Cleethorpes All-nighters and All-dayers

Mary Chapman started in the promotions business at Walscott Village Hall in 1972. From these humble beginnings arose the Lincolnshire Soul Club, and after a successful all-dayer run by Mary and Colin Chapman at the Winter Gardens in Cleethorpes, the idea of running an all-nighter was born.

The Cleethorpes Pier "Talk Of The North" all-nighters were started in February 1975, and ran every two weeks. With a massive 700 capacity dance floor and a 300 seater cafe, such was the success of these all-nighters that it put the wind up Mike Walker, the manager of Wigan Casino, forcing him to start a rival all-nighter in the Winter Gardens.

They were a resounding failure and ceased after only four events... which was lucky for Mary. She promptly took over the Winter Gardens as a second venue, as due to the success of her all-nighter, the Pier was in danger of falling into the sea!

This may have been due to the resonating "stomp stomp stomp" of the dancers at the Pier that reputedly could be heard from about a mile and a half away!

The success of Cleethopes was probably due to complicated mix of music played. Featuring as many as twelve DJs in a night, you could expect to hear classic stompers, rare 70's and current favorites. Imagine Soul Sam, Ginger Taylor, Poke, John Manship, Pep, John Vincent, Richard Searling, Kev Roberts, Tony Dellar, Rick Scott, Chis Dalton, Dave Appleyard and Graham Coates together. An eclectic mix indeed!

Mary Chapman said in the sleeve notes of The Cleethorpes Story (Goldmine/Soul Supply CD GSCD86):

Our DJs musical policy was not only the envy of every other club in its day but the most varied ever attempted on the Northern scene up to that time. It led the way with a reputation for activating more unknown rarities as well as countless currently in-demand releases. The DJs were brave in the face of criticism and the dancers, often oblivious to the price tag on any given record, the most adventurous and skillful.

The club's most popular tracks included The Anderson Brothers "I Can See Him Loving You", Kim Toliver "I Don't Know What Foot To Dance On", Andre Maurice "You're The Cream Of The Crop", and the truly awful Rain "Out Of My Mind" (but that's a personal opinion).

Mixed in with those would be wierd and wonderful tracks such as Raw Soul "The Gig", The Crow "Your Autumn Of Tomorrow" and Life "Cat's Eyes".

Not satisfied with just records, several live acts appeared at Cleethorpes, including Viola Wills, Tamiko Jones, The Trammps and even Major Lance graced the Pier with his presence at the last but one all-nighter.

For thirteen months, the Cleethorpes all-nighters proved to be a credible challenge to Wigan Casino, some insisting that that the music and the atmosphere was better than the Casino. Whether Cleethorpes would have stood the test of time we will never know, as, yet again, the authorities called a halt to the all-nighters after little more than a year.

The Cleethorpes story does not end there however. In 1994, a certain Ady Croasdell (yes, he of the 100 Club) started the annual Cleethorpes 6Ts Northern Soul Weekender. Regularly attacting over 1000 attendees from all over the world, it is considered one of the scene's premier events.

Again, many major artists have appeared live at the Weekender, including Dean Parrish, Maxine Brown, Tommy Hunt, Doris Troy, Al Wilson, Bobby Hutton, Little Ann, Hoagy Lands, Sidney Barnes, The Velvelettes, Dennis Coffey and Willie Tee.