CAISTER SOUL RADIO

Along with DJs Chris Brown and Tom Holland, and later with Robbie Vincent, Froggy, Greg Edwards and Sean French, Chris Hill kicked off the first soul all-dayers at the Reading Top Rank Suite, then later the massive Purley and Alexandra Palace affairs. The FUNK MAFIA had been born, and in March 1979 it launched its most ambitious project - The Caister Soul Weekender at a small town called Caister on Sea a few miles from Great Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast. It played host to the largest gathering of soul and jazz fans there had ever been, for a whole weekend of music mayhem and madness. The British soul scene would never been the same again!

From its infancy to the current Golden Age, the Caister Soul Weekender has been the UKs flagship soul music event.

Since the Caister Soul Weekender first began in 1979, the event has gone through three major periods. The first, from 1979 to 1984, was its infancy, when everyone was younger, including the DJs and the soul music scene was in its early stages of development. This “infancy period” of Caister, originally called “The National Soul Weekender”, only lasted 6 years, but saw the beginning of what was later to become an ongoing music phenomenon. The event soon became called after the original location at Caister on Sea and was soon the essential twice a year sojourn for Soul clubbers from around the UK.

The second stage from 1985 to the early 1990’s was Caister’s troublesome adolescent years. During this period Caister Weekenders fragmented with some events continuing in Norfolk whilst some of the original organisers and DJs split off to do their own thing in locations like Barry Island, Bognor, and Prestatyn. At this time the DJs were pulling apart musically with the advent of house and garage music and this led to dissention in both the team and management splits. By the end of the 1980s it was becoming the dark ages for soul music events, as house and dance music became popular.

Then came the Glorious Rebirth from 1994 onwards until Caister’s 40^th Anniversary in 2019. This has been the continuous “Golden Age” of Caister with the event going from strength to strength for an unstoppable 25years. Which will never be surpassed.

The Caister family was united in its pursuit of the music which we all love and the enjoyment of the world’s longest running and greatest soul event. During the Golden age of 25 years we had a close knit DJ team, with a finely tuned mix of old and new, with a real love of the soul music and representative of what Caister was about. More than 100 different DJs appeared at Caister during this Golden age.

The Legend Continues, firstly with the launch of Caister Soul Radio in August 2023 with a new generation coming along, plus old, new Caister DJs, more dedicated music with the true ethos of Caister.