Too Darn Soulful The Book - Review 1999

TOO DARN SOULFUL - The story of Northern Soul by Dave Nowell

Publication Date: 10th December 99

Well its getting near that time of year, just as the summer memories are being slowly added to the pile of long gone ones, the adverts on the television remind you that yeah christmas is around again, and if like me you've just released that there are no more paydays till the next century, thoughts of presents to buy spring to mind.....

Well there you go seasonal intro or what, onto the main purpose of this page ..well recently as in this morning a review copy of dave nowells book landed on my doormat, well that took care of plans for tonight. Well after reading the first half, was that impressed that thought well no time like now, so have thrown up thoughts of the book to let you know what's the book about and my thoughts now. Understand some may say well you should read it all, think about it , write about it, leave it for a day, re-read what you wrote and so on before publishing. Well bollocks to that here, internet is about instant info so here's some instant info for you-

Now I know that this year has seen a lot of media interest into the rare soul scene with videos, mag articles, and other books, so what else can there be left to cover.

Well first I put up the publishers view on the book ,

Northern Soul has been described as the longest running fad in the history of British music culture, frequently misunderstood and tarnished with an unwanted drugs reputation.

In this book, author David Nowell takes the first ever in-depth look at the culture, the music, the DJs, the artists and the people who frequent and have frequented the all-night venues which are synonymous with the peculiarly British all-night soul scene.

Packed with memorabilia, behind-the-scenes facts and interviews from Motown artists to current chart acts like Fat Boy Slim, Too Dam Soulful is the definitive history of a dance scene that refuses to die.

ok set the scene, first think that hits you is the weight of the thing, hardback 332 pages, about 3/4 of a4 size. Cover well see above for the cover photo, great title "too darn soulful" (be a great name for web site that eh). Inside the jacket sleeve notes start of with a quote that could sum up a northern fan

"yes, we are a little bit eccentric. Yes we like being diffrent. Yes our families and work colleagues think we are barmy. But if our obsession with Northern Soul consitutes madness, then long may we remain insane."

And then the sleeve notes give a quick intro "passion for the music of black america" finishing with .... "Too Darn Soulful is the definite history of a dance scene that refuses to die"

The meat of the book itself is split into 12 chapters of 4 parts, each chapter having a title which matches the content, "boogaloo party", " turn the beat around", "it'll never be over for me", are a few, no prizes for guessing which eras they cover. The introduction is just what it says with dave trying to explain the mystery of soul music and its power, including a great story of how driving to work a recording of Walter Jackson, forces him to pull over off the road.

Rather than be trying to be analytic and a critic, I will just go through for now so you know what each chapter covers with brief info on each and put up "my final view" with part 2 of this review...

Part One

So onto the meat, part one of the book starts off with the first chapter entitled "I can't help myself" basically this lays down the pre- wheel history, covering the late 50s to the early 60s, R&B, flamingo club, early motown, with recollections by Brian Rae and others.

Chapter 2 "boogaloo party" concerns itself at first with the "mods a go go " and then onto the Twisted Wheel era with some great stories of events, and info and gives a good insight to what it was like to be in the swinging 60s at the ground level.

On to part 2 and I suppose this covers the "start of the golden era " titled "a little togetherness" so no prizes for guessing what this covers, yeah the Torch,

............"The dance floor was like a well, when it was full it was like a sea of human excitement",

the chapter here covers the history of that era complete with many fascinating facts and stories, simon soussan, white pianos and $20000 for example.

............`Sliced Tomatoes" was the record. When it came on you couldn't get on the dance floor,' he said.

Although the Torch Djs were finding lots of rare imports they played many new and nearly new releases. Colin played First Choice and 'This is the House Where Love Died' three weeks after its release. The very 70s 'Nightlighters' with Kay Gee was a massively popular instrumental.

The Torch is also where the Djs encountered the now infamous record collector Simon Soussan. The immaculately dressed Frenchman, whose roots were in America and who also had contacts with French record collectors, amazed soul fans when he appeared with his record box crammed with just about every rarity Northern Soul fans craved.

Simon's sources and ear for music were impeccable and he became a friend of the Torch Djs. Once Colin Curtis went to visit him at his flat in Leeds and was astonished at what he saw. In a white flat with white carpets and a white piano, he had a sideboard crammed full of rare soul 45s in mint condition in cardboard sleeves.

Simon made it clear he did not want to sell? he wanted to swap records with his fellow connoisseurs. To emphasize the point that he did not need the money, he dumped £20,000 in cash on the bed.

Said Colin: 'We were discovering more and more rare records but he was coming up with some other really great stuff. He took it to a different plane.'

The Kingspinners were joined each week by lan TNT Turner, Alan Day, Martyn Ellis, and Johnny Beggs. Chris Burton recalls: 'Musically I loved the scene, but, more importantly, the energy created by the crowd was incredible.'

Suddenly the Torch acquired a national reputation amongst the Northern Soul fraternity, and the 680 capacity venue was creaking under the weight of far too many punters for its own good. Chris estimates the Torch pulled in up to 1,400 on an exceptional night, which, along ......

After that interesting bit where next , up the road to Blackpool in chapter 4, is now the stop, now this chapter covers a lot of stuff which might be unknown to a lot of people who just know the mecca from the "horror" stories from certain people. Hopefully this will put the record straight to those who may not know what a part it really played in the development of the scene. Again stacks of fascinating facts, info, stories and quotes such as cover ups were "purely to stop the bootleggers". Also parts on the so called wigan mecca war, the so called split and the reasoning behind the policy of playing ever increasing more funkier sounds. Obviously this chapter covers Ian Levine and his "works" and to me gives a fair and balanced view, which people should read before jumping on the bandwagon of criticism his name usually brings. So all in all a great chapter with again a lot of info to take in.

...........in demand dancer, robbing the DJ and the venue of their exclusivity.

That's when the practice of 'covering up' records came into full swing. The only way to protect the identity of a record was to literally cover the label and invent a fictitious title and artist. In that way the DJ could hope to keep the real identity of a record secret for weeks, if not months. But Northern Soul fans are nothing if not resourceful and determined, and the secret usually came out eventually.

In the meantime, the Djs could buy time by calling the Coasters' 'Crazy Baby' 'My Heart's Wide Open' by Freddie Jones; Edie Walker's 'Good Guys' became 'Patricia Valentine's "You Can't Tell the Good Guys from the Bad`; Melvin Carter's 'Midnight Brew' became 'Shing A Ling at the Go Go'. 'Breakaway' by the Steve Karmen Band became'The Black Ship of Hell'. Sometimes, if the bootleggers were really baffled, they would press the disc with the fictitious title.

lan and Colin devised a numbering system Secret Sounds 1, 2, 3, etc to cover up all their one offs. Using a piece of patterned wallpaper, they would cover front and back of the label. Then just to make sure there was no tell-tale information in the runout groove, they would add small pieces of Sellotape.

'We didn't cover up records to prevent other Djs from finding out what they were, it was purely to stop the bootleggers,' said Ian. 'But there were a lot of knowledgeable people around and eventually someone would come up with the real title. We used to have grand "uncovering ceremonies" in the Highland Room when it became pointless trying to keep someone a secret any longer!'

Even today lan is fiercely proud of the records that he played first at the Mecca which became anthems at the Casino. 'Afternoon of the Rhino' by the Mike Post Coalition is seen as synonymous with Wigan Casino. 'I played that first,' says Ian.

........R D Taylor's 'There's a Ghost in My House' was also aired at the Mecca. But Wigan Casino founder Russ Winstanley's argument,.....

After that worthwhile chapter the book moves onto part 3, well you must know what's coming at this stage , yes its the wigan chapter, a lot has been written about this venue, and to be fair I suppose people who didn't go might be tired of hearing about it, but such is the interest still in this club, and its part in northern history, and as there will never be a place like this again its good to see some fresh info and antidotes. Well glad to say that there is here a lot of interesting stuff, starting off with ave Nowells personal recollection of his time at the venue, then onto more snips of stories , info and antidotes, lots of stuff again here, with many new (to me) bits, Simon Soussan's influence, Russ and Richards relationship, Derek and the Dominoes! and more. A interesting comparsion is how clubs in the 90s such as Ministry of Sound are now doing what wigan did 30 years earlier , own label, own magazines, own sounds etc etc.

In at this point is the photo section 16 pages of black and white glossies covering the cast range of the spectrum, mods,100 club, with all stops in between, quite a few unseen (by me) before there as well.

Next chapter "turning my heart beat up" was a bit of a surprise to me until i remembered the "warts and all" quote, all about the often unsaid side of the northern scene - the gear. And to tell the truth it does cover almost the full spectrum, from personal stories to medical experts views.

.....Much later Steve looked at his watch for the tenth time in as many minutes. Surely it must be later than 7.30 am? It had to be bloody 7.28 am last time he looked. He felt like shit. His mouth certainly was dry and furry and tasted of too many cigarettes. He took another swig of Coke but it couldn't quench his thirst. His shirt was drenched with sweat and it felt clammy. His heart was thumping ten to the dozen, and when he went on the dance floor could go his legs felt like lead and he was breathless within seconds. that hour. He could no longer think of anything witty or interesting to say as the all-nighter entered its final half hour. He desperately....

Ok that's it at moment as said will post part 2 in next couple of days, about halfway through the book at moment and from what I've quickly looked at in rest of chapters it all appears good stuff.

Part 2 Intro

So far am very impressed by the book, the press release says " a definite history" well that might be a hard claim to live up to as nearly everyone has their own view on what the northern scene is about and hence their view on the history, however going by what I read so far it seems that Dave is getting close to that statement, and all the views seem open and cover all sides of the many points of view, without the normal biased opinions that sometimes crop up. And going by amount of info in first half, would say its looking like a great buy, information not just from the "normal" well known names , but a lot of "ordinary joe's " have their bit as well, as said up to the late 70s at moment and it appears that the second part should cover the 80 and 90s in depth.

Part 2 

Into the second half, now the era is the late 70s and we're into chapter 7 entitled "Don't take away the music" and as the title suggests we're off to the ritz, covering the start of them famous dayers thru the days when Soul Sam played "Philly dog around the world" and next spin following was Ian Levine with Rose Royce and "car wash", could there ever be two contrasting spins and most of all it seemed to work, upto the gradual end at the 80s. Next stop - Cleethorpes and the going ons there, bit from lead singer swing out sister, who used to go, (never knew that but always thought their stuff had a bit of an influence with one sounding like "you took our heart" ), west midlands, notts and more info.

with the 70s drawing to a close and people like Neil Rushton being left with 80 000 records to flog, the book takes us to the early 80s in part 4 with chapter 8 entitled as "the panic is on" covering Morecambe , yate and onto Stafford with stories about the "soul fascists" and up to the 100 club.......

........Room in West Hampstead, and the Last Chance in Oxford Street, the 6Ts soul club attracted a mixture of soul stalwarts and Mod revivalists.

Then Ady got the venue that appealed to him most ? the 100 Club. Small, atmospheric and with a wealth of musical history from blues and jazz to beat groups. The allnighters began in August 1980.

Ady said: 'It's a basement venue, which 1 like, and it has a terrific history. It has a nice size dance floor, although possibly a little small for an allnighter, and it's ideal for me. I don't particularly like the big monster allnighters.'

The neatly sized venue did not suffer from the same drastic fall off in attendances as suffered in the north in the 1980s and was able to press ahead with its progressive music policy. Like the Stafford all-nighters, the 100 Club is famed for its love of 'new' 60s discoveries, mid-tempo items and beat ballads.

Said Ady: 'Being in London we have always had a slightly trendy aspect, sometimes we're in fashion and other times we're out of fashion, but we've always had a very loyal following and a high standard of Djs.'

Its current resident Djs of Butch, Mick Smith, Shifty and Ady have ensured the 100 Club has a reputation as a connoisseurs, venue. Its location in the capital means that showbiz celebrities occasionally drop in. Liam Gallagher of Oasis once paid the 100 Club a visit before the band achieved world fame, and Shane McGowan used to work in the cloakroom. Once when soul singer Doris Troy was appearing at the venue a promotion on which Ady lost money a fan tried to jump the queue for autographs. A slightly ill tempered Ady told him to get back in line. The fan was Van Morrison.

Regulars come from all over the south, Midlands and Wales, with French visitors hopping on to the Eurostar to enjoy the allnighter. The 100 Club had the first female Northern Soul resident DJ in Val Palmer, and also pioneered the 'guest night'

Now up to chapter 9 "time will pass you by" being the title, with a chapter on the revival side, searling, chris king, kev roberts ady croasdel all featured here, covering radio shows and cd side, dave rimmers view, then fatboy slim, paul weller, kenny burrell and last of all in this chapter ian levine.

chapter 10 kicks off with a quote " i certainly don't feel forty three..." and is entitled "i'll never forget you", here we have a lot of tributes and stories from well known to normal joes, soul sam, dave evison, terry jones, dave thorlety, edwin starr, ginger, brenda holloway, kev murphy, to name a few not so much a look back but a look at people on scene now.

.................oldies brigade, at a time when the scene suffered something of a split between the traditionalists and the modern soul/jazz funk fans.

Martin himself admits that maybe he went too far. 'On reflection, I got it wrong. I should have been playing 60s stuff alongside the modern things. The modern stuff went down well at Wigan and I went off at a tangent: I loved the modern stuff but maybe I should have played more across?the?board stuff.'

The North Wales based soul spinner has never stopped Djing and liking black music and is now firmly back in the non-disco soul groove. His spot could range from the most obscure £2,000 1960s stomper to 70s 'floaters' to 90s items. He will also play oldies if the crowd demands it, but he refuses to be complacent. 'What I don't like about the Northern scene is that at certain venues you are obliged to play the same records, he said. 'There aren't enough people that want to hear new records. Don't get me wrong, I still like to hear oldies, but I couldn't be a DJ if I had to play the same spot everywhere I went.

'The people that worry are the ones that won't listen to anything new. They are the ones that are just reliving their youth. They just want to hear the same old records. I sometimes wonder if they were ever into real music at all. For instance Drizabone's "Can't Take the Pressure" is huge, not because it's a great record but because it's played to death. There are many people on the scene who haven't got a mind of their own.'

Martin uses his plentiful supply of Northern Soul classic oldies to trade for newer items at venues around the country. Through his network of contacts like record dealers and collectors Jolinny Manship, Tim Ashibende, Tim Brown and John Anderson of Soul Bowl he will be alerted to the latest 'finds'. One of them may play him a record down the phone, or Martin will take a trip down to scour their collections. A few plays by Soul Sam and a favourable dance floor reaction is often enough to elevate a record to cult status.

Martin is, however, reluctant to take all the credit for 'breaking' new sounds. One of his biggest current records, Chuck Holiday's 'Just Can't Trust Nobody', he has since discovered was played and virtually forgotten at the Stafford all.....................

internet and soul.. interesting stuff? well chapter 11 - soul self satisfaction, a chapter mainly concerned with the internet will let you know, in this chapter dave looks at the online and worldwide side of the scene, a few of the sites and online people get a bit here with their stories from usa, germany australia and more countires, quite a few online people are featured through out the book

enough of that boring internet stuff, onto the next chapter no 12 and the last one... is entitled "it'll never be over for me".. and quite a good to way to finish, the chapter concerns it self wholly with a night out to a niter, in the present day..

.......................CDs are much easier to negotiate a deal over. The prices are all marked: £6, £10, £15. More and more punters are selling their vinyl collections (very profitably, too) and re-acquiring the same sounds on CD. OK, the purists may not approve, but the convenience, longevity and cheapness of a CD compilation of tracks that might otherwise cost you literally hundreds of pounds to own is very attractive to many soul fans.

In the midst of all the bartering and to-ing and fro-ing from the main hall to the entrance hall, the doormen look on bored. This is probably the easiest night's wages they will earn. No one appears drunk, no one fights, no one throws up over anyone's girlfriend. The bouncers look on bemused as soul fans of all shapes and sizes and ages stay up until dawn listening to the obscure offerings of otherwise long-forgotten American artists.

The laid-back attitude of the bouncers is entirely appropriate and appreciated by the soul crowd. Cash-strapped soulies take empty bottles with them to the toilets to fill them with tap water. The odd can of beer or Lucozade is smuggled in, but there is no paranoia about getting caught, beaten up and thrown out in the 1999 soul scene. The bar is doing a roaring trade in soft drinks anyway, now the licensing hours have expired, and the queue for tea, coffee and snacks is constant all night long.

In the gents the entertainment continues, with guys of all shapes and sizes in various states of undress. In the centre of the lavatories there is a bank of back-to-back sinks in a manner that reminds me of my primary school days. Holdalls are scattered around as guys grab fresh shirts, spray on the Lynx (whatever happened to Brut?), and splash water on their faces before rejoining the fray on the dance floor.

In the corner a tall, gaunt guy in his thirties is doing karate kicks and stretches while his fellow soul fans continue their ablutions, hardly giving him a second glance. If you weren't just a little bit eccentric, you wouldn't be here.

Handshakes and words are easily exchanged as you try to edge your way back towards the door, but almost inevitably a familiar face appears, flushed, and eager to chat.

It's the same story in the corridor skirting the whole length of...........

well thats my show and tell bit done, hopefully the above bit will give you an idea of books content

Endword

My final verdict well as said it's publishers gave it "the definite history of northern soul" tag and to be truthfull its a statement which I would say is impossible to live up to. Because such is the diversty of the northern soul scene that to produce a definite history you would need 5000+ pages. Now as a history of northern soul then yes the book lives up to it. It startes off in the pre-60s era and covers all the main parts that have made the scene what it is today. Covering every era from wheel, the ritz in 70s, the "golden years" and wigan, cleethorpes, stafford, 100 club and bang up to date. Each chapter is full of recollections from all sources, information, antidotes, views, stories etc

Good to see a lot of input from the "ordinary punter" as well as the more "well known names" plus also good is the openess of it all, as you know there is a lot of "different" views on the scene, and dave has presented most times both views of the story, be it soul sams views on oldies "they just want to hear the same old records, I sometimes wonder if they're into real music at all" to kev roberts "people just want to go out and have a good time".

As said lots of good info in between the covers, a lot of it new to me, and a lot of behind the scenes stories plus loads of top tens as well. The turning my heart beat up covers one of the unsaid sides and does it well.

negative points, well as I said to produce a book that covered everything, you would need stacks of paper, I would have preferered to see a bit more on the other clubs from 80s onwards stafford and 100 club and so on, both are featured and covered but i feel more coverage could have been given, and helped the books claim to be the defInite one. Suppose it depends where you come from, and where you went and go to now,

also it was good to see the internet and non-uk people get a mention and the use of their stories help show the full diveresty and how world wide the soul scene is.

final word - "too darn soulful is a great book , its well researched, and clearly shows the amount of effort put in, full of useful stuff, great recollections from all sorts of people on the scene, covers the whole spectrum of the scene, and most of all important is a fascinating read, I say buy it, I reckon its worth the money and makes a welcome addition to the current inprint collection of books"

TOO DARN SOULFUL - The story of northern soul

Dave Nowell

Publication Date: 10th December 99

robson books 10 blenheim court, brewery road london, N7 9NT

020 7700 7444

price £17.95