Looking forward to another Evening of Soul in the county

Feb 24 2011 Hamilton Advertiser

SOUL fans can look forward to another marathon night of music after a successful gig in Motherwell last year.

The Lanarkshire Soul Collective are to put on another event at the Strathclyde Hilton Hotel, Bellshill, next Friday, March 4.

The gig follows a debut night – dubbed “Evening of Soul” – held at the United Services Club in Motherwell last November.

Due to ticket demand, organisers had to search for a larger venue for their second venture next week, “Evening of Soul 2”.

Colin ‘Sid’ Wilson, from Motherwell, is one of four soul music lovers who make up the Collective. Brian Smyth, Kevin McCully and Frank Devine are the others.

They are all respected voices on the soul music scene and at the tail end of last year they decided to get together and revive the local scene.

The 400-capacity venue was packed out as music lovers enjoyed their first local soul music night for more than 15 years.

The guys took their inspiration from the legendary former Kilt Soul Club that ran successfully for five years during the early 90s in Newmains.

The club was famous throughout Britain for the quality of DJs and live acts it attracted to the little-known venue in Lanarkshire.

The Collective have enlisted the talents of DJs Fraser Dunn and Mark Linton who, along with Colin, were prominent at the Newmains club during the 90s.

Now the group are hoping to re-establish quality soul and black music nights in the Lanarkshire area.

Music-lovers from all over Britain are expected to turn up for the six-hour bash at the Hilton Hotel next week.

The Lanarkshire Soul Collective have managed a bit of a double coup for their second event as DJing on the night will be the well-known Mick Love and, giving the night an international flavour will be Jane Lott from Hannover in Germany.

Renowned in soul music circles, Mick has presented many soul music shows on various media outlets and is currently the presenter of the Caledonian Soul Show, a webcast programme with thousands of listeners throughout the UK and Ireland.

Meanwhile, Jane is a respected soul spinner throughout Europe, and is now in the process of building up a reputation for playing quality music in Scotland. This will only be her second appearance in the country.

For more information, visit the Lanarkshire Soul Collective’s page on Facebook.