Northern Soul's Most Redeeming Feature

[Guest]

Don't get me wrong,l love the oldies,but....The part l used to love the most about going to an all-nighter was listening (and always dancing) to a record that that had been made and released in the same couple of weeks...l used to think "This is about NOW and this is about ME"

Examples off the top of my head are....74-K.C. and The Sunshine Band-Queen Of Clubs

75-The Miracles-Love Machine

76-O'Jays-l Love Music

Although there are a thousand more l'm sure.....What makes Northern Soul special for you?

Edited January 9, 2011 by webbydublin

[Davetay]

Don't get me wrong,l love the oldies,but....The part l used to love the most about going to an all-nighter was listening (and always dancing) to a record that that had been made and released in the same couple of weeks...l used to think "This is about NOW and this is about ME"

Examples off the top of my head are....74-K.C. and The Sunshine Band-Queen Of Clubs

75-The Miracles-Love Machine

76-O'Jays-l Love Music

Although there are a thousand more l'm sure.....What makes Northern Soul special for you?

The 100s of people that you meet and become friends with, that you would have not met if you had not liked the music.

[Guest]

Don't get me wrong,l love the oldies,but....The part l used to love the most about going to an all-nighter was listening (and always dancing) to a record that that had been made and released in the same couple of weeks...l used to think "This is about NOW and this is about ME"

Examples off the top of my head are....74-K.C. and The Sunshine Band-Queen Of Clubs

75-The Miracles-Love Machine

76-O'Jays-l Love Music

Although there are a thousand more l'm sure.....What makes Northern Soul special for you?

" Northern Soul's Most Redeeming Feature ? "

I would have to include the club scene - pre NS - for the interest it has continued to give me for 46 years .

Malc

[Mark S]

I would like to say it was the music but I would be lying . To be completely honest some of the music was crap but its the associations people places and times that still make the hairs on my neck tingle I dont think anything else comes close .

Forty years on my family and freinds dont understand do I care ? no .

[Guest Dave Turner]

The 100s of people that you meet and become friends with, that you would have not met if you had not liked the music.

Agree with you Dave. I know many out there can think back a lot longer than me but in my case back to the very early 70's when I was 16. A time when most folks my age were listening to what they were force fed by the radio ie Sweet, Mud, T-Rex, Mungo Jerry etc etc. Before the world became a lot smaller with the net, mobile phones and a lot less cars on the road. Stuck in a boring South Lincs market town looking for an identity, something that made me different from the common herd. The NS scene as it was was everything I wanted at that time. Apart from loving the music which couldn't be heard anywhere else the scene was an escape, something to be passionate about and out of the mainstream, something to belong to and be accepted into. Pubs shutting at 11 and everyone off home to bed, Everyone that is except the few who refused to accept the mainstream and at 11pm the night was just starting.

Apart from the otherwise unheard of music the most endearing quality of the NS scene for me was getting to know others who thought like and were just as passionate as myself from all these far flung places of the UK who congregated at those hallowed venues of the time. It took us out of our own little insular worlds and gave many of us a much broader outlook on life.

A time when DJ's were gods

Edited January 12, 2011 by Dave Turner

[Guest proudlove]

Agree with you Dave. I know many out there can think back a lot longer than me but in my case back to the very early 70's when I was 16. A time when most folks my age were listening to what they were force fed by the radio ie Sweet, Mud, T-Rex, Mungo Jerry etc etc. Before the world became a lot smaller with the net, mobile phones and a lot less cars on the road. Stuck in a boring South Lincs market town looking for an identity, something that made me different from the common herd. The NS scene as it was was everything I wanted at that time. Apart from loving the music which couldn't be heard anywhere else the scene was an escape, something to be passionate about and out of the mainstream, something to belong to and be accepted into. Pubs shutting at 11 and everyone off home to bed, Everyone that is except the few who refused to accept the mainstream and at 11pm the night was just starting.

Apart from the otherwise unheard of music the most endearing quality of the NS scene for me was getting to know others who thought like and were just as passionate as myself from all these far flung places of the UK who congregated at those hallowed venues of the time. It took us out of our own little insular worlds and gave many of us a much broader outlook on life.

A time when DJ's were gods

What a good post.............................especially the last line.

Steve.

[Guest Matt Male]

It's like being a member of a special and very cool club, which has lasted through teenage years all the way into middle age, a bit familiar but also mysterious to those on the outside. I met a guy the same age as me at a wedding reception over Christmas and told him I was off to a northern soul night New Years Eve. He said he'd always liked northern soul but never really got into it properly and had some friends who were passionate about it. The look on his face said it all, it was admiration and respect I think for dedication to something for such a long time into adulthood and some jelousy that I was still doing what I had done as a teenager. His look made me feel proud.

On the other hand he might have just been thinking i was a nutter....

[Guest in town Mikey]

Longevity is one of its most redeeming qualities. And its ability to retain its integrity throughout the changing faces of time.

The ability of the influential guys to seek out new stuff, long forgotten in many cases.

The ability of the soul fans to adjust to time, whether its through the introduction of differing styles of RnB thru to latin and onto modern productions. And as time affects our bodies, the ability of DJs to find slower, but still emminently danceable tracks.

A while ago a mate laughed and commented on listening to the stuff I was listening to at school, (after a long conversation about the punk bands we both saw together, and how he still loves the music). I started to tell him about guys uncovering tracks that few if anybody knew even to this day. I told him he wouldnt recognise the music if he came again today (He came to Yate a couple of times), but he'd recognise the stuff listed previously in this thread. The camaraderie, the obsession with the music, and the vinyl it comes on, the camaraderie, the quality of dance music and the camaraderie.

The integrity of the long held passion for authentic music on original format remains. And thats where, I believe, the integrity lies. For me also despite the many attempts to make Northern Soul main stream and commercial. Without getting into cliche's, keeping the scene essentially underground, even when in the public's eye rarely calls into doubt the integrity of the scene we've all enjoyed. Its rare, its underground and its ours.