Bob's Disco

How good does it sound? No more surface noise.............

Bob's Disco plays an eclectic mix of everybody's music from the last 50 years or so, mainly on vinyl.... but sometimes on CD and other digital formats, if we have to.... We don't play request, mainly because we can't find the records in time! The "about" bit is not really true any more......... we still play everybody's music and we still play vinyl....... but having resisted the the tide of chan

ge longer than most..........Bob's Disco now play's digital............... and Oh Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!

12/12/2025

It’s the last one from me!

The King’s Hall, in the middle of Stoke, has been a Northern Soul venue for 30 years, but that is coming to an end next year. Not the longest running venue, but up there with the most enduring.
The reasons aren’t quite clear, but I’m guessing many of the old soul crew, are hanging up their brogues, just a bit too old for the all nighters any more?

The interior of the building is very similar to how Wigan Casino looked, and so has been used as a substitute for the Casino in a number of Northern Soul films and programs, so we used this venue to round off the Centenary Blue Plaque trail.

The King’s Hall is a listed building, and despite the council being quite happy to take money from soul fans over the past 30 years, they weren’t so happy about a plaque. My mate Phil may well regale you with the trials, and tribulations, of dealing with the council. Safe to say that it’s like having your teeth pulled out, on a very, very long car journey………

After months and months of negotiations, we were allowed to raise a plaque on a steel pole on the approach to the building. It looks ok, as good as we can make it, under the circumstances.

We named local hero, Dave Evison for this one. The DJ responsible for the “3 before 8”, legendary Stoke City fan, and all round good egg.

We’ve also uploaded all the Blue Plaque info to the Stoke-on-Trent Living Heritage App, which has a Northern Soul section. We’re hoping there will be a geo map trail, of all the plaques, with photos and sound bites at each location. Where, and when this will become active, is down to the council.
The launch was going to be in October but seems to have been pushed back to maybe February next year? Who knows?

I remain truly humbled for the overwhelming support, from near and far, for our little Blue Plaque project, the interest shown is, and has been, overwhelming, we never imagined it would happen!

We’ve had lots of help from the BBC, Radio Stoke, and lots of local press, truly amazing!

Big shout out to Joe at JD Staircases for supplying the oak mounts for the plaques! His staircases are wonderful, should you ever need one!
https://www.facebook.com/JDstaircases/?locale=en_GB

And last, but by no means least, many thanks to Refurb UK, for the steel and paint.
https://www.instagram.com/refurb.uk/

This really is the last one from me! The last of the Blue Plaques that is.......... at least for now………. KTF

Bob x

https://youtu.be/xwvpeYiQwss?si=UuuTsNth0fM7qjo0

06/11/2025

Alrighty then, if you’re heading to Nadine’s party this weekend, then you might do well to bring your Kickers & Dungarees!

We’re going back to the 90’s, the glory days of Venus, and Golden, for a full on knees up, just like it used to be! That’s what the boss says anyway!

It’s a stellar line up of wOnK residents, Ocean & Amy, the inimitable Kelvin Andrews, and me!

Make some noise!

Oi! You with the ginger hair! Get off the speakers! 😂

https://youtu.be/yMZqDDfFnKw?si=IzxN09lcVW5PxFwf

17/10/2025

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I’ve been selling some of my records for the past 18 months or so, through my agent, and a very good job he’s doing of it too.

I’ve collected records for over 60 years, so I’d got quite a few. There comes a time when you have to think about facing up to your own mortality, and what might happen to all your junk, if one day, you just wasn’t here any more. So, for as much as it pains me to do it, I’ve set a course to pass them on, so that another generation can enjoy them, and my agent can enjoy something from it along the way too.

We’ve come to a point, where I thought it might be nice to expand on a particular collection of tunes.
I think many will know that I used to drive Sasha around, in the years before, and after the Millennium.
I didn’t go looking for the job, it sort of came to me…….

After Golden moved to The Void, Sasha was the hottest ticket in town, and rapidly becoming the first Super Star DJ. Everyone wanted him to play for them, as his name on the bill was a guaranteed sell out.
The Golden crew were no exception, and were doing their best to persuade him to come to The Void, as often as possible!

But Sasha had moved to a remote location in Marlow, past Oxford, down the M40, by George Harrison’s house, up past a pig farm. A bit remote to say the least. And Sasha doesn’t drive.

There were no shortage of volunteers to drive him around, but Sasha wasn’t dead keen on the double excited, ravey Davey types, doing his head in whilst in the car.

I already knew Sasha from The Hacienda, Shelley’s and Venus. He knew I didn’t take no s**t, and wouldn’t batter his head with 20 questions for mile after mile, so he agreed to play for Golden, so long as I went down to pick him up. So that’s how I got the job.

I could write a good couple of chapters about what comes next but I won’t. Maybe I’ll save it for another day? Let’s just say we had a shared interest in music, and over the time we swapped various records, and he gave me a few, I gave him some, every now and again.

Sasha’s record box was always chaotic. He was always late, and while he was being late, I’d try and sort his tunes out, sort of get them back into the sleeves, or at least into any sleeve, to try and save them from damage. He’d amassed a good record collection, but because he’d moved around a lot, they had been put into storage, which wasn’t too accessible, so sometimes he’d borrow some of mine.

Sasha has started to sell a few of his records, via an auction, earlier this year, and they’ve drawn astronomic prices!
Which has sort of inspired me to write this little piece.

I have a few records that are related to this period with Sasha. Unfortunately, they’re not autographed like his, although I did have some signed copies, which I (stupidly) gave away over the years. (I had both the ones in the signed auction photo, and gave them away!) I never did autographs and I never did photos, that was sort of why I had the job driving him around.

It’s just a random collection of tunes linked to Sasha. Some that he gave me, some that were the actual copies played by him, particularly on the millennium night. And my two copies of Xpander, as I was actually there when that was recorded.

I wrote the story of the Millennium weekend, for Mixmag, and DJ Mag, at the time, I got paid for these stories, and still have the cheques. I have a photocopy of the writing, and I’ve managed to find the actual magazines! My story was much longer and more detailed than the printed articles though. I still have memorabilia by way of documents etc, from the epic night, 25 years ago.

So if you might fancy a little piece of dance music history, follow the link to Discogs. They’re not signed, you’ll just have the joy of knowing that these were the actual ones played at many of the Sasha gigs, around that time. Some, actually on the Millenium!

There’s only a few, and when they’re gone, they’re gone………..

https://www.discogs.com/seller/carlos_villa33/profile

10/10/2025

Tickets go on sale for this one at 10:00am tomorrow.
It's a dead little space, with a massive sound system, and it'll be the best gig you go to in 2026.
It will sell out.
Viva Golden!

https://youtu.be/5uzx1zromuQ?si=KZJb55tm5Mcjz4K-

05/10/2025

Golden Classics returns to the underground in January, to kick off the 2026 season at The Underground.

I’m more than made up to be included on these special events, and this one could be the most classic of Golden Classic events yet! Graeme, Dave, Pete, and me! I think we were all there, from the beginnings, in ’92, to the end, some 10 years later.

The Golden Classics event in January this year, was the fastest selling gig of the year, and set the standard by which all the others were judged, and it’s been some year! With Pete’s vinyl only events, and Joey Negro, and raves of Longton being particular highlights, but Golden takes the crown!

This will sell out, and sell out quickly. The Underground is just a couple hundred dancers, when it’s gone, it’s gone………. It’s as close as you can get, to actually being there, back in the day……….

Viva Golden!

https://www.skiddle.com/e/41415731

https://youtu.be/AP8um1cj8Z4?si=A_90I_yT81KKPX27

23/07/2025

We fixed the latest blue plaque today, to celebrate the legendary Tiffany’s soul venue in Newcastle. This was the venue where we started the idea of the Blue Plaque Trail, about three years ago now, just as old building was being demolished.

Colin & John, two of the original DJs, turned up for the occasion.
There were a few other old Soul Brothers and Sisters too, but I’ll leave that to the Tiffs page, you can read all about it there, they do it way better than me!

The original building no longer exists, so the plaque is on the building directly opposite where the original entrance was, should you wish to go and see it.

Colin, and John, are an encyclopaedic knowledge of Soul Music in Stoke-on-Trent, and beyond, it was a joy to hear them relate the history of this pivotal Soul Music venue.

Tiffany’s, gone, but not forgotten……….

Keep The Faith why don’t you…… ✊🏻

Address

Stoke-on-Trent

Website

http://skiddle.com/e/36026508

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