Ady Croasdell

Some good constructive suggestions there at least one of which is being worked on. Ta Russ

These are occasional incidents over the past two or three years, if they happened to you its obviously a major pain but there are plenty of opposite examples of good outsiders too. We've sorted the beer on the floor very well recently. Well the over-zealous bouncers did.

that's the positive spirit I like Simon; cheered me up no end. i didn't say 10% though did I? I think SS is quite influential but t'internet is not the be all obviously.

Mainly Southern for the last dozen years the Northerners invaded more in the 80s when people were younger and more adventurous.

Some sort of occasional weekender is worth considering but I'm not convinced it would work. however it wouldn't do any harm to see if we can get special room rates at a nearby hotel once in a while for the lazy buggers like me who like to crash out nearby ASAP once they've left the club (I used to do that when I DJed in M/C-wimp!)

Using a different venue would be last resort when and if the 100 ever finishes or doesn't want us. When we did have to get out for a few months to Jacks London Bridge, the first night was brilliant with at least 400 in but then the second had about 120 and it never got busy again after what for me was one of the best nighters I'd been to. We can move the 6TS anywhere but its natural home is undoubtedly the 100 club.

Don't you dare feel guilty, you support us nearly all the time and it's great you're getting to see the big wide Northern world. i feel we're playing quite a few 70s now and wouldn't want it to go much higher from a personal point of view, it would also alienate some of the mod element who have helped it survive for so long. I defo don't fancy much 80s. I think the sound has been much improved lately but somne DJs just turn it up too high, i think Mick Butch and I were all occasionally guilty of that on Saturday. That can probably be remedied by turning up the monitor. Thanks Geoff Ady

The floor was very good this time, no talc and it seemed excellent to me when I actually swung a leg.The new bar manager Diane who's a game girl and very understanding of the scene, said they'd had to give it a special clean for some reason so I'll try and get it done every time.

My gut reaction is to do that but i can't until next year so in a way the next three will be a test drive to see if we can get people back. I agree with what Russ says about breaking records but if most people are only going occasionally it's gonna take just as long to break them anyway.

Bollox I've gotta go Hopefully do a few more later. ta Ady

Talc, hours and extra bouncers are down to the management, I can't do owt about that. I don't think the bouncers are over-zealous in general maybe very occasionally. One or two of them are actually top notch. Westminster aren't changing the parking times yet and when Camden tried it the High Court ruled it illegal. Camden is still free and it's only 100 yards away. We would still have had a back door man if he'd taken his security staff course and got a badge! Piss heads are annoying but not that common and quite often they are members anyway. i had to chuck a lad out on Saturday and he's been going over the years. Similarly the bloke who kicked Mark up the arse was with a couple of really nice members and he was probably a member too. There was a great couple who danced all night on Saturday and chatted away to loads of soulies and really brightened the place up. i wouldn't want to deter them but how do I know if they're gonna be like that on the door? Once they've had a few inside they might have turned into idiots. I do think we can be a lot stricter on the door though with people who are already pissed and I will defo do that. That bloke who ended up in a dress came down as meek as a lamb and then went into the bogs and changed into an idiot in a dress. It's empty at the start even when its busy so maybe I'll lop an hour off at the commencement. Cheers Ady

OK I'll try and reply to each post where a new comment is made that is relevant. I won't repeat myself so if I've already acknowledged a point that'll have to do otherwise I'll be on here a week. All the comments really are appreciated thanks Carms Points taken about petrol (I don't drive much), other events and a general downturn in economy and the soul world. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy Crossfire, I wasn't too wild about a lot of it but nearly everyone else thought it was brilliant. we cleared up a lot of the problems but of course you'd gone by then. Sorry. Mind you it's not directly related to the 100 Club they are VERY different dos so not that relevant to this possibly.

Not me Den I didn't go to the Mecca as far as I can remember. I'm pretty sure it was a SC acetate but that counts too.

Pete's other thread got me thinking of records that were listed or even just negotiated for UK release but never got a full issue or nowt at all. First Choice This Is The House. Pye Sam Nesbitt Black Mother Goose. 444 Gerri Hall Who Can I Run To. Sue Billy Garner You're Wasting My Time. Beacon Please add more Ady

No the Red Carnival was defo the Isens so if the other one is too then they had different designs, numbering and pressing plants by the look of them.

I'm going to start replying to the PMs and Emails now and then will try and wade through as many of these as I can though it's gonna take a few days. Any new thoughts, criticisms or brainwaves feel free to air them here. Thanks again Ady

Just a footnote you could put in. Carnival was owned by Rita and Benny Isen who owned UK King and Ska Beat among others. They did a legit deal with Joe Evans. Another curio is that Beacon were going to license Dave Hamilton's 'You're Wasting My Time' by Billy Garner at one stage.

There are two mixes of Make Me Yours for Wigginsofiles.

His uptempo version of Love Attack as featured on Goldwax Northern was a Goldwax recorded, Fame purchased master too, as was the unreleased Water- not the Geno song. There are one or two more that one of us will come up with soon. You're right Dante one of the reasons to keep the club going is to be able to play tracks like this. Ady

Thanks hugely to everyone who has posted and the PMs and Emails I have had, it's great that people are so concerned. There are a lot of very good suggestions already and I'm gonna give it a few more days as there are sure to be people who haven't had a chance to put their two pennuth in yet. Also I'm still looking after Sonny so won't be able to fully analyse all this for a day or two. Keep 'em coming please, the more views, the better picture I'll get. It's really appreciated. Cheers Ady

As the Cats was such a good and influential club, can anyone explain why the Saints & Sinners club at the back of an all night pro's cafe in Brum city centre was frequented by overwhelmingly Northants/Harboro kids? Apart from Slip from Brum I can't remember any other West Mids accents!

Kent/Ace have five of these tracks out on Various Artist CDs but I don't think we found out much about her so anyone with info please let us have it. They're all great girly soul sides.

Tony who was one of the two people who actually dug the tape out sent a copy to Steve for promotion and thanks for recent support. It's not specifically my shout for that reason though we do discuss the best ways of promotion. I'm sure we will do the best we can to popularise the great tune. Incidentally due to circumstances at the 100 Club I actually spun it three times in a night, at 11pm 2.30 am and 5.45 am, which I'm pretty sure is the first time I've ever done that. It's a sign of the times that it went down slightly better than the awesome Billy & Clyde stomper though that's gonna be a grower.

Well although I enjoyed last night, the numbers were low for the fourth consecutive all nighter. It started in January when we ran it during the freeze when everyone else had cancelled, so that wasn't surprising, even though Mick Smith managed to get there from Wolverhampton record fair while others reckoned they couldn't get across town. Then we clashed with Rugby anniversary and a lot of the regulars were DJing there so naturally their carloads went there. But march and April really didn't clash with anything major so last night in particular I was down about it (although I had recently been encouraged by Crossfire). REASONS 1) I don't have time to promote as well as I used to and with a hectic Cleethorpes schedule I won't really be able to do this until after then. 2) A lot of soulies don't like the fact that the general public can get into the dances now. I understand that but really don't feel that if we returned to members only we'd get enough people in to pay the bills, which since we've had to move to 10pm-6am have been high. 3) Are most nighter venues having the same problem? Is it a general demise of the nighter scene brought on by over familiarity and ageing? 4) Music policy. I've alwys tried to keep it a reasonable mix of old, rare, new, 60s, 70s, R&B and god knows what but are people getting more picky and less understanding of other people's preferences? Can't fans of one genre of music abide to hear even a few of those of another. 5) DJ line up. I'm happy with all of my regulars, i don't think there's a week link there, though Joel's arrival has coincided with the bad run, I'm positive this is a coincidence and i personally have been happy with every spot he's done and there are a lot of tunes I wasn't overly familiar with there. I do find it hard to get guests who draw any extra customers and I'm not sure there are many in the country who would personally up the attendance, but I'd love to know of some. There are probably a lot more reasons that I've not worked out yet, but please if you care about the club at all let me have your opinions. Some will be the opposite of someone else's and sort of cancel each other out, but that's fine it will give me a better picture even though I know Soul Source isn't 100 % representative of the 100 Club crowd. If the only comment is something like "I don't like London" that's probably not gonna be too helpful! Funnily enough at the start of the night Butch and I were chatting about the Stafford reunion and saying that if the 100 Club closed now it would immediately gain mythical status and I could run reunions and sell T shirts and make more money running it as a historical venue than a current one. Of course the final conclusion might be that it's run its course after 31 years. Randy and I only started it for somewhere to hear the music we loved and a year was good going, three decades is quite unbelievable really. I still enjoy the nights very much but don't want to see it die on its arse. Going bi- monthly is an obvious option but it would make the breaking of good new records even harder and that's one of the best aspects of the club in my opinion. So let me have it, even though it might be hard to swallow. I've got a pretty thick skin, know I and the club are far from perfect and don't hold grudges (too long). If you'd rather it was off the record just send a PM, I'll read them all and hopefully reply to them all though it might take a while with work and family duties being very busy at the moment. Ady

So you'll never visit the 100 Club again 'cause the management won't allow talc! Very sad (in the traditional sense) Simon.