northern = dance beat

soul music= emotional

pop music=played on the northern scene

what ya reckon?

Edited May 21, 20178 yr by dean jj

At its best Northern is a perfect storm of soulfulness, danceability, stunning performance, backing and production - that 'true' northern ideal is a very rare thing IMO. What's played at ALLNIGHTERS though varies wildly around that ideal; from pop sh*te to jump blues garbage, through excessively poppy motown, disco and garage psyche to inappropriately slow tempo deep-ish soul stuff - a broad church of secondary shades of the true god ; )

Dx

There has been previous similar threads about this and this is what i wrote back then

As we are all aware many different types of music have been played on the scene over the years.Not all by Black artists and many not very soulful.This is why despite the commercialised exploitation i still prefere to call it a NORTHERN soul scene.This is because the Northern Scene is first and foremost a dance scene and no matter how old we get and how knackered we feel its all about hearing those first couple of bars of a tune that create an uncontollable urge to get on the dancefloor.

Over the years ive heard many records being described as non soul pop stomper shite.But the same records have the power to make grown men and women cry,throw themselves round the dancefloor, and sing every word.So if a record can bring about these emotional reactions it must surley have some Soul content.

Patto is spot on...northern soul is a dance style/scene not a music, and the music played is to meet that style/scene

many of the tunes are from many genres including country and western etc, but they fitted the Rhythm and dance style and mood..

I remember years ago  when i ran a club in whitley bay every Tuesday we'd have a rock and roll night, a band called the wildcats played (lead guitarist was hilton valentine ex lead from the animals), during the breakwe'd have Djs playing tunes.. the rock and roll crowd were worse for collecting than the soul crowd, rare, underplayed expensive you name it,,, one dj used to play a rock and roll tune every time that got on my tits... but hed been playing it a rock and roll and doowop nights for years he was an oldish geezer then....

go forward circa 25 + years in a club at a Northern Night the said tune comes on and the soul crowd fill the floor... what was it... Dean Barlow third window from the right.... and plenty of what is now R&B/northern has been nicked from that scene

Barnaby bye were a soft rock group etc etc..

many a modern dance tracks were big club sounds also,

Im glad music likes are personal it would be crap if we all liked the same thing, one mans rubbish is another mans gold and all that,

as long as we love what we love.. hey ho

 

Geeeoooordie

 

 

  On 21/05/2017 at 19:28, geordiejohnson said:

Patto is spot on...northern soul is a dance style/scene not a music, and the music played is to meet that style/scene

many of the tunes are from many genres including country and western etc, but they fitted the Rhythm and dance style and mood..

I remember years ago  when i ran a club in whitley bay every Tuesday we'd have a rock and roll night, a band called the wildcats played (lead guitarist was hilton valentine ex lead from the animals), during the breakwe'd have Djs playing tunes.. the rock and roll crowd were worse for collecting than the soul crowd, rare, underplayed expensive you name it,,, one dj used to play a rock and roll tune every time that got on my tits... but hed been playing it a rock and roll and doowop nights for years he was an oldish geezer then....

go forward circa 25 + years in a club at a Northern Night the said tune comes on and the soul crowd fill the floor... what was it... Dean Barlow third window from the right.... and plenty of what is now R&B/northern has been nicked from that scene

Barnaby bye were a soft rock group etc etc..

many a modern dance tracks were big club sounds also,

Im glad music likes are personal it would be crap if we all liked the same thing, one mans rubbish is another mans gold and all that,

as long as we love what we love.. hey ho

 

Geeeoooordie

 

 

Guess Tuesday night was at The Rex Hotel ? 

  On 21/05/2017 at 20:05, andybellwood said:

Guess Tuesday night was at The Rex Hotel ? 

No Andy it was the Compass club at the top of South parade that my Cousin Ken owned, i ran it for 4 years for him

its now fitzgeralds downstairs that was books fashions the compass was upstairs above the shop

Geeooordie

Edited May 22, 20178 yr by geordiejohnson

  On 22/05/2017 at 06:08, geordiejohnson said:

No Andy it was the Compass club at the top of South parade that my Cousin Ken owned, i ran it for 4 years for him

its now fitzgeralds downstairs that was books fashions the compass was upstairs above the shop

Geeooordie

Thanks Ian . Must catch up with you at Whitby Weekender (Rifle Club) if not before ...

Edited May 22, 20178 yr by andybellwood

  On 21/05/2017 at 18:58, Patto said:

There has been previous similar threads about this and this is what i wrote back then

As we are all aware many different types of music have been played on the scene over the years.Not all by Black artists and many not very soulful.This is why despite the commercialised exploitation i still prefere to call it a NORTHERN soul scene.This is because the Northern Scene is first and foremost a dance scene and no matter how old we get and how knackered we feel its all about hearing those first couple of bars of a tune that create an uncontollable urge to get on the dancefloor.

Over the years ive heard many records being described as non soul pop stomper shite.But the same records have the power to make grown men and women cry,throw themselves round the dancefloor, and sing every word.So if a record can bring about these emotional reactions it must surley have some Soul content.

I agree entirely with this; what we have is a dance scene that is predominantly based around what is often referred to as soul music but the huge number of clearly no soul sounds that have been played and more importantly, danced to, show how the dance element is the key. Long may it continue as a dance scene, even if the trips to the dance floor get less frequent and there is more going on in my head than in my feet as I get older.

Steve