CLAUDE MONO, a long-time presenter on RTRFM’s iconic Soulsides Friday evening show recently shared the history of the show and spoke about the upcoming combined anniversary celebration, Soulsides‘ 20th birthday, alongside Drastic on Plastic (celebrating 35 years on air) across two rooms at The Sewing Room this Easter Saturday, March 31 from 7pm to very late.
I can hardly believe it’s 2018 and we are celebrating 20 years of Soulsides being on the air. That’s two decades of weekly soul deliveries to the people of Perth! To be honest the origins of the show back in 1998 are a bit hazy to me as I was not there right at the beginning, but I am pretty sure it did not originally air in its now prized Friday 7pm spot getting people feeling good for the weekend ahead.
I discovered in an old program guide in the station archive that back in pre-RTR 6UVSFM days that the spot belonged to an interesting though possibly very laid back show called The Cappuccino Club. But I do know Soulsides has been a Friday night institution since at least 2002 where a specialist soul music started as a spin off from (another RTRFM show) Black and Blue and was initially coordinated by Bebo Blake who along with an equally young Rok Riley were members of the legendary all-female Milk Crate Crew DJs.
Microgroove and I took over coordinating after a few years and did it for a long time before handing the reigns to Adam Fox (The Foxman) about four or five years ago. With many great presenters over the years it’s always been good times and we watched and listened as live funk and soul sounds also started to take off in Perth and a great scene emerged helped along by live-music friendly venues, great DJs playing out and special gigs like the legendary Funk Club in Leederville.
It’s a bit exciting as RTR has a full event program so the Soulsides parties do not happen that often, in fact our last one was the 15 year anniversary which was a great night at Devilles Pad. They always go off and I remember the first one we did at the old Funk Club in the Leederville Hotel. As it was our first show event we wondered would anyone come? – it was a sell out with queues around the corner and when Microgroove dropped the epic nine minute version of Move On Up for a packed dancefloor, well that was just pretty special if you were there.
To celebrate our 20 Year Anniversary we have found a new and perfect venue in The Sewing Room. Soul music fans and dancers will love its downstairs basement vibe and wooden dancefloor hinting at the original 60s soul clubs of Soho and around the UK. It’s also going to be great sharing the night with an an all-girl DJ crew as Drastic on Plastic do their thing allowing the crowd to move across two rooms.
Like the title of the famous Kent Records compilation it will be “For Dancers Only” with an amazing mix of classics and rarities as selected by current and past presenters Mama Cass & Kristie Butler, Tom & Spud Murphy, Microgroove & Claude Mono, John Safari, General Justice and Foxman & Big Ear Chad.
PLUS to keep it funky, real and live the big sounds of JB’s JBs, the project of local band leader John Brown taking on the music of legendary band The JB’s, James Brown’s backing band. They are going to pass the peas down hot pants road…
It’s a late licence so the music will keep coming for as long as the dancers keep dancing all the way through to late night kooky classics so come along and catch up with friends in the RTR family for this special celebration.
