Stewartby Soul Night Nr Bedford Stewartby Beds

David Crawley :

Brian ‘45’ Phillips confesses to being obsessed by records in the ‘60’s. By day, Brian was a clerk but just as a junkie’s life is dictated by drugs, so Brian’s was by vinyl.

In the history of The Wheel after the late great Roger Eagle one Northern Soul DJ stands out; Brian ‘45’ Phillips. He is credited with introducing more rare Soul, (by fellow and the longest serving DJ Paul Davies) British releases and imports than any other DJ to the club, and it seems that at the time, nobody dug deeper to look for records more than Brian as a collector, DJ and as the first Northern Soul dealer. He had records no one else did. According to one member “It was a time when the Wheel was struggling with a lack of records, some were getting played three or more times a night when Brian started DJing he made a difference”. As Brian himself explained: “In my time DJing at The Wheel, 69/70, imports were becoming more and more prevalent and accounted for around 35% of my plays.

I got most of my records in the UK. Later, as I established contacts in the US I imported directly from the States, sometimes 500 records at a time I had contacts in Philadelphia, LA and Jacksonville, another source was Martin Koppel in Canada who I forged a loose relationship with and got many from him.

It was during the latter years of The Twisted Wheel at Whitworth Street that the term Northern Soul was first used. Dave Godin, an influential Black music fan, literary critic and visitor to The Wheel, used the term in his articles to differentiate between the type of Soul music then being played in the South (of England) to that in the North. It was first publicly used in Godin's fortnightly column in Blues and Soul magazine, in an article entitled ‘The Up-North Soul Groove’ (June 1970).

To this day Brian Phillips likes to keep moving forward by mixing lesser-known sounds into his DJ sets. Info selected and edited from various sources and checked with Brian Phillips for any errors.