Hope You Enjoy This Site And Thanxs For Taking The Time To Have A Look At It !!!!! Enjoy!!!!
Title. Northern Soul Clubs / The Venues
American blues, soul and Mowtown music had always been popular in the U.K. Vinyl was being imported from across the big pond to the north & south and clubs, however it was the north who started to play more obscure and rare soul records, and so an underground scene developed. Clubs like the original home of Northern Soul, The Twisted Wheel in Manchester and The Torch and paved the way for a new style of club. Other towns forged their own venues, such as the Blackpool Mecca and the infamous Wigan Casino. Many of the clubs gradually disappeared, however there are still some, such as the Twisted Wheel, that have emerged to play the original beats to a whole new audience.
American blues, soul and Mowtown music had always been popular in the U.K. Vinyl was being imported from across the big pond to the north & south and clubs, however it was the north who started to play more obscure and rare soul records, and so an underground scene developed. Clubs like the original home of Northern Soul, The Twisted Wheel in Manchester and The Torch and paved the way for a new style of club. Other towns forged their own venues, such as the Blackpool Mecca and the infamous Wigan Casino. Many of the clubs gradually disappeared, however there are still some, such as the Twisted Wheel, that have emerged to play the original beats to a whole new audience.
Title.Northern Soul Clubs / Wigan Casino
A September Morning in 1973, saw a massive World War One building opened its doors to a generation of youth who had one passion for music. For eight years the venue would be host to the most infamous all-night Northern Soul sessions that would go down in history, not just in the UK but also in America. In fact the American music magazine 'Billboard' officially voted it 'The Best Disco in the World' ahead of New York's 'Studio 54' in 1978. Great honour for the venue but by no means a venue for Disco music. It also served no alcohol whatsoever. Its main room had a massive wooden dance floor surrounded by a large balcony and like the Mecca it also had a secondary room known as 'Mr M's' which opened a couple of hours after the doors had opened. The Casino had a Rhythm and Blues policy making it rare to hear anything with a hint of funk, nor did it concentrate exclusively on obscurities as easily accessible records were well integrated into the Casino playlists.
The club also influenced the 'Hit Parade' as well as creating its own record label. From the middle of the 70's to the end of the decade, there wasn't a soul under 30 who hadn't been to the club or knew someone who had. But by 1981, the club had been forced to close and it had drawn more than 1000,000 members. A few months later in a freak accident the Casino caught fire and was razed to the ground. But still there are nights that celebrate the era of the Casino and the original sounds, dj's and punters.
A September Morning in 1973, saw a massive World War One building opened its doors to a generation of youth who had one passion for music. For eight years the venue would be host to the most infamous all-night Northern Soul sessions that would go down in history, not just in the UK but also in America. In fact the American music magazine 'Billboard' officially voted it 'The Best Disco in the World' ahead of New York's 'Studio 54' in 1978. Great honour for the venue but by no means a venue for Disco music. It also served no alcohol whatsoever. Its main room had a massive wooden dance floor surrounded by a large balcony and like the Mecca it also had a secondary room known as 'Mr M's' which opened a couple of hours after the doors had opened. The Casino had a Rhythm and Blues policy making it rare to hear anything with a hint of funk, nor did it concentrate exclusively on obscurities as easily accessible records were well integrated into the Casino playlists.
The club also influenced the 'Hit Parade' as well as creating its own record label. From the middle of the 70's to the end of the decade, there wasn't a soul under 30 who hadn't been to the club or knew someone who had. But by 1981, the club had been forced to close and it had drawn more than 1000,000 members. A few months later in a freak accident the Casino caught fire and was razed to the ground. But still there are nights that celebrate the era of the Casino and the original sounds, dj's and punters.
Title.Time Will Pass You By / Continuing Story Of Northern Soul
Next time you hear someone complain that the youth of today don't appreciate oldies music, you need only point them toward England, where the phenomenon known as Northern Soul continues to happily enslave new generations decades after its inception.
The trend began in the mid-Sixties, growing out of the Mod scene, as clubbers danced to rare, upbeat Detroit-style soul that was often entirely unaffiliated with Tamla-Motown. But as the London clubs went psychedelic, the discotheques in the North of England stayed the course, which is how their favorite music came to be called "Northern Soul." That means that the phenomenon has always been less about a style of music than a geek subculture (in the best possible sense) who just couldn't get enough of their favorite music, even as time passed it by. The rest of the world eventually moved towards funk, but these dance-club denizens preferred the stomp of an earlier age. Like the Teddy Boy phenomenon, then, Northern Soul fanatics then and now react specifically to what they see as a dearth of passion in today's music. Indeed, even today, the legacy of classic clubs like the Wigan Casino and the Blackpool Mecca lives on in new Northern Soul havens. Read on, if you haven't already been inculcated, and discover how everything old can still be new again.
Title. A Short Explanation Of Northern Soul And How It Began
The simplest definition of 'Northern Soul' is Black American Soul music which became popular in the North of England. The story began in the mid sixties when Motown mania swept the country and found favour with the 'Mod' Youth Culture. By the seventies 'Funk' had become the trendy music in the South of England but the North remained loyal to a more R&B influenced style. The type of venue also differed with the South adopting smaller and more intimate clubs. The North continued to utilise much larger venues such as dilapidated Victorian Dance Halls, youth clubs, working men's clubs, seaside piers. Anywhere with a large wooden dancefloor which was pre-requisite for their style of dancing.
Another notable point about Northern Soul was that it was one of the first scenes to adopt an all-night culture. Mod Clubs such as 'The Golden Torch' in Stoke and 'The Twisted Wheel' in Manchester were the first to hold 'All-Nighters' until they were closed at the end of the sixties. Considered to be havens for the drugs culture they fell foul of the local authorities. Despite the 'Mod' scene becoming outdated the Northern Soul scene continued to develop into a culture of its own as ever increasing numbers of people started attending its events. Motown and commercial soul could no longer satisfy the tastes of the aficionado who began to demand even more esoteric forms of the music. DJ's needing to satisfy this craving began to plunder America for increasingly obscure records. 'Blues and Soul' journalist and soul guru Dave Godin noticed that Northern football fans when visiting his record shop in the capital were buying a completely different style of record to his Southern Customers. To help this clientele find what they were looking for he started to put their type of records into separate boxes which he labelled 'Northern Soul'. It was thus that the term was first coined. In the late sixties and early seventies Dave visited the Twisted Wheel and Blackpool Mecca to experience the scene for himself where the size and atmosphere of the events, the devotion of its followers, was very different to what he had experienced in the South. It was in his next column of Blues and Soul that he described his experience and it was from that article that the term was publisized and stuck. Dave had become an overnight devotee.
The Northern Soul of yesteryear usually had a 100 m.p.h beat, but today it is much more sedate. This is not only because most of its aficionados are not as sprightly as they used to be but also because most of the sixties 'stompers' had been discovered twenty years ago. In order to ensure the movement was kept vibrant with new sounds continually being introduced a slower style of record was adopted. Soul fan's tastes began to mature and it is interesting that Kent's biggest selling CD to date has nothing to do with clubs or dance music but is appropriately 'Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures'. The Northern Scene is now a misnomer because clubs not only appear throughout the whole of England but also Europe and Japan as well. The 'Northern' soul scene has developed into the much more appropriately named 'Rare Soul Scene'.
The simplest definition of 'Northern Soul' is Black American Soul music which became popular in the North of England. The story began in the mid sixties when Motown mania swept the country and found favour with the 'Mod' Youth Culture. By the seventies 'Funk' had become the trendy music in the South of England but the North remained loyal to a more R&B influenced style. The type of venue also differed with the South adopting smaller and more intimate clubs. The North continued to utilise much larger venues such as dilapidated Victorian Dance Halls, youth clubs, working men's clubs, seaside piers. Anywhere with a large wooden dancefloor which was pre-requisite for their style of dancing.
Another notable point about Northern Soul was that it was one of the first scenes to adopt an all-night culture. Mod Clubs such as 'The Golden Torch' in Stoke and 'The Twisted Wheel' in Manchester were the first to hold 'All-Nighters' until they were closed at the end of the sixties. Considered to be havens for the drugs culture they fell foul of the local authorities. Despite the 'Mod' scene becoming outdated the Northern Soul scene continued to develop into a culture of its own as ever increasing numbers of people started attending its events. Motown and commercial soul could no longer satisfy the tastes of the aficionado who began to demand even more esoteric forms of the music. DJ's needing to satisfy this craving began to plunder America for increasingly obscure records. 'Blues and Soul' journalist and soul guru Dave Godin noticed that Northern football fans when visiting his record shop in the capital were buying a completely different style of record to his Southern Customers. To help this clientele find what they were looking for he started to put their type of records into separate boxes which he labelled 'Northern Soul'. It was thus that the term was first coined. In the late sixties and early seventies Dave visited the Twisted Wheel and Blackpool Mecca to experience the scene for himself where the size and atmosphere of the events, the devotion of its followers, was very different to what he had experienced in the South. It was in his next column of Blues and Soul that he described his experience and it was from that article that the term was publisized and stuck. Dave had become an overnight devotee.
The Northern Soul of yesteryear usually had a 100 m.p.h beat, but today it is much more sedate. This is not only because most of its aficionados are not as sprightly as they used to be but also because most of the sixties 'stompers' had been discovered twenty years ago. In order to ensure the movement was kept vibrant with new sounds continually being introduced a slower style of record was adopted. Soul fan's tastes began to mature and it is interesting that Kent's biggest selling CD to date has nothing to do with clubs or dance music but is appropriately 'Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures'. The Northern Scene is now a misnomer because clubs not only appear throughout the whole of England but also Europe and Japan as well. The 'Northern' soul scene has developed into the much more appropriately named 'Rare Soul Scene'.
Title. Manchester Northern Soul / The Entertainment Capital
On these pages, Pride Of Manchester looks at a legacy that has caught the imagination of the world, through music and through dance. The music genre known as Northern Soul first swept the nation in the 1960's during the mod scene and here you'll find all the clubs, the music and the people that made Northern Soul a phenomenon that still exists today.
Title. Northern Soul
This was a uniquely English thing, although based on American Soul music. In the mid 70's thousands of teenagers across the UK spent their weekends at Northern Soul all night discos, usually 10p.m. until 8 a.m. no alcohol at all. These teens went purely for the music which was made usually by black americans to try and emulate the success of the Tamla Motown label, however the majority failed and their records never saw light of day. D.J.'s in the Uk found these records with their own particular beat and style, which became loved by soul dancers, Wigan Casino probably being the best known all nighter, but others included Cleethorpes, Derby, Sheffield, Stoke on Trent, Birmingham, Peterborough, St.Ives (Cambs). The term 'Northern Soul' was coined by a journalist from Blues and Soul magazine, due to the geographical location of these discos.
Title. Manchester Northern Soul /Music For A Swinging Generation
David Godin was a record shop owner in London in the early 70's and also a columnist with Blues & Soul magazine, who realised that trends in music were not the same throughout the country and that there was a certain divide to what people wanted to listen and dance to. To make it easier to classify this music to his staff, he coined the term "Northern Soul." This was the definition for the Northern masses who just couldn't get enough of rare, upbeat Detroit-style soul from the Sixties, while the rest of the world was embracing the funk music scene. The roots for Nothern Soul are through the mod era around the late 60's, Over the years, Northern Soul has evolved to include some up tempo pure R&B and more relaxed sounding music and despite the vast style of music, you can still enjoy the sounds of the soul as it was first relished in Manchester, Wigan and Blackpool
Title. The `Ric-Tic` Revue
On January 21st, 1983, a magnificent collection of legendary artists came together on one Hinckley stage... what more can be said.
Pat Lewis was peforming to a Northern crowd for the first time, leaving a Cole Porter show to travel to the UK. Al Kent performed playing the piano, awaiting the publication of his first novel. J. J. Barnes sang "How Long" and "Sweet Sherry" to an almost hysterical crowd. Lou Ragland was invited by Edwin Starr (they had been friends since 1964), and as a result of his experience in the UK, he returned to Las Vegas and released a cassette album entitled 'Lou Ragland And The Great Lakes Orchestra'. And as for Edwin Starr himself... he was just Edwin doing what he was good at. A Soul Superstar that always had time for his fans, was always approachable and always willing to make people feel good. A sad loss.
As Frank Elson said in his comments on the Ric-Tic Review:
"... it was such a wonderful day. Surely the largest - and most enthusiastic - crowd at a Northern Soul venue since the Casino closed, and even then Wigan was a pale imitation of it's former self. Friday, 21st January, belonged to Ric Tic Records, and Golden World, and a dozen or more small town labels that presented the world with sounds like "Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache", "Call On Me" and "At The Discotheque". It belonged to people with bellies getting larger as hair gets thinner - it belonged to another era, a time that is past and will never appear again."
The Song On The Audio Player Is :::: Lou Ragland / I Travel Alone