I’m Dave from Belgium. As so many of my contemporaries my first taste of good music was through hip-hop tapes that my friends brought along when we were bboying as kids. Since we were living in the middle of nowhere I never actually set foot in a record store, which changed very quickly when I enrolled in uni. At a record store I befriended a guy (still a good friend!) who first casually dropped the phrase ‘Northern Soul’ in a conversation. I pretended to know what he was talking about but didn’t have a clue obviously 🙂
A couple months later I saw a Northern Soul book behind the counter at another record store so decided to have a go, but it turned out to be an absolute disappointment! The book was just full of titles and artists and prices, which made for very mediocre toilet lecture. Turned out I had unknowingly bought a Manship price guide. Since doom scrolling was not an option back then, I started going through the lists and becoming more and more curious about the names. Fluorescent Smogg? The Sub Dominants? Rita & The Tiaras? I needed to find out what that was all about, so I did…
Started buying like a madman, completely plundered the bank account within months, so decided I needed to sell some to fund the habit. More than 20 years later, not much has changed. I’m still buying like crazy, still broke and my heart still fills with joy when I stumble upon an unknown gem, so long may it continue…
Over the years I have enjoyed dancing at soul weekenders around Europe and have played at a few myself, and some of the fondest memories are definitely from the NOT TOO YOUNG weekenders! With the family situation it has become difficult to attend these so I super duper happy to have the perfect excuse to come down for the last edition.
I don’t just stick to soul music when playing out, so if you feel like expanding your horizons, here’s a bunch of links to sets I’ve done over the years: Lovely link.
And here’s some tunes that might get a spin at NTO (although my hot box is still empty at this point):
- Mr Lucky – Born To Love You
- Jodesha – Star Ride
- Kiosk – Mona Call
- New Horizon – I Get That Feeling
- Aged In Harmony – I Feel Like Dancin’