Its no wonder Simon aka Imber Boy is dissappointed by the way us continental Soulboys and girls are dancing as the quote shows its "his" dancing...so what ever we do it will be only a carbon copy of the good old English traditional Northern Soul dancing to him anyway.
The video is very slow, much slower than the music Something Imber Boy should have realised given he really watched the video as often as he claims he did. So obviously the dancing in the video seems to be much slower than the actual dancing in reality was.
As a matter of fact, and you can ask all of our English and Scottish friends who were there on both nights, the whole crowded room with an estimated capacity of 500/600 hundred people danced from about 11pm to 05am non stop. Atmosphere was fantastic to say the least.
Imber Boy confesses he never was out and about on the continent for soulful reasons. Not only would I suggest you better do so before you judge on sth you haven`t experienced yourself yet, I almost beg you to do so in order for you to do yourself a favour.
Some of the best venues and weekenders these days you will find also in places such as Bamberg, Hamburg, Nürnberg, Oslo, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Malmö, Barcelona, Gijon and loads of other places.
Just like Dave Thorley said, collectors and DJ`s such as Franz Heidl, Puresoulie, Lars, Sebastian Fonzeus and many many others are real vinyl vendors awho are not only able to find their own vinyl gems but also to create their very own individual plays. Still people like Soul Sam, butch, Andy Dyson and again many others are leading the way soundwise over here as well as they do in England.
But if Wigan - styled retromania only is what your looking for dance- and soundwise you are indeed right in staying away and a visit would bring you nth but dissappointment.
Rare Soul on the continent...like a baby whose birth and genetics were given by the English (although the music is American, Afro-American, I might add..) but now grows up strongly self-determined and develops its very own style. Which ain`t too bad.
Marc