hullsoulie

Lovely fella is Stevie Woomble - although haven’t been in his company since he moved from the Christian side of the Pennines to Preston with the lovely Wendy

I saw that smudge of the Hull fellas at the Wheel and one of them at same location 40-50 years later - lovely memories.

As I’m back up in God’s country (Yawksher) and a non driver that’s unlikely mate, I rely on the largesse of others and paying my share of the petrol! I haven’t done bad mind, last 18 months I’ve done Stables in Wolvo, Keele, Kings Hall, Nuneaton, Hanley & Swinton

I’m glad to hear they are still on the go mate, I only saw them once outside London and that’s when Stafford tried a revival nighter or two at the Colosseum (same renamed site as Top of the World if memory serves me well?) all the best and thank you for taking the time to respond

I know that better than anyone mate!

I moved to London in 89 as a young man in my early 20s. Rather than believing the streets were paved with gold I was running AWAY from something, which I will keep to myself. Anyway, to business! Missing my soul ‘fix’ I took myself to central London to try the 100 club, which even in those pre-Internet days had a rep as a hotbed of rare soul. I knew only a handful of people in the capital city, and certainly nobody on the soul scene so took myself up Oxford st early and was first in the queue. I had my cassette Walkman on and the lad stood on the door asked me what track I was listening to, I told him it was Betty Turner & the Chevelles - ‘The winds kept laughing’ to which he replied ‘coincidence that’s one of our lass’s favourites’ I got downstairs and after an hour or so concluded it wasn’t anything like the Northern venues I’d been used to (Clifton Hall, Bradford Queens Hall etc). The music was ‘different’, instead of traditional soulie dress and hairstyles it was mainly sharply dressed mods, nobody let on with nods or an ‘ok mate?’ and I just thought ‘not for me’, left and got a black cab back to Isleworth….yeah, costly. Please before anybody feels they should leap to the defence of 100 club I am 100% aware that my knee jerk reaction was perhaps one of the most stupid things I’ve ever done! And one that deprived me of hearing much great music played by terrific DJs over the years….but there you go More to the point is that in Echoes I saw another soul night advertised, at the Water Rats n Grays Inn rd, Kings Cross. I took myself along there and met the organisers, Chris Dale, Dave Edwards and Chris’s partner Joeli. That became my go to for soul in the capital and even now 30+ years later I have not forgotten the friendliness to a Northern waif all those years ago, they had some fine nights at that venue, attracting gents of f the calibre of Mark Bicknell and Roger Banks down to spin some rare sounds, and I still treasure my membership card from those days. Apologies for the verbose nature of this post - brevity has never been a bedfellow of mine, I really wished to post in case either of the 3 people I’ve mentioned are still on the go and read soul source……I hope they are still on the scene and in good fettle, they made a very positive impression on this (at the time) young soulie And for all those connected to the 100 club, I fully understand and accept mea culpa in not persevering, I denied myself hearing some different sounds played by the likes of Alan Handscombe, Irish Greg, Mr Croasdell himself and Mr Dobson - as Cher sang ‘if I could turn back time….’

Wishing you all the best Mark for a full recovery - had some wonderful nights early 90s travelling from Hull to Hyde/Droylesden etc when you ran those evenings/nighters - and you turned up a few times as a duo with Roger Banks at the Water Rats in Kings X All the very best wishes

A massive thanks once again to all who have taken time to reply since I was last logged on - very much appreciated

Thank you to everyone who has replied - nice few leads/brand names to go on, I really appreciate it Cheers

Apologies for typos I rarely post and could not fathom the edit function

Hi there, Please could anyone point me in the right direction for some mens leather soled lace up shoes please? Since 1980 I've just wornoticed cheap brogues and 'accessorised' with talc. But am ever increasingly aware that talc users are viewed the same as paedos by many. I do understand the ever ageing demographic, people keen to claim compo and respiratory diseases, but it saddenseems me how curmudgeonly and sanctimonious many are becoming. I would never dream of trying to police another attendee, but there you go. Right, apologies for that but by it was cathartic! Back to business - I've heard of Loakes but they seem to come in at about 250 nickel! Is that the going rate or can you pick up a pair for around half that amount? A cursory Google search brings up a lot of non-leather soled items, such so I hoped a member of the soul fraternity may be able to help or point me in the right direction. Please may I offer thanks in advance to anyone kind enough to respond. Many thanks!

I agree wholeheartedly. He was certainly a 'character'. I will cede he had a distinct partisan bias to most things, especially his 'Spirit of 69/West Ham' days, but i always felt he wrote with PASSION, although he had a penchant for the caps lock key and used punctuation as a miser uses gold coins. What came across to me was a gent who had been involved in the minutiae of the rare soul scene, had overcome many challenges and was in a constant struggle with the ones that remained. I never formally met the chap, but think he would have been a very entertaining raconteur, I was very sad when I read of his passing, and the manner of it. Like you I miss his posts, if you persevered and re-read them he was a knowledgeable chap, I only hope the big man upstairs doesnt put him on the same cloud as Pete Lawson! RIP Dthedrug

I agree wholeheartedly - and you're not 'wrong'....or 'right' you're just expressing an opinion. I was brought up in a house with elder brothers and was exposed to their eclectic album collections, from Love, Joe Cocker, Incredible String Band, Janis Ian, An evening with Wild Man Fischer, Floyd, Free, etc etc ad nauseum, then at Snr High School got into Punk/New Wave and saw many of the bands of that era (Stranglers, Clash, Upstarts, Subs, Damned, Human League, Skids), in my early 20s I dabbled with Bambaataa & the reggae on Greensleeves. I also listen to disco, easy listening, Rod the Mod, Elton, Thin Lizzy, Altan, well.......you get my drift. My point....well I was just trying to lay the groundwork for saying that NONE of the above, EVER, comes close to me hearing Mr Big Shot, Baby what has happened to our love, Gene & Gary, Eddie & Ernie, Little Ann et al - songs where when I first discovered them in the 80s/90s led me to rewinding and playing in a loop over a dozen times in succession, far easy on Spotify than on a Sony Walkman! - the fact that I heard Gene McDaniels singing 'Another Tear Falls' on an old b&w film and was nearly moved to tears myself....or that walking to work every day with my headphones in I find my heart racing and I'm almost doing dance moves as I walk along to some of the more uptempo tracks. If other genres do that for others, more power to them, life can be short and laden with woe so anything that gives people pleasure gets a big thumbs up, BUT......., like the original poster, for me personally NOTHING comes close to the sound of Soul, or the emotions it gives me, thank god I stumbled upon it at an early age, I don't exaggerate when I say the pleasure it has given me is only surpassed by my family & children. Just one man's opinion, no more or less valid than any other :-)

Many thanks for this - confirms, as expected, mine is the boot/pressing - cheers for help

Thank you for posting