News & Updates

Welcome to November‘s Blog 2024

Hi all, DJ Lenny here,

It’s my turn to contribute to the monthly SGR blog, something I have never done before but thankyou Ray for giving me the opportunity or dropping me in it!

I joined the SGR family in June 2021 playing on a Sunday evening from 8-10pm. During that time, I have got to meet and made friends with some lovely people associated with SGR whether listeners or fellow DJ’s.

I started DJ’ing as a 17-year-old at Cassio College, in my home town Watford with a  mate Rashid, hiring dodgy all in one decks the size of house. DJ’ing was  hard work in those days, everything weighed a ton and we were relying on others to drive us around as I didn’t pass my test until I was 25. A great time and makes me wonder how we did it with no money, no car and no idea what we were doing except loving soul music.

I gave it up as friends came and went and lifts dried up, I had no money to buy my own gear, never mind a car.

I then became a proper soul boy starting up a tribe named Watford F Troop (when tribes were a thing), going in large numbers regularly to clubs and all-dayers including Purley, The Royalty Southgate and of course Caister weekenders.

One of the greatest soul events I attended was Knebworth with GQ, Lonnie Liston Smith, Light of the World and Eddie Grant, with all the Soul Mafia DJ’s in 1980.

In those days I was listening to (when I could pick them up) the London based pirate stations, Radio Invicta, LWR, JFM, Horizon, Kiss and a host of others, not realising one day I’d be playing on a great specialist Soul station myself.

My preference is to play out live, but enjoy radio as you can play tunes that might not necessarily work whilst out live. I’m a big lover of 70’s Soul and love the fact SGR give you license to develop your show how you see fit.

If you have never listened to my show, I hope a few of you reading this will tune in one Sunday.

In the meantime, keep supporting SGR

Love to you all

Welcome to October’s Blog 2024

Hi, I am Lee King aka “The Funky Plumber” and am delighted to present the October Blog to you. It has been an incredible 4 years with  Soul Groove Radio and I have loved every minute.

In June 2020 at the height of the pandemic and while having a conversation with Fitzroy Williams, many of us DJ’s were at a loose end,
and he suggested that I contact Soul Groove Radio to see if they were interested in taking on new presenters. After numerous discussions  and a lot of help from Ray Douglass, I cobbled together a. studio setup and was welcomed into the family, and broadcast my first live show on 15th July of that year. So you can either blame Fitzroy or Ray for me lurking around your airwaves for so long… Take your pick! One blessing for me in joining this fantastic station is the remarkable and awesome people I have encountered throughout my time on the station.
I have made some wonderful friends and long may this continue. The Soul Groove Family are truly amazing and I would not be here if it
wasn’t for the love and warmth shown to me during my shows or at the various Soul Events. I have also met and gotten to know many  incredible  music artists during my time and this has only broadened my love of soul music. I plan to conduct more artists interviews on the station in  2025, so watch this space.

2024 has seen some incredible moments with the Soul Family and one which I would like to mention is the SGR Crystal Soul Weekender in July. 

What a brilliant event! I say a huge thanks and well done to the management team for putting on such a magnificent  event and to all  the  attendees who made the weekend so memorable. I was very proud and delighted to be able to perform a set there and a big  thanks to  everyone for partyinghard and for their kind comments also.

I have also been selected to play a set at our Soul Groove Radio Christmas Party this year.  This takes place on Saturday 21st December
2024 at Cloud 9 in Hemel Hempstead and is certainly one party that you do not want to miss.  The DJ line up is: Bob Powell, Stevie Day,
Simon Rickwood, DJ Migz and yours truly, so tell your friends, dust off your best outfits, and come and celebrate Christmas with us!
Head to the following link for tickets and further information:
www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Hemel-Hempstead/Cloud-9/SGR-Christmas-Party/40044317/

Many of you will know how much I love live music and I try to get to as many live events as my schedule allows. There are some wonderful artists
for us all to check out, so if possible go and support them as and when you can. I recently had the opportunity to see Janet Jackson perform
live and was blown away by her impressive choreography, stamina and stage presence. It goes without saying, try to see these legends of the
music world while they are still able to perform.

With all the fun, good humour and entertainment of this super radio station, I must take a moment to remember those from our Soul Family we
have lost during the past year. It has been amazing to see the soul family come together during the difficult times. A fitting quote I came
across recently: “A life that brings joy and happiness to others lives on forever”.

My weekly shows are Wednesday 8pm-10pm where we place specific emphasis on new and current releases, with a classic section to round  of the show. Plus on a Friday I present a more up-tempo show from 4pm to 5pm to get your weekend off in the only way we know how,  with great vibes.

Thank you to everybody connected with Soul Groove Radio and especially the listeners for allowing me this opportunity.

Lee King

Welcome to September’s Blog 2024

‘Hello to September
Soul Groove Radio has had a busy summer which has been good. In June we did our 1st grove cruise along the river Dee in Chester. It was a great success and nice to meet some of our listeners from that part of the country and hopefully we will return
In July we did a mini all dayer at the Tawny Owl pub in Swindon which was great fun as the day started with entertainment from a local soul band The Soul Seniors followed by the SGR team playing great music then later on in the evening another soul band called the O’Rael plus an added bonus the euro’s was on and England won the quatre finals so more reason to celebrate at that time. A big thank you to Nic Lee and all the staff of the Tawny owl for working so hard that and we will be returning in 2025.

At the start of August we celebrated Soul Groove Radio’s 15th anniversary of broadcasting with the Crystal soul weekender at the Coach House Hotel/pub in Flint Cross and oh what a fun time we all had. A massive thank you to Dave, Michelle, Chloe and all the staff of the hotel for keeping our listeners supplied with delicious food and drinks. We would also like to thank local Cambridgeshire soul band Soul Intentions for a great set and to our very own Kim Taveres flying all the way from Boston USA to join us in the celebrations. All hotel rooms were full plus the large field behind the pub was full of motorhomes, campervans and tents so had a good festival vibe to it. We will also be returning to the Coach House for another weekender from 25th to 27th July 2025

On Sunday 29th September we will be doing a charity walk in memory of our beloved Leigh McGlone that sadly passed away in February after his battle against cancer. We are starting 11am from Benfleet Essex railway station walking along the Thames Estuary to Thorpe Bay. We are raising funds for Fair havens Hospice where Leigh spent his last few weeks . Fair Havens hospice has 20 rooms but only get enough funding to operate 10 rooms. Here is the just giving page link if anyone wishing to donate to this good cause
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Leigh-McGlone?utm_term=A5RjxGmNw

We have had a few new presenters join Soul Groove Radio over the summer too and would like to welcome on board  Dj Migz, Angela D N Crowe, Simon Rickwood, Ricky Devine and Lee Detain. Also a big warm welcome back to Ronniee C who is back from 5th September after long term critical illness

Thank you everyone for your continued support to the station
Best Regards Hazel Dunmow (company secretary)

Welcome to June’s Blog 2024

My name is Mark Daniel

I grew up loving soul/funk music going  to clubs in my area like Caister, Dumbo’s California Ballroom in Dunstable, Baileys Watford The National Kilburn London and many more.

Back in the 80’s spent lot time with Martin Collins going to Chiltern Radio on a Sunday afternoon while he was broadcasting his Sunday soul show carrying cases full of vinyl.

Playing soul music as from vinyl not forgetting the white labels I used to get as well, then it was cassette tape to CD then iPod now I’m using USB to play out to my audience when gigging.

Back in  February 2011 I was contacted by Ray Douglas asking if I wanted to broadcast a two hour show on Soul Groove Radio, it didn’t take me long to say yes.

Once I got through the set up process and all the teething problems, I went live with my show on 28th March 2011  8 to 10pm and I’m still broadcasting my show (Heart & Soul) on a Monday evening 8- 10pm playing the music that’s is in my blood.

Before I go like to thank Ray Douglass and Lee Lessells for giving me this fantastic opportunity to play around the world the music I grew up with.

Mark D

Welcome to May’s Blog 2024

As Ray mentioned in last months Blog he approached me in 2010 or 2011. I’m pretty sure it was 2011 but it was a while ago.  Ray asked me to
consider joining the station to which my first reaction was a definite NO.

I’d retired from gigging several years prior and didn’t think it was something I wanted to do.

I’ve known Ray since the mid 80’s and he’s nothing if not persistent! He convinced me (nagged) to join him on some of his shows to ‘get a feel
for it’.  I wasn’t sure as I was always used to live audience but joinedhim anyway.

After sitting in with Ray and being given the chance to play the music I loved,  I decided to give it a try. I started putting a studio together, dusted off the music collection and at 8pm on a rainy Thursday evening in 2011 The Simply Soul Show was born with Total Contrast’s Takes A
Little Time.  The rest, as they say, is history.

The station has changed a lot over the years but I’ve remained in the same 8pm – 10pm slot on Thursday evenings.

I’m proud to have played a small part in the growth of the station from the small beginnings to where we are today.   I’d like to take this
opportunity to thank  Lee, Ray, the rest of the management team and all of the presenters, both past and present, for their hard work in making
the station such a success.

Lastly a massive thank you to all the listeners, without you none of us would be here.
Ian Kattenhorn The Simply Soul Show every Thursday evening 8 to 10pm

Welcome to April’s Blog 2024

Now where to start, March saw the passing of Leigh McGlone after his battle with Bowel Cancer. Leigh will be missed but his 2 from 4 will continue on.
His Funeral & Wake was such an emotional day but strangely enjoyable. The service was not the usual stuffy affair but celebrated his life with wit and the fun times, a true celebration of life. The Team send their condolences to Sharon & his family.

As this year is the 15th anniversary of Soul Groove Radio I thought that I would continue with how how I become involved with SGR.

Lee launched the station in August 2009 and he approached me in September / October of 2009 to join SGR it took me until February to finally to give radio a go, this had always been something that I had always wanted to doo from a boy.

SGR was a 70’s & 80’s station which gave me the opportunity to play the music from my younger years.
My first show I was so nervous as this was something totally alien to me as I couldn’t see my audience which as an Ex club DJ I found hard as back then there was no interaction from the listeners. After a period of doing my Wednesday night show (8.00-10.00pm) which had become popular as Lee had incorporated a chat room that had become very popular with the listeners, I then took on a Friday night show (8.00-10.00pm) this become an instant success gathering more listeners due to the time. Fridays were predominately club classics which the listener could have a boogie along to.

I introduced Ian K to the station from memory in 2011 but it could have been 2010..the grey matter isn’t working too well them Mark Daniels joined shortly after.

The station was building it audience of regular live presenters all bring different styles of shows and music content.
Then in 2020 I stepped up to become a co-owner of the station together with moving the station forward with a new look including the broadening of the music played on the station to include the sub genres that become the station we have today.
With all the changes that had been made the station started to grow & bloom and Gary Makepeace was offered to join the Management team to help develop marketing & events with Hazel Dunmow taking on the administration.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you to the DJs / Presenters past and present for giving up your time to play the music you love & especially you the listener whose lovely comments and support over the last 15 years.

I hope that you can join us at our weekender from 2-4 August at the Coach House, Flint Cross Nr. Royston (8 mins from M11) the hotel rooms are sold out but there are other Hotels nearby & we are offering a minibus (chargeable) service to the Holiday Inn and Royston on the Saturday. For more details contact events@soulgrooveradio.co.uk. There will be a limited number of wristbands available on the door for those last minute decisions.

Thank you all once again

Ray Douglass.

Welcome to the March blog 2024.

As we approach our 15th anniversary, I thought I would give an insight as to how Soul Groove Radio was conceived back in 2009.

Back in 2009, Soul Groove Radio was conceived while searching the internet and listening to the music we all love to listen to today.

The idea was: how could I bring all this great music to the world in one place? The simple answer was to create and build an internet radio
station where people could tune in 24 hours a day and listen to their favourite tracks from years gone by.

Soul Groove Radio went live in August 2009, streaming 24 hours a day using my vast collection of vinyl and playing Soul Funk and Disco all
day every day. As the listeners started to tune into Soul Groove Radio, I started my Wednesday night show called “The Soul Experience,”
which aired between 6 and 8 p.m. every Wednesday evening via our stream and our chat room.

As the station started to grow, a recruitment package was put together, which was sent to various websites and forums in search of DJs to join
the station.

In 2010, Ray Douglass joined the station with his weekly show called “Funkin Towards the Weekend,” as more and more regular listeners
tuned in to the station, such as Jan Readle, Disco Dave, Richard Coulson, Bonkers Sue, Gail Peat, and Nigel Perry, to name but a few.

Soul Groove Radio went on to broadcast four shows a week on Wednesday and Friday evenings with Lee Lessells and Ray Douglass, with the station becoming more popular week after week. We added syndicated shows from Hugh Williams, James Murphy, and Glyn Williams.

In 2011, Ian Kattenhorn (Ian K) joined Soul Groove Radio, where his Simply Soul Show has been a staple of Thursday evenings for the last 13
years, along with Mark Daniel (Feel Good Soul Show), who joined Soul Groove Radio in 2012.

In the following years, Neil Simon, Mike Howard, Lee Vincent, Nick Kabay, Jason Richmond, Gary Raven, and Allan Singleton joined Soul
Groove Radio, bringing their unique style to Soul Groove Radio.

Soul Groove Radio continued to go week on week, attracting new listeners from every part of the globe. It was now time to take Soul Groove Radioto the next level. During one of our many conversations on how we could achieve this, I asked Ray Douglass if he would accept the position of co-owner,  which he gladly accepted. As they say, the rest is history!

Thanks for reading,

Lee Lessells Founder

Kind Regards

Lee Lessells Director

1st February 2024 – Hello and welcome to the 1st Blog of 2024

“Wow where did January go seemed to have flown through what is normally the longest month of the year.
I know it is late but may I wish you all a Happy 2024.

It has been a while since our last blog. so much has been going on in the background at Soul Groove Radio

We would like to say a welcome back to the team Missy M and funky B plus also welcoming our newest member of the team Ronniee C Charles who joined us back in November 2023.

2024 is a special year to Soul Groove Radio as we celebrate our 15th year of broadcasting which is a great milestone and we are growing from strength to strength.

In 2009 when SGR 1st launched, there was only 2 or 3 dj’s on air and in 2024 we have over 40 presenters on the team which produce great quality shows week in week out and we would like to say a massive thank you to them all for all the hard work and dedication they give to SGR.

In 2024 SGR will be travelling further afield with our events starting off in March in Leicester, April in Westcliff on Sea, June in Chester, July in Swindon and in August we are looking forward to hosting our Crystal Soul Weekender in Flint Cross Cambridgeshire plus returning to The Holroyd Arms in Guildford in October. These are all confirmed events and with have a few still to confirm.

Also in February we will be launching our new 15th year merchandise which is looking good with 4 new designs.

So as you can see lots to look forward too.

Have a good February and see you in March”

Thanks Hazel.

4th September 2023 – Hello and welcome to the September blog.

Wow what a busy few months we have had here at Soul Groove radio lots happening.

Firstly we would like to welcome on board the newest members to the SGR team Ali McAlpine, Stuart Craig and the DJ collective and Kim Tavares.

On Saturday 29th July we had our big summer all dayer at the Holroyd Arms in Guildford and it was another great success with over 280 party people enjoying the 11 hours of music supplied by 20 SGR dj’s and what great weather we had too. A massive thank you to Andy, Lisa and all the bar staff at the Holroyd for their hard work on the day and we look forward to returning next year for an evening event.

On Saturday 16th September is our 1st groove cruise in Oxford on the more calm and tranquil part of the river Thames and if all goes well we could be doing another boat along that part of the Thames.

We have some great events already booked and confirmed and with more in the pipeline. Soul Night out in Leicester in October, bit in between Christmas and NY groove cruise, Leicester again in March, back to Westcliff in April and then one that we are very excited about and that is the big 15th anniversary of SGR weekender up in Cambridgeshire near Duxford. This special event will be over 2 full days with either the option of some hotel rooms and camping available.

The SGR on tour 2023 merchandise campaign has been a great success and a massive thank you to everyone that has purchased the SGR merchandise and then taken selfie’s of them in their merchandise wherever they were in the world. We have had selfie’s from Dubai, Ireland, Egypt, Croatia, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, wales, Scotland and lots of various locations of the UK too.

I wish you all well and have a great September.

Hazel Dunmow SGR company secretary.

Thanks Hazel

1st June 2023 – Hello and welcome to the June blog.

In May We welcomed 2 new presenters to the station
Debra Barnes, Soul Sister Show Every 3rd Thursday 22.00 – 00.00.
Ian Boxall, Classic Jazz Funk and Soul – Mondays 18.00 – 20.00.

Great news is we have now launched our brand new App for Android and IOS devices.
So download via the App Store. It’s taken a while, but it’s all running smoothly with no hidden ads and is exclusive to SGR.

On Saturday 29th July we will  be returning to the Holroyd Arms in Guildford for our “Big Summer All Dayer” which is always a great day
with 22 DJ’s entertaining you for over 11 hours.
Tickets available from – Events@soulgrooveradio.co.uk

Soul Groove Radio are proudly supporting;
“Check Out The Groove Summer Soul Vibe” event on Saturday 8th July, Venue 16 in Ipswich from 3pm to late and tickets available via www.eventbrite.co.uk
With 8 of our Soul Groove Radio DJs playing .
Rossi P
Gary Makepeace
Ivor Anderson
Lee King
Bob Powell
Jack Rickwood
Tesh Parmar
Stevie D

2024 events are in the planning stages and some of these are a bit different to the norm and hoping to have events further afield than in the London area, but will be as good as all our events on Soul Groove Radio.

Thank you all for your continued support and stay tuned in.

Kind Regards
DJ Debra Barnes, Soul Sister.

4th May 2023 Welcome to the May blog.

April has flow by and saw the first of this year’s events starting at The Craftsman Pub (Westcliff on Sea) in the afternoon for a gentle warm up & meet & greet protest to the main event at the Moonraker Nightclub. Thank you to everyone who cone along and supported the event. A special thanks to the event sponsors Talis Projects & T4 telecommunications.

April has seen 3 new presenters join our expanding team

Jay Wesley Tuesday afternoons 1400 – 1600
Moochie Alfonso  Wednesday afternoons 1400 – 1600
DJ Emeson Thursday afternoons 1400 – 1600

This month sees the return of The Soul Groove Radio Picnic on Saturday 27 May @ The Field of Dreams Bassingbourn. Tickets are just £5.00 and children under 15 are free.
There is also a limited amount of camping available at £10 for Saturday but you must be self sufficient as there are no facilities except toilets.
Contact events@soulgrooveradio.co.uk

June will see the Groove Boat return on Saturday 3 June which sails from Temple Pier at 1300 – 1800
Tickets are priced at £25.00
There is only a limited number of tickets left  available for this event.
Contact events@soulgrooveradio.co.uk

The Soul Groove Radio App is almost ready for release for both Android & iOS. Keep an eye out via our socials for updates.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Kind Regards,

Ray Douglass
Managing Director.

11th April 2023 Welcome to the April Blog.

‘Greetings and welcome to April I hope you all had a nice Easter
I can not believe how quick this year is going

Last month we had great success on Wednesday 8th March for International Women’s Day where we have a whole day of female presenters from 7am right through to midnight. A massive thank you to Jan Penny, Helen Arnold, Deborah Driscoll, Missy M, Suzanne Yiannakou, Surrey Soul Sister (Tracy & Allison Peck and Debra Barnes), Diane Marsh, Angela DN Crowe and Kim Tavares. We are planning on making IWD 2024 even bigger (more details to following in the coming months)

This month we have of Westcliff with Soul part 2 at the Moonraker bar on Saturday 22nd April and keeping fingers crossed the weather picks up especially as we are at the seaside (buckets and spades at the ready)

We now have announced some other of our events starting with Saturday 27th May for the SGR family picnic in the field of dreams in Bassinbourn, Saturday 3rd June for the Summer Groove boat along the Thames (both these events are on the website if you fancy joining us and what to purchase tickets) then Saturday 29th July for the big SGR all dayer held at the Holroyd Arms in Guildford with more details to follow soon

Also we are pleased to announce that we have been asked to be part of the Summer Vibes event at Venue 19 in Ipswich on Saturday 8th July. With acts there on the day are Odyssey, Jaki Graham, Loose Ends, Tony Momrelle, Brit funk Association and Craig Charles. Tickets are £25 each for early birds up to end of May and can be purchased via eventbrite.co.uk

We also have have 3 new dj’s to the team who joined us in March/April and they are Mike Howard (Sundays midday to 2pm), Moochie Alfronso (Wednesday afternoons from 2-4pm) and DJ Emeson (Thursday afternoons)

May thanks and have a good month
Hazel Dunmow (company secretary)’

8th March 2023 Welcome to the March Blog

Another month has flown by as we continue to work hard behind the scenes to provide the best music & service to our listeners.

First lets start with the Westcliff event which takes place on 22 April 2023 at the Moonrakers Bar from 8pm -1am. There is also a Pre Party warm up at The Craftsman between 3pm & 7pm.

Your DJ’s for the day and details of this event can be found on our website and tickets can be obtained by emailing events@soulgrooveradio.co.uk

We have re-launched our car sticker campaign with a brand new design. These can be obtained free of charge by emailing Lee@soulgrooveradio.co.uk or gary@soulgrooveradio.co.uk

We are still in the process of testing the Soul Groove Radio app so please keep an eye out for further updates, as this will be launched very soon.

There is a brand new text service now available for listeners to send in their messages direct to the studio – Text 07735 35 23 59 with your message and Name.

This month we welcome the following new presenters to our station:

Jack Rickwood – Feel Good Friday – Friday 12.00 – 14:00

Hugh Williams – The Souled Out Show – Sunday 12:00 -14:00

Simon Robertson – It’s a Groove Thing – Tuesday 20:00 – 22:00

Finally, thank you for continuing to support Soul Groove Radio and watch out for our Celebration of International Ladies Day on Wednesday 8 March where all shows for the day will be presented by female presenters.

Ivor Anderson (SGR Management)

 

1st February 2023 Welcome to February’s blog

January has been extremely busy behind the scenes planning the events for 2023, the first of which will see us returning to Westcliff-on-Sea on Saturday 22 April. Tickets will be on sale Mid February from events@soulgrooveradio.co.uk

We would like to welcome new presenters to the station: –

Colin Quilliam – Soul Anthems Thursdays from 4-6pm

Funky B – Wednesday Groove 4-6pm

Gary Dean – Gary will initially covering shows.

There has been some changes schedules which will see Ray Douglass returning to his old Friday night slot 8 – 10pm for Funkin’ Towards the Weekend.

Adi B has moved to a Monday 6 – 8pm with Let There be Soul.

The Soul Emperor – Soul Vibes hasmoved  to a Tuesday from 6 – 8pm

Jamie Stocker – Funk & Soul Show Tuesday 10 – Midnight

We are currently testing the Official Soul Groove Radio App which we hope to launch for both iOS & Android users early March providing there are no hold ups.

Lastly a thank you to all of you that listen to our shows & take part on the Facebook chat, email etc

Ray Douglass
Managing Director

 7th December 2022 – Welcome to the December Blog.

Wow December already where has 2022 gone?.
SGR has had a great year with 3 groove boats, Cambridge, Guildford all dayers plus Westcliff with soul event and this month we have our sell out Christmas soul night out in Hemel which should be a great way to finish the year with. A massive thank you to everyone that has attended one of the events and we hope that you enjoyed them and we look forward to seeing you at one of the SGR events in 2023. Even with train strikes going on it sure didn’t stop people coming along to join in the fun that we had.

Also in 2022 we have had some new presenters that have joined the station and they are fitting in nicely and great to have them part of the team.

In 2022 we have also introduced to the Ladies take over Thursday’s female listeners to do their own radio show which has been a great success and we will be doing more of this in 2023. In 2022 we had Shellie Bone do a show in June, Angela DN Crowe do a show in September and she is also doing another one on the 8th December and then the last Thursday in December will be hosted by Deborah Driscoll so a huge thank you to you ladies for taking part.

So as we come to the close of 2022 on behalf of the Soul Groove Radio management team we would just like to wish all the stations sponsors, presenters and listeners a very happy Christmas and all the very best wishes for 2023 and thank you for your on going support to the station that is growing bigger and better everyday.

Kindest regards Hazel Dunmow (Company secretary)

22nd September 2022 – Welcome to the September Blog.

Wow what a sad and surreal month this has been with the loss of HM Queen Elizabeth II. I think not only the United Kingdom but the world were shocked with this news.

On behalf of the SGR management team we would like to thank all the dj’s for the pre recorded or live shows they did as we had to change the protocol of the music content that we used with immediate effect after the news of her death. Plus also a massive thank you to all the SGR listeners/family for your support and co-operation through the period of mourning. It seems very strange listening to shows where there so no normal show features or shout outs

We have 3 more events taking place in 2022 and which we are looking forward. these are Saturday 15th October Westcliff with Soul at the Moonraker bar, Saturday 26th November for the next Groove Cruise along the Thames and then on Friday 16th December we are holding our Christmas Soul night at Orange Buffalo Hemel. Tickets are available for all 3 events and can be purchased through the website

Best Regards Hazel Dunmow (Company Secretary)

4th August 2022 – Welcome to the August Blog.

Welcome everyone I would like to start by saying thank you to all the Soul Groove Radio Management for appointing me as a manager on the station and making me feel welcome and part of the management team. It certainly is an honour to have this position and look forward to the challenge.

My role will be primarily to assist Ray Douglass with financial matters and also providing input in the management of the station on the general day-to-day basis. July brought a few technical broadcasting issues, which were out of our hands, these have now been fixed and we apologise for any interruption to your listening pleasure.

So now we have the formal bits out of the way let’s get down to the fun side.

Saturday 30th July saw the long anticipated arrival of the Soul Groove Radio all dayer held at the Holroyd Arms Guildford.

The event was sold out about a month prior to the date and there was a waiting list for the people who unfortunately did not to get hold of a ticket in time. It’s important that I mention this now as later on I shall be giving you information of forthcoming events so you can purchase your ticket without further delay.

Entertainment was provided by 18 of our finest dj’s. During the day there was a silent disco in the beer garden until 9pm also music in the main arena all day from 2pm until midnight.

We were lucky enough to have a warm day of sunshine and an excellent friendly party vibe throughout the day. Photos of the day can be viewed on our Facebook page and website. I take the opportunity to thank everyone who attended the event and made it such a successful day.

Also thank you to the organisers especially Hazel Dunmow and Gary Makepeace for making sure everything ran smoothly on the day. 

If you have any photos of the day, then please do let us have them hazel@soulgrooveradio.co.uk

We have had a bit of a shuffle with our daily schedule in July so please just check to ensure you don’t miss out on your favourite Presenters shows.

I mentioned earlier about forthcoming events and we have several in the pipeline but here’s a couple for you to be getting on with. Please grab your tickets early so not to be disappointed as they are selling fast!

Saturday 20th August 2022, Soul Groove Radio Summer Groove Boat. Tickets are £23.50 available from events@soulgrooveradio.co.uk This departs from Temple Pier London and the music on the day will be supplied by DJ Lenny, Harvey Stillman, Ian Dee, Mark Daniel & Ivor Anderson.

Have a great August.

All the best Ivor Anderson (SGR management)

8th July 2022 – Welcome to the July Blog.

Wow I can not believe we are over half way through 2022 time sure is flying by.

Massive thanks to Ray Douglass, Leigh McGlone, Penny B and Graham Towers for holding the Bassingbourn Summer Mayhem on Friday 3rd June. this was a charity event for the village of Bassingbourn and a good time had by all.

A warm welcome and congratulations to Ivor Anderson who has now joined the SGR management team and will be helping Ray with all the financial side of the business and also good to have Lee Lessells back working with the team although taking things still a bit easy after suffering another heart attack that took him out of action for over 6 weeks. Also please welcome new to the SGR DJ team Jonny Layton who joins and his shows will be on every Saturday evening 10pm to midnight.

So in July we are on the final countdown to Saturday 30th July when we hold out summer alldayer at the Holroyd Arms in Guildford. This event is now sold out but we have a waiting list going. With over 20 DJ’s entertaining everyone on the day plus in the garden there will be a silent disco which should be fun.

Tickets are also on sale for the Summer Groove boat which is on Saturday 20th from midday to 5pm leaving Temple pier plus Westcliff with Soul night out held at the Moonraker night club in Westcliff yes SGR is coming to Essex

We are also planning events for 2023 and if anyone knows of any venues that would be happy to put on an event please can you email myself (hazel@soulgrooveradio.co.uk) of the place, contact name and number and we can get in touch and who knows SGR could be coming to your town

A huge thank you to all our DJ’s and listeners for your ongoing support to the station and in making it one of the popular stations out there.

Best Regards Hazel Dunmow (SGR admin and company secretary).

10th May 2022 – Welcome to the May Blog.

Wow May already 2022 sure is flying by.
Firstly a massive warm welcome to the newest members to the SGR team Ian Basezone Smith, Penny Blake and Patrick Brogan
Ian will be doing alternate Saturday evenings to Tesh Parmar, Patrick Brogan doing alternate Sunday’s to Mike Russo and Penny now part of the ladies take over Thursday’s and will be the 2nd Thursday of the month. Watch this space for special female guest dj’s in the months that has a 5th Thursday (June, September and December 2022).

A massive thank you to Graham Towers for stepping up on the day to day running of the station and especially since the founder of SGR Lee Lessells suffered another heart attack and has now got to have complete rest. Lee we all wish you well and a speedy recovery.

We still have tickets available for the Guildford All dayer at the Holroyd Arms on Saturday 30th July so if you would like to join us please see the events page on the website click on the link to get your tickets it will be great to see you there. Also in the next few weeks our August Groove boat tickets will go on sale. The price is £23.50 each and leaving from Temple Pier but at the earlier time of midday until 5pm.

On sale now is Westcliff with Love our soul night out to be held on Saturday 15th October 2022 from 8pm to 1am at Moonraker night club 272 – 274 station road Westcliff on Sea Essex. The tickets are £10 each and available by the events page.

We are starting to think of events for 2023 and hopefully be travelling further afield. If you know of a venue that you think would be a great place for us to come to please email Gary Makepeace (gary@soulgrooveradio.co.uk) or Hazel Dunmow (hazel@soulgrooveradio.co.uk) with contact details of the venue and we will get in touch.

We would also like to give a massive thank you to all the dj’s for their great team work to the station and for producing great shows week in week out and a massive thank you to all the listeners for your continued support to SGR and for making it bigger and better everyday we definitely are one big happy soul family.

Have a great May and look forward to seeing you soon at an event.
Best Regards.

Hazel Dunmow (SGR Admin and Company Secretary).

 

12th April 2022 -Welcome to the April Blog

Welcome to April everyone, I’m GT and I would love to take this opportunity to thank the management team for inviting me to join them. I shall be in the background helping out with the day to day running of the station and here for technical support to all our fantastic DJs. Oh and still causing complete chaos on the airwaves!!

A massive thank you must be said to all the listeners who attended the Cambridge All Dayer at the Clayton Hotel and for making it a huge success. A massive thank you must also go out to all the DJs for their sets. Everyone of them on point. We were blessed with some beautiful weather which added a bit more magic to what was such a fun day full of laughter and dancing.

Thank you to Gary Makepeace for the supply of the equipment.

Wristbands are now on sale for the next event which is the Guildford All Dayer at The Holroyd Arms, 36 Aldershot Rd, Guilford, GU2 8AF on Saturday 30th July 2022, starting at 1pm through till midnight.
Email events@soulgrooveradio.co.uk to get your wristband, they are priced at £10 each.

We are still having a few issues with merchandise due to a shortage of stock coming in from Europe, I can assure you that we are working hard with Artystar to fulfil any pending orders. We are hoping in the next few weeks that everything will be back in stock so please get your orders in ready for the beautiful British summertime!!

We have advertising slots available at very reasonable rates, give your business more exposure and contact advertising@soulgrooveradio.co.uk for more details.

Thank you to all the SGR DJs, everything they do is on a voluntary basis and we really have struck gold with the talent and experience of the team. You the best you lot.

Lastly, I want to thank all you lovely listeners for taking the time to get involved with SGR, for all the contact on social media, all the emails, buying merchandise and attending events, our aim is to bring everyone together through soul music. From experience I have made friends for life that I wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for the station.

Big love to you all.
Graham Towers
(SGR Management Team)

5th March 2022 – Welcome to the March Blog.

We have seen some changes with the management structure and would like to Welcome Graham Towers & Rossi P to the team.
We have also 2 new presenters joining the line up & a warm welcome to the Soul Groove Family.

Kevin O’Brien – The Soulcial @ 4  Monday – Thursday from 4pm

Harvey Stillman – Naked Disco 9-10.00 am Monday – Wednesday.

It’s been a busy time again and it was lovely to meet some of you on the Groove Boat on 19 February.

There are still some tickets left for the first alldayer in Cambridge on 26 March which are available from events@soulgrooveradio.co.uk

We are looking into venues in the Midlands / North for next year for an event, if you know of a venue for consideration please email Hazel.

The station is growing and developing with some of the changes causing some technical difficulties. I would like to thank you for bearing with us during the change overs.

We currently have a space left for a Station Sponsorship if you would like more information please email advertising@soulgrooveradio.co.uk

Gmail users:- Google has introduced new anti spam measures and blocks some emails being delivered to us, please could you add the email addresses to your contacts this will ensure we get your emails.

Merchandise- we are currently seeing outages of certain products due to suppliers not having stock. Chris will advise you and issue a refund if the wait is too long or no dates for stock arrival.

Thank you all for your continued support and I hope to see some of you at the Cambridge alldayer.

Ray Douglass – Managing Director

1st February 2022 – Welcome to the February blog. 

Firstly I’d like to thank everyone that made it on our December groove boat , what a great afternoon it was with lots laughing and smiles everywhere, defiantly looking forward to our next groove boat on the 19th February.

Being apart of SGR has been an great adventure, since being invited to join the team nearly 3 years ago the station has grown from strength to strength. During lockdown and doing the mid morning shows Monday to Friday kept me sane with the fun and banter with listeners on the Facebook threads while locked in at home made life a bit easier. Soon after starting the shows we recognized that some listeners where home alone too and their only contact with the outside world was via the show threads. This has now created friendships far and wide , so when we’ve had an SGR event new friends finally got to meet each other that had only had contact through the threads. This is still the case on our events now, friends meeting Facebook friends for the first time, even us DJs get to meet each other for the first time too which is great.

As you may know our DJs come from all walks of life and each one brings a different style of soul music to the station , hopefully we have something for everyone.

We have more events lined up for this year which we are all looking forward too , plus events for 2023 are in the planning stages.

A big thank you to all that have purchased our merchandise via our online shop.

It was great to see at the Back 2 love weekend in Southport last September, so many SGR t-shirts being worn which again made us stand out from other stations. We are looking forward to returning to the Back 2 love Weekender in July this year and it will  be lovely to see more SGR listeners there.

Lastly I’d like to thank you all for being a big part of soul groove radio family as with out you none of this would be possible .

Regards
Gary Makepeace
Director

 

11th January  2022- Welcome to our first blog of 2022

We would like to welcome, to the presenters line up – Ian Dee

Ian has taken over Saturday mornings from 10.00am – Midday with his ‘Soulful Saturday” Show

On Wednesday 29th December 2021 we had our Festive Groove boat along the river Thames and what a great afternoon we had grooving up and down the Thames. A massive thank you to all the SGR family that joined us. A huge thank you to Gary Makepeace & Hazel Dunmow for their great sets.

Why not check out our Official Facebook Page for some great pictures of a great afternoon.

We are looking forward to see you all again on board our next Groove  Boat on Saturday 19th February departing Temple Pier at 1pm tickets can
be purchased by emailing events@soulgrooveradio.co.uk priced at £25.00 each, or see our SGR website Events page.

Tickets are now on sale for our Cambridge Alldayer taking place at The Clayton Hotel Cambridge which can be purchased by emailing
events@soulgrooveradio.co.uk priced at £10.00 each or see our SGR website Events page.

We certainly have a very busy few months ahead with some great events to look forward to.

On behalf of everyone here at Soul Groove Radio we wish a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Lee Lessells – Founder

08th December 2021 -Welcome to November / Decembers blog

Firstly, a warm welcome to 2 new presenters to the Soul Groove Radio team.
Mark Stuart & Nigel Waymark
Mark is taking over Saturday evenings from 10.00 – Midnight
Nigel is doing the Network Soul Chart Show on a Thursday morning from 5.00 – 7.00am

We have had a very busy few weeks finalising the events for 2022 which details will be released during December & getting the shop up & running.
We are pleased to announce that our first all dayer will be in Cambridge on 26 March, this event will be held at a prestigious 4* hotel situated minutes from the city centre & could be combined to make a weekend stay to enable you to take in some of the historic sights and dining Cambridge can offer. More details will follow as they are finalised.

This year has been by far one of the busiest we have seen, with the all dayer at the Holroyd, Bastonbury and of course our first Groove Boat. We hope to see some of you on the Groove Boat in December where the management team will entertain you. (I wanted to call it the revenge of the turkey).

The shop is now up & running with much more official merchandise and limited edition T-Shirts and gift cards, pop over to www.soulgrooveradioshop.co.uk

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the team for their continued input & ideas, with a special mention to an unsung hero Hazel Dunmow who has managed to keep everyone on an even keel.

Thank you from all the team to you the listeners for your continued support over the last 12 months.
May we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy & Prosperous 2022.

Ray Douglass – Managing Director

28th October 2021 – Welcome to our October Blog

I can not believe we are nearly to the end of October and now starting to get into the festive season just where has 2021 gone?.

On Saturday 16th October we had our 1st Groove boat along the river Thames and what a great day everyone had. It was fab to see so many of the SGR family there and a massive thank you to you all that joined us on the day. From 1pm to 6pm everywhere you looked there was smiling faces, laughter and lots of dancing so a great success and now looking forward to the Festive boat on Wednesday 29th December 2021. A huge thank you to Leigh McGlone, Groove Genie, Ray Penny and Rossi P for great sets they did on the boat. It was also lovely to finally meet Luc Willemsens who travelled from Belgium to join us on the Groove boat and he certainly a Soul brother and has become a big part of the SGR family.

The SGR management meet in Cambridge on Sunday 24th October for a meeting to debrief just on how well the Groove boat was and to see what we can change to make future boats more of a success. We are looking into on board catering as we know some people do like the chose to have something to eat while on board.

We was also planning events for 2022 and it’s going to be a busy year with the return to Guildford and Bassingbourn and maybe some other towns/cities around the country as well as up to 4 Groove boats and we will of course keep you updated.

We are also keeping our fingers crossed that the new online merchandise shop will be going live mid November just in time for Christmas with additional items added as well as the new gift cards.

Thank you so much for your continued support to SGR.

Best Regards. 

Hazel Dunmow.

Company Secretary and SGR Admin.

21st September 2021 – Welcome to our September Blog.

Wow what a crazy couple of months we have has since our last blog.

Firstly a warm welcome to our new DJ’s that have joined the team in July, August and September.
Missy M
Kool Keith
Adi Brown
Steven McMorrine

Secondly a great return to the airwaves of Graham Towers, Paul Fitzgerald and Toni Belfield after over 7 weeks absences due to serious health issues but we are pleased to say they are all now well and back to entertaining us.

The SGR all dayer on 31st July at the Holroyd Arms in Guildford was a great success with over 300 people enjoying the day and what great sets all the dj’s performed. A massive thank you to Andy, Lisa and all the staff at the Holroyd Arms for all the hard work the did on the day.
We are going back to the Holroyd Arms on Saturday 30th July 2022 for another all dayer and hope you can join us

The SGR picnic on Saturday 28th August in Bassingbourn was also a great success and was fun as a majority of the SGR listeners took the advantage of camping over night which was a laugh.
Here’s to the next one which hopefully will be the end of May 2022

The start of September some of the SGR DJ’s and listeners took a trip up to Southport to the 1st Back to Love weekender at the Bliss Hotel. What a great event and by the end of the weekend I think all at the Bliss Hotel knew who Soul Groove Radio were. It was great that 2 of the SGR DJ’s were part of the DJ line up for the weekender and a big thank you to Tesh Parmar and Steve Aggasild for flying the SGR flag among all the other great DJ’s

We are really looking forward to our 1st Groove boat which is to take place on Saturday 16th October from Temple pier of 5 hours cruising up the Thames seeing the London sights.

We have also released the tickets for the Festive Groove Boat (the bit in the middle) which is to take place on Wednesday 29th December 2021 again from Temple pier. Those days between Christmas and New Year can be a bit of a boring time as you have enjoyed Christmas opening your presents eating and drinking too much and don’t know what to do while you wait to celebrate the New year in so why not come and join us.

Thanks as always for your continued support to this ever growing station.

Best Regards.

Hazel Dunmow.

Company Secretary and SGR Admin.

7th July 2021 – Welcome to our July Blog.

This year is flying by, not long until the sold out long awaited all dayer at the Holroyd in Guildford.
We will be releasing the DJ set times on the Official Soul Groove Radio Facebook pages and our website in due course.

June has been a very busy month with the announcement of the Soul Groove Radio Picnic on Saturday 28 August in Bassingbourn.
We are hoping to offer a limited amount overnight parking for Motorhomes / Caravans & Camper Vans that are self sufficient.

                                   We would like to welcome, to the presenters line up – Allan Singleton and Toni Belfield.

                           Allan has taken over Saturday afternoons from 4.00 – 6.00 with his ‘Saturday Dance Party’ show.
                          Toni B – Toni has taking over Tuesday afternoons from 2.00 – 4.00 with her ‘Positively Soul’ show.

We have added another event The Soul Groove Radio Picnic taking place on Saturday 28 August from 4.00 – 11.00 PM in Bassingbourn Cambridgeshire wrist bands are priced at £6.00 with under 15’s free. For more / bookings contact events@soulgrooveradio.co.uk

See our Events page for mor information.

16th May 2021 – Welcome to our May Blog.

The 1st SGR Groove Boat was sold out within 3 days of announcing tickets being released. The response has been amazing.

We are now planning our next Groove boat and that will hopefully take place on Wednesday 29th December. Same time 1 to 6pm and will be called ‘The Revenge of the Turkey’.

Also in the planning is a major event to take place over a weekend hopefully in March 2022 and in the lovely city of Cambridge.

This week sees the start of new shows for both Graham Towers and Bob Christie.
Graham will also now be doing Friday afternoons from midday to two, which means now on Fridays there will be no repeat shows. Bob Christie starts his new show on Sunday evenings from 10pm to midnight and is called ‘House of Soul’.

The new online shop has been delayed in the launch date and fingers crossed all up and running start of June. There will be so much more SGR merchandise on sale and we would like to say a massive thank you to Chris and the team at Artystar for helping launch this new on line shop and all the new items being on offer to purchase.

On behalf of the SGR management team and all the DJ’s we would like to say a huge hearty thank you for all your support and for choosing this growing station.

Thanks Hazel. 

Company Secretary.

15th April 2021 – Welcome to our April Blog.

Soul Groove Radio are just going from strength to strength not only are we growing in presenters numbers but also in listeners as well.

On the 4th April Paul Fitzgerald became our newest member to the SGR DJ team with his new Sunday morning show from 7 – 9am called Sunday Breakfast and Soul Flavours.

Our very own Diane Marsh also has her latest single out soon and was aired 13th April for the 1st time on Gary Makepeace Soulful Sandwich show. Good luck Diane with the new single which is called ‘I’m taken’ (‘I’m spoken for’).

Soul Groove Radio have now registered with companies house to become a limited company and that was all finalised at the end of March.

In the next month we will also be launching our very own online merchandise shop.

On Saturday 16th October we will also be holding our 1st Soul Groove boat which will be leaving Temple Pier in London at 1pm for a 5 hour trip up and down the Thames.

SGR management team are in the planning stages of many more events to take place in 2022 and not just in the London area.

Many Thanks to everyone involved with SGR from the management team DJ’s and of course the listeners for making this a bigger and better station that just keeps growing.

Best Regards Hazel Dunmow (company secretary/admin).

9th March 2021 – Welcome to our March Blog.

From all the team welcome to:

Bob Chrisite – Bob presents The ‘Elements Of Soul’ every Monday & Tuesday from Midday – 2pm

Renee Charles –  Renee will be joining us every second Thursday of the month 10pm – Midnight

DJ H – DJ H will be joining the team here at Soul Groove Radio with his ‘Good Times & Good Vibes Friday’s’- afternoon 2-4pm

Soul Groove Radio information:

There will be more announcements during the coming weeks as we add even more shows & presenters for your enjoyment.

We are busy behind the scenes planning our next events for the rest of year and into 2022 you never know there may be one or two surprises along the way!

                                                                                                      Please see our new Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy

The Soul Groove Radio Saturday Night Specials have been very popular among our presenters and listeners you will find one of The Soul Groove Radio presenters taking over Studio One between 10pm-Midnight to give you an unforgettable Saturday Night experience

On a personal note I would like to thank all of our presenters, admin team,  the management team and above all, YOU the listener for making Soul Groove Radio the station of choice.

Lee Lessells

24th February 2021

                                          For your diary a new date for the AllDayer.

                                                  The date is now 31st July 2021.

                                                                       Soul Groove Radio All Dayer July 2021 

                                                                                                        Click for more information

5th February 2021

Welcome to our latest news blog.

January has been a really busy time for the management team dealing with the licence renewal and planning for the year ahead.

From all of the team welcome to: –

Graham Towers – Graham presents Soul Delicious Tuesdays & Wednesdays from 1000 – Midday

Paul Mac –  Station and will be sharing a Saturday night slot with Tesh. Paul will be doing weeks 1 & 3 on rotation from Saturday 6 February 2021 – 8pm to 10pm

Paul Fitzgerald – Paul will be the cover Presenter standing in where necessary.

There will be more announcements during the next few weeks as we add more shows & presenters for your entertainment.

Merchandise – Hopefully the E store will be up and running in February. There will be a greater choice of Official Merchandise including limited editions.

Events – We are busy trying to plan some events during the course of the year but this is proving somewhat difficult.
We are looking at something completely different and very special towards the end of the year.

I must say a big thank you to everyone at the station who is so dedicated and passionate about what they do.
The listeners an even bigger thank you for your continued support both online and offline, the responses to the threads, the constant supply of emails with your request & messages.

Ray Douglass

6th January 2021 Graham Towers 

Graham has two new shows on Wednesday and Thursday mornings 10am to 12 noon the ‘Soul Delicious’ show.

1st January 2021

Happy New Year 

Here at Soul Groove Radio, we wish all our listeners and team a very Happy 2021.

New DJ

A new DJ will be joining Soul Groove Radio in early January to take up the Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 10am to midday. Watch this space!!!

Stay Safe & Soulful. 

The Soul Groove Team.

31st December 2020

Live music all day

Soul Groove Radio presents a New Year Eve all day party. Keep us locked on.

Listen Live

24 October 2020

Welcome to the new website

It’s been a long time in preparation.
Firstly we would like to thank all of the presenters for their continued input into the station & especially you the listeners.

Thank you to everyone that attended the first All Dayer @ The Cricketers Arms, despite the torrential rain in the early evening it didn’t dampen your spirits and we think it made you more determined to have a good time.

We are busy working behind the scenes on other events for 2021.
We are hopefully going to be involved with a charity 1 day event which will be festival themed & all monies raised after expenses will be donated to charity. 

The funds raised will be aimed at the people who really need apparatus or help with improving their day to day lives. More to follow when available.

We hope that the blog will help keep you informed on shows, presenters & general news.

Stay Safe & Soulful

The Soul Groove Team

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