marchtogetherness

EVENTS

March 2003 The Togetherness Weekender at the Cala Gran Fleetwood.

Barely half way through March and already we are on the third weekender of the year and with the preceding two being such high quality events this one had a lot to live up to. The early signs were good, Weather report was promising, well not the traditional Fleetwood downpour, we missed two major traffic jams on the dreaded M6 and despite missing his scheduled flight, Willie Hutch had arrived safely and was warming up for the Friday night show.

Arriving safely after a mere four and a half-hour trip we quickly checked in, unpacked and chilled out ready for the 9 O’clock start. From the start attendance was good in the Modern room without ever becoming so full that it is uncomfortable. Proceedings in the Modern room were started by the outstanding Roger “Soap Dodger” Williams with his usual high class mixture of up-front obscurities and down right modern day classics and to be fair without exception all the DJ’s in this room maintained that standard through out the weekend. Some of the tunes that went down so well included the following, Superloop – Baby be mine (Tune of the weekend?), Terry Forsythe –Heartbeat, Kareem – Never give up on love, Kim English – Simply Grateful, A Promo thing from Melodie Sexton (didn’t catch the title) and Miles Jaye – Strong.

The connoisseur’s room was in fact a marquee, affectionately dubbed the “Tent” by devotees, and due to a mix up on the opening night was renamed the “Fridge” because the heaters that had been ordered failed to show resulting in an outdoor disco in Fleetwood in March brrrrrr. Again the quality of DJ’s and their selections could not be faulted spinning rare 60’s, 70’s and 80’s Modern Soul and Crossover gems including, Tolbert – I got it, Tearra – Just loving you, Fluorescent Smogg – All my life, George Smallwood – Touching is my thing, Copeland Davis – Morning Spring, Norris Vines and the Lovelines – Give in and Norma Jean – I’ve taken over, marvellous stuff.

On to the stars of the weekend the immaculate Willie Hutch, Motown legendary singer, songwriter and producer backed by the excellent Snake Davies and the Suspicions. The first of the three appearances from Willie over the weekend was in the Northern Soul room of the event and he covered his Seventies Motown product. For me this was far and away his best set including most of his classics from the period (most included on his recently issued new compilation released on Expansion records.) Amongst the highlights of the set were “I can sho give you love”, “Just another day”, “Talk to me”, I’m gonna give you respect” and the absolute classic, “Brother’s gonna work it out”.

Saturday nights live appearance was started by the wonderful Sandi Sheldon, again backed by the incredibly authentic Snake Davies and the Suspicions. Despite only appearing live once in the last 30 odd years Sandi gave note perfect renditions of her Northern Soul Classics including “Your gonna make me love you”, “Touch my heart”, “Let me make you happy” and the wonderful “Baby you’re mine”.

Then it was time for Willie again, this time the emphasis was on his early sixties material, pre-Motown, including the first ever live performance of “Just a boy’s dream”, and out and out Classics such as “Lucky to be loved by you”, “Love runs out” and “The Duck”.

Sunday started out somewhat subdued after the serious partying of the Friday and Saturday night sessions, to be honest numbers were down on the previous day’s attendances. The grooves were mellower to start, although around the half way point things really started to hot up again, this nicely coincided with Willie’s final appearance of the weekend. This time there was no live backing, as Willie stood up on the stage on his own to showcase his Sexalicious album of 2002. Again the man was pure class, imagine a cross between Marvin and Curtis live and intimate barely feet away from you, awesome. If you do get a chance to catch Willie Hutch live don’t miss it, over the weekend he proved unreservedly that he is not just a retro act, but can really cut the mustard across all eras.

The party carried on in true weekender style well into the early hours with many carrying on in private parties back in the caravans. Early to rise the next morning, a banging head, an empty wallet, vague memories of Gary Dennis and a dancing machine, the London contingent waving football rattles, at totally inappropriate moments during Terry Jones’ Sunday spot. Roll on the next one in October.

Review by John Nightingale 25/03/03

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