ImberBoy

The secret of a successful Allnighter …. Your thoughts? Been thinking about Nuneaton and Nottingham recently and pondering the reason why an Allnighter is successful or not, there have been quite a few venues that enjoy their moment in the sun and we are all truly blessed with the quality we have all enjoyed over the three or four decades. Now don’t get me wrong, there have been some flops that do not work even when the “formula” is in place and the reason for the flop can be quite mysterious. Nuneaton is evolving, I have been to quite a few now and the quality line has been maintained, the DJ’s all seem to understand the dance floor and the punter and that dreaded 0400hrs flat spot seems to have missed Nuneaton! I love the venue, it is an honest gritty building that smacks of Northernsoul, there are of course the Divvy piss heads in attendance, there always is but they seem to naturally stand away from the dancers and dance floor thanks to the lay out of the room which gives you the ability to move down toward the stage and towards dare I say the deeper end. On Saturday Night I danced a couple of times near the bar area where a rather drunk lady was mimicking the dancers and attempted a high kick loosing one of her shoes into the air and had to go deep to retrieve it, took me all my military disciple not to laugh and call her a knob head ! The Nighter crowd in attendance is always my first litmus test and Nuneaton has a plethora of “Faces” which is always a welcome and a stamp of approval that must not ever be under estimated. Musically it is top heavy with sixties Northernsoul dancers, you do get the off seventies track played and that is a joy but my pleasure is that there are a couple of DJ’s who are able to slip in some dusted off, rare and even new tracks which fire all of my rockets! On the social side, friendly isn’t the word, I am biased though because my “Northernsoul Family” are there and I feel extremely comfortable to do my thing without being judged and that is pretty cool. I did intend to explore the reason this Allnighter has become successful but it goes down to that magical invisible “X-Factor” that is easy to attempt but impossible to manufacture, yes there are some rules of thumb but Nuneaton has captured the imagination of the Nighter Crowd and that is a hard act to pull off indeed. October the 12th is the next offering, I’ll be there as the song goes. My next Nighter is Keele and there I intend to interview some of the punters so watch this space…….. If you have an idea why an Allnighter is successful I would love to hear it, much love Imber Boy X

That's the one, a million kisses, it was driving me nuts!!!!

Help ID This Modern or Seventies? Dancer: “how can I stop this feeling from stabbing me in the back!”

RIP ........... so very sad

It's good to talk, we all had a tip top holiday and look forward to 2013 SITS

Gail, Spot and Steff, top geezers x!!!! Get well soon Dave

Not too sure what your asking, Matchey was out at Stoke, he hasn't been out for a while ?

I'll be at Radcliffe this Saturday (My Fiftieth!) and Stoke the week after, Radcliffe again Boxing Night and definitely a Nighter New Years Eve, not sure where yet? Most likely Stoke but there are whispers of a secret location????? Be great to see you soon my old friend!!!!

Billy is a “Grade 1 Listed Soulie” Proud to call him my friend

Thank you for commenting Eddy. The outside sound system was very poor to say the least but my criticism was not the sound system it was the lack of communication as my revue clearly sates. However I have, it seams, done you an injustice as you were clearly there to meet and great but we had missed each other, and for this I whole heartedly apologise here in public to you and your team for my harsh words. The revue does go on to applaud Soul in the Sun and I hope I give a well rounded view of this wonderful event.

SOUL in the SUN November 2012 Tenerife “Where do you go when the Party’s over” Mods feel free to move this if there is a more appropriate place x Just back from “Soul In The Sun”, I'm sat here on a drizzly Saturday morning in front of a roaring log fire catching up on e-mails and Facebook and reflecting on the week we have just enjoyed at Tenerife. I had thought about writing a revue for a while now and I am aware of a number of things that need remembering before I delve into the Soul, first of all Eddy Edmondson clearly states that it is an “Across the board” music policy so we kinda knew exactly what we where going to get, with this in mind I didn't expect an Allnighter experience so I wasn't disappointed in the least. I'll get my only real criticism out of the way first as this is a minor point yet one that was mentioned by a fair few of the “Virgins”, the new boys n girls where left to wander around on day one at the venue and this made you very aware that it was quite cliquey, this is not the “Northernsoul Way” and it could have been easily avoided if Eddy Edmondson was on hand to meet and greet. Instead we got “Barry Sparkle” a top chap who is a dab hand at meeting and greeting but he was as relevant to Northernsoul as a rather irrelevant thing and pretty soon we discovered that just about every bar on the island had it's own “Barry Sparkle” whose soul job was to entice you off the street to buy drinks. The absence of Eddy Edmondson kinda smacked of complacency and this was quite rude considering the time money and effort and sheer leap of faith we had made in getting there, a few hours on day one to say hello to you customers Eddy would not have gone amiss. I don't want to over egg the pudding here but this was an unnecessary own goal and one that did little to diminish the perception of a “us and them” scenario and lets face it the punter is very often faced with a promoter who has lost the plot whilst spiralling down towards an ego fuelled money count, Soul in the Sun punters deserved a little more than this so please take note. Ooops sorry, just been told to add some thing else, the outside sound system was pish! Not good enough for any venue and this should have been sorted on day one, if it was attempted then an apology should have been give, every one knows about technical Gremlins but we are back round to a lack of real communication from the promoter and this ain’t good, I think there was a growing distance between the punter and the promoter, lots of reasons may be given for this such as “Too busy” or “Unaware”, both unforgivable and you get a “Could have tried harder” comment in your copy book. OK, that’s my criticism out of the way and now on with my revue of the complete package, many of you who are Soul in the Sun veterans will not need to read much further as no doubt you will have all shared the experiences many times before but I am writing this as a “Virgin”. Before I continue I want to set the stage for our party of travellers, I am a Northernsoul fanatic and not “A biker” as one chap remarked on night one due to my beard LOL, we are all regular Allnighter goers and we do not do the dreaded “Soul-nights” that is not because of any snobbery but it is rather due to our musical preferences so why Soul in the Sun? Well it was my Fiftieth Birthday and I chose to go rather than have a party, I made a good choice! Our Soul in the Sun started by watching the internet activity and we where soon to realise just how diverse the Soul in the Sun goer was and the next thing we realised was that not only where Soulies going, lots of Scooterists were also flying over to Tenerife! I have never done a winter holibob before so this was a first for us and after finding suitable digs we flew the four hours to Tenerife arriving blinking into the sun and looking forward to a group holiday. The Friday afternoon was a painless experience and we received our wrist bands and a brief. The venue was perfect with sufficient dance areas and the all important chill out zones that gave it a real charm as the weather was magnificent, not outrageouseley hot but you knew you wasn't down the M62 Corridor! Every one we met seamed friendly and quite happy to speak and make you feel welcome this has to be one of the quality factors for Soul in the Sun as every one who has invested to go there is bent on having a brilliant time and this is quite infectious and you soon enter into the spirit of things as the party atmosphere washes over you. I loved the concept of the inside area and the outside area with it's different music and you could wander in and out to enjoy whatever took your fancy and there was a real mixed fruit pudding of music and I appreciated the CD Spinners enthusiasm and variety. I was a little surprised as well as to the amount of Modern Soul Fans there, they always get the shitty end of the stick at Soul Do's but not here, there was a healthy mix of Oldies and Modern and for that I have to take my hat off to all! I didn't do any of the Day Time Sessions, we had promised ourselves to have a peek at the island and we had been before twenty years ago and our little party enjoyed Tenerife with the wonderful bonus of bumping into friends from the Soul Scene and Scooter Scene, I think half of South Yorkshire where in attendance, again a great thumbs up for Soul in The Sun! Reflecting back the litmus test has to be whether you'd return? Well we are 100% certain that in November we will be back! I loved it, great holiday and perfect for a second holidays winter break. I thank every one involved with the planning and execution, the DJ's did a excellent job and one I appreciate, trying to please every one is a mammoth task but I think you all did it. I'm now going to get my big fat ex Army head down for a sleep before going to The Rugby Allnighter! Stay safe and KFC Yours Simon Cuerden AFSC On a club note it was brilliant to see The Armed Forces Scooter Club represented, Jill Venerbales, Derek Hamer, John Grey myself and Carol had a mega time! X Our Jilly was a bit naughty as she told me she wasn't going only to turn up on the Friday with Dave!! Great to see you all and hugs n stuff till we see each other again x Great to see The Donny Boot Boys, The Rotherham Massive, The Barnsley Tykes, The Modropheniacs SC and all the solo riders we love and respect. Derek and I came across a few Vespa GTS's, a couple of Vespa Primeveras, a few PX's and a rather surprisingly good Jet 200 Street Racer. Photos will be added very soon x

RIP x

SPOT ON!!!!!!!!!! Many thanks x

Does anyone know the track "Muhammed Ali"Â I think Karl Heard played it at Bids?

Well bang goes my in depth article on The Bar-Kays - Soul Finger

The Importance Of Melba Who?

OK Serious question: What, if anything, does a promoter do to assure potential punters that this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated?

Fighting at Gloucester ?

Northernsoul Fisting? Has the Northernsoul scene spiralled into a late night drinking club ? I have been hearing of fighting at Allnighters of the recent months with the blame landing on drunken people, is this true? Have we entered into a new era?

Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU x

If you really love some one, who's constantly on your mind............... (Just remembered that bit???)

Can any one ID this track????? Right 100mph Northern Stomper love is not like a facet that you turn on when the feeling of love is gone........ if your not prepared to love me all the way please don't stay please don't stay??? Help!!!!

For me personally I have travelled on a journey remembering the carrier bag of cassettes I treasured as a young man in 1979 playing them to death with not much of an idea what I was listening to. The decline of The Casino and the new wave of Soulies and a magic underground Nighter Scene was brilliant to say the least. CD's and sleeve notes both informed me and increased my knowledge but it also made me feel as if a great secret was being told and that kinda made me a snob?

Apart from the obvious aches and pains due to the ravages of time, How has the Northernsoul Scene changed since getting older?