Rare Groove @ Relish 30th December 2007

Soul Control - Rare Groove

Rare Groove @ Relish 30th December 2007
Review - T2 bad

Of all the events taking place during the festive period, the Good Times Promotions Rare Groove Revival event was definitely one of the most eagerly anticipated. The anticipation had everything to do with the previous Reno Revival event that took place at the same venue a few weeks earlier. The entrance to Relish is very stylish and with the security wearing fluorescent jackets and the pathway being cordoned off with red rope, it gave the venue the look of being something away from the norm.

Soul Control - Rare Groove

As I entered Relish I was immediately hit by the electric atmosphere. The lower floor was packed full of revellers dressed to the nines and I had to manoeuvre

manoeuvre carefully to negotiate my way to the DJ booth. I went over and greeted my old friend Mistri who had the dance-floor rocking with a mixture of back-in-the-day classics and London style rare grooves. Soul Control used to play quite regularly in London back in the 80’s, so I know the style of Rare Groove that Mistri, TC Ford, Company Soul Sound, Manhattan et al used to play and I had my reservations as to if the Manchester crowd would take to that North London style to readily.

Having said that Mistri hasn’t been at the top of tree DJ-wise for so long for nothing as he made sure that he was prepared for all eventualities on the night. I spent about 20 minutes on the dance-floor and decided to move to the side as I was being bumped all over the place by the eager revellers!!! Sadly my days as a Dance-Floor Don are long gone but it was good to see so many familiar faces seriously going for it!!!

In all honesty most of my time was taken up with talking to old friends and I could only snatch the odd moment to fully take in the atmosphere. I was constantly being approached by people asking what time Soul Control were playing as a lot of people were under the impression that we were on the bill because of a text message that was circulated the day before!!! I bumped into Bizzi B of Club Havana/Rush fame and he was absolutely buzzin’ with the spectacle of it all, it was a good move by the promoter Tony Gordon (aka Skiddy) to under-pin the event with such a safe pair of hands!! The upper mezzanine level of Relish was used more as a chill out zone and was full-ish rather than packed, but at least it provided everyone with a place of respite.

Surprisingly though I heard quite a few complaints about the music being played!! One lady who was with a party of 6 was leaving early and commented to me that she thought the music was crap and that she wasn’t into Rare Groove!! I asked her why she had bought a ticket to a Rare Groove event if she wasn’t into that style of music and she replied she thought she’d hear a different style of music which I suppose I could understand. At the end of the night another lady reiterated the same view about the music, but it can’t have been that bad as she was still there until the death!!!

What Mancunian’s would class as Rare Groove and Londoners class as Rare Grooves are two different things, not completely different but different enough. Every city in the UK has its own personal anthems, for instance when Soul Control play in London, we wouldn’t touch Tammy Payne’s classic “Free” as this is purely a Manchester track and wouldn’t be well received anywhere else, vice versa there are certain tracks that I wouldn’t advise a London based DJ to play in Manchester.

In my opinion Mistri did well considering it was his first foray into Manchester and the fact that Bizzi B provided the Mancunian masses with their usual fare made the night a good one. I must concede that the crowd were raving more out of expectation than the entertainment on offer, but this just goes to show how much Manchester were looking forward to the event itself and credit has to be given to the promoter on that score.

Soul Control Verdict:
Although there were complaints about the music on offer, all in all a good night was had by most and judging by the response afterwards, the Rare Groove Revival night was considered by most as the best event over the festive period.

Soul Control Rating:

Soul Control - 3 Star Review