Northern soul
Encyclopedia : N : NO : NOR : Northern soul
Overview
A large proportion of Northern Soul's original audience came from the mod movement, with their love of soul music. As some mods turned away from these sounds to embrace the psychedelic movement of the late 1960s, many mods - especially those in northern England - elected to stick to the original soundtrack of soul and ska. Some became what would eventually be known as skinheads, and others formed the basis of the Northern Soul scene.
Early Northern Soul fashion included bowling shirts, button-down Ben Sherman shirts, blazers with centre vents and unusual numbers of buttons, Trickers brogue shoes, baggy trousers or shrink to fit Levis. Many dancers wore badges representing membership in clubs organized by dance halls.
The first club that effectively defined the Northern Soul sound was Manchester's Twisted Wheel Club. Other early clubs were the Golden Torch in Stoke, Wigan Casino, Blackpool Mecca, The Catacombs in Wolverhampton, North Park in Kettering, The Mojo in Sheffield and Cleethorpes Winter Gardens (still a Northern Soul venue today) and Va Va's (where Richard Searling used to DJ).
Northern Soul is among the most expensive of musical genres to collect. Hundreds of 7" vinyl discs have broken the £1,000 (c.$2,000) barrier. Frank Wilson's "Do I Love You" sold several years ago for £15,000 (c.$30,000). The value of many discs has appreciated due to rarity, quality of the beat, melody and lyrics (often expressing heartache, pain or joy related to romantic love). In later years, many Northern Soul fans went on to expand their collections and accommodated the richer and more complex Modern soul sound in the early-1970s and beyond (tracks such as Garfield Fleming's - "Please Don't Send Me Away" exemplify this).
Many Northern Soul artists attempted stardom without all of the necessary ingredients in place. Low-budget independent labels couldn't deliver the necessary promotion and radio play. Many artists had to go back to their day jobs, thinking themselves failures, with their records sinking into obscurity, until they were revived in the Northern Soul circuit. Songs by the Fascinations and the Velvelettes that were released in the 1960s became top 40 UK hits in 1970. The Fascinations made #30 with "Girls Are Out to Get you" and the Velvelettes made #35 with "These Things Will Keep Me Loving You."
Some acts have been over to England to perform their golden oldies at all-nighters, often many years after the original releases. In the 21st century, rare 1960s soul sounds are still being discoverd by fans, and Northern Soul is still going strong around the world.
| Soul music |
| Blue-eyed soul - Girl group - Motown Sound (Detroit soul) - Northern soul - Psychedelic soul - Philly soul - Memphis soul - Neo soul (Nu soul) - Funk - Hip hop soul - Disco |
| Other topics |
| Soul Musicians |
External links
- [Midnight Hour]
- [TheSoulgirl]
- [Northern-Soul.Com]
- [NorthernSoul.co.uk]
- [SonicSelection.co.uk]
- [Goldsoul]
- [VIP Radio]
- [Soul Source]
- [Twisted Wheel]
- [Mary Fox's Classic Motown and Northern Soul program from BBC Radio Stoke]
- [Twistedwheel.com]
Further reading
- "The Northern Soul Top 500" by Kev Roberts - 2000 ISBN 0953929108.
- [Central 1179]
Source
- n.a (1984). "Northern Soul–A Beginners Guide to this English Phenomenon". Soul Survivor, 1(1), 23-24.
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