Soul in all Area's

Soul in the Hind

Soul in the Hind is held at the 16th Century Hind hotel in the centre of Wellingborough and is a new venue to the Area and is run by  Kev & Gloria Bourne, this venue is run as a Charity soul night with all profits going to Cancer Research, our Resident DJ Mr Steve Towers lead s the way with his guest DJs playing across the board soul music (Northern, Modern, RNB and Motown).

We have a special hour between 11pm and Midnight playing old classics that you don't hear very often today.

 

Our first Soul in the Hind was held on Saturday 12th July 2008, this was a great night in which we raised £537.00 for Cancer Research and we would like to thank all the soulies for there support, because without you this would not be possible. 

 

 

Pictures: Top left Dancers at the Hind, Top Right Resident DJ Steve Towers & Kev Bourne, Bottom Right Gloria Bourne 

                                                                                                                    

 

The Kev Bourne Story

Born in Crewe in 1958, went to Brierley Street School  and first got into Northern Soul at the age of 13, the main reason for this was i used to hang about with my cousin (Dave Malbon) and his mates who were a couple of years older than me and there was also my other cousin (Sue Malbon) and partner (Johhny Briggs) who were a little bit older than Dave. Those of you going to the Wellingborough All-Dayer will see Sue & John as John is one of the DJs at this event.

The first place we went was every Saturday night was Mirron Street Youth Club pictured below and the DJs then wereTerry Twiss and Big Hodge.  

 

Mirron Street Youth Club

Now i was hooked on to the music, it became my life they had a venue in a village called Wheelock abut 4 miles from Crewe and there was loads of us who caught the bus and went to this, it was held in a Church and i remember the DJ who played there his name was Graham Fairhurst and he played some great sounds. We did go to some local gigs but the best one was Mirron Street.

At the age of 15 nearly 16 some of the lads were on about going to Blackpool and as Derick cannot remember his last name who was 18 and was the first of our group to pass his driving test plus have a car (Austin Mini) my only problem was making an excuse to my parents of why i would be out all night, so as i did a spot of fishing i told them i was going night fishing it worked i was allowed.

Blackpool Mecca

We left Crewe about tea time and set off for Blackpool, there was five of us in this Mini, Derick driving Dave, Bobby, Issac and me, took us about 2 hours get there, cars them days were not that fast, we got some chips and then parked the car just down the road from the Mecca Highland Room  got into the large queue and within 45 mins we were in, Wow! it was awesome my first big adventure. We arrived back home picked my fishing gear up and went home then slept all day.

Info: The Highland Room was open from 1971 to 1979 and the Mecca finally closed it's doors in 1981 due to the state of the place it was never maintained. 

My next big adventure soon followed, i used to work at a DIY store on Nantwich Road in Crewe after school and through the holidays and it was on a Bank holiday Monday our Dave came to the shop to say that they are all going on the train to Whitchurch All-Dayer at the Civic, so i thought I've got to have some of that so i told the boss that i was not feeling very well, got home changed and joined the others on the train, the All-Dayer was from 12 till Midnight and was massive over 3 and half thousand Northern soulies under one roof the biggest in the Country, all the top DJs were there and the best dancers of our time, was a great day.

Started work in 1974 on the Railway so the money came in useful, then came the one and only Wigan Casino.  

A venue that will never be matched the all-nighter started at 2am till 8am and the dance floor was packed all the time it had it's famous balcony around it and the music was the tops. The toilets i will always remember they were disgusting you had to wade through it, remember going one night to the casino and borrowing my mates (Dave Hardwick) bag, he had every soul patch on it from around the Country and it got stolen, i did get the bag back but no patches on it, was a nightmare giving him this bag back without the patches.

Wigan Casino

Info: Wigan Casino was opened in 1973 and closed it's doors in 1981.

Went to the Mecca and Casino as much as i could and nothing will ever match these two venues ever again.

There is one venue i would have loved to have gone and that was The Golden Torch  but i was to young and just missed out, would have loved to been there the night Major Lance did his Live recording. The Torch burned down in the 80s but closed it's doors on the soul scene in 1973.. 

 The Torch

There was another venue we used to go called Nantwich Cricket Club and this was on a Sunday night and the DJ was Soul Sam it was fantastic because where else could you go on a Sunday and this only 4 miles down the road Great!!!!

Also there was Up The Junction in Crewe don't remember to much about this venue but what i can remember is the DJ booth used to hang down from the ceilling and it was always packed, this venue still stands today and is a pool/snooker venue.

Things changed in 1977 i got married had children and sort of left the scene, still had my music and went to a couple of local venues, the 80s came around and i remember going for a weekend at Butlins and the one and only Jimmy James & the Vagabonds were on they were great, and i was lucky enough to go back stage and have a chat with Jimmy, such a great guy and i asked him if he would come down to Crewe and perform for us, he gave me his number and within two months i had found a venue that holds 550 people called the Oakley Centre, booked Jimmy and the road to my first bit of promoting was set. Picture left Oakley centre entrance, right entrance to hall.

     

It was a great first night with just over 400 attending, now i was hooked on the promoting scene my next gig was a Manchester band called Stax of Soul, over 300 turned up for this then i had Clem Curtis & The Foundations on, but i think because i had put this on in the summer there was a poor turn out of about 200.This did not knock me back the next act i put on was a massive band called Screaming Beavers from Stoke, and what i mean by massive there was about 20 of them in the band they were great and my numbers were up to over 300 again.

Then came the big one my DJs for this one were Johnny Briggs and Andy Scoffin and my artist was the one and only Mr Jimmy Ruffin. 

Mr Jimmy Ruffin

All tickets had sold out straight away, in fact i could have sold over a thousand tickets but the venue was not big enough, this was a night i will never forget he was first class.

After this event i only put on a couple of soul nights, but the memories of meeting those stars with live with me forever.

Went to a venue once a month in Nantwich called the Wyche Anglers this was on a Friday night and was a good night meeting up with old friends, Eventually they had to move from the Wyche Anglers because the builders had bought the land and so it moved to Nantwich Civic and it is still going today in it's 13th year, if you ever get the chance go it has one of the best dance floors in the Country and next year it's moving to a Saturday night.

Then opened a venue in Crewe called the North Ward it's on the first Saturday of every month, you won't see it advertised much because it doesn't need it as it's always packed and you will have a great night there and Johnny Briggs is one of the resident DJs. It was now 2006 and myself and my great mate Brav were booked to go to Soul in the Sun in Tenerife and after being persuaded to go by Brav and our Sue we set off and what a fantastic time we had, this was where i met my wife Gloria and the Northants crowd we kept in touch we came down here to some venues and they came up to us, December 29th 2006 we all went to the Twisted Wheel All-Nighter it was brilliant with the condensation running down the old walls, the Twisted Wheel is still running today and if you get a chance go, you won't be disappointed. 

So after the Wheel it was off to Middlewich the following night and then New Years Eve we went to Kings Hall Stoke-On-Trent All-Nighter another place you should try if you ever get the chance, this has the best dance floor in the Country.

I moved down to Wellingborough in April 2007(and i love it down here great people) then we got married in April 2008 and we had a soul wedding with a fantastic DJ line up with Eddie Edmonson, Johnny Briggs, Kev Such, Steve Towers, Steve Brown, Jem Britin, Baz, The Banbury Twins, Austin Jones and John Heaney but to top this night off we had the Legendary Mr Tommy Hunt sing, one fantastic day that i will never forget.

Our wedding with my two daughters Lisa, Cath and Grandaughter Mia 

The Wellingborough All-Dayer will take place every year now i have put this in place and i also run Soul in the Hind, but what i like so much about putting these venues on is the great atmosphere, friendly crowd, Music i love and at the same time raising money for Cancer Research.

Looking back the 1970s were the best, the big venues, massive crowds, great music and the clothes, yes the clothes remember the bowling shirts, bags, tonics, crombie, white socks, prince of wales checks, tank tops,and brogues just to name a few.

 

Hope ive not bored you with my story and i hope it will bring memories back to some people.

   

  Keep the Faith

Kev