Sorry folks, absolutely no Talc.

I must admit it was a blow not to be going to Brighton to see The James Taylor Quartet on Saturday. It left me  with a choice - sit at home sulking or do something foolish instead?

Well, of course foolish won and as a result I’m sat here feeling very sorry for myself. Heck, who goes out for the night armed with a bottle of water, spare shoes,  some heavy medication, a wide range of nasty side effects, a walking stick and a pair of crutches in the car just in case I needed them, a Ben Sherman Shirt with a 1960’s straight Tie, tie clip, black jacket and Levi’s 501’s. Oh and did I mention my special dancing shoes?

Here’s a clue for you;

 

Otherwise known as

Murder on the dance floor

By accident I discovered I had a local Northern Soul Club; The Hoodoo Rhythm and Soul Club, just up the road and only a year old, holding their second ‘Alldayer’ on Sunday, that’s a whole day of Northern Soul. This is the world of the MODS, of wild dancing and long, long wonderful nights.

And no, I was never going to be able to manage 2pm till 10pm, I have to look after someone. Also I’m not in the market for wild dancing anymore but I still got there at 6pm and had a good 4 hours of dancing to some of the best dance music in the world.  That's Soul, all on vinyl of course.

And this is the Hoodoo Club;

 

And here’s Soulnites, the joint organisers;

 

It was a great night, really nice people – as one person said to me “The music never leaves you” and he's right.
Only now as a result I’ve got a swollen ankle, a swollen knee, lots of pains in really worrying places and I seem to have broken a few things, some of which don’t feel as though they will ever heal.

Strangely there were a number of people I thought I recognised - it's a very small world.

What a night – when I have time I’ll give you an inside history of the MODS, Northern Soul and everything. In the meantime you’ll just have to make do with Wikipedia.

The Talc? Soulboys put it on the soles of their shoes to make it easier to do their special moves.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)