Review: Neil

After the slightly disappointing Soul night at Soul Groove in Didsbury last week, I was apprehensive about TSOP in Prestwich, however we didn’t allow this to put us off. After all with Prestwich being my home town, if TSOP didn’t live up to expectations, we could always bugger off and be home within 5 minutes!!!
 
Anyhow, TSOP is set in the Longfield Suite which is at the heart of Prestwich Shopping Precinct. The Longfield Suite is generally known for its cabaret acts and still has a local civic hall feel to the place. The Precinct as a whole is slightly dilapidated now and is in need of some renewal. The last time I was in the Longfield Suite was as a 6 years old watching a Christmas Panto, so now 26 years on, I made my long awaited return!!

I always knew there was a Northern Soul night on, but I never knew there was another room playing Soul which has apparently being going on for the last 8 years. A Soul night in Prestwich, Crazy!!! I emailed the organisers about the event but got no response. I initially found out about TSOP from the Soul Control website and asked T2 Bad about it. He told me it was a good night and to go check it out. I knew that Mike Stephens was playing, and he has been doing some amazing Soul Out nights at the Mint Lounge in the Northern Quarter, so this gave me the added confidence that TSOP would be OK.
 
Friday night was a typically British summer evening, cold wet and windy, but all the same me, my sister and a friend Lauren set off in anticipation of the night ahead. We entered the Longfield Suite and all we could see was… erm….very old people!! Ha ha!! We saw the Soul room and quickly dived in there, it was quite full already and it was still only 11pm. There weren’t many people dancing but the music sounded good. After a while we decided to get a drink from the bar which was in the main hall where the Northern Soul was being played. We had never been to a Northern Soul event before and we were blown away by the old people's moves. They were spinning, sliding you name it, it was all going on!!! This arena is pretty large and it was quite full.
 
After a while we went back to the Soul room where by this time the dance floor had filled up nicely. I’m not sure who was playing at this time, but shortly after DJ Daz M took over on rotation. His set was excellent and mostly comprised of up-tempo 80's, 90’s and Y2K classics. By now everyone was dancing on and off the small dance-floor in this medium sized arena.
 
There were good numbers in here by now and I would estimate there were over 100 groovers in attendance in the Soul room alone. Once again the DJ’s rotated and the following fella played a more mellow style of Soul but the dance-floor was never vacated. An interesting aspect of TSOP is that there was a small stall selling Soul mix CD’s at the back of room which was an interesting touch.
 
The last DJ on rotation was Mike Stephens and his set was a flawless mix of 80’s, 90’s up to current Soul. The majority of people stayed right until the end which said more about the night than I ever could. The sound system in the Soul room was good and loud, just what was needed.

Soul Control Verdict:
Overall this night was excellent!! All the DJ's were on top form and the people just wanted to dance. I would definitely recommend this night, it’s definitely is a hidden gem!! I get the feeling the promoters are happy with the night as it is, but there is potential to take it the next level. I don’t see why this night couldn’t attract a younger crowd too if marketed in the correct way, but that’s up to the promoter’s I guess. If you’re not bothered about a less-than-classy venue and prefer to concentrate on good music instead, then this is the night for you. Soul on TSOP!!!!!!

Soul Control Rating:
Too generous? I don’t think so, it was seriously that good!!!!

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