Forres Town Hall hosted Soul Food Café on behalf of Forres Area Community Trust

A sold-out gig in a historic, local building raised £5000 towards the venue’s ongoing refurbishment.

Soul Food Café headlined ‘Florics in February’ at Forres Town Hall for custodians Forres Area Community Trust (FACT) - plus more than 250 revellers who packed the dance floor in the main hall and the balcony upstairs.

“The atmosphere was electric!” said FACT development manager, Lorna Creswell. “They played about 40 songs with hardly any breaks.

“I knew the band from playing at my birthday here last year when a number of guests suggested bringing them back for a fundraiser towards town hall improvements.”

Soul Food Cafe lead vocalist Krzysztof ‘Zed’ Zajaczkowski confirmed the band’s extensive repertoire included favourites ‘Treat her Right’ by Roy Head, ‘Everybody Needs Somebody to Love’ by Solomon Burke, and The Doors’ ‘Roadhouse Blues’.

He said: “It was a real buzz when we saw the ‘sold out’ poster at the door! The hall looked great inside thanks to the amazing FACT team, and especially Lorna's boundless vitality!

“The gig was terrific. We played a couple of obscure soul and blues numbers which we've revamped - the audience danced to all of them.

“The cherry on the cake was the crowd cheering us on for an encore when we'd punctually ended on time as requested. We finished with ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ and ‘Honky Tonk Women’ which did the trick for everyone!”

Soul Food Cafe highly rate the town hall for live performances.

Zed said: “It’s currently an underrated and under-used venue. The town hall is a great place for any event, especially if you get the crowd in. Glitter, flashing lights and a smoke machine plus shoulder-to-shoulder dancing all add up to a great atmosphere.”

After Florics in February, Soul Food Café received numerous compliments and requests for further gigs.

“It just shows that people still want the live music experience,” added Zed. “We want community … And we want to dance!

“We're looking forward to playing more gigs and bringing a party atmosphere again.”

On top of ticket sales, two licensed bars, raffles with prizes donated by local businesses and a photo area help to generate proceeds.

FACT is in phase two of fundraising for improvements after major roof works were completed last year.

“We now want to look at what improvements can be made now,” said Lorna, “to make the facility a better attraction for a wider range of folk.”