You should have seen the crowd I attracted as I spent the best part of 10 minutes trying to park…..well as they say everyone is famous for 15 minutes, I just didn’t reckon I’d use up two thirds of my “famous time” trying to park a car!!!!!
On entering the Mint Lounge I was greeted by Mike Stephens who seemed a little stressed; he had that “Promoter’s Look” about him!!! He was getting his head pecked by Michelle a mutual friend of ours, I don’t know what it was all about, but being a “true” friend I didn’t hang about to share his head pecking and just left them both to it!!! The first thing to hit me when I arrived was that the venue wasn’t as full as the February event. There was a good enough atmosphere though, and the Mint Lounge was filling up nicely all the same. I found myself a good vantage point whilst I acclimatised to Soul Out and immediately got into the Manchester Head Nod mode!!!!
It was fast approaching 1am and I was starting to feel a little restless. Soul Out just seemed to be ambling along aimlessly and the feeling of restlessness wasn’t just confined to me as you could just feel it in the air. A change is as good as a rest so I went outside for a change of scenery and spent 10 minutes talking to Trevor an old friend of mine. During the time I was out there, I saw at least 15 people leaving the venue which only confirmed the feeling of malaise that I was experiencing. When the cold had sunk through to my bones, I decided to go back inside and it was only then that my mate Trevor revealed that he and the four friends he had come with were actually leaving too and he’d only stopped to speak to me!!! This was not the night I was expecting whatsoever!!!
When I got back to the main arena I tried to analyse what was wrong with the night and then it suddenly dawned on me. Alex Badass was still playing and throughout most of his set he was playing late 80’s - early 90’s remixes of early 80’s classic Rare Grooves. For example imagine the Jones Girls “All Night Long” classic being played but with the Hi-Tempo drum pattern from Alyson Williams’ “Sleep Talk” over the top of it, well this and tens of tracks like it were being played back-to-back non-stop since I’d arrived!!! To be honest it was doing a lot of people’s collective heads in, so much so that I spotted a friend of mine called Tiffany leaving with the party of nine that she was with and it wasn’t even 1.30am. She stated that it was the torrent of “Snide” remixes (as she called it) that had made them all decide to leave early and call it a night!!! I fully understood what she meant, maybe one or two of the remixes would have been appropriate, but not an endless stream of them!!!!
I then spotted Mike Stephens who had been seemingly released from his door strife, moving through the crowd and toward the stage. He duly took to the turntables and immediately turned what had now become a tiresome night into something like we were all expecting when we first arrived. Mike played a near flawless set of Soul classics old and new which put the night back on track for most but not for some as sometimes it’s difficult to drag yourself from the brink!!!
Anyway I busied myself by gauging people’s reactions to the night so far and whilst doing so, I had the great pleasure of finally meeting Soul Control's intrepid reviewer Neil and Mrs Neil too!!! We spoke at length on all things Soul and I'm glad to say that with such a knowledgeable fella contributing to the nations favourite information & entertainment website, the future of Manchester's Soul scene will be safe in his hands!!!! It was also great to meet up with my good friends Sonia and Susan and also Rebecca, Tina and Joanne. I'm also glad to report that I finally bump into "Uncle Festa" the Mint Lounge’s resident sound engineer and was able to put the shine to the name!! And oh before I forget, the sound system sounded heavy-weight again!!!!
With half an hour or so to go, Alex returned to the fray and at least he kept to the pace which had been set by Mike. There were no more endless streams of remixes in his final set, but any damage which had been done earlier was now consigned to history and the night ebbed away to its conclusion.
Soul Control Verdict:
Whilst Soul Out wasn’t as full as the February event there were still more than enough people to make a proper party out of it. Don’t get me wrong, the dance floor was full most of the night, but I feel that this was in spite of the music being played earlier and not because of it. The Soul Out team are experienced enough to know how this night progressed and don’t need me to tell them, but I think in future Mike Stephens would be best advised to leave the door to someone he can trust and do what he does best and concentrate on entertaining the people who have turned out to experience Soul Out Mint Lounge!!
Soul Control Rating:
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