Seductive Soul @ The Saracens Head Saturday 24th November 2007
Review - T 2 Bad
Winter Wonderland at The Woolpack!!!
Well just when I thought that Manchester couldn’t throw anymore surprises at me, I headed out of the city into the leafy suburbs of Cheshire and was stunned with what I found in Lymm!! On the way there, I was curious more than eager to find out what Seductive Soul had to offer as having spoken to the Main Man Chris Priestly a day earlier, he talked up and played down the event in equal measures which I found a little unusual. I pulled up outside what can only be described as a family orientated country pub, as adjacent to the car park was a large children’s play area.
With my camera at the ready and facing into the freezing cold driving rain I followed in the same direction of the other people who had just arrived. I went through the entrance to the pub and was stunned to see that their wasn’t ONE security personnel in sight and just a middle aged bloke stood behind a table with an open box collecting the admission fees in what can only be described as Manchester’s version of the Woolpack!!! The sight of this seriously aroused my curiosity.
The event was bubbling along nicely and filling up quite rapidly as apparently there were no admissions after 12am. After experiencing The Sounds of Prestwich a couple of weeks earlier, I wasn’t that surprised to see more of the same mature crowd at The Saracens Head. I headed to the bar area and quickly settled into the groove of the night whilst just taking in the ambience of what Lymm had to offer.
Miranda, one of the female DJ’s on the bill was spinning the discs and she was playing what I can only describe as a Beautiful Soul Ensemble. She didn’t seem to care about playing the popular trump card tracks which afflicts many of today’s DJ’s because of crowd pressure, but instead she reached deep into the heart of what made many of us become disciples of Soul Music in the first place and rattled off Soul tune after Soul tune, after Soul tune!!! Some DJ’s would call what she was doing foolish, others brave, but I for one was in my element and the Seductive Soul Masses were seriously getting down on the dance floor in unilateral agreement that her brand of Soul is what they had searched high and low and far and wide for.
There was a mature musically educated crowd in attendance some dressed to kill and others just dressed for comfort. But I must say that there was one fella who looked as though he’d been sleeping rough outside in one of the doorways and had just popped in to use the loo!!!! I saw many faces that I hadn’t seen in years and it was good to see most of them still had a detectable pulse. For me the night tailed off after Miranda’s set and settled into the usual up and down Quality Soul fare but the attending masses just kept on going.
I’ve got to say a massive Hi to H and all the old friends that I met and to all of the new ones too, but I still wish people would stop saying to me “What the ‘eck are you doin ere” and “Where the hell have Soul Control been all these years” *LOL*!!! I know many of them haven’t seen me in years and me with them likewise, but I think this only goes to highlight how fragmented the Soul Scene has become over the years, hopefully the Soul Control website will unite us all once again.
Soul Control Verdict:
A serious Soul night for serious Soul aficionado’s and well worth a visit.
Soul Control Rating:
