Northern soul has been making its mark in Penarth since 2014, thanks to the Soul Club founded by Liam Curtin and Shelley Barrett. This began life as a bi-monthly event at the local Ex-Servicemen’s Club. I never made it to that night, but I made it to this – the ‘last dance’ of the much-loved event, with even their last T-shirts given away as the tables turned for their very final spin, and northern soul aficionados did their cool, non-gender-specific foot-moves on the bare boards of the Wales Millennium Centre’s Weston Studio for Llais 2022.

Men and women alike took to the floor to boogie to classic Motown, Stax, and Atlantic records, which was great to see – white men, especially older ones, usually sit on the sidelines drinking their pints, in my experience – but, here, all were welcome to spin and strut, shimmy and shuffle, no matter their sex, size, or shoe type. A handful of people at the event wore atypical soul ‘brogues’, and there was even one patch of chalk on the dance floor – no real near-breakdancing, like in that well-known Duffy video, but there were some cool moves nonetheless.

The music was smooth, jazzy, uplifting; the vibe warm and affable; the fact that people had come to dance instead of, well, pull gave it a more celebratory and community ‘feel’ than going to a high street club, I felt, too. This makes it a real shame that Penarth Soul Club is now no more – this first event was also my last. In any case, Liam and Shelley now run the Penarth Music Explosion, so there will be dancing, but not of this particular sort. A fun night all round at Llais, though, and I’m just glad I was there to enjoy it.

Llais: Penarth Soul Club, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, Fri 28 Oct

words MAB JONES photos SIMON AYRE