Pemberton Centre Soul Nights
The Steve Brown Story
Steve on the decks at the 2008 Wellingborough All-Dayer
My first experience of the world of Soul Music came when, at the age of 15, I was able to blag my way in to the upstairs room at the Nags Head in Wollaston. As soon as I heard the fab tunes, that was it. Within a year or so I knew just about every tune and all my money went in tracking down and buying them. I thought I knew so much until I heard about an all nighter at Bletsoe and went along with my mates to try it. I did not know a tune all night! Chapter 2, learn about and buy as many of these records as I could. Of course as more and more top sounds were being discovered this became an ongoing task costing most of my very small wage each week. Carlows record shop in Bedford used to be very pleased to see me! What none of us realised at the time was that most were boots and are worth the same now as back in the 70's. I did have a few nice originals like my Ottis Smith, which are now worth a few hundred quid.
I became a bit disillusioned with the Northern Scene when pop records started getting played, and jokers like Wigans Ovation appeared on Top of the Pops. I didn't come back to the music until the early 90's and found the events in the Rushden area were pretty dull. I started going further afield and found that it was great to relive old times, along with many others, dancing the night away to the tunes I know and love. It was around 2000 when I discovered that my mate and business contact Jem Brittin (pictured right) 
was a mad keen soul fan and many hours were spent reminiscing and bemoaning the fact that there was nothing on around Rushden.
On the 'Put up or shut up' theory we hired some kit and put on a night at Higham WMC. I remember our line on the flyer 'just like it used to be', and it was! The place was packed and we've never looked back since.
We evolved to The Pembo and got Len Dopson on board as a resident DJ, (pictured left) and now have one of the biggest nights in the East Mids. Our music constantly evolves to. We continually introduce new sounds as well as keeping a good mix of established tunes. After getting so much pleasure from the music over the years, it's a pleasure and a privilege to put something back.
Cheers, Steve.
Pemberton Centre Soul Night 31st January 2009 (below)
