Where We're Comin' From
The following is a brief outline of the whys and wherefores of The Hideaway Club. It was originally written in May 2001 as the sleeve notes to the Kent Records "tribute" CD New Breed R&B. It's still valid today.
Most interested people ask why The Hideaway Club has become the focal point of this new movement in dancefloor friendly R&B.
It's difficult to pinpoint exactly where The Hideaway's appeal lies. It's not a Soul Club, Northern or otherwise. It's not a Mod Club nor a Rocking Blues Club. It's all of these and more.
It was never meant to be this all-encompassing focal point, but it was during one of those oh too regular bouts of taking musical appreciation far too seriously, that the idea for The Hideaway Club came about. All we wanted (we being Neil Henderson, Mike Warburton and myself) was an original Mod Club, where we could hear real 100% certified Mod music. If this appealed to no more than a handful of people, and as long as we didn't lose money, that was all we wanted: no more, no less. Somewhere along the line however, the club changed before our very eyes and we didn't notice.
It's fair to say that The Hideaway has turned into a club for the disenfranchised. The membership includes: Mods disillusioned with hearing mid-60s white approximations of the real thing, Soulies from the Northern scene who can't afford £300+ to get a half decent record and are looking for something new and different, and Hepcats from the 50s scene who want to hear just a little bit more passion in their music. All these disparate groups get together once a month in a room over a pub in the Rainy City to pay homage to the black dance music of late 50s and early 60s America - the roots of today's rare soul scene.
And it's not just a club in name. The Hideaway really IS a club. It boasts a card carrying membership that extends from Edinburgh to Brighton and Cardiff to Grimsby. The atmosphere on a packed night is incredible. At the top of the stairs leading into the club, groups of young Mods stand chatting and laughing. Inside as the beat fills the air, the friendliest and most knowledgeable crowd around do what they do best; sliding across the talc strewn dancefloor, wheeling and dealing with rare 45s, drinking, smoking and shooting the breeze.
With a hefty debt to Manchester's original R&B club, the early 60s Brazennose Street era Twisted Wheel, The Hideaway's playlist can swing from an original 60s blues-based club classic, through to the most recent heavily produced early soul group rarity from the Belgian Popcorn scene. And we make all stops in between, from an uptempo R&B groove to a beat ballad, from a jazz/blues instrumental to a gospel drenched vocal; it can be black rock'n'roll or Jamaican R&B. The only two criteria on the playlist are that it's got to be passionate and it's got to have a dance-friendly beat.
We're certainly not the first group of DJs to play this music. You may well hear several of the tracks played elsewhere. But you will not hear this kind of playlist in one night anywhere else in Britain. Guaranteed.
Paul Welsby
The Hideaway Club
May 2001