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History of Northern Soul


smetrov

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Watched the movie last night. (not great)

 

Just a question - my understanding was that Northern soul had its roots in the early 60's with the early mods - 'True Mods only dance to Norther Soul'  - However the film showed the rise of Northern soul in the mid 70's ..........

 

I know the high kickin etc wasn't part of the Mod 60's scene - but Northern Soul was.....

 

One for the really, really old farts !

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Not old enough to remember, but my understanding it that R&B / Soul music was popular in the Mod scene during the 60s. Northern Soul came about, due to DJs playing older / more obscure R&B / Soul records in the 70s in Northern clubs. It was a throw back, inspired by the Mod scene. The dancers developed their own style of dancing, that included moves inspired by Kung Fu movies that had become popular at the time. 

Edited by dAVe80
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Might as well throw in my version:

 

Northern soul is a bit of a construct, any obscure soul / dance music with a fast enough danceable beat could be considered 'northern soul'. Whilst bands might want to call themselves rockers or mods or punks or whatever, nobody ever originally set out to be a northern soul band. It's pretty much anything obscure from 60's through to disco.

 

As a 'movement' that whole Wigan Casino / Twisted Wheel scene is well documented (well documented to death!).

 

The best film ever made about Northern Soul was, of course, the 3 minute video for The Style Council's 'Solid Bond'.

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Mods came out of Northern Soul, surely? Northern Soul was American music, mods were Brits putting their own spin on things.

No, (1st gen) mods were into soul/r&b (don't get me started on how that term has been bastardised). It didn't get called northern soul until a few years later, in the northern UK clubs. Ironically, a lot of it was actually southern soul, in terms of its American origins. Edited by mjmooney
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As someone who was there, I can confirm  Mr Mooney is spot on. Perhaps one of the best places for Mods in the 60's was The Metro in Livery Street; it was a club under a railway arch and had top B/ham live bands such as The King Bees (Carl Palmer on drums), Shades 5, Cock a Hoops et al. I think Northern Soul came out of the second generation Mods but not certain. There was a good Northern Soul club in Stoke on Trent called The Torch - used to have a sew on patch saying 'Keep The Faith' !

I would suggest a couple of numbers as being 'proper' mod music :- The Entertainer - Tony Clarke ;   Land of a thousand dances - Chris Kenner; Girls are out to get ya ; The Fascinations ;  1-2-3 Len Barry. I'm afraid I just live in the past !!

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wahey!

 

I was what I'd consider second generation, I'd have said northern soul had filled the gap between the two. I think it was an early 70's thing maybe? Certainly, by the time mid 70's bands were getting interviewed they were quoting NS as an influence 'when they were younger', lord forbid. Typical example would be early 'The Jam' set lists which would have been speeded up soul music.

 

I've currently got lots of late 70's early 80's albums on rotation. Some are surprisingly good, such as The Chords, The Prisoners, The Times (it was a period of time when any serious band had 'the' in the title). Others just leave me wondering what on earth I was buying.

 

Late 70's around here would still have required visits to 'black' clubs down Cardiff Docks to hear 'authentic' non TOTP top 30 soul music. There was a club at the far end of Bute Street called The North Star Club which was considered a no go area by my elders and betters. A very small number of us would get in there under age. Whilst we were never exactly embraced as brothers, we were totally ignored. Which for that area at that time was as good as it got.

 

Live music would have been The New Ocean Club, again a club on wasteland in the dark down the docks. I saw Dr Feelgood there, on  my own in my tight little silver suit, surrounded by Hells Angels. They adopted me, they must have presumed I was either lost or psychotic.

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I think the sub-tribe that was into northern soul, and was around in the early 70s (bridging the gap between the the 60s mods and their late 70s revivals) would have called themselves 'soul boys' - they wore those ridiculous high-waisted baggies. They definitely didn't call themselves mods. A lot of them were also football hooligans. 

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The term "Northern Soul" was coined by a soul journalist/record shop owner/label owner called Dave Godin.  Before that it was just known as soul and R&B music.

 

The original mods had faded out by around 1970 and many had become "hard mods" a sort of forerunner of skinheads.  

 

Lots of information out there if you Google it.  Of course everyone has their own version of history - ignore everything you read by original Wigan Casino DJ Russ Winstanley, the man's only interested these days in making as much money as he can from the current interest in the music from younger people.

 

The film's not bad but focused too much on the drug taking of the time.  

 

A good soul forum is Soul Source at http://www.soul-source.co.uk/

 

Don't have to be a member to read some of the forums.  It can get a bit clique-ish but there's usually someone around who will answer your questions.

 

Not me though, I've only been on the soul scene since the early 90s and couldn't tell you a thing about what it was like in the 70s.

 

Northern soul wasn't just a 70s thing, it never went away when Wigan Casino closed down - it just went underground and venues such as the 100 Club in London, Top Of The World in Stafford and Tony's Empress Ballroom in Blackburn were still packed out every weekend.


Rumour has it our very own legend Tony Morley was right into Northern Soul.

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I was a late 70's 80's mod.

 

My memory is that soul was absent from that scene - it was Jam\Secret Affair - with Tamla motown touted as the original 'mod music'

 

Also in the 80's - the sknheads and the mods were very much foes, but in the 60's they were sort of on the same side. Been to a few mod do's lately, a lot it is now focused around the scooters  and the skinheads and mods are once in the same camp.

 

Footnote:-

 

Secret Affair haven't got the greatest of reputations - but they are the best band I have ever seen live - they are playing the Institute on Nov 7 if anyone fancies it.... 

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I used to draw big cocks on scooters with a permanent marker back in 1980.

Yes, I had a motorbike too :lol:

Edited by rjw63
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Bumped into a few guys last summer on their way across to Brugge for a weekend. Got talking scooters generally, sat on a few scoots for photos, shared stories about the club I was very briefly in back in the day (Distant Echo) and then had a few laps on a few different ones around the pub car park for old times sake. To just let a random bloke take your scooter for a spin! That's relaxed. Couldn't have been a nicer bunch of chaps.

 

7316445140_f205a6234e_k.jpg

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Also in the 80's - the sknheads and the mods were very much foes

No they weren't unless you were talking about the nazi skinheads not the two tone skinheads. The were the ant racist / Specials / 2 Tone Skins who were on the same "side" as the mods and the Nazi Skins who were on the opposite side to humanity.

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Also in the 80's - the sknheads and the mods were very much foes

No they weren't unless you were talking about the nazi skinheads not the two tone skinheads. The were the ant racist / Specials / 2 Tone Skins who were on the same "side" as the mods and the Nazi Skins who were on the opposite side to humanity.

 

 

YMMV

 

But the skinheads of 80's were the boot boys - and a good National Front element  - any many sported 'I hate mods' badges. In between were the 'Rude Boys' skinheads in two tone suits & loafers - historically these were allies to the mods - but in the 80's they were more alligned to the skinheads.

 

As a Mod I remember a very uncomfortable night at a madness concert in the Odeon.  

 

My run in's with Skinheads in the 80's  were much more commonplace, than the Mods supposed arch enemy the rockers - who mostly just laughed at me on my Vespa 90 ! 

 

All this based on Living in Northfield - which always had a thriving skinhead population, Northcross, Leyhill, and Overspill from the Quiton and Brandhall groups...

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Certainly around here the relationship with skinheads varied from gang to gang.

 

Generally, those that were in to a style and a sound were a great bunch and we'd share venues and DJ's quite happily and get together on weekends.

 

Those that were skinheads as shorthand for thickos liking a bit of trouble, well by definition they were indeed trouble. You often didn't know until events had taken on their own momentum and we did have a few days and nights where the fighting just got ridiculous. I don't think I'm out of touch now, but I think the level of violence back then was far far greater. Every Saturday night was fight night. Gangs wandering the streets looking to chase down other gangs. No knives or guns obviously, so not the extremes of today. But random beatings and kicking were common place.

 

I think it was all that strange 70's and 80's violence and twisted understanding of what a 'man' was that transferred to football and morphed into casuals etc.. A whole new breed of moron.

 

Times like bank holiday weekends were the worst, when out of town gangs would pitch up (me living by a beach and all that) and you'd find yourself running around not knowing who was what. Stupid really.

 

If I had 50p for every time the police confiscated my shoe laces, I'd have over £3.

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