a few of mine, in no particular order

friday night in the pub at prestatyn ( fantastic especially soul sam's spot) sunday night in the pub at prestatyn john weston and keith money were awsome

saturday afternoon prestatyn (lifeline spot)

telling the manager at our old venue to stick it up his arse

middleton (especially carl and marias room)

sleeples nights dublin (september) my legs were acheing from going up and asking all the dj's "whats this one" fantastic night

new years eve in Arezzo

sounds of soul hemel hempstead (allways have a great time and my face usually hurts from laughing so much)

New Untouchables Birmingham allnighter (the music was excellent in both rooms especially the ska reggae room upstairs)

i'm sure i'll remember some more

Got to be my first time to King's Hall, Stoke - probably the best nighter I have been to. Such a great atmosphere!

Hi for me its gotta be skeggy in september wot a weekend had a ball other than that every soul do we get to has its own little highlight just love it luv Di xx

  dj diva di said:

Hi for me its gotta be skeggy in september wot a weekend had a ball other than that every soul do we get to has its own little highlight just love it luv Di xx

totally agree went all the national scooter rallies last yr but deffo isle of white was a blast

I've brought the lads behind Phuture Sole Records in New Jersey over a few times over the years and I do see them as friends nowadays and not part of the networking shit that goes on, anyway the last time they were over for an OHS night was in May 07.

This particular time one of House Music's mentors came with them - Hippie Torrales - whom I met when I was playing with him in Leeds (Bullshit statement but I felt the need for the story to state it).

We ended up at an after party at my mates fancy pad (club in the basement an' all that stuff us working class lads can only dream of).

Hippie, he's Hispanic and was a resident at the renowned Zanzibar Club in the 70's/80's (he's 54 now) was playing and reeled off so many 70's Northern classics, Frankie Crocker, Babe Ruth da di da in his set, it just blew me away - it was so organic, I could never reveal that history if I played them, he was there when they broke on that original scene

To hear a man play stuff that he had heard first hand in it's true environment, was amazing...he was also taken aback and happy that a pissy skinny white bloke such as I knew them.

In true Soulie manner I spent an hour following him, showing the lads that us pissy white soul boys can stand on the same level, if not as organically as they - but we they understood that the root of our love of those tracks were borne of the same truth.

This post isn't a post aimed at US/UK division, as having re read it it could be misconstrued as such.

It's just one that proves that when you get a room filled with people that have built their lives around music, even though they live their lives completely differently and live 3000 miles apart....respect for good music shines through - and great tracks are truly universal.

I love music...I love how it breaks down barriers and I love how it manages to forge respect.

I'm not sure if that is a worty response to your Q and I apolgise if it didn't meet your criteria.