uk addys/please explain northern soul

[mobygrape]

just what do uk music fans mean by calling some american soul records northern soul and others not, im just curious , i recieved a cd mix from a friend of mine overseas, and i gotta say it was some of the best sublime soul ive ever heard. all of it was very obscure , so is that what the concept is the more obscure the soul song , the more northern it becomes?

[Ignorant Bliss]

northen soul relates mostly to a kind of upbeat and dance soul music. it was popular where i live back in the day, mostly obscure american soul. associated too with early dance drugs, as they'd normally party through the night. a bit mod too. the rare northern soul 7" are just about the most expensive records you can buy.

[mobygrape]

yeah that was an impression i got is that the songs i heard were very very mod, in a style of a song paul weller wished he could write, and im not saying paul weller is bad but after hearing these songs it spretty obvious he is very influenced by this sound. i live in memphis i bet ya i could find tons of these well maybe

[George Michael]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwnFK0uTOfg&mode=related&search=

Captured from a recent TV programme - there are several short parts of this documentary on youtube - but this one illustrated the dancing better than the others.

also - i understand that northern soul kids may have been breakdancing before hip hop kids were breakdancing...

[Mike McCusker]

I think its called Northern Soul as it was a major undergroud youth movement in eth North of England.

There were tons of "Soul Boys" (and girls) when I was growing up in Barrow-in-Furness (in teh North west of England). They used to go to Blackpool Mecca and Wigan Casino and teh Twisted Wheel in Manchester. They danced all night (and due to UK drink laws) generally took drugs to keep going (Speed, I guess).

They did a spectacular form of dancing, danced against each other, rather than with each other. I remember them wearing Oxfor bags (basically flares with loud check paterns, tos of pockets and 40" bell bottoms). My brother was sent home from school for wearing them. They wore long black leather raincoats too. Younger ones would wear patches and carry bags with "Keep the Faith" on them.

In Barrow, they were mainly based around the Catholic Youth Club in Hindpool (which was a very working class area of the town), so I remember a high protortion of Catholic kids at school into it. Most of the hardest kids in school and older were into them. Lots drove Italian scooters too (Lambretta and Vespas).

This became pretty scary when they decided at one point they didn;t like punks. Michelle had to run for her life once. However, as my first real girlfriend Kath was of Northern Soul stock, and I was a Catholic, I avoided any attacks and knew most of the main players. When the Mod revival started in the UK in 1979/80 loads (of the younger ones I guess) converted to Mods.

The collected battered old American soul records. I never undeerstood the thing about "songs" not bands/artists. There would be record stalls at the dance nights and people wuold (and still do) pay a fortune for the things - (they were big on buying promos too). People would pay stupid prices for a cassette version of a particular track.

Where are they now? Well of the Barrow lot I knew, a few who went on to become fully fledged drug dealers. One, Joey became a heroin addict and hung himself a few years back. Lots spent some time in prison.

[mobygrape]

yeah its the song , since i posted this i talked a friend of mine and he said there is even an anita bryant 45 that goes for over a hundred dollars and i thought you couldnt even give away a anita bryant record

[yeah]

what were some of the songs and artists on the cd??

im a bit of a soul obsessive and would like to know if theres anything "new" on your sublime cd mix??

p.s. props to Mike for the description!!