HORNCASTLE: march 2008 WOOF! BARK DONKEY!

[coops]

West Ashby golf hotel, Horncastle in the middle of the Lincolnshire Wolds.
Dee-jays:
Linda Healey
Rupe
Chris Forrest
Andy ‘Tats’ Taylor
Doug Hall
Nick Borst
Guest:
Soul Sam
A night of pure magic. Music of a quality far exceeding the hopes and dreams of any venue, let alone one in the rural isolation of the Lincolnshire Wolds.
Each dee-jay more than adequately served the soulful delights, and such delights they were.
Not only was the venue full of appreciative people literally bussed in from various corners of this sceptered isle, but the cordiality of the gathered merely added the cream to an all but perfect evening of northern and rare soul.
As for customer service? Try this one out for size.
I asked one of the dee-jays to play Willie Kendrix “What’s That On Your Finger” quite early in the evening but alas he didn’t have it with him. I thought no more about it until three hours later a different dee-jay played it for me. Although the first dee-jay didn’t have it with him, he knew a man who had and between them made it a perfect evening for me and many others.
For quality of music, Horncastle is second to none and I suggest that if one wants a vacation from the top 500 or what ever derogatory term the collective for over-played northern is, then one could do far worse than come to Horncastle. The next event (in May) is one of three in-a-row where many regulars come over on the Friday night, camp out in the hotel grounds before the Saturday evening event. Perfict! As a famous ‘countryfied’ character once said.

images on ournorthernsouls.org/default.aspx (reviews).

[Sister Dawn]

Horncastle Soul

08/03/08

''The jewel in the Lincolnshire Crown''

Well what can I say except that waking up this morning, and wishing that I was still there! Why?? Cos that was a the dogs nads of a nite in my book.
Put it this way, where do djays and promotors go for a nite off? They come here to West Ashby Golf and Country Club set back from the main strains of busy towns/cities and roads on the outskirts of the beautiful wolds in the middle of nowhere, they don't come for the beautiful scenery they come purely and simply for the music... music that with the following .....

Linda Healey

Rupe

Chris Forrest

Andy ‘Tats’ Taylor

Doug Hall

Nick Borst

Guest:

Soul Sam

..... they know they are going to be treated to stuff not neccessary heard before but are played by them on the understanding that they know what this venue and its patrons like and know how to work it. Mixing those loved and cherished oldies with new discoveries, to top notch current floor fillers with ones purchased in the week with this venue in mind. And they delivered the goods right to the very core of every dancer, listener, promotor and djay, playing tunes swamped in soul with heartbreaking lyrics, 100 mph stormers, cherished motown and fresh energy filled modern.
Arriving early as we didnt want to miss Rupes early set, we were treated to Lindas warm up spot, now Linda is one of the legendary 'Girls on Top' ladies at ELSC and plays a regular set at Newarks Sweetsoul and has a perfective taste in soul, mixing her set to totally across the board sounds, one thing about doing a warm up spot is you can relatively play what you like when no one is there hardly, and Linda does just that delivered with class.
Record dealers tables were set up,
boxes and boxes of beautiful gems, and then we were treated to the obscure but very much in demand and reasonably priced (and as the nite went on and more ale was supped they got cheaper ) Skeggy Micks fluffy car seat animal headrest covers. Its this years must have accessory for the soul fan, being seen without one will do yer cred a lot of damage. I am sure you can still get one from somewhere (he's got a warehouse full ) Now we aren't talking Prestatyn tat here, they were ''quality'' .
Minibuses started arriving then (3 maybe 4 turned up) Cars upon Cars of people, and in they came and with fluffy headrest covers purchased it was time to party. And by god, thats just what we did, Rupe delivered the goods right on the nose banging out quality tunes unrelenting, Chris Forrest doing what he does best, Nick 'Borsty' Borst spinning like a good un on the decks and then on the floor later ... then the man himself, Sam, I have been a fan of Sam since the early days of the pier and gardens and have admired him for keeping this scene on the fresh side for so long for having the balls to play stuff that others maybe were once wary off doing, and tonight was no different straight on the decks 1st one up the floor went for it and stayed with him right til the end, We had Sam at his modern soul very best and we had Sam spinning the oldies, which just goes to show why this man is a legend in his own right doing it as only he can. It was Sams first time here and I know he enjoyed it just as much as we did. Now the floor at Horncastle is vinyl covered and is buffed up regularly with some sort of wax they use,from a dancers perspective a peppering of talc is a neccessity to get the feet flowing freely, now imagine this... Sams Set in full flow, the floor full, the heat being generated by it starts melting the wax on the floor, it reacts with the talc and makes it go to some sort of dancing on ice effect, so doors were opened wide to bring the temp down to let it 'set' again, did it distract the floor?? did it hell! tables and chairs were shoved back and carpet used til the floor cooled.... Now thats what you call one hell of a set by a true soul legend!!!! After Sams set it was time for Tats to take over, now if that had been me I would have stood there sucking my thumb and crying, how the hell do you follow Soul Sam when he is on top Djay mode???.... the answer is get Andy Tats Taylor to do it!!! Playing some great crossover gems to settle the floor back into a routine. Next up and ending we were treated to a double deckin' joy of Doug Hall and Nick Borst. The nite was coming to a rapid close with no-one really wanting to go home mini-buses turned up to take the soul revellers home, so various people were deployed to ply the drivers with coffee and f*gs and to keep em talkin' to ensure some more quality soul time could be had.
What a nite!!!! What an atmosphere!!! What Great People!!!
It was good to See Nick (Copromotor of Horncastle) Rennie manage to come for a couple of hours to see friends and how his baby was doing last night, as Nick recently had a six hour op last week to remove a very nasty cancer. He had only got out of the hospital on Monday,still in a considerable amount of pain, but knew he had to be there if only for a couple of hours. Wishing you a speedy recovery Nick follow Docs orders and take it easy 'your baby' is safe!! Next up in May comes SoulStock A Friday to Sunday camp out, with 24/7 party people some of the friendliest in the country. And if plans what were discussed last night come to fruition, its going to be one hell of a weekend. I guess we have kept our jewel in the crown a secret for far too long now and have to share it with the rest of you. See ya when you git there,
Yours in soul
Sister Dawn

[makemvinyl]

Linda,Nick and I did not bribe Sister Dawn
to say nice things
we didnt need to
Awesome Night and I hope Michaels pics show that
see above link
to those who didnt come,you missed a cracker
Next one in May will be a camp out With dd
Newark Sweetsoul and Horncastle following each other so
come along to our neck of the woods and see what its all about
ps Djs outing ,
Jez Langley,Andy Jackson.Dave Raistrick,Ian Seaman,Chris Dalton,
Mojo Frank,Sister Dawn,Mick Cooper,Rob Wigley,Rob Thomas,And Brother Kev,Smucker,Payo.etc
Pity Chris Forrest had to leave early due to a little ill health,But not to let us down,
He rang Tats to aleviate the problem and a bonus for us all,
I did offer to pay cost price for the records he brought with him,
but he declined gracefully,
Thankyou to each and everybody who came along and made this one of our best nights.
May 10 roll on.
Excellent pics Michael we thank you

[biz]

DITTOGreat nite musicaly must big up rupe some toons there, also sams " love finds a way",worth the attendance tax alone,sends me that toon ;)had too rush in with micks cardy on ;D

[rupert]

thanks biz for your kind words.

i keep trying to play a few different tunes in just to keep it fresh.

great night i thought.

rupe

[midge]

Rupe
Ive got to agree with Biz mate. Dawn, Trev and I came over early specifically to catch your spot. You definitely have an ear for a tune which unfortunately means that my wants list gets bigger while my available cash remains pathetically inadequate
Had you played later I'm sure the dance floor would have been busier. Lets put it this way mate Sam played a lot of stuff we all know, you didnt! Though your set was in the main probably unfamiliar to most, including myself, they all had quality stamped onto them, time to badger Nick for a later set man, you deserve it.
See you in May hopefully

[rupert]

thanks midge , pleased you liked my sets.


rupe

[biz]

rupert said:

thanks biz for your kind words.

i keep trying to play a few different tunes in just to keep it fresh.

great night i thought.

rupe

great set mate,a pleasure to my ears