1 Kings Road Cleethorpes

[Nick®]

A new venue for the area and what a belting night with lots of strange faces and quite a few that I spoke to had travelled from as far away as Kettering.

After many years of attending events in Cleethorpes and enjoying most of them I have to admit the atmosphere here was far better than most due to the smaller venue. It has a warm and compact room for the dancers, a large bar for the chillers and a good size foyer for the lingerers.

Great music from the top 500 by a set of local dj's who just enjoy their music, missed the first couple as turned up fashionably late as usual but Steve Towers did a good job and kept the floor full, hearing Ian Gee two weeks in a row was not a let down and he played in his usual style to make them sweat a bit and thank goodness someone realised their were ceiling fans as I think puddles of water were forming in that room.

Smucker came on at 11 and nice to hear him play a set at peak time as he is usually on late or early and I miss him, he had to follow Don Thomas - Come On Train and promptly played another well known advert track and I thought oh no he is going to play these the whole set but it settled down into a really good hour. Who came on for the last hour I am not sure as we were engaged in so much banter in another room before I knew it the night was over.

This night is nothing to do with me but I am very happy to give my support to a hard working bunch of guys who put on what had to be the best night in Lincolnshire this weekend attended by genuine soul lovers and some faces who they say had turned up for the first time since the 70's long may it continue.

NEXT EVENT MAY 23rd 2009

[coops]

the cleethorpes soul collective are back home where they belong.after a couple of years at the excellent but very, very large Casablanca Club (situated in, what some may term as a dubious part of Grimsby) the collective decided to bring their ethos of having a damned good time to damned good northern and rare soul tunes back to Cleethorpes and the No1 club at No1 Kings Road (just 300 yards from the legend that was the Winter Gardens).

The venue is small but far from minute, there's secure car park, a seperate bar area, large entrance hall for meeting, greeting and talking bollox (as we do on occasions), clean toilets (not always a given these days) bar meals if required and a proper wooden dance floor.

The collective were a bit taken back by the positive response to this opening night and very soon realised they had to get more chairs into the main room to accommodated the ever increasing numbers piling in through the door.

The souls attending were from as far away as Scunthorpe, Lincoln, Doncaster, Wakefield and all points between.

We had a prior engagement so had to leave before guest Ian Gee took to the decks but by the time we left, half way through the other guest Steve Towers' set the dance floor was already getting a right regular pounding.

An excellent (half) night, excellent place to be surrounded by soul and soulful people and with residents of the calibre of Smucker, Nick Borst and the legend that is Pete Stone then this place is gonna go from strength to srength.

The next one is on May 23rd and I suggest that if one is attending (and one really should as Chris Forrest and Andy 'Tats' Taylor are guesting) one should get there early to get a seat at probably the finest northern soul event in North East Lincolnshire.

[janjones]

I really enjoyed last night, not because I am biased or because it meant no travelling required, ( though that is nice at times) but because the atmosphere was there. The venue itself is cosy and warm feeling. A healthy crowd of 115 plus and everyone seemed to be having a good night. I'm pleased that this is not a monthly event as monthly events sometimes become routine and stale. (overkill etc) verdict = very impressed.

[ashley]

Wholeheartedly agree regards "monthly/overkill" etc etc Jan

We only doing 6 maybe 7 this year
Quality beats quantity anytime

[Dave]

Must agree wholeheartedly with Mr Rennie here,arrived about 10.00 (quite a few arrived about then too).Heard the first set from different rooms,but sounded good.Ian Gee played a safe but good set.
Special mention must go to Smucker,very very hard job to follow Ian Gee,but he did a superb job keeping the floor busy and the atmosphere alive - well done that man !!!!
I.M.O a lot of the atmosphere is all down to DJ's playing the right sort of music to get the floor going which creates the true buzz of northern soul.Have never experienced this when 70's stax/atlantic/philly is played (Ooops,was that a dig)

Dave