Hi Rod Hope you are keeping well.......................
I dont normally get involved in the 'what's modern got to do with it' kinda threads cause it's all pretty much subjective (see Barry May's earlier more passionate posting) but I thought I would reply seeing as you've specifically mentioned the Prestwich review i'd posted.
The post was made more as an insight, to anyone who may be interested, into what kind of music is being played at Prestwich, hopefully to raise curiosity levels enough to tempt them to join us on the first Friday of the month to come and have a look-see and listen for themselves as to the superb new music around at the moment.
As far as the Modern Room at Prestwich being (or trying to be) anything to do with the Northern Scene it's quite simple; It's not! It is, as you say, a room that just happens to be at the same venue.
However, I'm not convinced that there is 'no common ground at all' other than that. In the first instance, there are more people than you seem to give credit to, who actually flit between the two rooms and enjoy both the Northern AND Modern (upfront) Soul being played at the venue. There have been quite a number of people from the Northern Room who over the years have become 'hooked' on the music played in the Modern Room at Prestwich and have become as dedicated to new music as they were to the old, (but interstingly not much the other way round). That aside, the main common ground to me is that the music being played is predominantly BLACK AMERICAN MUSIC more popularialy known as 'SOUL!'
If we are going to discuss Modern Soul and how it fits into Northern perhaps we should agree, that in the main it won't! The Northern Scene is strong enough and has been going long enough to be quite definined as a predominantly 60's based music scene and even within that broad base there are factions enough without trying to bring so called 'Modern Soul' into the mix.
In the main a record or track will only be labled a 'modern soul' record if, as it has been pointed out in this thread, it will 'fit in seamlessly in a Northern Soul set', Hey Presto! Michael Watford (seamless?) suddenly stops becomming a 'bang bang house record' and becomes 'Modern Soul'. To quite a few on here it was a Modern Soul record the day it was released. This, as far as i'm concerned, is the labeling template for any post 70's record adopted and played on the Northern Scene but interestingly (or not) these records will ALWAYS be labled 'Modern' and never be fully accpeted as 'Northern' even though they fulfill 99% of the criteria. This labeling process also preciptates the continued use of the word 'Modern' to describe anything that is played that isn't 60's which does piss me off and is potentially damaging cause some people still think it's Driza 'effin Bone!
So where is the main link between the so called 'Modern Scene' and the Northern Scene today? Well Rod as you point out, it isn't the Modern Room at Prestwich! IMHO the link comes from forward thinking dj's who will seek out and champion something different and venues like the Orwell, were a pretty broad spectrum of Soul Music can be played, from the latest independant CD releases to obscure 70's (Modern!) thru to brand new uptempo Soulful Dance Music, some of which, at some point in time, will have the potential to be adopted and have some influence on the Northern Scene (and in some cases already have)
All the Best
BazM