LDN: Testing The Waters For A Club Idea

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The avantgardeners of Dissensus might be the wrong people to test this out on, but we'll see :D

The friend I run People's Republic Of Disco with - Jared / Ouchmonkee - and I have spent the last couple of festival seasons playing early morning slots in the grand ole Pussy Parlure - playing quiet jazz, soul, country, gospel etc to the comedown kids. It’s a lovely way to start the day and some of my favourite DJing.

Anyway, having called it Lovely Mornings amongst other things, we’re kinda rebranding ourselves as Randy & Earl’s Old Record Club.

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And I’ve got to thinking about whether it would actually work as a club proper. The basic idea would be to cover a wide spread of music you either don’t get to hear played out or is played at specialist clubs with a fairly narrow remit.

If we ran the club somewhere like Brixton (definitely South London anyway) maybe quarterly - not too often if it were a proper club (playing in a bar in a more low-key way could be more regular) - and played this sort of thing:

Ska, rocksteady and early reggae
gospel
Motown and Stax Soul
swing / R&B (both in the old sense - Louis Jordan, Louis Prima, Big Joe Turner, that sort of thing)
rock’n'roll
country / country soul
and a smattering of 60s groovy mod / beat / jazz / psych / garage stuff

and artists like

Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Cab Calloway, The Skatalites, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Charlie Feathers, The Staple Singers, The Three Louis’ - Armstrong, Prima & Jordan, Johnny Cash, Dr John, Lee Perry, Dean and Frank, Marsha Hunt, Sugar Pie Desanto, Sam Cooke, Alton Ellis, The Edwin Hawkins Singers, Hot Club of Cowtown, George Jones, Royal Crown Revue, James Carr, Bobby Gentry, Georgie Fame, Allen Toussaint, Prince Buster

etc

I wonder if it would work? I mean, if a club was offering this kind of thing i’d definitely go along. There’s a few places - Coast To Coast (ska and soul) and some of the country clubs springs to mind - where you’ll get some of the same stuff, but never all of it. And I think it would be great.

It would have to be the right venue on the right night. Doesn’t have to be a big place with lots of people dancing, but a nice atmosphere and the potential for dancing as the night picked up (I can’t think of anything better than dancing to Arte Bella, Ode To Billie Joe, Jump Jive & Wail and Soul Finger all in a row. )

So I’m kind of canvassing opinion. Let me know your thoughts and suggestions, and if you know of somewhere you think it might work, even better. We’d also do one offs if you’re getting married or having a party or something!!
 
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