About the Soulboys…
When it began, in January 25th 2001 Shaz and Jolly decided to put on a soul night at the Wee Red Bar at the Edinburgh College of Art.
A few phone calls later the night had grown in to a 2-roomed event with the headline event being Keb Darge playing his legendary Deep Funk in the downstairs room. Upstairs was a mixture of northern soul, modern and US Garage being played by Keith Whitson, Fraser Dunn, Colin Gate and Martin Haughton.
After much sweating and sleepless nights our wee event had turned in to a monster of a success, 600 people crammed in to 2 rooms with 150 people locked out! Soulboys Promos had begun.
The next step in the chain of events ended up in The Venue at Calton Road, On Saturday. A 3 room venue. Keb Darge taking up the top floor with his legendary Deep Funk yet again. The Middle floor was the modern room playing Modern Soul, US Garage and the occasional 70′s cross over. Downstairs in the cooler was the Northern Soul Room. Even more sweat and sleepless nights later 700 people turned up to dance in the 3 rooms.
2 monthly events of deep funk with Keb Darge in the top floor of the venue, one saturday night event with modern soul line up of DJ’s.
In The Press
The List Issue 585 September 6th 2007
Written by Mark Edmundson
Northern soul events may no longer go on all night but the scene is still alive and well in Scotland, and September welcomes the return of long-standing soul-a-thon Bumpin’ & Stompin’. Run by soul-boy duo Jolly and Shaz the club set out as a humble soirée for friends and fans of the stomp and has since clocked up nearly seven years on the circuit.
‘Originally we planned for maybe 100 and wound up with 700, believe it or not, all crammed into the Wee Red Bar,’ laughs B&S DJ and promoter, Jolly, when asked about the club’s debut with the legendary deep funk don Keb Darge at the ECA. ‘Since then we’ve moved around a lot, from the Venue to the Corn Exchange, Café Royal and now the Hilton. I think it suits us.’ This latest residence brings Edinburgh’s northern soulsters full circle – the Hilton having been at the heart of the scene’s 70s heyday in its previous incarnation as the Grosvenor.
The night itself continues to air the best of soul’s oldies and newies, reflecting Shaz and Jolly’s 30-year fascination. ‘Many of the people who come we have always known through association, right back to the Wigan Casino and the old soul places in Edinburgh,’ says Jolly. ‘We get people from the original Grosvenor soul nights and some bring their kids; so you could say we cater for 20s up to well into the 50s. And, as we’ve always said, anyone with a love of the soul music is more than welcome.’
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Taken From Edinburgh Evening News Thursday 23 Jan 2003
Life and soul of the party
Yogi Haughton
IT MAY not be as everyday a name to drop as punk, funk, hip-hop or heavy metal, but Northern Soul has been going now for almost four decades.
And while it has firmly stayed an underground cult, attendances at Northern Soul nights are as big today as they were in the golden years of the Seventies and early Eighties.
Its acolytes are still willing to travel halfway across Britain for all-night dance sessions featuring top DJs such as Richard Searling, Soul Sam and Butch.
And outside the dancehalls it is a scene with serious money involved – records changing hands for anything up to £17,000 as fervent record collectors vie to get hold of the rarest cuts. The latest event is in Edinburgh this weekend.
While the Scottish scene is not as buoyant as England’s revival of Northern Soul and its counterpart modern soul, Bumpin’ And Stompin’ has been carving out a great reputation throughout the country.
“We have people travelling from all over Scotland and the north of England for the nights now,” beams co-organiser Shaz.
Saturday’s show celebrates the second birthday for the club, which started at The Wee Red Bar at Edinburgh College of Art. It soon outgrew that space and now regularly packs in 500 people to the Cafe Royal.
But what exactly is Northern Soul? In layman’s terms, it’s a strange, less polished twist on Tamla Motown, as Shaz’s colleague and co-organiser Jolly explains. “Motown was the manufactured sound for the teenagers of the 1960s and Northern Soul records were attempting to copy that sound. But they didn’t have the same production quality – however the records were much better,” he argues.
“I was never a big Motown collector myself, but I am aware that it set the tempo, beat and general sound for soul records back then.”
Back in the Seventies, the classic haunts for Northern Soul fans were clubs such as Blackpool Mecca, The Torch in Stoke and the most famous venue of them all, Wigan Casino. Shaz says: “I started going to the Casino in 1972 after meeting some guys from Middlesbrough at a soul night here in Edinburgh. It was packed and I caught live acts such as Jr Walker, Jackie Wilson and Tommy Hunt at the all-night sessions.”
But the scene is not just about Sixties soul music; it has become atomised over the years, as sub genres splinter when fans tire of the same records. Some classics can be played year-in and year-out. These heavily rotated records are called oldies and some all-night dance sessions specialise in them, while others, such as The 100 Club in London, champion newies.
Other fragments include crossover tracks, which have both a Sixties and Seventies flavour to them. Two step, beat ballads and mid-tempo soul relate to the strict dance tempo of certain tracks. The modern soul DJs, meanwhile, cull their play list from the Eighties, Nineties and even new garage and R’n’B releases.
Perhaps the favourite term for a great Northern Soul record is a stomper. These are the sound in its purist form – fast, gritty, but not always soulful. Many white artists have had records played on the scene, including Elvis Presley and Bob Seager – even the theme to Gerry Anderson’s Joe 90 TV puppet show.
Most Northern Soul fans shun these tracks, and talk about the brilliant deep soul vocals of the music such as Michael And Raymond’s Man Without A Woman, which costs a mere £300 That’s nothing compared to Frank Wilson’s Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) which costs £17,000 – but only three people actually own a copy of that elusive stomper.
Some labels are prized for their whole catalogue, such is the quality of their past releases. The records released on the highly collectable Shrine label average about £3000 each, but some people spend their lives trying to own each one of its precious trophies.
“Those records are so soulful and certainly bring a tear to the eye,” sighs Jolly. And so does the cost of the records!
With that level of fanaticism, expect a big turnout of eager punters this Saturday which may far exceed the Cafe Royal’s capacity.
There are a handful of tickets left for this three-room event, which promises to be one of Scotland’s best soul nights, with ten great DJs.