DJs club nights a Howling success

DJs are Rick Lees (left) and Tom Summerfield

MUSIC EXTRA: SADDLEWORTH pair Tom Summerfield and Rick Lees struck gold when they created the increasingly popular Howling Rhythm soul club nights two years ago.


Staged on the third Saturday of each month in Manchester’s Ruby Lounge, stompers of all ages are getting back into the re-energised soul scene in their hundreds, and numbers are steadily increasing.

Tom and Rick, Rick’s brother Max, Elliot Hutchinson and Rory Swierc currently boss the decks.

Summerfield, who also co-owns the Marshall Artist fashion outlet, said: “All us DJs do a bit on the nights. There’s a really good mix of 60s soul, Motown, R and B and Northern: we work hard to put out as broad a spectrum of tunes as we can.

“The main genre is Northern soul I guess, I’m just constantly amazed by new gems I keep finding, but we’ve recently opened people’s eyes to funkier crossover soul stuff and it’s gone down brilliantly.”

The night was envisioned in early 2013 by Summerfield and Lees during the Oldham duo’s Do-Devil Club show on independent Manchester Radio.

Summerfield said: “Me and Rick kicked-off Howling Rhythm with a couple of nights at the Night and Day Cafe. The first five or six were pretty quiet, but we felt we could better so we tweaked the sets round a bit and it started to kick off. We were soon getting around 350, but since we moved to the Ruby Lounge we’re up to 600 or more.

“It’s a great night at a great venue and there’s plenty of people from Oldham coming. Our tunes are attracting people of all ages, from students to 40-year-old football casuals. It’s getting to the stage where we might outgrow the Ruby Lounge, to be honest. We’ll have look at that over the next few months.”

Summerfield and Lees have been heavily involved in the Oldham music scene since they met at school.

As as 15 year olds both were members of indie-influenced band Phoenix, before Summerfield went on to front popular local outfit Sound Club and bass guitarist Lees eventually enjoyed commercial success with Jonny Brown, brother Max, Blair Murray and Adam Birchall in NME-hailed band Twisted Wheel.



Howling Rhythm club night dates:: www.howlingrhythm.com. They also have a very popular Instagram site