The Great British Weekender - Found Video Footage




A great piece of historical footage with a few familiar faces thrown in for good measure

I think this was around the time that house music was replacing the old warehouse/rare groove/soul scene especially in Southern England



4 comments:

  1. Here's hoping that you find this post a good one, it's certainly brought back some great memories.

    Alas as I've put the clips up before the text I'm unable to add anymore information at this time on the blog about the time and space that these clips were taken.

    I was 18 at the time and can remember quite well that on the south west coast in this country the split was less dramatic and that for around three years acid, soul and jazz music did get played in the same room especially at Mr B's in Weston-Super-Mare by Martin Eccles on Fridays and Saturdays.

    From doing some research we're looking at November 1988 here with the well documented split between the Soul Mafia Old Gaurd and next generation of dance djs that would go on to take the whole early house scene forward.

    Check, Robbie Vincent, Chris Hill and Froggy repping the Soul Mafia whilst Tong, Oakenfold and Holloway can be seen in the acid room.

    Naturally Peterson and Bangs keep out of things nicely in the Jazz Room doing their thing for the highsteppers and casualties from the acid room hosted by Spectrum (possibly) over this weekend we see in the clips.

    There are 3 other videos not available on Youtube with one showing an interview with Radio One DJ Jeff Yound who was replaced around 1991 by Tong.

    Having also checked the Foot Patrol Footage from Manchester featuring Mike Shaft djing in Moss Side in 19886, it seems like the North of the UK may be able to lay stronger claims regarding house music being played up there before down here in the south.

    Either way these moving images were a wonderful suprise to find and evoke some real strong memories from dancefloors past.

    Thanks to Graham Ibiza-Music (cheers)for posting on Youtube, he's got more segments of footage on his facebook profile including a very young Mick Fuller getting his swerve on in the acid room over that weekend we see here.

    Regards, Ali

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  2. Anonymous13:20

    Nice that you're bigging up this video. From being part of the pre-1988 jazz/funk/soul scene myself the vast majority of those on it were really from just London and the south-east I never remember meeting many people at clubs or weekenders from outside a radius of about 40 miles from Central London (ie London and the Home Counties). Always got the feeling (from cousins living down there}that the South West had more in common with the North and Midlands musically ever since the mid-60s - something that I've found borne out now when I've been on any of the Northern Soul forums where theres always loads of people from the south west posting but very few ever from the South East.And of course the interchange between the Yate etc allnighters and the regular coaches up to Wigan all the way from as far as Cornwall.

    RE the Manchester footage - I used to work on the bench across from a West indian bloke in a factory in Wycombe (just west of London) in 1986/87 and he was well into house so at that point a lot of blacks in the London area were also into it and of course it was already on some of the pirates - Jazzy M had his famous all house show around the same time/not long after. And of course by late 1986 every mainstream nightclub you went to used to mix it with the funk so it was being played everywhere - after all 'Jack Your Body' was number one in the pop charts at the start of 1987...

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  3. Hi Estuaryenglish

    Some great factual there that's helped fill some gaps nicely.

    Naturally I have a regional perspective so it's wonderful to hear from someone who can shed light on scenes across a greater geographical spead here in The UK around this time.

    Did You ever make it to B's in WSM when Martin was playing there on Fridays?

    Great times dancing to such a rich hybrid of music from a somewhat rarely mentioned or credited corner of The UK south of Bristol.

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  4. Anonymous03:05

    This is freekin awesome, great post
    Cheers
    Rich
    http://wheelsontoast.wordpress.com

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