The 6Ts Rhythm and Soul Society was co-founded in August 1979 by Randy Cozens and Ady Croasdell. The first dance was held in a function room called Henri's at the Bedford Head pub in Maiden Lane in London's Covent Garden. The first night was a great success with soul records, dancing, carousing and debauchery. One more equally splendid night was held there before the management rebuilt the pub and kicked us out.
By then we had a solid following and with the help of one of the first club mailing lists that we had established, sent out slightly amusing newsletters before each dance and got the crowd to follow us to our next venue. At this stage, Ian Clark's graphics for the newsletter and membership card were very much a part of the set-up.
This was a pub in West Hampstead called the Railway that had an upstairs function room called the Starlight Room (they also had a downstairs one called the Moonlight). The Starlight had originally been a mod club in the 60s called the Klooks Kleek (Zoot Money's Big Roll Band did a very good live LP from there), while the Moonlight was a pioneering London Northern Soul club that I used to go to in the early 70s where Mick Smith and David Burton played all the current Northern monsters to about 30 hardcore punters. The 6Ts was up in the Starlight Room and it went from strength to strength over the next year.
The DJs in this period were Randy, Mick Smith, Tony Rounce, Tony Ellis, Terry Davis, Ian Clark and Pete Widdison; I couldn't be arsed. The music was original mod soul classics and similarly sounding classy dance records. Out and out Northern wasn't played much as we were rediscovering a lot of great soul sounds - those 100mph stompers just weren't the records we wanted for a boozy evening soul knees-up. The emphasis was on soul and dance rather than speed. However...we finally got kicked out of there, after one particularly wild evening when, among other mayhem, Pete was seen swinging off the rafters by the club's management.
We then moved around London a bit, holding one-off dances at the Notre Dame Hall (Leicester Square), the Horseshoe by the Dominion Theatre (Tottenham Court Road), the 101 Club (Clapham), before getting our first date at The 100 Club.
The first nights were more your Friday night piss-ups and more and more R&B was getting played. However, Randy had hankered after getting a night going at his beloved Last Chance Saloon mod soul club from the 60s and as all their weekends were booked we went for a Friday all-nighter from 3am to 10am. This was another great night and, because of the nature of the event, saw a little more Northern played than at the evening dos.
So when the 100 Club management started a regular Friday club night rather than leave the place entirely we decided to try a Saturday all-nighter after the hazz had finished. This started at some time in 1981 and has been going on ever since. In fact, last year we celebrated our 27th anniversary! We have these a little late in September as it's too hot for a full house in August.
6Ts now has a reputation for being at the forefront of Northern Soul music, with an open-minded, knowledgeable clientele. Our music policy is the best of Northern Rareties, recent discoveries, unissued acetates and master tapes, a bit of modern, the odd R&B track and a smattering of oldies when needed/demanded. Evening dos are much more oldies orientated and decidedly messy.
