Lloyd Attrill
I was touched by the hand of mod around the early 80s the same way most people were through the revival scene, two tone, Quadrophenia and numerous relatives etc.
I cut my teeth on northern soul at scooter rallies in the mid 80’s then started to DJ around the age of 18 working for Night Owl in Brighton at the old Concorde. I was then lucky enough to work djing at the 100 club all nighters and various other Northern Soul gigs at the time. Around the same time, I was also DJing at The Untouchables original Mousetrap gigs in Tottenham playing soul, reggae, beat etc.
My real love was 70s soul and crossover which made me a bit of a pariah in certain circles at the time. This was around the time I discovered the Norfolk Village Friday night sessions that catered exactly to what I was into at the time with probably the most knowledgeable crowd at the time which in part was responsible for breaking away from the Northern scene and creating the Modern Soul Scene. It was around this period, myself and a couple of like minded souls, started the Uptown Down South gigs at Abshott Country Club and the old officers mess at Greenham Common airbase, playing soul right across the board in 1 room. You have to remember at this time, we were also listening to new baggy music Stone Roses, Inspirals etc alongside Soulful House, Rare Groove and basically anything that made you groove.
Eddie Piller and I then started DJing at the Cologne Soul Weekenders which now are actually Baltic soul out of Hamburg and also Soul Cruisin’ on the Thames. Again this boat brought many different styles, faces, genres together in a big melting pot.
Locally I started running a night with DJ friends called Hectic Eclectic 10 years ago where we played Soul, Funk, Jazz, Reggae, West Coast Bay area type stuff and basically anything we thought was cool that we could get away with throwing in and it worked!
Which brings us to the Modcast which has a similar ethos. I always look forward to playing Modcast gigs as they give you a pretty broad musical area to spread out in. Whats not to like?