soul

Hong Kong Beat mobile disco celebrating Valentine’s Day

Whether it’s a lost holiday for a Roman saint, a celebration invented by a bawdy Medieval writer, or a day manufactured to boost the sales of flowers, cards and chocolates, February 14th every year is a day for lovers to express their feelings – what they do with them the remaining 364 days of the year is a bigger question to me than the origin of the day, however.

Anyway, to help moon-struck lovers get their groove on, Hong Kong Beat offers some soulful romantic tunes from across 6 decades of pop and dance music about, as Barry White put it, lurrrvve baby.

Hong Kong Beat mobile disco 80s soul weekender part 3

Sunday Selection rounds off the 80s soul weekender with a little more uptempo and funky soul tunes.

Blow your whistle.

80s soul weekender part 3 by Hong Kong Beat on Mixcloud

Hong Kong Beat mobile disco’s 80s soul weekender, part 2

Heading into Soulful Saturday with part 2 of Hong Kong Beat’s 80s soul weekender.

Funkateers?

80s soul and funk – Soul Weekender Part 2 by Hong Kong Beat on Mixcloud

Hong Kong Beat mobile disco throws an 80s soul weekender

One of the great things about the UK music scene in the 80s was the diversity of styles and genres enjoyed by the party going generation.

Rising from the northern soul sub-culture with its all-nighters, was the funk, disco and jazz inspired soul music scene in predominantly southern UK clubs and, from those, all-nighters and weekender soul festivals, the brainchild of a couple of prominent soul club DJs.

Remembering the heady days of endless soul partying amongst hundreds, even thousands of like-minded ‘funkateers’, Hong Kong Beat presents part of 1 of 80s soul weekender for Funky Friday.

80s soul and funk by Hong Kong Beat on Mixcloud

Hong Kong Beat mobile disco exploring loneliness with dance and soul tunes for Monday Moods

Moving dance and soul set about being alone, for Monday Moods this week.

Dance and soul tunes about being alone for Monday Moods by Hong Kong Beat on Mixcloud

Hong Kong Beat mobile disco with contemporary soul sisters for Soulful Saturday

The nice thing about soul music is that it’s a gift that keeps on giving. One generation influences the next, and in turn builds on the last.

Presenting contemporary soul sisters who grew up listening to the likes of the great classic soul sisters: Aretha, Etta, Dionne, Martha, Diana, Whitney, Gladys… But who have brought their own thing to the party, with great voices tuned to classic licks infused with funk, swing and hip-hop.

It doesn’t get much more soulful than these ladies.

Contemporary soul sisters for Soulful Saturday by Hong Kong Beat on Mixcloud

Hong Kong Beat mobile disco gets happy with funk and soul on this overcast Monday

Monday Moods takes the gloomy overcast morning head on with a selection of funky, jazzy and soulful tunes about joy and happiness.

And without having to play ‘that’ song 🙂

Happy funk and soul music to brighten up a dull Monday morning by Hong Kong Beat on Mixcloud

Hong Kong Beat mobile disco grabs more 45s from the male soul vocal group crate.

There were just too many great soul groups to include in last week’s offering and left out so many great voices like Harold Melvin, Smokey Robinson and Curtis Mayfield, so this week Soulful Saturday continues with Part 2 of the great male vocal soul groups.

Part two of great male soul vocal groups for Soulful Saturday by Hong Kong Beat on Mixcloud

Hong Kong Beat mobile disco doing the Soul City Walk with soul vocal groups

When people reflect on 60s soul they often think of the great vocal groups of Motown, male and female, but Motown represented only a partial, though definitely successful, contribution to the genre, as there were key vocal groups before, after the 60s, and from outside of Detroit, like The Dells, The Impressions, The Chi-Lites and The Blue Notes.

This week for Soulful Saturday, here is part one of a selection of great vocal groups of the 60s and 70s, smooth in their sharp-tailored matching suits, clicking their fingers, stepping and harmonizing, including a shout to The Pips who backed Gladys Knight so expertly for almost four decades.

So, let’s do the Soul City Walk…

Stepping and harmonising with male soul vocal groups by Hong Kong Beat on Mixcloud

Hong Kong Beat mobile disco presents the soul sounds of the 60s Mods

Apart from love of cafĂ© culture, beat music, and scooters with lots of shiny mirrors and lights, the UK’s 1960s Mods were into the sounds of American soul that had inspired so many of the UK beat artists, like the Animals, Kinks, and Small Faces. Sounds from Motown, Chess, Stax, Atlantic, and other great soul labels, found there way into, predominantly, white UK youth culture.

Here’s just a small selection of kind of, for that time, alien tunes that would have been heard on jukeboxes along the south coast and everywhere on the road between Croydon and Brighton in those days.

Soulful Saturday brings the soul sounds of the 1960s British Mods. by Hong Kong Beat on Mixcloud