Been to quite a number of Sara's since the ones reviewed under but haven't put anything down. Suffice to say that it goes from strength to strength, and is one of the main events on the Soul calendar, attracting people from far and wide. Always pumping, always busy, always friendly.

Regularly attracting several hundred Pete French and Neil Self know exactly what the crowd likes to hear. Pete usually, no always puts in some big money sounds, and Neil introduces a few more modern items, but basically it is becoming a tried and tested formula.

Hippo on tonite is pretty much part of the team, and he has the experience and professionalism to keep things functioning and, of course, he loves the music, and I think he loves this venue. Tonite's main guest was Ginger who as ever filled the floor playing his usual high quality set, before jetting of to a gig in Italy the following day!

Sara's is loud and proud.

I arrived at 8pm to find Pete & Little Pete making final adjustments to the Sound system.

The room was all set out, so just enough time to stick a few posters up and away we went. A steady flow of early arrivals gave me the impression that it was going to be our busiest night so far and I wasn't wrong!

Quite a few people in early and enjoying the warm-up spots. I spotted Adey Pountain who has recently returned from working overseas. Nice to see him back in his old stomping ground, hope you enjoyed the evening mate! 9.00pm arrived and it had all gone quiet at the front door, was I wrong about the full attendance? Was it going to be a flop? It couldn't be ??

Thankfully it was only the quiet before the storm. We had a crazy half-hour and everyone seemed to arrive at the same time, suddenly the place was packed out, just in time for the Main Man Ginger Taylor to arrive.

Hippo did the early spot this time and played a great selection of quality oldies which set the tone nicely, closely followed by Pete's early half-hour spot, which transpired to be a well balanced set of cracking Soul Music, great stuff Pete. He finished off with one of my favourites, Will Collins & Will Power "Anything I can Do" which was great because it got people on the dancefloor and it was my turn next. It gave me a good lead-in and I kicked off with what is becoming a true Saracen's Anthem, Voices of East Harlem "Cashin' In" which immediately packed the dance floor and followed that with Bobby Hutton's "Lend a hand" which sounds better every time I hear it!

I then got stuck into some quality oldies from the likes of Darrow Fletcher, Alexander Patten, Dana Valery, Johnny Wyatt, Gloria Jones to name but a few. All too soon my 45 minutes was up and Pete was back on for his main spot. By this time the dance floor was packed and the place was buzzing ?.. I dunno what it is about the Saracens, it just seems to generate this tremendous atmosphere and we were all carried along by it. Anyhow, Pete delivered the goods once again with an excellent 45-minute spot full of the rarest tunes around . Brilliant, everyone was up and dancing and it just didn't seem it could get any better.

 Next up was Mr Ginger Taylor who had very kindly made the long journey from Todmorden In Lancashire to be with us for the night. He was well chuffed with the warm welcome that he received from the Saracens crowd and played an absolutely storming, top-quality set featuring mainly rare sixties plus a few modern items to boot.

Notable tracks were the super rare Lester Tipton "This won't change" (label?) plus the in-demand Patrinella Staton "Little love affair" (Sepia), Billy Woods "Let me make you Happy" (Sussex), and my current favourite Linda Lloyd "Breakaway" (Columbia). He also played the superb Swans "Nitty Gritty City" (Joeboy acetate), what a record that is - apparently there's just 4 copies of this in existence, it's a much cleaned-up version of the original 45 on Dore and is just STUNNING. He finally ended a superb spot with another super rare disc JD Bryant's "I won't be coming back" (Shrine), but trust me, he'll definitely WILL be coming back to the Saracens Club next autumn, I'll keep you informed of the exact date.

Ginger certainly drew a credible crowd to Cheltenham that night, amongst many others

I spotted Little Scotty, Snowy, Kev Healey, Mick Lloyd, Martin Farmer, Adey Pountain, Nige Brown, Jinx, Dave Greet, Leon, Meg, Mike Ashley, Phil Taylor and Mike Venn in the club, all DJs and all enjoying themselves.

Anyhow, next up was Hippo for his late night spot and he kept the floor rocking with some cracking stompers. Notable amongst these were Earl Wright "Thumb a ride" (Capitol), and Shep " Fool to Fool" (TNT), finishing off with Beverley Ann's "He's Coming Home" on RCA - well done mate, we all enjoyed it.

I took over to finish off the night with a few more Sixties Stompers plus a few modern anthems towards the end. I kicked off with Lorraine Chandler " I Can't Hold On" (RCA) and also played Linda Jones "I just can't live my life"(Warner Brothers) for my good mate Steve Thompson hope you enjoyed it buddy. Others were The Ivories "Please Stay" (Despenza), Crystal Motion "You're My Main Squeeze" (Sound Gems), Pages "Heartaches and Pains" (Sunstruck) and finished the night off with the ubiquitous Drizabone "Pressure" surely THE modern anthem?

That was it!! another Saracens Club Soul Night and even better than the last one.

Can we improve on that? I don't know, all I can promise you is that Pete and I will bring you the freshest DJ line up we can in order to deliver the best Soul night in the South West. Thanks to you all for coming, but people who deserve a special mention are:

Alex Clarke, Andy Wright, Chris Newman, Dave Staelens and friends, Brian Newton and the Gloucester boys, Phil Rockey, Paul O'Brien and Co. from North Devon, Paul Clarke from the Rocket in London, Steve Hurt, Barry Godwin and all the Stroud contingent. Budgie formerly of Southampton and now living in Cheltenham (who made his presence known when he collected his coat from the stage and made the record jump!!) Griff, Alan Cook, Steve Playfair, Julie, Bev, Denice, Debbie & Ray and last but not least Martyn Price and Sue Crozier, both of whom work hard to promote our Soul Nights and have helped put us on the map. Incidentally, it was Martyn's 40^th birthday (you silly old git) and he chose to celebrate it with us - hope you had a cracking time mate! I really want to extend this to all the others who support every event and help to create the friendly atmosphere at the Saracens Soul Nights. Heck, you know who you are - THANKYOU!!

A couple of important things to note from last Friday: Firstly we have managed to extend the event by 30 minutes to a 1 a.m. finish, so all future events at the Saracens will now be 7.30 p.m. till 1 a.m. Secondly, some people parked in the nearby Matalan car park only to find the barrier locked when they came out! Not a good ending to the night (for some - eh Nige?), so it's probably best not to park there in future. There is a car park just behind the Saracens club, first right after the lights - give me a call if you're unsure and want directions.

The very best to you all for a Happy Christmas and Peaceful New Year

Neil Self

With guest DJs

Reviews as posted to Advanced Northern Soul by Neil Self and Jerry 'Hippo' Hipkiss and reproduced by permission.