In The Neighbourhood

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Name of Mag: In The Neighbourhood

Frequency: Unknown

Price: Ł1.00

Subscription Details: Unknown

'In the Neighbourhood' is a fanzine produced by promoter Carl Hayes to support his soul events. Nominally it costs a pound, but I believe they are also given away at his functions. Customers also get a free CD and as the entrance is only four pounds no one can doubt that Carl offers good value for money. He might however consider putting some subscription details inside because I'm sure it would also be of interest to people unable to attend his promotions.

Issue five, Saturday 8th. July 2000, is organised like a football programme. He has taken the twenty two DJ's who appeared at his all-dayer and aligned them in football formations on opposite sides of a football pitch. One team are his 'Rare Soul and R&B' DJ's, the other are his 'Classic Oldies' DJ's. A novel approach to their introduction and one which works rather well. To give the programme some authenticity he includes some adverts from yesteryear which might typically be found in a football programme. Each DJ has submitted their own notes, how they got into Northern, early memories, their favourite records etc. and these notes form the bulk of the fanzine. As they are all independently written the amount of detail and quality of writing are varied, but as variety is the spice of life, this continuous change of style keeps it interesting. Other features include "Everybody Needs ..... Good Neighbours" which is an extended interview with Soul stalwart Ged Grennell and his wife Wendy and 'The Soul Kitchen', an article about two Fleetwood Lads who re-unite after many years to form 'The Soul Kitchen'. Unfortunately the article did not make clear what 'The Soul Kitchen' actually is. Is it a night-club, a mobile disco, a promotions team, who knows? This is my only criticism of what is clearly a good fanzine, and if picked up at an event cannot be anything other than good value. As it features mainly on the Blackpool scene it may be of more interest to its locals than people from other parts of the country, but as an old Blackpool boy myself I enjoyed it immensely. I look forward to reading another issue.