It began as a bit of an off the cuff comment. Eighteenmonths ago we were at Sweet Soul Newark, having just got back from adisappointing week in New York.
‘So where next then Jacko?’ I was asked.
‘I suppose it has to be Australia!’ I replied and smiled beforelifting my glass for a drink.
Little did I realise that I had just got myself intoorganising the Soul trip of a lifetime.
I did a bit of planning and enlisted the help of fellow DJChris Forrest’s better half Jean, who has a bit of experience in thisdepartment. We held some meetings and I endeavoured to find out the dates forthe 10^th National Australia Northern Soul Weekender. Dates thatneeded to be over a year ahead of the event. This was the first major obstacleI had to climb.
There was no point booking the holiday to end at theweekender, we had to make sure that we began the adventure there and couldtravel to other destinations after that. We were assured by Johnny ‘Redpants’ Warren that the weekenderwould be the first in November. This was confirmed a few weeks later by ToddCavender, one of the organisers.

The holiday was to last from 30^th October to 16^thNovember, with the first four days being in Adelaide for the weekender. The happy band oftravellers consisted of

The flights from Heathrow to Adelaide on Malaysian Airlines via Kuala Lumpur were confusing. Crossing multiple time zones and chasing the night we took off at 2200 hours on the 30^th, swapped for a smaller plane in Kuala Lumpur at 1820 on the 31^st and landed in Australia at 0715 on the 1^st November.
 We had decided to book apartments for our accommodation, as they were reasonably priced and it would give us a little more flexibility. These apartments are like short term rents on studio flats with up to three bedrooms. Our home in Adelaide for four days was to be the Franklin Central apartments, Franklin Street. Arriving so early our rooms were not yet ready, so we sat down for a cooked breakfast and popped out to get some shopping in.
The apartments were chosen because they were central to the venues for the weekender and close to the shopping area.

The Aussie Soulies had decided to start their weekender off with a meet and greet night at a bar near to us on the Thursday Night, so most of us (except Milk Maid, Bat Woman and Auntie Pam) eventually found ourselves at the Historian Hotel, Coromondal Place. A very English bar, made more like home by the fact that there were about 50 ex pats in there including the special guest DJ for the weekend Mike Ritson.  The venue was open plan with a central bar, decks in the corner and a bit of a dance floor. I’ll be honest I didn’t pay much attention to the music, for one reason and another, but I can remember thinking there was a distinct lack of Modern.
It didn’t take long for us to start shaking hands and meeting new people, such was the amazement at some of the soulies that we had travelled all that way for the weekend that we hardly bought a round of drinks all night. A great start to our holiday.
It was here that we adopted a beer for our trip, Coopers Pale Ale.  It is probably because it was recommended to me by one of the ex pats and it was my first round!

Totally shattered and having been convinced that we were going to have a great weekend we left for our first nights sleep in Australia. We very quickly realised that because of the climate down there was no need for double glazing. This meant that when the 3am revellers wanted to sing their way past the accommodation, and the 5am road sweeper needed to do its job, just after every police car, fire engine and ambulance had driven, sirens blaring, along Franklin Street we heard them, and it woke us up. Even though we were on the 3^rd floor. Never mind, we’re on holiday!

Next week

Find out what a stubby holder is!

Record hunting in Adelaide. A waste of time?

We found Adelaide to be a very colonial city, with lots of traditional buildings and shops alongside a familiar skyline punctured by the towers of large multi nationals and global organisations. It was clean and gave an air of being quite safe for the tourist. There were plenty of food outlets, all the usual Subways, Macdonalds etc as well as every possible denomination of foreign food with an emphasis on the orient.

We managed, eventually, to find the Elephant public house just off the main shopping area which is called Rundle Street. There we met up with more of the soulies going to the weekender, and purchased our tickets.
It is here that Wheels began his debauched tour of Australia, unashamedly chatting up every woman that came within touching distance of his location.
The Elephant is a pleasant pub, with a mock red telephone box in one corner and English signs on the wall. It made a very good attempt at recreating an English bar, but the fact that most people were sat outside spoiled it a bit. To make it more authentic there should have been sprinklers outside and some huge fans blowing gales across the patio.
As for the beer, you will never believe it but on draught there before my eyes was, Double Diamond! Then I quickly realised it was a pump head there for show, so back to the Coopers Pale for me, I resisted a Newcy Brown! So dinner was consumed, and a bimble back to the accommodation for preparation for the evening’s revelry.

The venue for the first event was the aptly named Chaos Bar. About a quarter of a mile from the main centre of Adelaide but, because I had done my homework, only 10 minutes walk from where we were staying. We arrived in dribs and drabs, but by 10 we were all there, along with over 200 soulies/ex pats, and the place was rammed. We nestled ourselves in a corner at the back out the way, but the friendly crowd soon put paid to that! We were collared hold of and taken to meet various people from Newark, and former Palais regulars, ex soulies from the Bowling Green days and so on…
If I am completely honest with you I am rubbish at remembering names, so for those of you in Oz that are reading this, if I forgot you our got your name wrong then I apologise now.
Oh and whilst I am apologising, Alan ‘Wheels’ Kerfoot continued to work his way through the females that were there. Time after time we looked over and there was Wheels with some girly draped over him, disgusting!

More piccies from the Chaos Bar

The night was, as you can see, well attended and the music was varied, but very heavily weighted on the classic side of things.

Now before you all start raising an eyebrow, you need to remember the geographical layout of the country plays a huge part in the scene.

For example. If I want to go to an event on a Friday I could find about 5 within 30 miles, 10 within 60 miles and about 20 further a field. In addition I could choose between Modern, Oldies, Classics, RnB or across the board, I could have my pick of the DJ’s and size of venue, whether it is a nighter, has air conditioning etc etc.. You get my drift.
In order for the Aussie soulies to get together for this weekender they meet in one place into which you could fit the UK 4 and a bit time. The Perth crew had a four hour flight to get to Adelaide! I could do the Vienna events in half that time. So to get 300 plus in the same place for a weekender is an achievement in itself. So when they do all get together it has to be the floor fillers that get played.

Suffice to say that from when we got there to 3am when we left the dance floor was full. I would love to have remembered play lists etc for the night but to be frank the hospitality got the better of me and I made a feeble attempt at ridding the club of all of its bottles of Crown beer, so got a tad tipsy. It was whilst doing this that I was introduced to the stubbie holder. In the UK this is probably the most useless thing you will come across, but in Oz, almost essential.

Whilst we were in Oz the Melbourne cup was on. As part of the promotion for that Oz brewers Tooheys were giving these things away.

You quite simply put your beer bottle or glass in it. Made of a neoprene type material it stops your beer from heating up whilst you have it in your sweaty palm. So taken aback by them was I, I brought 8 back to the Uk with me and keep one in my record bag!.

Fast forward to Saturday. Up, lunch (yes lunch!) and out record hunting. The previous night, when myself and Mr Cleethorpes, told our hosts we were going to look for records in Adelaide they couldn’t stop laughing. Claiming to have ‘cleaned the place out’. But undeterred we sallied forth and dropped into a couple of shops on Rundle Street. Down in the cellar of one of these shops Chris turned up a copy of The Invisible Mans Band for 50cents and I found Sir Wales Wallace, Whatever you want for the same price. Not a bad start. So to the next one and not a 7 inch in sight which put Chris out of the equation altogether, but I turned up some gems.
The Whatnauts – Help is on the way
Leon Ware – That is why I came to California
Frankie Knuckles – Tears.

Now these were comparable to UK prices but I fancied a bit of bartering so went to speak to the owner of B Sharp records. He was talking to another punter about an album and I couldn’t help noticing it was the expansion re issue of the ultra rare and ultra cool Effective by Side Effect. The chap behind the counter was struggling a bit to answer the questions the customer was asking so I helped him out a bit. Explaining that the record was never released and that Ralph Tee at expansion had used a copy of the album that I had bought on Ebay some years ago on behalf of someone else, and my name appears on the back. I pointed to it and instantly the need for bartering was relinquished as I got all three 12’s for less than half price. Result!

Happy, we met up with the rest of the crew and walked up to Adelaide Zoo for a wander round.