|
My name is Bernie O'Brien, I live in Warrington, that's North West England. I've been into soul music since about 1968, when at my local youth club we were listening to Motown, Stax and Atlantic.
During the early 70's I became aware of imports, mainly Motown and Ric Tic stuff that was being played at a club called The Twisted Wheel in Manchester, unfortunately I was too young to attend and by the time I was old
enough The Wheel had closed it's doors for good.
I started DJ'ing in about 1969/70 at my local youth club "The Bell Hall" in Warrington, and was playing as much soul stuff as I could get my hands on, I used to go on
the train to Ralphs Records in Manchester, buying up whatever imports I could afford at the time and rushing back home to play them, full blast.
By 1971/2 I had attended my first real "Rare Soul" night at Blackpool
Mecca, The Highland Room, and was totally blown away by the music, being played by DJ's Tony Jebb, Stuart Freeman and Ian Levine. After Blackpool I also visited Va Va in Bolton, where a young Richard Searling was
the resident DJ, I also attended The Pendulum (great venue), for reasons which escape me, I never got to go to The Torch ?, Wigan Casino, The Blue Rooms in Sale, and more.
In the mid 70's I also regularilly
DJ'd The Carlton club in Warrington, I was resident DJ for The Cheshire Soul Club who held regular nights at Northwich Memorial Hall aka The Morgue and went on to join the "Northern Soul Club Roadshow" as resident
DJ with Brian Rae, we used to travel the Country doing soul nights, a few venues I remember doing are, The Viking at Goole, The Raven at Preesheath, The Whitchurch Civic Centre all dayers, Corn Exchange in Bourne,
Assembly Rooms, Boston, Central Hall, Kettering, The Harrow in Culcheth, (From where I had my van broken into and ALL my soul records stolen, and I can tell you, that was devastating) The Cosmo Club in
Carlisle. There were many more.
By 1976, I'd started my own mail order business selling records, I imported stuff from the states and also bought wholesale from other importers, this very quickly led me into
opening my own record shop in Warrington and this stayed open until 1982 when I sold it.
A brief period away from music followed and a return being out and about at venues like The Morecambe all nighters, Stafford re
unions, The Ritz in Manchester, and led me back to promoting in 1988 at a venue in Winsford where we ran a midweek soul night at a club called Scarletts Showbar.
By 1992, my work had meant that I was overseas
for 3 years so the soul music was limited to my car and my appartment.
In 1996 I returned to the UK and within months had started my own promotion at The Rec in Warrington,(first Friday every month) to be followed
shortly after by Pavilions in Runcorn, (third Friday every month). I've since been involved (in conjunction with my partners Ste Fletcher and Kev Murphy) in bringing artists to the UKand putting on live
spectaculars, with real live musicians, at Lowton Civic Hall, this started in August 1998 when we brought Jerry Williams (Aka Swamp Dogg) to the UK for his first ever live performances here, we followed that with Eddie
Holman in March 1999 and Dean Courtney in July 1999 (also his first ever visit to the UK).
In February 1998, I helped in the putting together of a trip to Las Vegas where a group of soulies from from the Uk met up
with other groups of soulies from around the world. The culmination of our week was a Soul Night in Los Angeles and a spectacular soul night in a restaurant, featuring live acts (see gig reports)
For the year 2000,
we are planning a further 3 live spectaculars at Lowton and will announce these as soon as artists are signed up. |
