Ady Croasdell

Come on Rob you could drive one of yer own trains down. The 6TS Special: it has a ring to it!

Thanks Alison and Azza, I'll be catching up with all the kind people who've offered to help over the next few days and weeks. What Steve Cato neglected to mention, due to modesty, was that he's been booked as a guest for later in the year too.

That's a thought, I'll work on it. Residents bays are defo OK after 8.30 pm and before 8am though

Sorry for the delay in posting my response to your thoughtful and encouraging comments on the 100 Club crisis. The sheer volume of postings, PMs and Emails meant that I can't now reply individually as I'd wanted to but I've gone through the thread, picked out the most pertinent points and dealt with them, the best I can. Though there are many outside influences that can't be controlled like the economy, British rail and the licensing authorities, there are more than enough positives about the club to outweigh these hindrances for enough people to make sure we hold great nights down the club once more and regularly. I'm totally guilty of poor promotion in recent years and probably going back many years. We've rested on our laurels and it's got us through this far, but now I've got to up my game. I need to book the DJs well in advance, get the flyers out and about and sing the club's praises whenever I get the chance. Thanks for the offers of spreading the flyers; I'll get some out after the May one when I'll be up to speed. It is a historical musical phenomenon that I should be plugging, but more importantly is a night I love going to. It just needs an extra fifty or so people in to make each night great fun and memorable; not just the anniversaries. Specifics I am meeting with the club owner this week to try and implement some improvements. We will look at the licensing hours but that is tough with Westminster not having been very helpful recently. Hopefully we can get coffee sorted for the needy; self included. Dancefloor: after one jazz customer slipped one night and threatened to sue, they've been reticent about giving it as good a polish as they could so I'll see if I can get it better for our nights. There are a few other improvements only worth mentioning if he agrees. The sound system has been good for about a year now, we have had problems in the past but I find it much improved. Where we do have problems and this is the case at a lot of clubs, is that DJs are getting deafer as they get older and invariably whack the volume up too high which just distorts. Turning up the monitor usually cures this and I need to be more diligent as do they. I think the criticisms of the system are probably from the past by people who happened to venture down on a particularly troublesome night. No free CDs due to the day job, though I can see if Kolla can get sound files on the 6TS site so I could put up 30 secs of the latest discoveries as a taster. I'll try and get some of the exclusives listed there and on occasional flyers too. I do need to get out and about DJing more and flying the flag. I just did Leeds last weekend and enjoyed that, though it's so time consuming and expensive, I wouldn't be able to do too many and none until after Cleethorpes. I'll look into getting cheap hotel deals for those who can make a weekend of it, when I DJ I like to know I'm less than an hour away from a bed. I have no intention of moving away from the 100 Club unless it burns down. 99% of our history is there and it's ideal for what I and I believe the majority of 6TS members want. When we had to move to Jacks a couple of years ago the first night was brilliant, everybody came along and had a fantastic time, then nobody came after that; go figure as they say in America! Resident DJs: I am totally happy with though with Keith having weird shifts this year it's been a bit unbalanced which can be corrected with better planning. I do need to think harder about guest DJs and should be booking some big names well in advance as well as looking for new geezers and geezeresses who are stirring it up. This month I've got a couple of crackers in Karl Heard and Dave Greet who should really add to a potentially great vibe. I'd already got Andy Dyson booked for July and none other than Richard Searling has promised that later this year he will re-live his rare 60s revival spot of the early 90s (?) that saw one of the greatest nighters that there ever was. Irish Greg who did such a brilliant job at Crossfire recently is one of the guests for August. I'll hunt down more big DJs who haven't visited for a while and will look at the odd themed night too. Musically I try to get a balance of DJs to represent the whole Northern spectrum and hope they will all use their vast collections to bring along something for everyone and play to the crowd that comes in on the night. I'll try and book a couple of evening bashes probably mainly oldies to cater for old members who only saunter out occasionally. I'm not going to make it member only at the moment as I believe we can tighten up on the door and some of the occasional trouble makers would have been members anyway; though some would have not. I would restate though that if anyone is being an arse to let me know sooner rather than later so we can control or get rid of the problem. It's our job to handle it and we do if we are told. Odds and sods Make use of Facebook more. And do that text stalker thing. Try and find an early morning caf for those who have to or want to linger (Adam T's Balan's in Old Compton Street sounds good; 5 mins from the club). Tubes start running at 7 not 8 on a Sunday now so it's not too long if you can't get a nightbus. Parking is fine, Westminster won't be changing it for a while, if ever. There's no congestion charge at all at the weekend. A crisis means you've got problems, not that you're shutting up shop! We need a new Jim Demetriou welcoming happy new faces to the club (I'm too grumpy); at the moment Trickster, Liam and Imogen are doing a great job and Ben Summers needs to apply it universally, not just to the laydeez. We like old gits as well as fresh young things. Some of the former have often got more to give than the latter! I think with all this activity we should get the gaff up and running again but I will see how it goes over the year and may have to cut back one or two a year so that there aren't any 4 week gaps. Worst case scenario would be one every two months but I'd prefer a bit more than that. I'll be doing it bit by bit but once Cleethorpes is outta da way will really work on it. Feel free to chuck in more comments and I'll take some on board and politely reject anything I don't think would help. If I've not addressed any issues already raised, please nudge me again' there's been a lot to get through. Cheers Ady

Thanks Simon

Dunno how to get the document into the post.

The R&B Indies book reckons it was Mel Alexander's label though I saw no evidence of this when I worked on Kris, perhaps Mike Veigh can enlighten us. The Roscoe Weathers, Faye Ross and B W Souls are all on similar labels, I've not had many of the others. There's a Vel Vettes listed from the late 60s which would be good to hear. The Roscoe Weathers is the first I recognise. There's gospel in there too. Thanks to Peter Gibbon for this listing. round.rtf

That pioneering spirit was admirable but if you weren't as fanatical about it, it could be hard-going. Stafford undoubtedly changed the face of Northern and inspired me to move the 100 Club forward, but there were some very dull uninspiring nights there with few attendees and little atmosphere. The DJs did play to themselves sometimes and many Stafford regulars will tell you that it wasn't as golden an era as it is being painted now. Similarly at the 100 Club, I once DJed the last spot solely to the bar staff. I think we're in danger of championig a scene that didn't exist in the way it's being portrayed now. Ady

You're talking about the Round label Kent harris was involved with, I'll try and stick one up later. Ady

This appears to be gibberish just about all the way through. I'm gonna pack the floor at the 100 Club (and at a lot of others too) playing Luther Ingram, Gerri Granger, Martha Starr-Sweet Temptation or Lorraine Chandler 'You Only Live Twice' etc more than with most oldies or "classics". I actually love oldies and nearly always play 4 or so in my first set and more in the second, I think that's about the right percentage for the club. We have no specific desire to educate you if you don't want it, we just want to have a mix of the right amount of old, new, 60s, 70s, R&B (which actually gets a bit neglected these days), uptempo, midtempo etc that satisfies the vast majority of the customers. We also want to break new records down there and change the playlist over the years. If I hadn't started doing that in the mid 80s we wouldn't have made into the nineties let alone 2010; I can promise you that. There's been a swing to quite a few 70s in recent months, even I've whack a few on, all the DJs play some. None of the regular DJs since Greg have had a mod background and he was always much more into Northern than mod sounds. I've only ever known Joel through Northern though he has a lot of mod friends, he doesn't play any mod tunes at all. It wouldn't be a crime if we did employ a mod either, it's a healthy respected music scene in its own right. Finally as you've said yourself you don't go to the 100 Club all nighters. Have you been once a year in the last 5 years or less? As we're constantly evolving you really wouldn't know what's happening musically down there. That of course is absolutely fine by everyone but please don't come on a thread trying to tell people what we do. Ady

That's terrible news, Dave was always such a happy and fun participant at Cleethorpes and when i travelled up to the North West. I know all the Macc lads were hugely fond of him. my thoughts go out to Glen, Jim and the gang and all his relatives and friends. Ady

I think it will be busy but I'd be amazed if it sold out. To make sure get there in good time like you usually do Billy. We'll defo be extra strict on the door on this one though I wouldn't have time to make it members only even if that was to be the future policy. Now let's leave it for a couple of days and I'll get my thinking hat on! Cheers ady

Is it the sam nesbitt, Patrice Holloway number and wotsit sound like? Ady

Thanks for the fantastic and overwhelmingly positive response to this thread. I think it's time to close it now. If a general discussion on the nighter scene is required, start a new topic please. I'll mull over all the points and start a new thread where I map out the general plans for the club and will respond to all specifically relevant points about the club that have been posted. It will take a few days to digest, dissect and interpreted all and to get some of the plans in motion. I need to set up a meeting with the clubs owners too. So please bear with me and wait for that and chuck anything extra that needs expressing my way then. Cheers and thanks a bunch Ady PS I'm surprised nobody has noticed the first active thing I've done to ensure a swinging next nighter!

He's got me there, I'm gonna have to listen to the lyrics more carefully.

Well What Condition My Condition is in was a biggish record for her and that was rock so she's giving it another go. Scary titles though!

Thanks Stu, I wouldn't want to drop the DJs wages much though, they're not overpaid and I've made good money in the past. it's more about running good nights than the profit line; that will be what it will be.

Thanks Imogen, but I feel very guilty I must have put you below the minimum wage by now!

We've been threatening coffee for about 25 years now, I'll have another go at them.

Good on you squire. Ta

I'm not that keen on blowing my own trumpet but as its also the club's yes i should bang on about the heritage a bit more. i think its the wooden block flooring with the talc, it's murder to clean and damages it so I'm told.

I wasn't really thinking of bowing out, just improving it or cutting down if necessary. I still enjoy the whole thing but not to 100 people every time in a club that size. I don't agree with you on the oldies thing either even to a smaller audience i managed to play two brand new tracks and four or five I've been playing for a year or less. They went down well too, as did a handful of genuine oldies I threw in at the appropriate time. The 100 Club has mostly been a mix of old and new, we were never as adventurous as Stafford and its helped us last so long.

No, nor Saturdays

Only done the first page and it's way past my bed time. I'll try a bit more tomorrow. Thanks again Ady (too dim to realise I was actually doing some marketing for once:lol:)

May 22nd July 3rd Aug 14th Sept 18th - Anniversary - ticket only event Oct 30th Dec 11th 2010 Christmas Party - Thurs. 23rd December, 9pm-2am There you go bro!