Winnie :-)

Yes saw him at Sheridans, thought he was in Paul's play ;)

Sat next to Buster Bloodvessel at the 100. Saw a bloke from Corrie at Brighouse Ritz, ginger bloke who played a mechanic, his daughter did him in in the show, no idea of his name though The guy from two packets of crisps, Munch is it, he was floating about for a while, saw him mostly round Manchester.

I saw him there a couple of times Mark

Besides Ian?

Best soul night I've ever been to, no disrespect intended to anyone's I haven't been to

It's not me honest, I just like it

Looks real, and looks good

I've gone back to this post because for me it's the best one on here. Has complete humility, no Bobby big Bollocks stuff here, recognises that the oldies crowd supplements the upfront, no criticism of oldies, in favour of underplayed. No snide digs, the sort of post that if an oldies fan read, he/she could get on board with and think they'd be welcomed and maybe prompted to give Lifeline a go.

Really liked it, would definitely dance to most of those tracks, very traditional, nice one :thumbsup:

Surely the idea of upfront is to continually play something different, so you couldn't really have a top ten, could you?

I get the sentiment

Thought it was pleasant enough, certainly not as bad as some have made out

I agree with you when taken in the context of Soul Source, oldies fans rarely comment, but go onto facebook and there are threads all over the place and there you'll get that alternative view. On your second point, their passion is reserved for records they know and the scene they remember, and want to preserve, so I don't think it's directly one ''side'' has more passion than the other, just both are pulling in different directions, hence like many others I now think there are two distinct scenes, both IMO are relevant, it's then down to individual taste which path you want to follow.

Then you've got to ask why aren't oldies fans all over this topic, in fact I think you did make reference to it, but still few have come forward?

Perhaps the answer to why the two scenes won't collide lies in the 'oldies' fan's perception of the people on the upfront scene?

Good luck Rod, sure you'll be an asset to the site :thumbsup:

You're not the only one to notice Carms

The same line interested me, in Tammy's post 'the floor never gets packed, people standing around socialising/talking', to me it implies multiple visits, cos you can't use ''never'' without a point of reference, Tammy goes on to say 'if the music is so great why are people not packing the floor' that implies he/she is constantly going back there and being disappointed, or alternatively getting the information second hand, having a suspicious nature I suspect the second Just a thought..........

Len the scene has been morphing for years there was a big surge 8/10 years ago where people turned up from anywhere and everywhere and for me that was when it all started changing. With the massive influx of bodies came the watering down of the northern scene, soul nights/nighters started springing up everywhere and most of them were exactly the same format, oldies, because that was what the crowd demanded. This particular audience wanted to have a drink, the odd dance, show everybody they had talc with them and chat and be chatted to by the opposite sex, above all they wanted it on their doorstep, cue the end of the northern scene as we knew/know it. Northern became a catch all for anybody over 35, reasonably trouble free, ideal for those still wanting a life of sorts, but the music policy suffered. Venues started catering for the 'once a month' crew, who weren't/aren't overly worried about moving forward, which is their choice, but I kind of see it as the they nicked the term northern, which to be honest was a bit of a cheek, but essential in their eyes to promote their wares. It's a sad state of affairs, but there's no doubt in my mind that it's definitely two completely different scenes now and I don't think it will change

Get well soon Keith

10 Nige Brown 11 Dave Abbott 12 Arthur Fenn 1 Soul Sam 2 Steve G 3 Butch 4 Mick Smith 5 Ady C 6 Andy Dyson

Doesn't really work for me Len, you've got 2000 people in, and the DJs are under instruction to play what they want, we know from multiple threads the majority of the northern scene is made up of 'Oldies' fans so would Dave for instance, who's following Brian be obliged to cater for them as well. It would be a big call for any of those DJs to ignore the dance floor in favour of playing something different don't you think? Consequently would they really have a free hand ..........

I wasn't at Derby, but having heard Chalky DJ a number of times I'd be amazed if he wasn't playing obscure oldies, so then it would come down to personal taste, your's and his. I'm using Chalks as an example because he said he played Derby last night.

Len, for me the scene has a proliferation of 'I know what I like and I like what I know' style punters and DJs, and never the twain shall meet. There are two distinctly separate scenes, one is based on attending a social occasion (the majority of punters) the other is based on moving the scene forward. When northern hit the big time mid 7Ts, what was being played then has forever been ingrained in a lot of punters minds as the perfect description of the term northern soul. In effect it was a fad when it went public, jump forward a few years, most of the people who joined at that time went off to have families etc, when they ( I include myself in this) came back, they wanted to hear familiar sounds, which is cool if you're only going out once a month and to say only a couple of nighters a year. The problem for me came because I was out every weekend, soul night Friday generally a nighter Saturday, so the same sounds soon became boring, so from a personal point of view I gravitated to rarer events, But that was a personal choice, I didn't want to just go out once a month, so natural progression was to strike out and find something different. The majority of the northern scene it would appear aren't too worried about what's being played, so the obvious way forward is to now distinguish properly between the two scenes and accept that educating people will only happen if said person wants to be educated, then he/she will find an upfront venue. Just my opinion

If you felt trapped in the 'oldies' room because they were playing ''overplayed'', and you didn't like the 'rare underplayed' room, what would you actually advocate as a way forward. Or did you just really want to have a dig at the rare room? No axe to grind by the way, just curious as you seem to like neither? Winnie