Soul revival as legendary club night returns!
Reunion celebrates heyday of Tiffany’s
FANS of a once-popular North Staffordshire nightspot are being invited to roll back the years at a special reunion – featuring six of the original DJS.
The event will feature those who kept revellers dancing at the ‘Sunday Soul Sessions’ and ‘Alldayers’ at the former club in Marsh Parade, Newcastle.
The club was known as Tiffany’s in the 1970s after coming into existence as the Crystal Ballroom in 1958.
Its Northern Soul nights, on Thursdays and Sundays, became legendary. Now those legendary nights will be back on August 20 at the North Stafford Hotel in Stoke.
The six original DJS set to appear are Colin Curtis, John Murphy, Dave Evison, Ian ‘Pep’ Pereira, Tim Ashibende and Soul Sam.
The reunion will feature Northern Soul music from the 1960s and 1970s including Barbara Mills, Ramsey Lewis, Chuck Jackson, Rex Garvin, Jerry-o, The Vibrations and Isley Brothers.
Janet Crowe, from Crewe, who is co-promoter of the event said: “The DJS that played at Tiffany’s are the ones we have at reunion. People still go to their gigs, they play all over the country, they are fantastic.
“Barry Maleady is Djing too, he’s not from Stoke-on-trent and he’s a bit younger than the others, but he’s a top DJ in his own right.”
The event is due to start at 5pm and will finish at around 1am.
Janet said: “In the 1970s, we used to go off to Wigan and the Blackpool Mecca. We’d then come back on the Sunday and go straight to the Soul Session in Newcastle. It was just the way we used to live our lives all the time.”
Colin Curtis, from Newcastle, who is co-promoting the event, now hosts a jazz show on Worldwidefm every Sunday.
He said: “What developed there was what became the Northern Soul scene. It was one of the front runners, over the years they had Jackie Wilson, Fontella Bass, Bobby Hebb, Arthur Conley, Major Lance.
“When I started there, in 1967, I was in Wolstanton Grammar School, and they would have expelled me if they caught me Djing there, so I changed my name from Diamond to Curtis.
“In the end, I was given Soul Night on Thursdays and Sundays. On Sundays there would be about 1,500 people.”
Keith Minshull, one of the original DJS who played at Tiffany’s, sadly passed away last year.
He will always be remembered as one of the finest and most innovative DJS from the 70s.
Best friend Colin said: “I used to go into a record shop in Kidsgrove. Every time I went in, they would always say Keith had ordered this record too. I didn’t know Keith at that point, I was just buying records.
“One day, they said he was going to be in the shop later in the afternoon. So, I went round and I met him. He was an unbelievable character, it was like meeting your best friend.
“We did Tiffany’s together, we did the Torch together. He was the single biggest driving force in the Potteries for Northern Soul at the time. He had a vision for Stoke-ontrent for soul music and he stuck with it and supported it right to the end.”
To buy tickets please email Colin at colincurtisconnection@gmail. com or Janet at janbcrowe@gmail. com . Advanced tickets are priced at £10 and £12 on the door.