The Souldham All-Dayer

A few people have asked how did Souldham come about.

So here is the real story.

During 2006 our then local Mayor councilor Bernard Judge, had a dream of putting on a Northern Soul  / Motown night at the Queen Elizabeth Hall here in Oldham, to raise money for the Mayor's Appeal Fund Charity. Now knowing that I used to be on Russ Winstanley's radio show, Bernard approached me on the dance floor, and whilst we were dancing at a local Northern Soul Venue, he asked me about the possibility of me helping him, realise this dream he had, I said yes ok call me. Little did I expect him to text me at 7.45am the following morning a Sunday, to set up a meeting for that very afternoon to discuss his idea.

After that meeting I told Bernard that it would be a good idea to ask Wayne Butterworth, from Lancashire Soul Corporation to come on board, as Wayne has contact with most of the Local Northern Soul DJ's. So that was how the original Souldham Team was formed,   Bernard, Wayne and Myself. After many meetings it transpired that Bernard not only wanted an All-Dayer, but a Scooter Rally also. At this point I talked Mark Doyle from "Dig the New Breeds Scooter Club" into coming on board to help us out with planning the Scooter Rally. We all set about of the hard work of not only putting the All-Dayer and Scooter Rally together, but also promoting the event not just locally by nation wide, no easy job by any stretch of the imagination for anyone, but we did it. It took us six months to plan and workout every thing for the Souldham All-Dayer. From finding sponsors to help fund the event, to sourcing banners and organising flights, you name it we did it. We did have a few disappointments and let downs along the way, but it was a good learning curve for all concerned, and after all it was all about the love of music and to raise money for the Mayor's Appeal Fund.

The week before the All-Dayer Wayne and I held a Northern Soul Disco in Oldham town Centre, I tell you it was a freezing cold wet and windy January Saturday, and from 10am to 4pm. We stood there and played some good stompers to keep us warm. We had help handing flyer's out to passers by doing their shopping from the guys from Dig The New Breeds Scooter Club, The Mayor wearing his chain of office and his lovely wife Anita. We were all freezing cold but it was fun to see people stood under shelters and umbrella's dancing to the tunes we played. It was so good to hear Northern Soul Blasting out around the town centre. Just a pity about the rain.

All to quickly the big day arrived and at 1.30pm the scooters arrived outside the Queen Elizabeth Hall. We could not believe just how many had turned out on a pretty murky dank day, it was a sight to behold. They all looked great Bernard gave a trophy for the best turned out scooter, and then the scooterists left for a short rally around the outskirts of the town centre. To return to the warmth of the QEH later.

Next at 2pm the All-Dayer kicked off with 22 DJ's who all gave their time for free, in two rooms. In the Chadderton Suite they played Motown and Classic Soul and in the Main Hall Northern Soul. At 11pm our four live acts came on stage Ben Brierley, Johnny Boy, Richie Pitts and Lala Brooks. It was a day to remember and has gone down in my history book as too good to be forgotten. Those twelve hours just flew by for me, it was a great day wonderful people, even children there enjoying our music.

Thank you to everyone who supported Souldham the All-Dayer you are all Stars. I do hope that you will support the New Souldham Team. It is not easy to put events like this together, they don't just happen over night by magic.

"Don't Just Keep the Faith, Spread It"