Does Northern Soul Celebrate Failure More Than Success?

[Little-stevie]

Bingo! Right answer Chorleysoul. Well done. (I never actually thought of that ).

Actually that's exactly how it happened for me thinking about it. I heard all the Motown hits as a kid growing up and I guess it was a natural path to eventually go deeper. Also it helped that I was in Motown/Northern friendly place where every Youth Club played Motown, Soul and the 'available' Northern and there were whispers about this place in Manchester called the Wheel - so it wasn't too hard to gravitate towards Northern being in the middle of Leeds, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Bradford and Huddersfield - all ferocious Soul havens in the late 60's/early 70's.

It's interesting how some people moved deeper into Northern travelling around the country whilst others chose to keep to a more local level and just go to the local Soul nights though......

Golden gateway is exactly the right term!

Ian D

The golden gateway means something different to some Ian ....

Don't put that on your profile

Yes indeed Ian... Its all about where you grow up i guess.. Huddersfield for me and very much a northern soul backdrop in every youth club mid 70s...

[Guest becchio]

I just feel so born flippin lucky . It feels like a golden thread running through my "grim up north" life . And im so thankful for it and it feels so kind of precious to me , even , and maybe especially , the corny bits and crappy tunes that we all laugh about now . Am i cheese on toast or what ! ha ha :-]

[Ian Dewhirst]

I just feel so born flippin lucky . It feels like a golden thread running through my "grim up north" life . And im so thankful for it and it feels so kind of precious to me , even , and maybe especially , the corny bits and crappy tunes that we all laugh about now . Am i cheese on toast or what ! ha ha :-]

I'm exactly the same. Whenever anyone asks me where I'm from and I tell 'em I spent all my formative years and youth in a mill town in Yorkshire called Mirfield and they say, "Oh my God. That must have been awful", I give them an enigmatic look and say, "Au contraire my friend, it was the eighth wonder of the world".......

Thing is, it was! We were lucky enough to be there and get on the ride.........

Ian D

[Guest]

I think it was more the term northern soul was not underground, very much a common word and many knew something about it.. Northern on the play list at our youth club and then the early teenage discos for 14/ 17 year olds.... Lots of my mates would dance along but never took it any further in the future... Maybe only a few thousand full timers but many many many more who dipped a toe in now and again...

Many mates would always want to hear the classics but some of us had moved on to more underground sounds that the disco did not play...

Bang on.

In reality, the scene was fairly well known about and the term 'Northern Soul' is usually met with some type of varying acknowlegement from anybody who was a teenager in the 70s. Yeah, many, many thousands of toe-dippers for sure....At the end of the day it is the huge reservoir of records that have been turned over in the past 30 years that constitute the real 'underground' status. The music rather than the scene itself which in truth was penetrated by thousands of curious 70s Time Travellers

[Guest Paul]

Now we've exceeded 100 postings, this fascinating thread is getting a bit too mainstream and successful for me.

I'm off to find a more exclusive thread so I can become part of a secret underground movement.

[Ian Dewhirst]

Now we've exceeded 100 postings, this fascinating thread is getting a bit too mainstream and successful for me.

I'm off to find a more exclusive thread so I can become part of a secret underground movement.

Ego Booster!

Ian D

[Guest Paul]

I'm back already.

This thread is just too good to miss, even though some people have wandered a bit off-topic ...I won't mention any names in case I implicate myself !

So who else grew up in a town where 'northern soul' was pretty mainstream rather than underground ?

[Guest Paul]

Grew up in Widnes,where the coolest lads and the most gorgeous girls were into it......You're dead right about Newton Aycliffe though,mate!

It's strange that Newton Aycliffe was such a big soul town yet other nearby towns were just the opposite.

I realise now that because it was a newish town with mostly young families, there were thousands of kids of similar ages and they all had to attend the same two large schools and the same large youth centre which were all next to each other in the middle of town. So they were all exposed en masse to the same music at the same time.

It was like a huge captive audience.

When I was about sixteen (1974) I promoted a licensed event at the new Recreation Centre (even though I wasn't old enough to drink) and I got into huge trouble with the Town Council because too many people turned up! They freaked out about security and fire regulations etc.

My mam thought I was gonna be rich when she saw how many tickets had been sold! It was more money than my parents earned in a month.

Of course it turned out there were soul fans all over the north east, just not all living in the same towns.

So it really does depend on where you grew up.

[Guest Paul]

Do you think it was cos Aycliffe(we'll drop the Newton bollocks now,mate!!) was/is so Working-Class that it took off there...There were quite a few in Darlington but very sparse elswhere in the North-East......wasn't it!?

No doubt the working-class thing had something to do with it, Phil, but Aycliffe was modern and quite prosperous; at least everyone had decent homes and jobs in those days.

Darlington was a well-established big town with many schools, pubs and clubs scattered around so things weren't condensed as they were in Aycliffe. That's the big difference, I think.

Lots of people from Darlington came to Aycliffe for soul discos. In fact I reckon it was the "soul brotherhood" spirit that really put an end to the troubles between Aycliffe and Darlington lads. We were all skinheads / suedeheads in those days but the music brought us together in the end.

A good example of the power of music.

Sorry if this has wandered a bit off-topic but it does show that soul music certainly wasn't exclusive where I grew up. Just the opposite.

[Guest WPaulVanDyk]

To me Northern Soul has been a hit since i am sure a lot of people had been into soul music and then start getting into more and more obscure stuff we known as Northern and before you know it, that scene is a big one.

Now a lot of it call it a failure for same old same old and nothing new and there is nothing coming into not even kids or less of them wanting to be associated

plus there is the divide of Northern vs Modern which gets on my nerves