In my opinion, having now seen the film, Soul Boy is very much the poor relation.
Only criticisms of NS were as others have said - clean, bright empty toilets at WC and swearing down the mike. My first experience of this came much later. There may have been others but Nogger and Chris King spring to mind during early nineties.
All in all I thought NS captured an experience that I can fully relate to during the first three years, apart from the luxury of travelling by car. All my journeys were by train which of course involved running the gauntlet up Station Road on the way there. Saw a number of people getting 'rolled' on the station the way home as well (for clothes as well as money). There was definitely a dark side, which meant you needed to have your wits about you at times, but never to the extent that it clouded what was a fantastic experience which I think is mirrored in the film where, despite everything that happened, the characters retained their love of the music.