TSOP – Longfield Suite, Prestwich, Friday 7th November 2008
Review - T2 Bad
It’s taken me 4 days to thaw out from my Southport experience before I was able to type the review for TSOP. I had a cold going into the weekend but all Southport on the Saturday night did for me was to make my cold ten times worse!!! I was tired from TSOP the night before and braved the biting winds to walk from my car into the main building of the Weekender, but straight up; it was debatable whether was colder inside or outside the place!!
Southport November 08 was the first time that I’ve been to an indoor event and seen people dancing in coats and scarves it was that cold!!! Unless you were buried right in the middle of a crowd of people or were dressed like you were about to embark on a polar expedition, it was hyperthermia on the health menu!!!!
I bumped into a friend of mine (Emma) who shall remain nameless whose legs had turned purple with the cold, but like most women she chose style over comfort and stoically tuffed it out!!! She’s gotta be the bravest bird I know!!! When I first arrived, if the thought of returning to my car didn’t frighten me so much, I would have done an about turn gone back and got my parker on.
The security were bastards as well!! I tried to buy a coat from anyone of them and they didn’t even credit me with a response!!! I didn’t even realise that they were human at first because all you could see were boots, combat trousers, mountaineering coats, gloves, balaclavas, and thermal woolly hats and not a face in sight!!! Southport was clubbing in a ‘Winter Wasteland’, it was the quietest I’d ever seen it and the entertainment in general only served to match the temperature!!! Brrrr!!
Anyway back to TSOP. Friday was also freezing, but undeterred and acting in your interests; I braved the arctic conditions to see what Prestwich had in store. I had my reservations as to how well November’s event would go mainly because it clashed with the opening night of the Southport Weekender, but surprisingly enough the numbers were only slightly down on what I would come to expect for TSOP!!
Mike Stephens wasn’t on the bill for November as he was busy doing his thing in Southport. Instead DJ Roger Williams, a relative newcomer to the Manchester Soul scene was there as Mike’s replacement. I’d heard a few things about Roger through the grapevine, so I was eager to hear what he had to offer.
Roger took to his task with aplomb!!! What I particularly liked about his set was how seamlessly he assimilated into the whole TSOP thing as if he’d been there all his life!! His wasn’t the best set that I’d ever heard, but it was nowhere near being the worse either and it did the job too, mainly by keeping the dance-floor full.
The music was as we’ve come to expect at TSOP with a huge dollop of Quality Soul with lashings of retro 80’s stuff too. The atmosphere seemed strangely party-like as well and considering the weather and current financial climate, this made a pleasant surprise for me. The Northern Soul room was also swinging away nicely the few times I went in to watch the body-poppers at work and they all seemed to be having a good time. Perhaps it was just one of those nights that everyone felt in a good mood, but there was certainly something in the air.
Baz Maleady finished off the night in the Soul Arena and he picked up where Roger left off. For the life of me I can’t remember what track it was, but he played one of my all time fave records which got even me shaking a leg or two. There was also some new stuff thrown in for good measure which kept Baz’s set rolling along until TSOP’s conclusion at 2am.
Soul Control Verdict:
The next TSOP is an All-Niter which boasts quite a good line-up. I’ve been taking pictures of my exploits over the last 12 months and the best picture I’ve ever taken was here on this night!!! I was poised to take a picture of my good friend Janet and her posse when a couple of people jumped in, so for a laugh I turned around and invited the whole room to join in and to my utter surprise, the whole dance-floor cleared and almost everyone jumped into shot!!!!
That’s what kind of night Friday 7th November 2008 was; with the happy and pleasant attitude that was on show, I just hope we have many more nights like it. Well done to Baz and Roger, with Southport being on the same weekend many feared the worse for TSOP, but not to worry, a good night was had by all.
Soul Control Rating:
