Winnie :-)

Andy Rix, Nick Brown, both DJ'd both danced, as did Kenny Burrel, Irish Greg, Chalky, David Flynn, probably think of a few others if I put my mind to it, so wouldn't say DJs don't dance?

It could be more male dominated because of when it started ie: the 6Ts. Different world in those days, men were dominant in most walks of life, business, politics etc etc. Women were bought up to be homemakers, so wouldn't necessarily have had the same drive to do nighters and dance to soul music. Just a thought

One of my favourites

Nice tribute that Chris

Yep, there's a definite increase in the ''shoulder shrugging'' department from me when dancing to modern, in twitter parlance I think this dance style is on the verge of trending :D

Mark, I think It would be a fitting tribute to a record and artist who have legendary status on the northern scene, we all came in somewhere and this record would never have been far away from our beginnings

RIP Dobie Gray x

James Brown and Jackie Wilson also. I'm sure I read an article somewhere that linked it with slave moves when they were laying railways, something about trying to outdo one another, it was then taken up by various soul artists and then copied by dancers at the wheel

Back to the four before eight instructional video for the lot of them

Now that's what you call a northern soul expose, warts and all Wouldn't have happened under Russ's watch

he was brilliant Harry, nice one

Rich I accept that there is was an element of 'coolness' purely because we were doing something else, but that soon went and was replaced with a genuine love of soul music, which I thought then and think now is the far more important factor. I started like most others listening to motown, and enjoying that particular style of music, the vocals, the arrangements, the lyrics all of them moved me. Went to the nags head in Wollaston (northants) in late 73 and was introduced to northern. I didn't know it was going to go massive, I just knew I liked the music and I liked the style of dancing. I don't remember thinking to myself 'wow I'm cool' and I don't remember thinking I should keep it to myself, I'd talk about it to anybody glorying in the music, rather than the fact I'd found an underground scene. I didn't and don't class people as divs if they didn't like the same music as me, just thought of them as ill informed and got on with enjoying what I liked. I don't think that's ever changed mate, and I doubt it ever will

Rich, I don't think I did miss the central point, the 'coolness' is totally irrelevant, without a love for soul music, it would indeed be just a fad, which as Pete has pointed out happened with a lot of people from 75, they dipped in, had a jig about and then left to become punks or whatever else was fashionable at the time. Kev's promotions do indeed focus on a very specific period of time for the majority, but that's what those people want, personally I can't see anything wrong with that. Kev has also involved some of the progressive DJ's in his promotions, Andy D, Butch, etc there's also a modern room at Stoke, well there was last time I went, so to to me the ethic of the scene is being followed to some extent. I was a regular at most of the weekenders, at some point there's normally a party type night, why just pick on Blackpool, doesn't make sense. A lot of the posts have been critical because it's being perceived that Kev and Richard (for example) are only involved with the soul scene to make money, personally I don't accept that, because I would have to come to the conclusion that they don't enjoy soul music in some way shape or form, and that's a presumption I'm not prepared to make.

Whether it is or isn't is irrelevant Dave, because if it wasn't, you wouldn't be moving onto something new would you, because first and foremost you love the music

Please tell me you don't just like it because it is cool Dave? I'm sure I know you better than that

Karen you're not making sense, at least not to me, are you saying that you didn't have to love soul initially to get into the soul scene?

People didn't get into it because it was cool, people got into it because they liked soul music, that's surely always been the underlying factor, and that goes for you, me, Bakunin and Kev Roberts and everybody else, you don't continue doing something if you don't like it, even if it is perceived to be cool. The main body of the scene has changed, and it has become like a giant club for many, but it's underpinned with a love of soul music, even if it is for tried and trusted oldies/motown and that's where the link is, between that scene and the other one that has emerged, the one that keeps moving forward. Both can and will survive, neither will go away, it just has to be recognised and accepted IMO, or is that just too simple a solution?

I never realised people got into the soul scene cos it was ''cool'', makes it sound like it was a fad?

shexxy This I really can't see the point of, it's very tacky

We were all red squirrels once, father time has stolen our colour

I can see anniversary badges with Tufty on them, coming to a venue near you soon

What do you mean proper venues Steve, what isn't proper about this particular venue. It's surely for the promoter to decide how he/she runs the night, not for people who didn't go. I've said earlier how can an event be judged on a 2 minute clip at the end of a night? Don't you think that's a bit unfair? May not have been to yours or my liking for that matter, but for the people there they've obviously not got a problem, so I really don't get what all the fuss is about.

totally agree, been done to death over and over again, and just becomes a vehicle to vent their anger/passion? at what's happening and it all comes about because of a failure to recognise/accept there are 2 scenes. If there was no call for events like Blackpool they wouldn't be successful. Pete S summed it up pretty well, people want to go out and enjoy themselves, if you don't like these kind of events don't go, it's not rocket science. As events they're not going to go away............

Cos it's a good record to dance to?

It's a 2 and half minute clip, how can the weekend be judged on that? It's presumably the last record of the night, everybody is going home, is it really so bad?