The coming together of three black music record collectors with over a hundred years’ experience saw the formation of the Modern Soul Collective and a brand new progressive music venue in Ironbridge, Telford.



All three, professionals in their own fields; were brought up on a diet of 100mph Northern Soul and attended many of the big all nighters of the seventies and eighties; including Wigan Casino, Blackpool Mecca, The Ritz in Manchester and the Locarno in Birmingham.  Musical directions were as diverse as the venues; with sixties stompers and mellower new release seventies cuts lying next to New York disco and Jazz-Funk.  This diversity of great black music had a profound effect on our three collectors.



Fast forward a number of years and Northern Soul is, again, a force to be reckoned with.  Large venues are sold out catering for those returning to the underground music scene in their droves… Now families have grown up the soul loving pubic are keen to rekindle their youth and attend these nostalgia fuelled events, however, the music is commonly restrained and limited to the well-known and loved sixties records that were most popular at Wigan Casino, The Torch and Twisted Wheel.  Those that attended the more progressive venues such as the Ritz and the Mecca are restricted to one-off events held in the Northwest.



The ideal behind the Modern Soul Collective (MSC) was to promote a new venue that catered for those black music fans that liked something a bit newer… for sure it will still be nostalgic for some to hear Lonnie Liston Smith or Roy Ayes for the first time in a number of years, but that was only part of the ideal.  The MSC wanted to promote all genres of modern black music from disco and funk to boogie and Nu-Soul, from rare-groove to soulful house. 



After a lengthy search for a venue they met up with the Manager of the Malthouse in Ironbridge whose forward thinking was positive and supportive.  The first night entitled ‘No Boundaries’ took place on Thursday 18th October and continued until early in 2014; however, following a “Change of Direction” by the owners, the MSC again searched for another venue.

 

Prompted by a friend in Shrewsbury we approached the forward thinking owners of the Riverside (Formally Romolo Italian Restaurant) situated on the quayside adjacent to the River Severn in the beautiful county town of Shrewsbury.  Opening night will be Friday 7th November… entrance is free and great music is guaranteed.