Spirit of Sixty-Eight

I recently realised that what makes a club good is if you feel welcome and at home even if you go there by yourself. This can be either if you're likely to know other people who are there or if people are welcoming despite not knowing you. Yesterday I went to Friday Street instead of NPL. It's too bad I didn't know about this monthly mod and northern soul night before. Well, it's always the same date as NPL anyway so I might not have made it either way. The similarity between the indiepop and northern soul scene, is that as long as you wear the right clothes and dance the right way you will always be excepted. The difference is that the soul scene seems to be slightly smaller here... and older.

Friday Street is back at Blackfriars after moving around for four years. The basement is quite nice and just big enough, with a sizeable wooden dancefloor. Andrew Symington was the night's guest dj (which meant Chris Geddes was there too), but I was much more impressed by the residents. They played a great mix of northern soul, boogaloo and garage-psych. After a while people started coming up to me, wondering why they'd never seen me before. Well, they'll see me again for sure. There's apparently another club called Central City Soul that's going to be at the Woodside on February 16. I haven't heard of that one before either!