Since it started back in 1996 Paynes Reunion has raised over £15,000 for local charities.  That's something we should all be proud of  -  all profits are always given to local charities.

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A good night was had by all, every single ticket was sold, the place was packed to the rafters, and everybody were having a great time.  This one sticks out in my mind because it was the very first reunion and because of all those people that perhaps hadn't seen each other for many many years.  There were people shaking hands and hugging each other all over the place.  In the Washington beforehand every bodies eyes were on the door to see who would walk in next.  An absolutely fabulous night.

The night itself in the conference centre was brilliant with the floor packed from start to finish dancing to all those old tunes that quite mysteriously everybody seemed to still know the lyrics to after a gap of 30 years or so.  Star guest for the night was Charlie Payne (don't know how long he stayed but he had a table right at the front) and he had a marvellous  ovation/applause when introduced to the crowd.  The band for the night were the Intruders who were a seven piece band with 2 vocalists and a horn section.  I thought they were excellent as they played many "soul monsters" from the halcyon days of the Twisted Wheel.  Perhaps my judgement was clouded as they started their set with one of my all time favourites - a cover of Moses and Joshua Dillard - My Elusive Dream. Absolutely excellent !!

On a totally different note, nice to see Big E, but why the crazy outfit ???

The Old Hall was used as a venue because the charges for the conference centre had risen so much that the charities would not have benefited.  Two dance floors, small and crowded.  Ask anybody who went what it was like.  

Excellent night, back to the conference centre, plenty of room to dance and the Real thing weren't bad either.

The best night so far. Excellent sounds all night.  Edwin Starr was absolutely brilliant.  Sang all the old Ric-Tic favourites (  ably assisted by his backing singers, Sue Jones from Conwy, and others ) 

Another excellent night with good soulful grooves all night.  KW & the E were pretty good, singing well known soul classics - entertainment at its best.

Photos from the night are available for your delight 

(on the photos page of course)

November
2003

As for the American 'Four Tops' Show I thought they did a really good set especially the Arthur Conley number when one of them was doing backdrops and stuff.  But then they went and spoiled it by closing with 'Sweet Caroline" (where they dug that from I don't know) and lastly Land of 1,000 dances.

Brilliant sound of Tamla Motown and music from the Northern scene of the 6ts and 7ts provided by Gary Carr (Ta Ta) and Dave Hanson.

Thanks to Rachel for sending some pictures from the night to post on the site.  If you have any photos you took on the night and you feel like sharing them.......send them to me at the e-mail address on the photos pages.  See Rachels Photos on the Nov 2003 photo page.

Excellent night at the Grand with all the old favourites being played.  I did get a message from somebody that there wasn't enough music played that was actually played at Payne's but I thought I heard plenty of Motown from both Dave and Gary although I would admit that I played mostly Casino stormers for the time I was on.

If there was a complaint to made it would be that as usual the dance floor wasn't big enough to accommodate those people who needed rather more room in order to be able to express themselves.  Despite the lack of space the dance floor was the most popular place to be, or so it seemed, and there were many people who looked as if they had just spent a couple of hours in a sauna. It was very hot in Langtreys but the dance floor was blistering.

As usual if you have an photos which were taken on the night and you feel that you would like to share them with everybody else............send them to me at the e-mail address on the photos page

Venue:  Conference Centre
DJs:  Garry Carr, Dave Hanson, Lloydy
Attendance:  Full House (550)

And another good night was had by all.
At 1:00 a.m. the dance floor was still packed with guys and guyesses boppin' away to soulful sounds.  I'm sure I heard Dave Hanson playing "Be Young, Be Foolish, but Be Happy" at about 12:45 a.m. (can't be many of us that motto still applies to, although I know we are all still young in our heads)

It was really good to see so many of the "Paynes Crowd" there, but there were a few people noticeable by their absence, (Sue, hope your better soon, Rob McAffrey hope you had nice hols).

As always, if you took any pictures and would like them published on this web site then e-mail them to me at the address on the bottom of the page - that's you Robin Holden.
Thanks to Rachel for the piccies you have already sent - once I've discovered how to extract them from the Acrobat Slide Show format you sent them in - I'll put them on the Photos page.

I had a really good time playing, listening to and dancin' to all those old soul tunes, but I do have to say that if there was a disappointing side to the evening, it was the sheer length of the encore that The Aces performed.  I think their encore was probably longer than their set and because they had sung all the Tops & Temps stuff early in their act the encore was full of stuff that I personally could have done without. 

We would welcome your feedback on whether or not a band is needed at the Conference Centre for the November reunions.  Problem is, the tickets would be no cheaper because of the cost involved in hiring the place (including bouncers etc).  You might want to send me an e-mail regarding this.

Fewer people than normal (Dave said about 170 tickets) but more room to dance and the dance floor was busy from about 9:00 right through 'till the end, and given the feedback in e-mails over the last few days an excellent night was had by all.  Look forward to seeing you all in the 10th anniversary reunion in Nov 2005

Another successful Paynes Reunion which went some way to raising some money for some very worthy charities.  Well done all of you !!!

The occasion was a sell out as usual and the dance floor was packed throughout the night.  Heard some tunes from Gary and Dave that I hadn't heard for absolutely years. 

Clem Curtis & The New Foundations - pretty good I thought, and judging by the  number of people who were eager to join him on stage went down pretty well with everybody.  A pretty soulful set from a man with a magnificent voice..

Despite the quality of the P.A. Systems (at times the band and Clem Curtis had no monitors working, so couldn't hear themselves), I thought they put together a very good set, which was thoroughly enjoyed. 

Gary had the idea of projecting the photos from the website onto the wall of the conference centre.  I thought the projected photos on the back wall above the bar went down very well.  When I put the slide show together I didn't really think it was a winner, 40 minutes of scrolling photos, I thought everybody would be bored.  

But, it seemed to go down well, I was standing about thirty feet or so from the bar and there were people in front of me standing for ages looking at the pictures trying to put names to faces. Excellent fun.

If you want to add comment or thoughts about the night e-mail me at the usual address

If you took any photos and want them posted attach to an e-mail and send

Apologies to all you smokers out there - when we booked the conference centre back in 2005 we did not know that the conference centre would impose a smoking ban a full 3 months before the government's official national ban came in.  Smokers were having to go outside for a fag (and I am one of those) so once more apologies.

Apologies also for the sheer size of the queues at the bar.  The conference centre had known in advance that they had over 500 customers due to attend the reunion and yet still provided a level of service that would have had difficulty coping with 100.  The bar ran out of vodka and lager at one stage and many, many people left early because of this.  I feel sure that this evening will have an affect on next years attendance.

On a more positive note those people that stayed the course had an excellent night with the dancefloor packed for most of the evening.  We were still getting request to play tunes right up until the end.

The Xtreme Supremes put on a really wonderful act and the voice and vocals from the youngest of the singers was absolutely amazing.  During the first half of the show they treated us to a fantastic medley of Supremes hits including Baby Love, Stop In The Name of Love, Where Fid Our love Go, Come See About Me, Can't Hurry Love.  Then to cap that they did a quick change and came back on stage as The Three Degrees (different style frocks according to Dave) and sang a medley of their hits including Dirty Ole Man (Dave), When Will I See You Again, Take Good Care Of Yourself, My Simple Heart, The Year of Decision etc.

All told this was a fabulous performance from a really excellent tribute act - one that I would recommend to anybody!!

Enough of the doom and gloom.

If you were there then you will know what an excellent night this really was and will have witnessed an amazing vocal act in the shape of the American Four Tops Show.  As long as you took them for what they were - a number of extremely talented individuals singing soul at its very best - then you could not help but think they were fantastic.  For me the best part of the act was when the rather portly lead singer broke into an a cappella version of Sam Cooke's Chain Gang and then the audience joined in. 

Flippin' marvellous !!!