Soul Out – Brown’s, Oldham Saturday 1st November 2008
Review - T2 Bad
Soul Out has had a traumatic time in 2008 to say the least!!! Things had been a bit tough at their spiritual home of Barca for some time, but just when the green shoots of recovery were finally showing, the venue changed owners and the writing was on the wall for the bastion of Manchester City Centre Soul!!!
Soul Out’s main man Wadey has been feverishly trying to find a new venue to no avail, so when the option of Brown’s in Oldham came up, the Soul Out band-wagon rolled into town. Oldham has always been considered a town with huge potential, but a town which has never really achieved it for one reason or another. Oldham has also proved the final resting place for many a promotion and DJ alike, so it was with interest that I headed into t’hills to see what was gwaarnin’!!!!
On a clear day I can see Oldham from where I live and considering that’s over 20 miles away, the place must be up in the sky!!!! So with my emergency survival gear packed away in the back of my jalopy, I headed up-north to investigate further!!!! On my arrival I must admit I had a feeling of foreboding about this night, as explained beforehand, in the past Oldham has proved a graveyard for the great and good, but I had my fingers crossed for Wadey.
On getting in the venue, my feeling of foreboding was proved to be right because Brown’s was sparsely populated to say the least!!! Having said that there were people arriving very late from other venues; I suppose this is the advantage of having passing trade because Brown’s is situated on the main clubbing straight in Oldham. There were also a couple of birthday parties on the go which helped immensely.
The music seemed a little wayward early on which provoked a few comments from the Manchester contingent who’d scaled th’ills to get to Oldham. Some of the tunes played were verging on the popular, but having said this some of those who were turning their noses up were also the ones who were singing along and swaying away at other times...........there’s no pleasing some people!!!
Wadey was looking more than a bit worried to say the least. It turned out that Mike Stephens had been replaced at the last minute for some reason and Alex Badass had also disappeared. A lot of Oldham locals were still coming in even though it was past 2am and Browns was filling steadily. Alex put in an appearance around 2.30am and seemed like a man who had a point to prove!!
The mood became more Soul Out-esque and that familiar Manchester vibe hit the birthday parties in attendance full on and they started to rave the rest of the night away. Wadey was now looking like a very relieved man indeed!! On my way around the venue, I bumped into Anna and Dawn the production managers at Soul Nation Radio and almost immediately after, we bumped into Soul Nations Head Honcho, DJ Tiny G!!!
The four of us had a little Soul Nation reunion of our own on the dance-floor as Alex was dropping a few Soul Nation classic tracks. We especially started to rock when Martine Girault’s ‘Thinking About You’ was played. Believe it or not even though we broke Martine on Soul Nation Radio back in the 90’s, none of us could remember who sang the track when it first came on which prompted Tiny to ask Alex who it was by!!! SHAME ON US!!!! *LOL*
Soul Control Verdict:
It was all good in the end for Soul Out’s first outing in Oldham. As to how this night will pan out in the long term, only time will tell. Oldham has proved a difficult nut to crack in the past and the locals are notoriously fickle, let’s just hope that Soul Out can buck the trend and turn the tide.
Soul Control Rating:
