Next event, Sunday 7th December, 2008, 8-10pm:
Paul Bell
For further information, contact Graham White on 07881 781547 or 01889 563930 or email.
Reviews
Sunday 21st September, 2008 featuring Eclipse
Awaiting review
Sunday 22nd June, 2008 featuring One Big Sky [ myspace ]
The subject was Love - which some of us thought was a toughie. It was a toughie, but Graham and crew made a good job of it, measuring sensitivity, sentiment and wit to finish up with a challenging description of God's love.
One Big Sky, who we met three months ago as 'Phil's Friends' treated us to another excellent performance. Some of the material was familiar from last time (and, indeed, from their EP) - 'What Love Can Do' and 'Lost Things' being particularly memorable.
The song that stands out to me from the evening was their opening number "Callum's Road", a song about Callum MacLeod who was so fed up with Inverness County Council's unwillingness to build a road to his village that he built it himself - two miles of Hebridean terrain.
This Soul Cafe is the most multimedia we've yet attempted. Love 2008, a sand painting video by Ilana Yahav was very popular, and some of the graphics were also most imaginative.
Sunday 16th March, featuring Phil Baggaley & Friends
We welcomed Phil Baggaley back to Uttoxeter's Soul Cafe with memories of the beautiful and haunting voice of Bethan Court, lead singer with his former band The Harbour Lights. Well, Beth has gone orf to Uni to expand her mind and The Harbour Lights have sadly been extinguished. We knew this was going to happen of course: no big shock, hence the invitation to Phil 'and friends'. The Friends, as it turns out, are his new outfit, One Big Sky.
I suppose it's no great surprise that Phil's new band is not a million miles away from Phil's old band - the same slick, melodic, folk-rock style. However the cognoscenti among us at Uttoxeter reckon that One Big Sky have a bit more edge than The Harbour Lights. Thinking about it, I reckon the difference is that THL built their very distinctive sound around Beth's voice whereas OBS have a rather easier, more drirect sound. Joanne'a voice is powerful too, and mellow (not far from Bethan's tonally), but bluesier.
We look look forward to their return in June with anticipation.
Other highlights of the evening? Graham set the theme from the start of the evening with a long and whimsical poem about Time. And Colin's 3-minute story managed to squeeze just about everyrthing in [ read it for yourself ]. 
Sunday 9th December, featuring Paul Bell
Christmas Special
It's a strange thing to talk about ‘atmosphere', yet we do it all the time. A cultural quirk to apparently assess a situation by the quality of its oxygen. How do we judge a good atmosphere; and how do we distinguish it from a bad one?
I digress. If ever there was a pleasant atmosphere, it was at the Soul Café event I attended on Sunday evening. Run by the Dove Evangelical Free Church on Stone Road in Uttoxeter, this was the third Soul Café the church has held, and was something of a Christmas Special.
In a mood lit room punctuated by background music, dispersed chatter and an impressive selection of cake; Soul Café was a very nice place to be. And as the program started moving along the audience watched keenly as it became a fascinating and thought provoking place to be.
As well as short stories, poetry and ever more cake, there was musical input from the evening's special guest Paul Bell. With a musical career of 18 years (starting at the tender age of 5) the young singer songwriter from Sheffield is becoming a widely acclaimed talent, likened to such performers as Damien Rice and David Gray. His input to Soul Café was very well received and he played a number of songs from his album Human Conditions, ending the evening with his own take on the classic Christmas carol Silent Night.
Soul Café is run by the church, and is obviously a Christian event. Rightly so, they make no attempt to hide this, and the Christian ideas associated with Christmas were carried on throughout. However, there is no sense of forcing Christianity on people and the audience are treated as intelligent people capable of making their own decisions. Soul Café is intended more as a public event to get people together in a friendly place, and thinking about some of the ideas put forward through music and poetry.
The next Soul Café event is March 16 th in the New Year with special guest Phil Baggaley and I highly recommend it as an evening out. I thoroughly enjoyed the relaxing and thoughtful performances, the delicious refreshments on offer and the friendly welcome of the hosts the Dove Evangelical Free Church.
Sam Dailly
Sunday 16th September, featuring Mal Pope 
A song to touch the children of the nation:
Our second soulcafe was held on 16th September 2007, and our special guest Mal Pope was very well received by all.
The young people were particularly impressed when Mal told the story about how He had prayed and asked God for a song that would "touch the hearts of the children of this nation".
God said "No", for a long time, but when He did give him a song, it wasn't quite what Mal had expected. It was the opening song of the TV programme Fireman Sam.
GW
Sunday 17th June, 2007, featuring The Harbour Lights 
It was very encouraging that around one hundred people attended our first Soulcafé on 17th June, which we staged as part of Flourish, the Uttoxeter Arts Festival. What was even more encouraging was that about 10% of those mho attended, were non-Christians, and most of them said they would come again to another Soulcafé: Praise the Lord!
I would personally like to thank everyone who helped make this event possible, and to thank our Lord for giving us the opportunity to reach out with this new style of gathering.
The smell of fresh coffee brewing certainly did it for some people, but a few later regretted how much of it they had drunk when they couldn't get off to sleep!
And what about the cakes! Have you ever seen such a wonderful selection? Thanks to all those who provided them. It has been suggesed that we might call future events soulcakes but that might be taking it too far.
A big Thank you must also go to our friend Phil Baggaley and his band The Harbour Lights, for some fantastic, meaningful and spiritual live music. Many people have asked when they will appear again!
GW
