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Rare Records and Raucous Nights: Investigating Northern Soul -Salford 04 Nov

Rare Records and Raucous Nights: Investigating Northern Soul -Salford 04 Nov magazine cover

Rare Records and Raucous Nights: Investigating Northern Soul

A spirited examination of dance culture, record collecting, and the perpetual British love for American Rhythm & Blues

Lucy Gibson has been in touch with soul source and wished to pass on details of a upcoming event at the University of Salford..

"Professor Dave Sanjek has organised a symposium on November 4th (1-5pm) called 'Rare records and raucous nights: Investigating northern soul'.

The event will involve a number of talks from academics that research/write about northern soul, a screening of 'The Wigan Casino' (Tony Palmer 1977), lots of discussion, and a talk from a special guest - Ady Croasdell - on copyright issues.

I am very keen to invite fans to the event and would like to put the details on this site.

Best wishes, Lucy

Dr. Lucy Gibson

University of Manchester "

Details follow...

School of Music, Media & Performance

Popular Music Research Centre

Symposium

Robert Powell Theatre, 4 November, 2010; 1-5 P.M.

A spirited examination of dance culture, record collecting, and the perpetual British love for American Rhythm & Blues

Programme

1:00 Tim Wall, Birmingham City University

"Northern Soul: There's Nothing Northern About It (And While We're At It, It Isn't Soul and the Dancers Aren't Break Dancers")

1:30 Nicola Smith, University of Wales Institute Cardiff

"Dancing Alone, Together: Pleasure, Competency and Competition On The Northern Soul Dancefloor"

2:00 Screening "The Wigan Casino" (Tony Palmer, 1977)

2:30 Panel Discussion of visual representation of Northern Soul

3:00 Lucy Gibson, University of Manchester

"Nostalgia, Symbolic Knowledge and Generational Conflict: Contentious Issues in Contemporary Northern and Rare Soul Scenes"

3:30 Ady Croasdell, Ace Records

"Acquiring Rights and Righting Wrongs: The Copyright Clearance of Northern Soul"

4:00 David Sanjek, University of Salford

"Over & Over & Over: Repetition, Reanimation and Northern Soul"

4:30 Open Discussion

For more information, please contact d.sanjek@salford.ac.uk

Speakers

Ady Croasdell

Ady Croasdell went to this first "Old Soul" all nighter in 1969 and now bosses the longest running Northern Soul club/all nighter of all time (31 years and counting) at the 100 Club in London's Oxford Street. He has worked for Ace Records since 1982 compiling Northern Soul LPs and CDs for their Kent subsidiary. He oversees the production of these from concept to product and actively seeks and negotiates deals with the US owners.

Lucy Gibson

Dr. Lucy Gibson is a temporary lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester. Her doctoral research explored popular music and the life course, which included ethnographies of Northern and rare soul, rock music, and electronic dance music scenes and interviews with over 70 adult fans. She is particularly interested in how ageing shapes participation in music scenes and music taste and is currently working on publications in this area.

David Sanjek

David Sanjek is a Professor of Music and Director of the Popular Music Research Centre at the University of Salford. Previously, he was Archives Director of Broadcast Music Inc., the performance licensing agency. He has advised many organizations, including the R&B Foundation, the Blues Foundation, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Library of Congress and the Experience Music Project. He is currently readying a collection of essays (Always On My Mind: Music, Memory and Money), a special issue of Popular Music & Society on copyright in sound recordings, and a conference collection on music documentaries for publication.

Nicola Smith

Dr. Nicola Smith is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Popular Culture at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff. Her doctoral research explored the British Northern Soul scene and she writes widely on ageing music cultures, adult-frequented music scenes and the performance of identities within fandom and popular dance. Her current research is aimed at convincing people that popular music is not just for the under-25s.

Tim Wall

Tim Wall is Professor of Radio and Popular Music Studies and Director of the Birmingham City Centre for Media and Cultural Research at Birmingham City University. More importantly, he's been dancing to Northern Soul since the early 1970s, even if it is a little less energetic these days. He's written widely on the relationship between African American and white popular culture, including an analysis of Northern Soul dancing. He may play some Northern records, but he won't be dancing himself today.

School of Music, Media & Performance

Popular Music Research Centre

Symposium

Robert Powell Theatre, 4 November, 2010; 1-5 P.M.

Robert Powell Theatre at Salford University

Frederick Road

Salford

Lancashire

M5 4WT

+44 (0)161 295 5000




Members Comments

Recommended Comments



I'd agree with Joan and say it was quite good and pretty interesting. It was by no means an attempt for an outsider so to speak to rewrite the history books as far as Northern Soul is concerned. It was simply to get something academic onto the books as there is virtually nothing academic as far as NS is concerned, plenty about other dance/music scenes.

The first professor is actuall into NS, been going since the 70's and still goes occasionally, dj'ed in the past too. The second her parents are/were into it, from the North East, and knows Col Denham, Gas Simon etc. Attended many venues during her research including Piercebridge where both Joan and myself went and Dj'ed at.

Lucy has been on SS for some years and gave in my and others opinion a very good talk.

The US professor is a R&B fan, his father a close friend of I think Jerry Wexler, grew up with the music and has worked in the biz.

They valued the feedback and Q&A extremely and were very happy with it all. Think more are planned.

Someone video'ed it, I am waiting for the URL to the video so all can see for themselves. Lucy said she would share her paper and asked one of the others but she needs to get permission as it is being published. I did record it on my iphone, quality not too bad, if all say ok I can share if the video doesn't appear.

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can't remember but when it first started back in the eighties we were a much younger crowd any way (I was 22 or 23 when it started I think, '88 or '89) until those who left when Wigan closed and missed the eighties returned and bumped up our average age biggrin.gif

If I remember rightly there was a cafe/canteen lounge area at the side of the main hall which was frequented by some students, I would imagine some ventured into the nighter?? Someone with a better memory might be able to add more.

spot on mate, I've seen loads of studes over the years @ both keele and other venues, still happens @ king hall, late bars and the lack of antthing else going on in stoke usually do the trick.

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We're suitable candidates for social anthropology. I will be contemplating my own navel.

If you wanna hear how we at Kent go about licensing and the sometimes hilarious consequences, or if you just wanna throw fruit, come along.

Which will be followed with a lecture on the quality of the fluff fibres collected from within it , amassed during the golden years of the scene :hatsoff2: .

Malc

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No need to check this out if your hearing is fine 'cos it's just about word for word what was said by the speaker.

:thumbsup: If i'd been there I wouldn't have known wether to listen or read.

Lucy actually gave a good talk IMO. Her paper was based on research and what you see is the research, actual comments from soulies etc.

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I thought Lucy was great.

I was really impressed by the fact that she had a good understanding of what the scene is about. And for someone who is not actually on the scene that is a rare thing indeed.

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https://interactivecu...f-northern-soul

If you could stand 38 mins of me droning on about licensing and side matters like bootlegging, go to the above link and revel in my new-look, yellow sloppy jumper. I really should get to the gym.

The whole event was very worthwhile and I must say validated by the turn out of Soul Sourcers who contributed to a lively and enlightening debate. I understood most of it and even had my thoughts provoked at different stages. I did find the closing presentation to be a few hundred yards over my head; there was a fair bit of philosophy and non Northern stuff in there, but i have been reliably informed that at most similar dos, it's like that for the majority of the talk, not the minority as in this case.

If any points are brought up about licensing, I'd be happy to answer them, but maybe we should start a separate thread as it was only a part of this much bigger presentation.

Ady

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I did record most of the day on the iphone. Lucy says she has no problems with me putting the sound files on here, hopefully Ady hasn't. Just got to find the time to boost the volume and upload them.

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Its been of great interest to me, the licence side and bootlegging will answer a few questions on the other topic...

Cheers for putting this out...

The Yellow did clash with the background Ady, maybe a word with wardrobe next time :ohmy:

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Here's the third speaker Lucy Gibson. Not sure about quality, sounds a bit broken in places compared to the original file??

Rare Records And Raucous Nights: Investigating Northern Soul Lecture - Lucy Gibson - Part 2

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