There's a bit of confusion over what is northern soul, so here's an explanation for whoever may be interested... Popular opinion has northern soul as the description for the thousands of Tamla imitators of the mid to late 60s. The scene, as such, started in London's Soho clubs in the mid 60s, playing mainly Motown. However, as is the way with things in London, the scene was a fad and soon dissipated, largely due to the growing dominance of heavy rock which killed off a lot of the mod scene, and which placed a rather over zealous importance on serious music. At the time, Sgt Pepper shifted the emphasis from singles to albums, live music was thought superior to discos, and an audience for rock - which called soul music idiot dancing music - was catered for by colleges with gig venues. But that was the south. Fans with a feverish passion for soul took the scene to the northern clubs in Stoke, Blackburn, Wigan and Manchester. A cloumnist on Blues and soul magazine, Dave Godwin, noticed this change and christened the movement northern soul. The increasingly popular clubs couldn't survive by playing the same records week in week out. DJs (such as Ian Levine, much later producer of Take That records) clamoured to get the latest imports to keep the punters dancing. The next step was to go to America to buy up stocks of unsold records in warehouses. Countless gems were unearthed, creating the rare and expensive northern single, typically in the sub-Tamla genre. By the turn of the decade, the northern scene became divided as certain DJs diversified to include some funk in their sets. This helped keep the scene fresh, but the, er, funky flavas aren't considered as northern classics with hindsight; the staple diet of northern soul remains naked passion, blind devotion and, most importantly, a danceable beat. Indeed, the 70s saw a host of contemporary floorshakers and heartbreakers make the grade in the clubs. Mods have always been part of the northern scene, with their competitiveness (having the latest import; DJs would even put white card over the record label as it played so no-one could find out what it was and try and buy one), their love of smart fashions and speed to keep them up all night at the Wigan Casino. Most northern soul is American, though there is a stack of British classics, but the scene is British. It is coincidental that the major production bases for northern soul were in the northern cities of America, such as New York, Detroit and Chicago. Southern soul is a different breed, a geopgraphical description for slower, more gospel-influenced soul. Crossovers do exist, of course, including one of the greatest northern numbers ever, Ann Sexton's You've Been Gone Too Long. On a different note - Guy Chadwick once sang "I don't know why I love you, your face is like a foreign food". It's crap and it doesn't even rhyme. Ben ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------