The Midnight City Soul Band

The Midnight City Soul Band are back at Downstairs at Chas Mann's on Saturday 12 December, returning to the Kings Norton venue that organises the night. It's a three-hour set of soul tunes drawn from the best of Motown, Stax and Atlantic, and they've described it as being aimed at getting the floor moving.

If those three labels ring a bell, you've got the run of it. Motown brings the polished Detroit sound of the 60s, Stax the grittier Memphis soul, and Atlantic the wide-reaching soul and R&B that came out of New York and beyond. Between them, they cover a huge chunk of the soul tradition, so the set should pull from a fair few different corners of the genre. It's a long one, too — three hours means they'll have plenty of room to work through the material rather than rushing through a short list.

The venue is Downstairs at Chas Mann's, 71 The Green, Kings Norton, B38 8RU, and it's the same place that puts the night on, so they're playing on their own turf. The music runs from 8pm to 11pm, and tickets are £14.25.