The story of northern soul.

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pre65
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#1 The story of northern soul.

Post by pre65 »

On TV, talking pictures channel Friday 6pm (Sky 328 Freeview 82)

Titled "keep on burning".

Just up our Steves street. :)
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steve s
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#2 Re: The story of northern soul.

Post by steve s »

And mine..
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#3 Re: The story of northern soul.

Post by Cressy Snr »

pre65 wrote: Thu Feb 03, 2022 2:56 pm On TV, talking pictures channel Friday 6pm (Sky 328 Freeview 82)

Titled "keep on burning".

Just up our Steves street. :)
Cheers Phil,
Got that scheduled to record now. :D
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andrew Ivimey
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#4 Re: The story of northern soul.

Post by andrew Ivimey »

An offshoot of Chrysalis Records we ( one of the bands I was in, all session musos, and we really were pretty good) sold our souls to the above. The legal shenanigans gave us a manager who was Alvin Lee's brother and we were assured we were on the gravy train and, it's always made me thoughtful and never understood how, whatever, we signed was to a northern soul lable, we would be famous for Xmas.... we weren't.... I chucked it all in and went to Israel.
God's own ... - wonderful times

I came home cos the band was getting back together only Xhrysalis wasn't so zoomed off to New York.

Sounds good? Not really but not all bad by now means.

And I still don't get Northern Soul but I did earn quite a bit of dosh.
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#5 Re: The story of northern soul.

Post by Cressy Snr »

You didn’t work on the sessions behind the manufactured ersatz Northern Soul group ‘Wigan’s Ovation’ on Spark records or any of Ian Levine’s productions did you Andrew?
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andrew Ivimey
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#6 Re: The story of northern soul.

Post by andrew Ivimey »

Nope.

I did quite a lot of well, background music ... for films or something. Bruton Music took up the bill, so to speak.
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#7 Re: The story of northern soul.

Post by Cressy Snr »

Right.

The thing with Northern Soul, was that by the time Wigan’s Chosen Few went on TOTP in 1975, the scene was fooked. The Goodies taking the utter piss with Black Pudding Bertha (The Queen Of Northern Soul) was the final nail in the coffin. With our airline bags, vests white socks, cherry brogues and flappy trousers, we were sitting targets, ripe for a good kicking by the leather jacket fraternity. These people really did think we wore ecky thump hats, danced to Wigan’s Chosen Few, shouting ‘Footsie Yeah’ and blowing kazoos in the dancehall. If I’d been one of them rockers I would have joined in the handing out of kickings too :D

The scene was nothing like the media portrayed it. It grew out of the 60s mod rhythm’n soul played in the Scene, Flamingo and Marquee Clubs in London. When the southern mods went psychedelic, the northern mods stayed with black American soul music imports.
Those DJs with money went over to the USA, digging in warehouses through crates of old records that hadn’t made the charts. They were looking for stuff on local labels, that had a Motown on-the-fours beat, a vibes topped rhythm section and soulful vocals. They shipped these records back to the UK and played them at all night dances at places such as the Manchester Twisted Wheel Club, The Golden Torch in Stoke on Trent, Samantha’s The KGB and The Mojo in Sheffield (Peter Stringfellow’s place) and latterly the Wigan Casino. Wigan Casino was two rooms in the old Empire Ballroom in Wigan.

The Twisted Wheel lost its licence in 1970-71 I think (too many drug busts) The Torch suffered the same fate The Mojo shut when Peter Stringfellow buggered off to London and the Wigan Casino burned down in 1981 and is now a car park.

The scene moved back underground and is still going, with plenty of small venues doing monthly sessions. There are annual soul weekenders at Blackpool, Prestatyn, and Whitby plus a few more I can’t think of now.

Our Ant’s mate best described the scene a few years ago now. He was working behind the bar in the basement room at the Corner Pocket pub in Mexborough when they had monthly Northern Soul nights. Quote.

“It’s a load of old codgers jumping about like fucking idiots to music nobody’s ever heard of” That’s about the size of it. Good fun though :)
Sgt. Baker started talkin’ with a Bullhorn in his hand.
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