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ABOUT US

We started our life as the Whitley Bay Soul Club in August 2003 under the stewardship of Ash, Adrian Brunton & Bri Dodds. We were based at a venue called Beach. We enjoyed our stay at Beach but when the company sold their venue we looked about for a new home. We couldn't find a suitable venue at the time and were on the verge of moving to the near by city of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. As we looked for a venue we were approached by the Newcastle based promoters of Across The Board Promotions.

The North East Soul Union was created by the joining together of two soul clubs based North of the Tyne - Whitley Bay Soul Club & Across The Board Promotions. We attempted to revive the venue, Blackfriars Hall (that had been home to Across The Board Promotions) by introducing a Modern Room giving 2 Rooms of Soul. The Modern Room was organised by Adrian Brunton along with Paul Bell & Gazza White, while Ash & Bri conntrated, along with Steve Davidson on the Northern Room. We quickly realised that it was not to be after 4 months of hard work and financial losses.

Adrian, Ash, Bri and Steve decided they'd prefer to return to a smaller venue where they could return to the tried and tested format of the WBSC, remaining under the banner of the North East Soul Union. We first moved to the Stout Fiddler, yards further down the road and then, at the invitation of the owner to The Egypt Cottage. It was at this time that Adrian's change of employment and new work commitments resulted in him deciding to leave the team.

The smell of the fresh sea air tugged at their nostrils for 12 months and 2006 saw the Soul Union return to its roots in Whitley Bay. We moved to the great venue of The Berkeley Tavern where we enjoyed two years. It was during our time at The Berkeley that Bri Dodds decided to leave us. He was replaced by two non-local local lads, Jason Stirland whose roots were in Nottingham and Peter Richer originally from Cambridge. It was during this time that we organised the very successful two room Mini-Nighter at The Quayside Exchange. We decided to leave The Berkeley Tavern when we found we were unable to remain on our usual slot within the local Soul calendar so we decided to look for a new home. Peter & Jason had left us by the time we moved on. This time we made sure we had a local lad on the team, and you couldn't get more Geordie than "Wor Deka".

We wanted somewhere that would be suitable for what we wanted to play, an across the board soul night where we and our guest DJ's were able to introduce new sounds to our audience. Were delighted to find our new home. Not only because it was in Whitley Bay, not only because it was a perfect size for our audience but because the management team are Northern Soul fans who used to attend the Wigan Casino. They'd been interested in organising a Northern Soul night so when we approached them it was a match made in heaven.

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