floods that actually continued well beyond the traditional season.

From November to the end of February the climate is much less trying with a cooling North East breeze and a reduction in the humidity level. This is also the main tourist season, and the best time to visit Thailand.

It's also the most expensive for airfares and similarly peak season means higher priced hotel rooms. Sure you can stay in cheap digs, but given the choice would you really want to especially if this is your first visit?

We put in a huge amount of time and effort to secure the hotel we have at a decent rate, a break-even cost to us as any other hotel worth staying at refused to discount as previously mentioned they consider November onwards High Season.

The majority of travellers who have shown interest in this event (which is a lot) will be coming from the UK and Europe also influencing the decision and why we extended proceedings for a week not just a weekend, as you yourself state it's a short hop from Australia and a lot less expensive.

There is also the task of securing Top Quality DJs (to make the event a success and worthwhile for travellers) who have prior commitments at other venues.

Even a cursory perusal of the event listings on Soul Source for the coming year will reveal a plethora of happenings where again many unfortunately clash. For example we looked at the weeks preceding the one we chose and avoided the clash with the Hamburg weekend. Two weeks after it really is peak season and getting too close to Christmas and on it goes.

So to suggest that there are 51 other available weekends is utter nonsense and short sighted to say the least. Do you really think that anyone attending the National in Australia is going to go to Thailand the Weekend before or after? unless you can afford to take a month off work, takes me a week to recover from a soul night these days.

Ultimately we are all supposed to be interested in the same thing, perish the thought that this post is intended to promote derision in the scene or dare I say general "Mischief Making".

Perhaps it's a preponderance of Hong Kong Ale, which incidentally was another event time frame we stayed away from, to avoid anything that Dave is or may be promoting after notifying him about our intentions.

Whilst we resepct anyones decision to attend the National and wish you every success, after 15 years maybe it's time for a change.

For those wishing to try something different join Guy & I plus a host of other top DJ's in Thailand, we can tailor packages for 3 -10 days stay, with lots of extras.........

Gold Medal, hardly we have more chance of winning them at the Olympics

Soulfully

Kevin

www.siamsoulagogo.com

[Amsterdam Russ]

This is brilliant!

The distance between John O' Groats in Scotland and Land's End in Cornwall is 874 miles by road.

In such a small land mass as the UK with relatively easy traveling distances and with such a concentration of Northern Soul punters and promoters, date clashes are almost unavoidable.

The distance between Adelaide in Australia and Pattaya in Thailand is 4120 miles or 6,626km - approximately 9 hours of flying time.

That's the same as travelling from Heathrow to New Delhi, or Heathrow to Minneapolis! It's a quarter of the way around the world. Yet you call it a clash!

For goodness sake, where the hell do you guys go for a local night out?

:lol:

[Guest Bearsy]

blimey what a dilema lady boys or sheilas

[Trev Thomas]

blimey what a dilema lady boys or sheilas

after watching prisinor cell block h, i think i'll go with the lady boys

[Guest Bearsy]

after watching prisinor cell block h, i think i'll go with the lady boys

love you long time

[Guest Matt Male]

love you long time

Patti and the Emblems?

[Kevin Cox]

This is brilliant!

The distance between John O' Groats in Scotland and Land's End in Cornwall is 874 miles by road.

In such a small land mass as the UK with relatively easy traveling distances and with such a concentration of Northern Soul punters and promoters, date clashes are almost unavoidable.

The distance between Adelaide in Australia and Pattaya in Thailand is 4120 miles or 6,626km - approximately 9 hours of flying time.

That's the same as travelling from Heathrow to New Delhi, or Heathrow to Minneapolis! It's a quarter of the way around the world. Yet you call it a clash!

For goodness sake, where the hell do you guys go for a local night out?

:lol:

Ha ha very good

[Kevin Cox]

Let me tell you those lady boys are hard to spot especially after elevtean thai

beer

[Guest mickeyfish58]

rob smith will be there for the last hour to sell some cheapies but goodies please leave him a table free

think he is also bringing his own ti- girl????????

[Guest chorleybloke]

Pete,

I dislike getting into these "he said she said discourses" on a public forum, however I'm making an exception on this occasion as I have to say I find this post somewhat incredulous; considering that both Guy and I discussed at length this with you when the issue arose some weeks ago and also your offer to future co-promote

To clarify, so there is no ambiguity regards this subject and to put everyone else is in the picture who may now be questioning our motives as to why we chose these dates, I'll present the reasoning behind our decision here.

Obviously the two events do clash and this is a great shame, however be sure there was neither any naivety nor deliberate intention to do so; with many years promotional experience between us it was certainly not an oversight.

We have a small window of opportunity in Thailand to host this type of event predominantly due the following:

Thailand's climate is tropical, high both in temperature and humidity, and dominated by monsoons. April and May are the hottest months of the year, when even the locals are moved to complain about the heat. June sees the beginning of the South West Monsoon, and brings with it the rainy season, which continues intermittently until the end of October.When we say rainy season consider sitting under your power shower at full blast day in day out for 3 months, hence last year's floods that actually continued well beyond the traditional season.

From November to the end of February the climate is much less trying with a cooling North East breeze and a reduction in the humidity level. This is also the main tourist season, and the best time to visit Thailand.

It's also the most expensive for airfares and similarly peak season means higher priced hotel rooms. Sure you can stay in cheap digs, but given the choice would you really want to especially if this is your first visit?

We put in a huge amount of time and effort to secure the hotel we have at a decent rate, a break-even cost to us as any other hotel worth staying at refused to discount as previously mentioned they consider November onwards High Season.

The majority of travellers who have shown interest in this event (which is a lot) will be coming from the UK and Europe also influencing the decision and why we extended proceedings for a week not just a weekend, as you yourself state it's a short hop from Australia and a lot less expensive.

There is also the task of securing Top Quality DJs (to make the event a success and worthwhile for travellers) who have prior commitments at other venues.

Even a cursory perusal of the event listings on Soul Source for the coming year will reveal a plethora of happenings where again many unfortunately clash. For example we looked at the weeks preceding the one we chose and avoided the clash with the Hamburg weekend. Two weeks after it really is peak season and getting too close to Christmas and on it goes.

So to suggest that there are 51 other available weekends is utter nonsense and short sighted to say the least. Do you really think that anyone attending the National in Australia is going to go to Thailand the Weekend before or after? unless you can afford to take a month off work, takes me a week to recover from a soul night these days.

Ultimately we are all supposed to be interested in the same thing, perish the thought that this post is intended to promote derision in the scene or dare I say general "Mischief Making".

Perhaps it's a preponderance of Hong Kong Ale, which incidentally was another event time frame we stayed away from, to avoid anything that Dave is or may be promoting after notifying him about our intentions.

Whilst we resepct anyones decision to attend the National and wish you every success, after 15 years maybe it's time for a change.

For those wishing to try something different join Guy & I plus a host of other top DJ's in Thailand, we can tailor packages for 3 -10 days stay, with lots of extras.........

Gold Medal, hardly we have more chance of winning them at the Olympics

Soulfully

Kevin

www.siamsoulagogo.com

Kev,

First of all let me say that everyone Down Under wishes you & Guy the best in Pattaya, hopefully it'll be a great success and will grow into a regular event in the Southern hemisphere. Our only gripe is that we can't be there in 2012.

The intention of my post was to highlight the incredulity of all Aussie expats that this clash was unavoidable. This has been the consistent theme I've been hearing over the last 6 days in Hong Kong. Your arguments about pissing rain and humidity will fall on deaf ears here; weather conditions are the last thing on our minds when considering where to travel for our next NS fix.

I wish I could shut my gob here Kev but I can't ignore some of the points you raised; ie:-

(1) IT WASN'T AN OVERSIGHT

Call me a cynic but you told me that Guy had never even heard of the Australian National (which to me is astonishing), also nobody I spoke to can recall being contacted about date clashes. And why would any promoter deliberately exclude potentially up to 50 paying guests?

(2) WE'D BE THERE ON ANY OTHER OF THE 51 WEEKENDS

You got me there Kev, I was exaggerating - let's say 40 (weather permitting ;-)

(3) ALL THIS WEATHER BOLLOCKS

As mentioned above, this isn't on our radar screen.

(4) TOP QUALITY DJ's

Understandably this is a very important consideration. The quality of original vinyl in Australia is of the highest order and would grace any weekender.

(5) THE INFLUENCE OF HONG KONG ALE

I don't really know how to respond to this, its certainly nothing to do with the strength of the alcohol.

(6) MAYBE ITS TIME FOR A CHANGE FROM THE AUSSIE NATIONAL

Hmm up until this point you were just venting, now you're marketing. I can guarantee that nobody here shares your view that maybe its time for a change. We're about to start the 4^th rotation of State capitals and nearly all the attendees count each other as friends, including the regulars from UK.

(7) RUSSELL GILBERT'S COMMENT

You're dead right Russ, the logistics of going to gigs when you live here are very challenging but it doesn't stop people forking out their hard earned. Most capital cities have 2 nights per month except Melbourne which has loads of weekly events. If you want more, you have to get on a plane, simple as that.

Good luck with the gig Kev, but maybe give me a bell in 2013 eh.

Cheers......Pete

[Guest bazabod_downunder]

Let's see hope no one get's banged up in the Bankok Hilton.....I'm sure you'll enjoy all the delights that Thailand has to offer, we regularly travel more & further a field than up the motorway......Adelaide for me I'm afraid.

KTF

Baz

Edited April 8, 2012 by bazabod_downunder