Dave Rimmer

What a great time we had. Johnny Weston and I left Birmingham airport at midday on the Saturday with brifght sunshine and 26 degrees. We arrived in Edinburgh to dull overcast skies and by 5pm rain ! It didn't dampen our spirits though, Derek collected us from the airport and we went on a magical mystery tour to collect some speakers and cables. After a fish supper and a couple of beers John and I left Derek to finish setting up, and we jumped a lift to the Spiders Web where John was doing a spot. Great little underground cellar Soul Club. I know it's been running years but this was my first visit. To my surprise I probably knew 80% of the people in there, including the Italians and Germans ! Didn't recognise George Wallace at first though, because he's shaved his beard off !! Back to the MacRobert Pavillion for the niter. When we arrived in the afternoon I thought it was a huge room and would need a lot of bodies to fill it, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the room well over what I was expecting at 11pm, Virtually all the seats were taken and the dancefloor was warming up nicely. A few more beers and then it was time to DJ. Derek came to me and said a few people had been saying there was too much midtempo being played. No problem, straight into it with a few banging Oldies. Floor full ! Job done. I left Johnny Weston with a full floor and went straight through to the R & B room for my second set. Now whilst I'm known for playing R & B in my normal set, I don't consider myself an R & B DJ, especially when I'm up against the best of the Scottish & Irish R & B DJs. So I was outside my comfort zone with this one. But that gave me the nervous edge you need to put a good set in, and I was quite pleased that not only did people not throw things at me, they danced right though my set. Quite a few people came and looked at what I was plying as well, so that gave me some quiet satisfaction. In fact I was really pleased with the way the set went, and it gave me a real buzz doing it. Back into the main room for some more beers, until the end of the night, to find Johnny Weston DJing in the Modern room, virtually to himself. Not that it bothered John, he just played what he wanted. A lift back to the airport, to try and get a last beer with Andy Dennison, but strangely the bar wasn't open until midday on the land side, but opened at 6am on the airside, so we said our goodbyes to Andy and went through to have a liquid breakfast. Overall, a great night. Derek Robertson did a fantastic job pulling it all to gether, and I think everyone who attended it really enjoyed it. So thanks to Derek for inviting us, thanks to all the people who had a chat and a beer, and thanks for the Scottish hospitality. See you all again soon. Dave can read more views amd post comments via the events own thread in the soul source event guide

It was a pilgrimage ! Down to worship our religion at the 32nd Anniversary of the 100 Club allnighters. On board we had Gospel Bob, Dave the Bishop Of Banbury, the Reverend Rimmer, Sister Sharon the dancing Nun, and Verger John. Despite a late start we made good time down to London, with no hold ups for traffic. This was of course expected, we were on a Mission from God ! As we pulled up at the back of the 100 Club, Ady 'the Godfather' Croasdell was just arriving as well. We paid our respects, (although I told John that trying to kiss the hem of his robe was a little over the top), and I gave Ady a lift down the stairs with all the Anniversary singles. I did actually try to run off with one box, but he caught me. I helped Trickster put the tables out, all fourteen of them, and then sat down with a beer to wait for the music to start. As with all the Anniversaries it was mostly Oldies, but less this year than others I felt. To be honest, Butch and Keith played pretty much their normal type of spots, Roger Stewart provided the link back to the early days of 6Ts by contributing a couple of good spots. Ady debuted the new Pied Piper recordings that he has recently unearthed (And there were such a lot of good, no, great tracks, that I can't wait for the CD), and that left Mick Smith. For me, Mick Smith made the night. Three spots through the night, and he showed that if you want quality, rare Oldies, delivered with enthusiasm, this was the way to do a spot. A new record was set as well. Where I sit selling records you can always tell how many of the women haven't been to the 100 Club before because they come towards the Gents toilet whilst looking for the Ladies. We count how many do it each Anniversary. Last year it was ten, this year there was a 33% increase, as the number rocketed up to thirteen. I often wonder how do these people hear about the Anniversary, and where do they get their tickets from ? Talking of which, who the hell let the 6'5" East European in. Not only was he huge, he was completely hammered and kept asking if I had any Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd records for sale. Oh yeah, and kylee made a new friend who's extremely good at projectile vomiting ! The last laugh of the night came in McDonalds though. I introduced Charlie Mac from Banbury to Jessica from New York. He asked where she was from, and Jess replied Wales, where she has been living for several years now. You could see the cogs turning and the strong smell of burning as Charlie tried to associate Jess' strong New York accent with Wales. Eventually the look of confusion on Charlie's face was only cleared when he actually said "That's not a Welsh accent is it ?" As always I thoroughly enjoyed the music, the company, and the Anniversary single. Well done to all the DJs, and everyone else who made the night such a success. Dave site info the top photo is from Spirits soul source photo album can view all pics and also John Westons pics from the nite via links below and can read all the event discussion via soul source event guide entry