A Review of The East Midlands Big Soul Night by Karen Crane

I had an absolutely cracking time at Ilkeston last night. I went with my husband, Dave and Steve Clark and their wives.

There are four rooms to choose from so everyone was happy and you could flit from room to room until you found something that appealed you.

There is the main room playing Northern, I would say very oldies based in here which really suited the crowd. Fairly early on I was in there and the DJ (can't remember who) was playing some R&B type northern which didn't really go down too well with the majority, but for me it was wonderful. Only gripe of the evening was that he put on a record which I got up to dance to and after about 30 seconds he took off saying he would keep trying different stuff until the crowd got up, well excuse me Mr DJ I was up! Derek Allan, Kenny Burell and Chris King had the floor full later.

Second room was playing a variety of motown based stuff, fairly well known, I even heard a bit of ska being played in here. This room was perfect for my hubby and the other two girls we were with and they spent most of the night in here.

Modern room... well, I did venture in it a couple of times and it sounded OK but I'm no expert. Ambelique performed live later in the evening, but I missed this due to my being in the Northern room listening to Kenny Burell.

The final room was my particular favourite playing a variety of R&B and rare soul depending on the DJ. When checking out the various rooms earlyish they were playing some cracking R&B and I found it hard to tear myself away from the dance floor to see what else was on offer, and this was where I headed back to mostly. MickH did a very good spot later in the evening. All in all a very good night, a lovely place with plenty of variety to suit every taste. It was a long journey for me 2 and a half to 3 hours each way but well worth it and I can see me travelling there again.

P.S. Toilet watch, very clean and nice. Well stocked with loo paper and not a flooded

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