Birth Of A Soul Night
First I think a little background. Paul Moore (originally from Goole) and myself (Martyn Bird) met on a train platform in Sheffield in 1976,he was with his girlfriend and her sister and I was with a bunch of lads from Hull getting off the same train to go to the same Sunday “ Bailey’s Dayer”. He’d made the point to Lesley about keeping away from us lot because we looked a bit rough (a valid point we did), but we headed for the same destination and we latched onto them, with me with my good looks and charm pulling the sister? So over the past 25+ years our friendship has gone through various stages of not seeing each other much, through I’ll see you for a pint stage, marriages, divorces etc. But then the back into the northern bit, which brings us, up to date.
We’re all sat round the chalet in our usual three quarters pissed state putting the world to right’s waiting for the next session of the Cleethorpes weekender to start (don’t ask me which one because I just think there is only one and it just runs into each other in my memory?). When I made the statement to Paul that it was his fault that we’d never organized a northern night in Hull because he’s the one who’s born to organize and it was about time he got his arse into gear and found us a venue because it was no good waiting for me as I can’t organize a piss up in a brewery. Weekender finished and all those brain cells gone I’d forgotten about what I’d said until in August 2000 he rings me, I’ve got us a venue, I thought what for? A soul night ,so I’m thinking some schoolroom or backyard of a pub but no as it turned out to be a small nightclub. The story goes Paul was in the back of a taxi a bit worse for wear and he was giving the driver a bit of an ear bashing about not being able to get somewhere for our night and as luck would have it the driver new someone who had a small club looking for night’s to fill it, so to his credit and cheek he’s on the phone to the guy (Mick) the next day and he’s up for it. So great Septembers the date for this one shot night where we can play our music loud without the neighbours ringing the police or trying to batter the front door in, then the realization of OH Shit who’ll come. So I’m on the phone to as many of the old Wigan crowd that I still see (once every 9 years) or anybody who I knew had bought a motown record in there lives, fortunately one of the lads I see at the odd niter is well into scooters so I got hold of him and he spread the word from which we got a great response. So the words out, flyers near and far, web sites hounded to put our night up, a couple of mates (Oxo & Evo) asked to help with the djing stint but will anybody turn up………………fortunately the answer is yes 100ish which isn’t bad for a first night me thinks? So after what we thought was a great night Mick (the owner) asks because he’d enjoyed it so much did we want to do it again………well yes of course and our 1st anniversary has just come and gone. So we progressed to three floors of soul, ground floor-: Motown/Club Classics which brought some of the old Wheel lot out which is nice to see the 50 something’s still giving it a go, 1st floor-: Northern old & new which we where trying to introduce a full across the board policy and on the 2nd floor-: Quality modern playing the best in up to date soul sounds. But unfortunately a change in the managements view i.e. he just wanted to get as many people through the door as possible, soulies or none soulies we've had to move to a different venue.
So Boom Bar is the new venue with just one large room where we intend to try and combine all the music's into one room so people can try and appreciate each others music (in a perfect world). So it'll be our 2nd anniversary soon, not bad to say it was a one off.
The story continues as we didn't see eye to eye unfortunately with the management at boom bar we've again moved, this hopefully will be for everybody's advantage as we've moved to a Saturday night at a local hotel in the center of town (Comfort Inn). Since moving from Enigma we have found our true crowd of soulies not a mixture of soulies and people just out for a drink which is the main reason we moved. So the night's are now finding there own identity and sounds people appreciate, again Comfort Inn has only one room so a mixture of sounds will be played to try to accommodate everybody.
So time moves on & we approach our 6th anniversary and we are at yet another venue due to Comfort Inn been taken over and the new management not wanting us. It was a god send really as briefly moved back to Boom Bar on temporary basis until we have found what we think is the perfect venue,"Trades & Labour Club".It's like stepping back in time and just gives the most brilliant atmophere. So we strive to keep the music as much across the board as possible,we are trying to bring it more up to date as we think the only way forward is to bring people from out of town as well as the local soulies and people who travel want to hear some of the big nighter sounds which we are trying to provide. The balancing act isn't easy and still after 6 years we haven't got spot on just yet but it's fun trying. So watch this space for the continuing story of a soul night and all it's trials and tribulations.