Column

The Andy Davies Column (October)

This is the first column from me in a long time so it's good to be back! After chatting with Lee at The Vintage Festival at Goodwood we agreed that I should put something together for Blues & Soul again so here it is!

STREETSOUL RECORDS

2010 has been a good year so far for my record label Streetsoul Records. This years Vinyl 45 releases started in March with TK Murray Brown Sugar. TK keeps regular contact & has been recording new material plus re-recording some older tracks so hopefully we will have some news about those soon. Pulse Sunshine followed & has now almost sold out. Jerline & Friends Joy Trip pt1 was an amazing seller & is now deleted from our catalogue along with Patrick Henry. We are also doing well with the Segments of Time 45 Will you be Mine & still have copies in stock. Check our site:
www.streetsoulrecords.com

EVENTS ROUND UP

The King Georges Hall 3 room soul event at the end of September was an absolutely brilliant night with around 1700 people in attendance! The 3 rooms were Modern soul, Jazz Funk & a Northern soul room too. The Drizabone Soul Family were playing live & were excellent!! The next event is on Saturday November 27th so please book tickets early as the last one sold out. The box office is 01254 582582. Staying with events the next Blackpool Tower weekender is happening November 13th-15th with DJ's Jim Hargreaves, Dean Johnson, Pete Haigh ,Colin Curtis, Terry Jones & myself all playing in the Modern room over the course of the weekend.

Another belter of a gig that took place recently was at Henry's in Aveley Essex back in August. It was great to have a gig like that in the South & the 2 rooms featured DJ's myself, Gary Dennis, Phil Asher, Terry Jones, Pete Collins, Scott James & Ginger Tony. I really hope that the promoters organise another of these as I think it was the best gig I've DJ'd at in the South for ages. A fantastic venue that was so well attended.

Please don't forget the Luxury Soul weekender at the Blackpool Hilton Jan 7th-9th 2011. Your chance to see Michael Henderson live plus Cool Million & Jean Carne! I will be DJ'ing there with a host of DJ's including Richard Searling, Mike Stephens, Bob Jeffries, Norman Halley & Colin Curtis so make sure you give the booking line a call on 01253 754403.

Caister will have been & gone by the time you read this but I will be going so I'll give you a report next time. The Prestatyn "Legends of Motown & Soul" Weekender happens from October 15th-18th 2010 with many DJ's plus live performances from Tavares, The Velvelettes, Dean Parrish & Tony Momrelle. You can book by calling 0844 576 5949. No Southport this November but by all accounts their Suncebeat Weekender in Croatia was a great success & is planned to go ahead again next year from July 29th-31st. The 2011 47th Southport Weekender will happen over the weekend of May 6th,7th,8th and already most on site accomodation has sold out. Give them a call on 0844 879 710 to secure your place or email info@southportweekender.co.uk

The Bournemouth Soul Weekender returns over the weekend of October 29th-31st 2010 which I am really looking forward to attending! DJ's include Bob Masters, Chris Bangs, Nicky Holloway, Paul Clarke, Gary Dennis, Kevin Beadle , Bob Jones plus many more. It's being held at the Carrington House Hotel and you can purchase tickets from Crazy Beat Records on 01708 228678.

WHAT'S COOKIN'

Some great tunes around at the moment with Brian Culberton's new album X11 having a couple of winners that are getting spins at the moment, the first being Another Love featuring Kenny Latimore on vocals & also Out on the Floor which sees Brian Mcknight on vocal duties. Another Love is the tune that I bought the album for and it's huge on the soul scene at the moment! Jonathan Butler So Strong remains a favourite at most gigs as does Al Olive's Slow Down. There are various mixes of this going around with the original doing the business in the Soul club's and the Dolls Combers plus the Vick Lavender mixes having most effect on the dancefloors. Just a few other good CD albums worth a mention are from Will Downing , Kem , Elisabeth Withers & Jeff Hendrick.

The new 12" from Swade Rhythm of Love is very good & there is a mix of Marvin Gaye Praise which is starting to pick up a few spins. Al Kent has his First Floor EP out at the moment too, the best track for me is Don't Stop which has Lew Kirton's Heaven In The Afternoon running nicely underneath it.