Seductive Soul @ The Cheshire Lounge 17th May 2008
Review - T2 Bad
For me the last few weeks have been relatively quiet on the Northwest Soul front notwithstanding the Southport Weekender, so I was looking forward to getting out and about to see if I’d missed anything. I’m happy to report that the world has survived a fortnight without me which is comforting to know as I can now stop worrying about all of you and get back to worrying about Man City!!!
My first forage into the Mancunian club world was my regular monthly Saturday night pilgrimage to the connoisseur’s choice Seductive Soul at the Cheshire Lounge in……..erm……….. well Cheshire!!!
On my arrival, the car park was possibly the fullest that I’ve ever seen it which nearly forced me to have to park on the dual carriageway leading to the M6!!!
I came through the main entrance to be greeted by a beaming Ann & Chris who gleefully announced that I’d have trouble squeezing in to the main room as it was so packed!!! It only dawned on me the day after that they might have been trying to call me fat, but after deliberating their comments over my greasy fish and chips (don’t ask!), I decided to take their comments to mean “because the place was so full” and it wasn’t a sizest attack on little me!!!! *LOL*
Well the Cheshire Lounge was certainly packed I’d estimate around 250-320, and the heat that was being generated downstairs was just how I like it!! There was a jovial atmosphere all around and there was an abundance of people that I knew whom I had to get around to greeting. There is a major difference between the present Seductive Soul compared to my first visit back in October last year. The difference is mostly down to the increased amount of people who now attend Seductive that I personally know. Let me explain; back in October 2007 when Seductive was the Saracens Head, there were a few people that I knew but hadn’t seen for years, but lately there are a lot of new people that I know who I always bump into on a regularly basis. Many of those attendees known to me were fondly referred to by Mel (a long-standing Seductive devotee) as the much needed new faces and fresh blood that the Quality Soul Scene needs!! Mel spent some time explaining the Seductive logic to Manchester legend, DJ Tomlin of Reno and Gallery fame who likened the Cheshire Lounge to the 1980’s City Centre Nightclub The Playpen.
I was intrigued, by their conversation and after putting 2 and 2 together and asking a few discreet questions, I surmised that there was a definite amalgamation of clubbers who would normally only be seen in a regular city centre Soul venue mixed with the elusive Quality Soul crowd who’d given up on the Town scene years ago!! I’m proud to say that most of the “fresh blood” seemed to have originally found Seductive Soul through the Soul Control website which is good news for the Manchester!! My hope now is that the Manchester City Centre based promoters pull their socks up and provide good enough events to entice those missing "Quality Soul-ites" back to the heart of our great Metropolis!!!
The Main room was rocking from early and by all accounts there was a last minute change of guest DJ, but I didn’t quite catch who the replacement was. Whoever he was, he played a reasonable set which spanned many different musical types from slow to fast Soul and from old to quite new. Jim Hargreaves took over just past 1am and played what we have come to expect from Seductive Soul. I won’t go too deep into the music played because I honestly believe that Seductive Soul is more about like minded souls being together once a month with decent music more than the event being about how good and precise the music is. I won’t mention anything about the music mixing again as apparently the last time I did, it caused a lot of weeping and wailing and gnashing of false teeth!!!
After I’d acclimatised myself to the Cheshire Lounge ambience, I whipped out my camera to chronicle the event but the bloody thing kept coming up with a card reading error!!! Chris Priestly the main man at Seductive kindly saved the day by offering to share his images with the Soul Control masses so that you can get a flavour of what the night was about, so I'd like to say a massive thank you for that. I’d also like to mention Karen Williams and her family who were out celebrating her brother's birthday, it was really nice to see you so far out in the sticks!!! I’d also like to say a massive Hi to all the old friends that I bumped into on Saturday, I’m not gonna mention you all as I’d be here until this time next month!!! The attendance fell quite sharply from 1.30am onwards, I don’t know if this was down to the music, or because a lot of the people leaving may have been there from quite early on, but there was certainly a lot more space to be had in the latter stages.
Soul Control Verdict:
Looking at all the other regular events on offer (Soul Out – Mint Lounge aside), Seductive Soul is the safest bet for a monthly night out. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you may be able to predict what you’re going to get with no surprises or shocks, but at our time of life this is what endears the connoisseur’s choice to the Manchester Soul masses.
Soul Control Rating:
