Based in the Northern regions of
England, Northern
Soul was the first
underground club scene using
DJs who presented the rarest
records for highest reputation. The sounds were soul
stompers, discovered for not built around, the crowd's demand to dance. This of course made the timeline of
the scene finite, but fiercely
tribal in the devotion to the
clubs and
DJs.
Since the majority of this scene was ignored by
commerical music forces, it gave the
factory working youth of
industrial England something completely their own.
Amphetamines gave them the ability release and party at
all-nighters, drugs being a direct connection to the
Mods influence.
Two of the major clubs for this scene were
The Wigan Casino and
The Mecca. The Wigan Casino had a larger
dancefloor and their DJs Kev Roberts and Richard Searling pumped body-soul music to keep the
punters hopping. The Mecca, presided over by DJ Ian Levine was a bit more
cerebral and focused more on the rarest or tightest grooves.
Northern Soul developed its own fashion such as the first
baggy pants,
dancing styles, and popularized the
DJ obsession for covering up their best tracks label (Steaming them off, or even renaming them!).
Some of the biggest hits of the scene included
R. Dean Taylor's 'There's a Ghost in My House' and
The Four Tops 'I Can't Help Myself', (The rarest being Frankie Wilson's 'Do I Love You'). Northern Souls DJ's would often travel to America in search of the most
obscure music, and like, Ian Levine, required/had the financial ability & time to hunt.
Northern Soul Gave way to
Disco,
Nu-NRG, and influenced
club culture ever after, even if often forgotten or its influence left unknown.
I'm reading the history of the disc jockey by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton who write for Mixmag-USA.
These are my own words from a brilliant chapter of their book.