Although it is not as regular as it once was, Subway Soul Club is the longest running sixties soul music dance party in New York City. After several years of dormancy, it raised it’s swingin’ head again last spring and it came back to life on November 5th for an autumnal edition. If things go as planned, we’ll be jumping around at the Subway Soul Club twice a year for the near future.
The fall Subway Soul Club returned to the Francis Kite Room in the East Village of Manhattan—the scene of the spring event. The hostess with the mostest Lady Dawn was in the house, greeting people and making sure that folks on the dance floor were dancing—which wasn’t too hard, since the great records the DJs played kept the dance floor crowded all night. And what DJs!! Joining resident disk spinner Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus was Julio Fernandez and Nogood Nick.
Julio Fernandez (also known as DJ Apollo XII) is a Spaniard who now lives in the States, but he still travels the world as a sought-after song selector. We know him from the fantastic job he does hosting the Keystone State Northern Soul Weekender held every year since 2016. That event is one of the most fabulous soul music events in the country and we urge each reader to attend the next Keystone Soul Weekender—which will be happening October 25 through 27 in Lancaster, PA. Señor Fernandez has fantastic records and really knows how to make them go round; he did a most excellent job at Subway Soul Club and folks couldn’t get enough of his jams.
Nogood Nick has been a guest at Subway Soul Club for many years and we were happy to have him back. He has also hosted events such as Rip! Rig! Panic! and recently had a show on WFMU’s Give the Drummer Some webstream called Electric Lazy Susan. His records are second to none and he plays them like a pro. When Nogood Nick is at the controls you just know the records are going to be bitchen!!
As noted above, the dance floor was full of folks who quite appreciated the music. As it turned out, there was another soul music event that took place the night before. Called Soul Soul Soul, it has been in operation for a couple of years. The great minds behind this operation are our friends Yana Lil’ Jerk the resident DJ and it’s host Steve Myers. There was some concern that one event may detract from the other, however, any worries that may have been generated (mostly by the Boogaloo Bag writer!!!) were all for nothing as both events were very successful. Perhaps in the spring we can actually get it together to co-host a weekender in The City! That would be something, eh?
Meanwhile, back at the Francis Kite Room, the real grief took place early in the evening when the club wasn’t able to produce the promised mixing board. Instead they had some contraption that looked like a console from a Star Trek space ship that included two CD players and all sorts of effects, switches and flashing lights. It was very complicated and it took a full hour for the club’s sound man and the Phastman to figure it out—by fooling with every switch and nob on the thing!!! Luckily, all was figured out before the doors opened, but the thing was long—the two turntables seemed to be in different zip codes!! However, once it was figured out, all went well.
For this Subway Soul Club event, Miss Nancy made some chex mix snack (she calls them doo dads) and vegan brownies for our friends that swing that way.
Since the turntables were ready, and folks were starting to show up before the official start time of 8pm, the resident DJ started the evening off by playing some cool instrumentals, before he got into the hot sauce. Here’s a list of every record played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at the autumn Subway Soul Club event:
- Les McCann Ltd.–River Deep Mountain High (Mercury)
- The Roy Meriwether Trio–Respect (Columbia)
- The Ernie Watts Encounter–Ain’t That Askin’ for Trouble (Vault)
- Freddy Deboe–Savage (Fine Wine)
- Bob Wilson–In the Midnight Hour (Sound Stage 7)
- Booker T. & the M.G.’s–Melting Pot Part 1 (Stax; France)
- Jimmy Ruffin–Don’t Feel Sorry for Me (Miracle)
- B.J. Thomas & the Triumphs–Keep It Up (Joed)
- Little Lisa–Hang on Bill (V.I.P.)
- The Hot Tamales–Love’s Inventions (Detroit)
- Eyes of Blue–Heart Trouble (Deram)
- Edwin Starr–Girls Are Getting Prettier (Ric-Tic)
- Lattimore Brown–You Don’t Know Like I Know (Ace)
- Ollie & the Nightingales–Girl You Have My Heart Singing (Stax)
- Billy Preston–Billy’s Bag (Vee Jay)
- Bob Relf–Blowing My Mind to Pieces (Trans-American)
- Ike & Tina Turner–Somebody Needs You (Loma)
- The Prophets of Sound–Shade of Red (Marsi)
- Billy Butler–Right Track (OKeh)
- The Marvelettes–Keep Off No Trespassing (Tamla)
- The Prophets–I Got the Fever (Smash)
- Richard Temple–Let’s Do the Duck (Stephanye)
- Beverly Ann Gibson–Do the Monkey (Jubilee)
- Jr. Walker and the All Stars–Do the Boomerang (Soul)
- Jamo Thomas & His Party Brothers Orchestra–I Spy (For the FBI) (Thomas)
- Big Al “T” Orchestra–Twenty Five Miles (Virture)
- The Soul City–Everybody Dance Now (Goodtime)
- Claudine Clark–Buttered Popcorn (Jamie)
- The Vontastics–Never Let Your Love Grow Cold (St. Lawrence)
- Jimmie Raye–Walked On Stepped On Stomped On (KKC)
- Tony Clarke–Landslide (Chess)
- Shirley J. Scott–Goose Pimples (Stephanye)
- Marva Holiday–it’s Written All Over My Face (GNP Crescendo)
- Edwin Starr–Agent Double-O-Soul (Ric-Tic)
- The Valentinos–Sweeter Than the Day Before (Chess)
- Tammy St. John–Boys (4 Corners of the World)
- Eddie Floyd–Big Bird (Stax)
- Jack Costanzo–Cowabunga (Wow!) (Mosaic)
- The Contours–Can You Jerk Like Me (Gordy)
- The Shells–Whiplash (Conlo)
- The Bean Brothers–Shing-A-Ling (Cash $ales)
- Prince Buster’s All Stars–One Step Beyond (Blue Beat; UK)
- Dave Collins–Ride Your Pony (Capitol)
- The Clungels–Do the Dog (Artone; Netherlands)
- Willie Mitchell–That Driving Beat (Hi)
- Danny White–Keep My Woman Home (Atlas)
- Claude & Hank Carbo–Fox in a Mini Skirt (Castle)
None of these records are for sale.
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