Timillustrator

Three drawings I did of Wolfies Soul Club all with Sue in, she's to the right hand side in each of them. If you'd seen her dance you may recognise her, I think it wasn't a bad likeness.

Well wasn't that quite something! New venue and at first it looked a bit high-street clubby - neon lights, TV screens, trendy bar fittings, bouncer on the door etc. but actually it was the ideal venue for this - fairly small but beautifully clean wood dancefloor, red lights (which got turned off later on, no disco lights either: another plus), really reasonable bar prices, nice seating too and unlike some venues there were enough tables to draw from! All ages crowd but apart from a couple of drinks on the dancefloor moments (which didn't last long) no problems, some top dancers from all over as well. With a DJ line up like that you couldn't go far wrong and everyone did what you would expect. Good mixture though, it wasn't too obscure, wasn't too overplayed (with one exception, and in 9 hours I am being dead picky) highlights for me were Jordan Wilson playing Bobby Williams, Daz Dakin playing Bird Walkin', Martin Farmer (of course he's the best DJ in England ) playing pretty much everything but particularly Jerry Hall and The King Cobras, Martin Shaw playing Jesse Johnson. Moments like that are often few and far between but they just kept coming, there was more, much more I can't remember. At one point it looked like the DJ's milling around were outnumbering those on the bill so there was a real buzz about this one. Unlike several other events there was still a reasonable crowd at 5am too. The only reason for not giving it five stars was a spin of House For Sale (because I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of do's I've been to in the last 12 months that didn't play it to the point that just once I'd like the hear The Snake instead) but this is being very, very picky and it was at about 3:45 am and more than made up for by the quality of everything else. Probably the best event of the year so far; looking forward to the next one in November.

Good to see this one back after a protracted absence (the same venue was used a few months ago by another DJ for a charity do - that was OK but actually a rather odd night, I mean it was free so you can't really complain and whilst it was described as Northern Soul Against Cancer the flyer did say they'd be playing other stuff and there were about 3 hours of Northern Soul but I left that one about an hour before the end after the Jam, Billy Ocean, Bad Manners and just after Wham as Duran Duran came on), nice venue, local to me, perfect wood dancefloor, nice and dark, no disco lights - all massive plusses in my book. Interesting sets; by far the best was Scooby opening, although tragically (and I do mean tragically as I spent the rest of the night kicking myself mentally) I got out of the car to the sound of The International GTO's and walking as quickly as I could I didn't make it in time to dance to it anyone who plays that and Don Gardner in the same set is automatically catapulted into the top league in my opinion. Other DJ's played pretty mixed sets from the inevitable (House For Sale having it's 1,000th outing this year) to the unexpected (Jesse Johnson, Vernon Garrett, Larry Hale and the Rhinos) to the slightly underplayed (Gene Latter, The Enchantments) to some not particularly predictable modern stuff; so overall something for everyone. Good reliable venue this, reasonable bar, big car park, just off the motorway and hopefully long may it continue. PS this is a pretty good review, I am only giving something 4 stars if it moves me nearly to tears, 5 stars to one or two events a year at most. 6 stars (I know it doesn't exist) reserved for Macabre Soul, if that ever happens again!

Who was the DJ there called Chris? Tall guy with grey hair.

Well thank God for this one! After several months of frankly totally underwhelming events finally one that delivered the goods. I've been to what seems like endless, poorly attended halls, clubs and social centres to hear the same old House For Sale, Name It You Got It and Standing On Solid Ground, sometimes each more than once a night while a dozen people danced and I was starting to wonder if I had post-pandemic fatigue, or if it was just that people were just so damn glad to be able to go out again they'd be happy with that 100 Greatest Hits of Northern Soul from ASDA and a patch of lino to dance on. Although on the plus side I haven't actually heard I Wanna Give You Tomorrow since probably September! Of course everything being cancelled last minute thanks to Omicron didn't help matters but even some rather hyped up events that managed to go ahead didn't really feel that interesting - playing to the floor all night is fine and it's great to see people enjoying themselves but it was all starting to feel like that episode of Father Ted where the DJ only had one record and plays it again and again all night, finishing with "Please stand for our National anthem" and playing it again. I couldn't bring myself to review these gigs either because they were bloody trying their best to keep the torch burning in the most extreme of circumstances. Anyway enough of all that misery - this was great, perfect venue, dark and atmospheric, sprung wood floor, good DJ line up, surprisingly pre-pandemic price, decent crowd, nice to see a few faces back out from the last decade. Highlights for me were Carl Jones with a really interesting set of largely underplayed dancers, Rob Smith who never fails to play the right thing but still keeps it interesting and, the pièce de résistance, Jordan Wilson who is surely the future - underplayed, unreleased, unknown and even the classics; Just Brothers and L Allen in one set, just wow, but follow that up with International GTO's and it was two and a half minutes of pure post-pandemic joy (something I've not experienced this decade) to hear that blasting out in this atmospheric building, it almost felt like the 2 years wait was all worth it. Sounds like this will carry on bi-monthly too which, as long as they keep the DJ's interesting and varied, should be a good bet.

What a great night this was; being lazy I hadn't properly read up on it and until the day before thought is was the "last ever" Nuneaton all-nighter, turns out it's the last ever "all" nighter as in the future it'll end earlier. Just as well because it was really fantastic. A good number of people also did stay to the end (including me although I missed the final picture being in the bog), perhaps because it was the last chance to do so? Nice room, lovely floor, good crowd. Mix of DJ's to suit all tastes really but the standouts for me were Ethan Howarth playing Joe Hicks, Don Morris playing the International GTO's, someone? playing Emanons Orchestra, Mark Freeman playing August and Deneen, Pep playing Ted Wilson (actually that was the musical highlight of the year (probably the decade) for me - that final burst of strings is surely the most insane, intense emotional 6 seconds of orchestrated music ever recorded? Just listen to it 1:46 to 1:52 Oh My God; just incredible to hear that blasting out at 3 am on a wet December morning) and finally Ian James playing Dickie Wonder and Gerri Hall. Only downside was House For Sale making an appearance, but on the plus side it wasn't the absolutely-hammered-to-death-three-times-a-night version A very minor complaint in an otherwise outstanding series of sets. Did a few sketches but was defeated by pens running out - must really plan these things ahead of time.

Well that was just pure quality from start to finish. Being a generally ignorant person about local geography I had no idea why this was called "Byron" soul club, I'd seen the flyers before with an oil portrait of Byron on, which looked very artistic but more like an advertisement for a book club than a soul club; maybe the DJs read poetry between records? I thought. Anyway it turns out that Byron is buried in the church next door so there you go. Great venue - first floor hall of this building, nicely done up and with a fantastic dancefloor and decent bar and the music was just amazing. I've been to a few Nottingham venues now and the difference between this and the West Midlands is really striking, there's little overplayed stuff but that doesn't lessen the quality one jot. I'd say about 66% of what was played tonight never gets heard in the West Midlands but I have no idea why not, because it's way better than hearing Helen Shapiro, Julian Covay and House For Sale twice a night. Actually despite 5 DJs there wasn't one repeat, something else that's a rarity in the West Midlands. Anyway that's enough negativity but from just one set you had The Startones, The Sweets, The Chants one after another anyone of which could be a highlight anywhere else; not to say it was all obscure Jonathan Capree, Cody Black, Salvadors and Tomangoes all made an appearance but the balance was just perfect. Didn't draw much because it's difficult to actually see the DJ's behind the big screens but you can't really complain about that. I will definitely return!

Looks like an error by the OP - they've put the start time as 2am by mistake as well as the finish time as 2am. Shortest soul do in history! The poster still says Saturday.