At a highly unlikely venue for a top class soul performance, Jimmy James and the Vagabonds appeared at the Club Tropicana in Chapel St. Leonards near Skegness on Saturday October 16th, 2004. Advertised on the local radio station as "the crowd-pleasing toe-tapper Jimmy James", the gentleman in question certainly lived up to the hype.

A veteran performer with a pedigree of hits dating back to the 1960s, Jimmy James and the current incarnation of the Vagabonds certainly give value for money, in this case, a measly fiver. The band was tight, very smooth and worked perfectly with Jimmy's ad-libs, and somehow managed to created a Stax-like feel to their performance.

Jimmy himself delivered a faultless performance to an ecstatic crowd, starting with "Ain't No Stopping Us Now", bringing the mood gently down to mellow numbers like "My Girl" and "Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay" and then back up again to "I'll Go Where Your Music Takes Me" and "Now Is The Time". Amongst his set were some of his classic numbers like "A Man Like Me" and "Red Red Wine", plus covers of Drifters, Junior Walker and Eddie Floyd (which sounded remarkably accurate). Add to that a few more modern songs like "Let's Go Round Again", and you can certainly see it was a performance to satisfy all musical tastes.

All in all, an artist not to be missed. Apparantly Jimmy is a regular at the Club Tropicana, and I for one will certainly be off to see him again. As a little taster, here's a video snippet of Jimmy's live performance (830Kb).

Steve Brookstein, 35, and ex-lead singer of The Four Vandals, has scooped a £1 million pound record deal by winning the ITV show the X-Factor.

Steve, from Merton Park in Surrey, has been working in pubs and clubs for many years, and has had many claims to fame, including acting as support to Dionne Warwick. No stranger to talent shows, Steve has been seen previously on Jonathon Ross' Big Big Talent Show.

The actual detail behind the Four Vandals is a bit sketchy, but I have managed to unearth a video clip of "The Wrong Side Of Town". Click here for a quick butchers at a Real Audio video.

And interestingly, Steve's ex-girlfriend was Venicia Williams, whose real name is Katie Jackson. Strange how they both appeared on the Allnighter 3 CD isn't it!

A charity soul and Motown night took place at the Sketchley Grange Hotel, Hinckley, on Friday 19th November, raising £100 in aid of the Meningitis Trust.

Organised by Tim Puffer and Sam Evans, in association with the Sketchley Grange, a special Bed and Breakfast package of £15 per person was offered to encourage those with travel issues to attend.

Tim says: "It was a good night and a great start, people I spoke to were very positive, Cath and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I'm told there was approximately a 150 people there. It really hotted up after 9.00pm, Sam (Evans) played a great set, lots of sixties Motown and Soul with some seventies stuff creeping in, all to a very appreciative audience with varying tastes. The dance floor remained well used throughout the night, finishing at 1.00am. A number of couples took up the offer of discounted rooms and I had a word with a few at breakfast. Several couples also had a meal at the hotel on Friday evening, it really was a civilised way of going out for an evening, at a great price."

The next event at the Sketchley Grange is in February, details will be made available as soon as they are available.

An article penned by Dave Nicholls appears in the June issue of Manifesto, the highly regarded Northern Soul fanzine.

The article attempts to explain the background and purpose of the quarterly Classic Northern Soul sessions held at the Clarendon Club, Coventry Road, Hinckley, Leicestershire.

Interestingly, it also describes the effort and time it actually takes to organise and promote a Northern Soul venue. Dave attempts to describe the feeling of dread leading up to the first night... "Nerves started to go just prior to the event. Would it be a sucess? Would they be able to fill the 300 capacity room? Would anyone else be dancing on the large, sprung wooden dance floor, or would it be just the five of them?". You'll just have to buy Manifesto to find out!!

Manifesto is available from

Manifesto, PO Box 313, Gloucester, United Kingdom: Tel 01452 300894
or email manifesoul@aol.com

A BBC team from Pebble Mill, Birmingham visited the Northern Soul night at the Wykin Social Club at the end of November, 2001 as part of the making of a special programme that was broadcast on BBC2 at 7.30pm on Thursday, 20th December,2002.

The programme followed the fortunes of a man from Derby, who is a regular attendee at the once-a-month venue, which takes place on the last Saturday in the month.

Ady Cope (left) who is a DJ at the venue, features in the program, and also appears on the front page of the local paper, the Hinckley Times. Ady says "We get people from all over Leicestershire and we have had people from Manchester and Blackpool, the real homes of Northern Soul."