What is Northern Soul? A Personal Journey into Subculture
This has to come from a personal viewpoint as real historical objectivity concerning subculture is always problematic. Its about the journey, but where to start? Anyone know where Redruth is? Don’t worry, no one knows or cares. It’s a small town located in, what used to be, industrial Cornwall in the west of England and it’s a place you pass between Padstow and St Ives. So what, you ask? I promise that all shall become clear in the fullness of time.
Northern Soul is a dance and music based subculture that flourished in the northwest of England at the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s. According to Northern Soul authority Niel Rushton the term was originally coined by London based journalist and record store owner Dave Godin and was aimed at matching a certain type of rare soul record with very particular customers from the north of England. It would be hard to define the exact style of (Black) music that makes-up the majority the of Northern Soul catalogue in just a few words. What I can say is that it’s not really like anything the wider public might understand as Soul music (although it is clearly soulful). The few records that ever touched the mainstream were R. Dean Taylor’s, There’s a Ghost in my House (US, 1967/UK, 1974), The Tams’, Hey Girl Don’t Bother Me (US 1965/UK, 1971), Dobie Gray’s Out on the Floor (US, 1965/UK, 1975) and The In Crowd (US 1963/UK 1979) also by Dobie Gray. If you know those discs you might understand what I’m talking about. It’s worth mentioning here that Bryan Ferry’s version of The In Crowd (UK, 1974) was probably a nod to the British soul-boys that made up a significant part of his fan-base.
My first experience of Northern Soul happened one night at local Redruth night-spot known as the Penventon Hotel in 1975 and after that I was hooked for about eighteen months. Looking at a motorway map of Britain it seems that this dance-based subculture travelled down the west of the country starting at the Twisted Wheel in Manchester, on to the Wigan Casino, down the M6 to The Torch at Stock-on-Trent then stopping-off at Wolverhampton. Moving from club to club it continues down the M5 to Bristol and finally to the end of the M5 and along the A30, ending-up at the Penventon Hotel, Redruth. That’s where I was.
There were just two or three local lads who went up to Bristol and even Manchester to the mystic all-nighters and always carried with them pvc over-night bags covered in patches and stickers from such events. The younger boys, we were about fifteen, didn’t dare speak to them or ask questions. We just snatched glimpses in a dark and smoky room and hoped to learn something. The DJ had about ten mainstream Northern records like Needle in a Haystack by the Velvelettes and novelty tracks like Nobody But Me by the Human Beinz. These were played in a twenty minute Northern Soul section along with (I get my kicks) out on the floor by Dobie Gray (usually played two or three times) and the aforementioned R. Dean Taylor was also a weekly fixture. I waited all evening for the DJ’s set to start with the opening ‘fog horn’ intro to Nobody But Me and stepped onto the floor to start my own dance routine and pull as many advanced moves as possible. Timing is important as Northern records are all about reaching peaks or musical climaxes and you have to time your high-kicks or back drop to coincide with the very top of the crescendo. I also learned that perfecting the basic moves and performing them in an elegant way was actually better than attempting crazy acrobatics and doing them badly. That stood me in good stead for the rest of my life. At the start of 1977 I heard the Clash for the first time and dancing was all over for me, although I took some of the style with me into New Wave and on to Mod revival.
When I saw a stylish gentleman of a certain age (like me) at a recent vintage festival carrying his own original over-night bag I asked if I could photograph it for Men’s File. This bag tells so much.
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Issue 04
