Andy Smith's Northern Soul

http://www.djandysmith.com/

WHAT IS NORTHERN SOUL?

People often ask 'What is Northern Soul?'. It was born out of small US labels who back in the 60s wanted a piece of Motown/Stax's success albeit on a somewhat tighter budget. These smaller labels would record local artists onto a usually limited run of 7" 45s hoping that the radio stations would play some of their tracks and have a hit. These tracks were, in a lot of cases as good, if not better than what was coming from the big labels. Unfortunately, as these labels didn't have the power that the the big labels had the records would not usually sell too well and would end up being left in the record stores.

Many of these records ended up in the UK due to exporters shipping these 'unknown non hits that nobody in the US wanted'. Clubs in the UK at this time were starting to play US R&B records (if they had been released on a UK label). Then, as these US-released records started to come through, the scene exploded (primarily in the North of England), hence the term 'Northern Soul' as coined by Dave Godin (RIP). The 'Northern Soul' tag was used to differentiate the somewhat grittier soul sounds that the Northern football supporters would come into his London shop to buy.

THE NORTHERN SOUL SCENE

The scene grew with places like the Wigan Casino and The Blackpool Mecca, amongst others, being seen something as 'holy' shrines to this passionate heartfelt soul music. To some Northern Soul fans an all night session of this music was an emotional ride that they had never felt in their lives before.The scene became more and more popular - even developing its own dance styles and fashion (not to mention the trademark 'Adidas' Holdall, event badges and talcum powder to work on the floor so that you could dance all the better!).

From the late 60s and into the 70s, once this scene was builidng, more record dealers and DJs would go to the US to track down these soul records and bring them back to a rapturous response. Having new discoveries could seal the reputation of a venue and a DJ (with some DJs even covering up the title and artist on a record so that nobody could look at the turntable and secure their own copy to play at their venue!).

SHORT SUPPLY

The only problem was that everybody wanted to buy these records and they were in short supply. The value of Northern Soul records then soared (although the bootleggers didn't miss a trick) with the most expensive ever being Frank Wilson's 'Do I Love You (Indeed I do)' selling for £15,000 pounds.This, somewhat ironically, was in fact a Motown record that Berry Gordy didn't want to release (as the artist didn't really want to be a performer). At the time there were only a handful known to exist, although it was recently reported that a very lucky record shopper found several original copies in Chicago.

NORTHERN SOUL TODAY

The scene has kept going until this very day. Many Northern Soul venues also have rooms playing what's known as Modern Soul and Crossover Soul (Crossover Soul being records released between the original 60s and the modern tracks). Although the numbers of people attending the venues has gone up and down over the years there are many busy nights that you can still go to and it is still a way of life for many. The scene has had something of a resurgence recently thanks in part to 'Kentucky Fried Chicken' ads using many a classic Northern Soul track to advertise their chicken!