Sinister: Northern Soul

[M.CLARK2 at xxx.uk]

          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
          

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