Hello Ken and everyone on Soul Source,
Well we went last night. And We WON'T be going back
Firstly let me say I am not used to posting on here, but me and Debs have been going to Northern nights for 45 years now. And we were SOOOOOO disappointed with what we witnessed at T'Rovers.
Firstly the place was hard to find - Debs was driving - and we kept going round the Weatherfield one way system - at least 4 times. We eventually found the Rovers round the back of Granada's studios.
It's a small pub with a regular crowd. When we got there no one was dancing. We were dismayed to find a sign up saying "Ken Barlow 70s night" - "Oh no we thought, this is going to be a night of disco sh*te" . Fortunately though it was a reference to Ken Barlow's 70th Birthday rather than the music policy.
The pub is half carpet and half wooden dance floor. However someone had put wood shavings on the dancefloor
So Deb's started to sprinkle talc all over the place. It was at this point that we were confronted by a very rude lady - who we understand is called "Bev" and is an ex girlfriend of one of the DJ's. She told Debs where to "shove her talc". Deb is broad minded but Bev if you are reading this there is no need to talk to the paying public that was there in this manner is there "Bev"?
The music started allright, plenty of classics but then the DJ went downhill. No doubt he was trying to "educate us" but if we need educating we'll go to college!!!!! First he played a disco record - someone said it was th Average White Band - what the F*ck has that got to do with northern soul????? If we want to hear stuff like that we'll go to a nightclub Then he played one of those unknown 60s things - I think it was the Billy-Jo Royals and a track called "Hearts on fire" (I think). Don't get me wrong it wasn't too bad, and not as bad as the 70s, but it would never have got played at Wigan would it now. I should point out that we like our classics, not these unknown reject records that weren't good enough to make it "back in the day"...
As the night wore on things got worst with these unknowns. No one was dancing. Scene veterans Peter Barlow and Leanne Battersby who are good friends of ours had a row with Ken Barlow and left, and then Emily said she'd rather be at home having a cup of cocoa. Sums it up really.
Then the DJ copped off with some mingha in the bar leaving a CD on.
There was supposed to be another DJ there - a guy from the south called Bearsy who we know plays the oldies we like - and doesn't get hung up about whether they are original vinyl or not (good man) - if he's got them he'll play them regardless of format - but we understand he got the dates mixed up and was double booked having a body wax.
In short the night never really took off and people were all leaving early. The dancefloor was poor and some of the people were quite rude (Bev etc).
We won't be going again......
and Bearsy