Bishopstoke Memorial Hall met with The Pier on Saturday night when Gary Todd guested with resident D.J. Steve Lyons.

These two guys have been stalwarts in Southampton and Bournemouth over many years, providing a brand of music that combines old Northern Classics with latter day established soul music. A winning formula with a wide ranging appeal that generally fills dancefloors and last Saturday, Oct 2nd was no exception.
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. As soul venues go, Bournemouth Pier is quite upmarket and people tend to dress accordingly. Also of note were the people who attended had probably entered into the music from various eras, which was reflected in the wider range in their ages compared to what you'd normally experience at a soul night.
. This gave the event its own flavour as dance styles from the retro mod scene blended across to the traditional side-stepping Northern Soul movements. There was plenty of variation in the make-up of the crowd to interest the eye.
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. Some of the music, that's never gelled that well with me, was mainstream even back in the early 70s. For example, Millie Jackson - My man, a sweet man, Joy Lovejoy - In orbit, The Sapphires - Got to have your love and of course Tamla Motown were played during those yesteryears everywhere between John O'groats and Land's End. As were other commercial chart sounds such as Tony Clark - Landslide, which I'm guessing, from the usual way local people at this event respond to these tunes, were probably the basis for this popular, somewhat peripheral Northern Soul gaining wider popularity initially on the south coast.
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. Away from this commercial soul, there was plenty of well established music also being appreciated by the crowd. Traditional Oldies such as Little Carl Carlton - Competition ain't nothing and Frankie Crocker - Ton of Dynamite were amongst some of the plays that floated my boat.
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. I've witnessed Steve and Toddy perform on numerous occasions in the past five years and consequently, due to over familiarisatin, I'm not getting quite the same buzz from their well tried and tested plays which draw in the people to The Pier and Bishopstoke. However, I'm probably very much in the minority. For in truth, the general turn over of people love what these two venues have to offer, which is self evident because they are frequented by many happy revellers. As was the case on Saturday, when the wet conditions would have kept a few people away. So why change things when they work so well.
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. I think I'm suffering withdrawal symptoms due to the closure of Bournemouth Railway Club.
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. I've got a feeling that I'll be in a much better mood when The Pier brings together the extended and talented D.J. line-up of Shay, Nik Mak, Bob Povey and of course, Steve Lyons on Saturday, Dec 4th.
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. Yours Truly, Grumpy Old Dave
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