The Clarendon Club

Undoubtably the longest running northern soul event in Hinckley, The Clarendon Club held its first Classic Northern Soul night on 18th January 2003 to a packed house in excess of 200 people. The Classic Soul Nights were originally organised by Dave Nicholls, Kelly Knight, Mark Lester, Wayne Hayes and Julian "Pez" Perry, and were promoted by Steve Smith of Timewarp Promotions. The organisers changed over the years, but became collectively known as 'Northern Soul Hinckley'.

When asked what the music policy at the Classic Northern Soul nights was, Pez replied, "As long as the floor is full, it's ok.". It seems that someone recognised that every now and then, people just want to dance. The event was held every three months or so. By the way, if the venue looks familiar, it is! It used to be called the Sweet Pea Club.

"Northern soul nights at the Clarendon club in Hinckley, Leicestershire have become an important date in soul fans calendars, and to explain how it came about, we have to go back to December 2001 when a documentary about northern soul in the Midlands appeared on BBC TV. It showed a soul fan from Derby called John attending a northern soul night at Wykin Social Club on the outskirts of Hinckley. This prompted Kelly Knight to attend the next soul night there, where he met up with Dave Nicholls, a friend of thirty years who he hadn't seen for quite some time.

Dave had been attending the nights at Wykin for the previous six months, and had been told about the resurgence of the scene by a business associate named Julian Perry who sometimes attended the night himself. Just prior to Dave's first visit a discussion about scooters with Wayne Hayes who works next door to Dave's workshop led onto northern soul and the Wykin Soul Nights, which Wayne also attended. Mark Lester also went the same night and as he knew Kelly through the school where Kelly works, the five of them got to know each other, and over the coming months discovered that the music that was being played on the scene now wasn't what they associated with the term 'northern soul' - in fact they all had a liking for the classic or oldies that used to be played in the seventies and were disappointed by what was known as R&B, Modern, Crossover and Rare etc. They all longed to hear tracks like Dobie Gray - "Out On The Floor", Richard Temple - "That Beatin' Rhythm" and Chuck Woods - "Seven Days Too Long".

The five of them decided that they had to attend other soul nights in search of these gems, but most of the time were disappointed with what they heard. It was only after a chance meeting by Dave with a guy called Graham Weaver in a Nottingham record shop (Rob's Records) who told him about Chesterfields YMCA Soul Nights that it was discovered that they do play oldies at some events. Dave and his wife Lesley first went to Chesterfield in May 2002 taking Julian (Pez) with them in August and have been going back almost every month since with a minibus full.

The Clarendon Club Classic Soul Nights came about when these five like-minded soul fans decided that if they wanted to listen to Classic Northern Soul within the Hinckley area then they would have to stage the event themselves. Coupled with the success that Chesterfield YMCA Soul was having, the demand from other soul fans, and the fact that Hinckley had always had a tradition of staging good northern soul events in the past - you only had to look at Hinckley Leisure Centre Nighters and the Ric-Tic Revue organised by Chris King - to know it would work."

The music played was an across the board policy, featuring classics like "Key To My Happiness' - The Charades, "Moody Woman" - Jerry Butler, "Shoes" - Bobby Bland, R&B standards like "Knick Knack Patty Wack" - Lou Lawton, garage band sounds like "Secret Of Mine" - Lost Soul to more modern feeling sounds like "Don't Send Nobody Else" - Ace Spectrum and "Crazy World" - Kenny Thomas.

The DJ rota included Dave Nicholls and Wayne Hayes from Hinckley, Mark Freeman, Ray Bonser and Sam Evans from Nuneaton, Bob and Rob from the West End Club in Coalville, and Mort and Gra Weaver from Chesterfield.

Many guest DJs appeared too, including Dave Evison, Dave Raistrick, Steve Whittle, Rob Smith, Soul Sam, Mark Bicknell... the list goes on and on.