Evening Paul,
That's the whole point. It's your night, your scene, it's how you enjoy your music and fair play to you. But your current dismissive attitude of anything outside your thinking as 'old hat' displays the very same attitude that you claim is a turn off for younger soul fans as far as the Northern Soul scene is concerned. For many of us, the thought of sitting on our arses bored out of our heads listening to Brian Poole and The Tremeloes et al whilst waiting for a decent soul 45 to hit the Technics is a complete non starter. (I've done it so I know what I'm talking about! ). I wouldn't dream of criticising anyone that feels that that's a worthwhile night out. Strokes for folks all the way etc. But I'm a rare soul fan...bust! If you can't cater to my tastes, that's OK. It's not a problem, so why do you feel it's OK to criticise people like me for not embracing the way you think the soul scene should develop?
Oh, and when we meet up again you can explain to me what you meant by 'You lot'. Does that include anyone that doesn't go to Beat Boutique?
If you think that the die hard northern attitude doesn't really apply amongst the younger soul fans, then you need to get up to speed on both the US scene and the European scene. They embrace all the good things about rare soul and it's traditions, whilst avoiding any of the crappy politics that regularly gets in the way of folks OF ALL AGES actually having a good time together. It sounds like it's maybe you 'young uns' who might need to broaden your horizons and look a little further afield than your own gig. I've two spare bedrooms if you're up for it. Lucerne in January, Valencia in March, Hamburg in April, Bamberg in May, Hitsville in September, take your pick. Warm beds but cold beer await.