Nice one Derek! You are right about Liverpool being a 'Black Hole' for Northern Soul since the late 70's, in fact it's been a topic of debate many times between myself and L35'er Brian 'Flanny' Flanders.
In fairness to some of the guys from Liverpool on the scene at the moment, there has always been a small and passionate contingent breaking out of the 'L' post codes onto the Northern Scene for years, in fact going to the Casino a group of about ten would already be on the last train to Wigan when we got on at St Helens (come to think of it does anyone remember 'Scouse' aka Mark Baxendale, a regular at the Casino). Later the 'Saints Club' did become a bit of a mecca for many scousers who had a trace of 'Northern' in their blood and the bus fare from Walton.
In liverpool itself as far as I can remember the only club to really make it's mark and last more than the lifespan of a moth, was Livingstones in Stanley Street (I think!). A venue which at the time was spinning tunes like Sam Nesbit 'Black Mother Goose', Fred Hughes 'My Baby Came Back' and was mentioned quite regularily in Frank Elsons column in Blues and Soul. Other than that, Liverpool was a 'Funk with a capital G' town! Ohio Players, Funkadelic, etc but with a really soulful undercurrent and appriciation for real, new soul ala Lamont Dozier, Michael Henderson, Jean Carne to name a few. With some great (cheap) tunes coming straight off the boat and into Silly Billies record emporium in Whitechapel it was a great place to pick up some suberb music, I got Charles Johnson for £1.25 from there as a new relaese.
If anything, I think it was the supply of good new Black Music into the city, combined with the efforts of the likes of Terry Lennaine with his influential weekly radio show that kept Funk on the dial and Northern at the door in Liverpool even though my mate Nick did try his best by playing two Northern Records at the end of every show.........Pearls before swine
