I hope you have enjoyed the last few posts reflecting on the best of 2020. I missed the 500th post landmark and have just realised that this post will be the 600th since the blog was started in April 2009, but it lay neglected for several years owing to other pressures. Since lockdown in March 2020, I have resurrected the blog and have posted regularly to highlight latest releases and many obscure soul recordings.
On this blog I endeavour to bring you a cross section from brand new releases, to keep things fresh, and introduce you to relatively unknown and rare records that if you are not actively involved on the scene, or regularly attend rare soul events, you are unlikely to have heard. I will post anything soulful that appeals to me regardless of when it was recorded or who by, if it's good enough it gets included. Even if you do know the records, I try to add value by researching some background to the artist, record, label and contributors such as composers, arranger, producers and where possible point you to where you can hear it and obtain it. Soul Source is an invaluable resource in obtaining information from many of the world's experts in the field. I don't pretend or presume to know everything, part of the enjoyment of doing this blog is finding the information on a particular record. I don't plagarise other sites. I will summarise in my own words and/or point to and reference the source where applicable whether that is Wikipedia, Discogs, artists website or wherever.
Even after almost 50 years of being into soul music there is always something new and interesting to discover and I'm open-minded enough to share it whether it's from 1960 or 2021!
I guess many of you may wonder who I am and what qualifies me to give opinions. A fair question. So, I thought I'd use this opportunity to introduce myself more fully. I'll also give you an encapsulated overview of the evolution of Northern / Rare Soul in the UK and how I got involved in it.
I personally don't like the term 'Northern Soul' as it means completely different things to different folks, and to me does not have a lot to do with 'soul' and is almost unrecognisable now to what it was in the 70s, but it is the label that has stuck which encapsulates rare soul in the UK which is probably a better label. To many it has degenerated into a purely retro scene akin to Teddy Boys and Rock n Roll with some 'dressing up' in baggies, bar towels, patches and holdalls reliving their youth, at the other extreme it is still a vehicle for discovering brilliant rare soul music and never the twain should meet!
I started getting interested in, and collecting soul music almost 50 years ago around 1972/73. There was a youth culture in the UK which evolved from skinheads (which was dubbed suede-heads) which evolved from the Mods in the 60s who were the pioneers in the UK for soul music. Clubs like The Twisted Wheel in Manchester and The Flamingo Club in London's Soho led the way for early soul music in the 60s, but that was before my time. In the north of England in the early 70s this became known as Northern Soul, a label given to it by Blues & Soul columnist Dave Godin after visiting the 'Wheel'. He ran a record shop in London called Soul City and noticed that many northerners visiting his shop (generally football supporters coming to watch their teams) tended to buy older soul records with a Motown feel rather than the new soul and funk being released and told his assistants to categorise it as Northern Soul.
Some of the first new releases I bought were The Detroit Spinners - Could It Be I'm Falling In Love and The Detroit Emeralds - Feel The Need and I was 'catching up' on the Motown 60s classics, but I was becoming aware of lesser known soul records that never made the charts and an underground scene that had emerged over the last few years. Wigan Casino had not yet opened, but sounds played at clubs like The Twisted Wheel, The Catacombs in Wolverhampton, The Golden Torch in Stoke and Blackpool Mecca were coming to my attention via friends and articles and adverts in Blues & Soul and Black Music magazines. Some records were being reissued in the UK owing to the demand of Northern Soul buyers, at this time US imports were very hard to come by. Records like Joy Lovejoy - In Orbit, Tony Clarke - Landslide, Robert Knight - Love On A Mountain Top, R. Dean Taylor's There's A Ghost In My House. The last two actually made UK Pop chart top 10. After the closure of The Torch, Wigan Casino took up the mantle of being the top all-nighter in the country after opening its doors on 23rd Sep 1973 and soon garnered much (unwanted) media attention after the airing of a couple of 'tailor made' Northern Soul records which appeared on Top Of The Pops (a UK Top 40 Pop TV show) i.e. Nosmo King & The Javells (1974), Wigan's Chosen Few - Footsee (1975) and Wigan's Ovation - Skiing In The Snow (1975) and a TV documentary called 'This England' dedicated to Wigan Casino was broadcast on Granada TV around 1977.
My formative years were spent in Louth in Lincolnshire (15 miles from the now legendary Cleethorpes Pier & Winter Gardens all-nighters which opened in 1975), however, unfortunatley I never attended as I moved from Louth in 1974 as my father was an RAF officer and was posted to Norfolk. My first all-nighter was St Ives in Cambridgeshire in 1976. My father was posted again in 1976, this time to the north of Scotland. I was 'devastated' as, for as far as I was concerned, this was the back of beyond and a 'soul less' desert, but I didn't have any choice in the matter.
It was not long before I discovered a soul club in Aberdeen which was named Center City Soul Club after the Fat Larry's Band track of the same name and met like-minded 'souls'. It was a breeding ground for some well known DJ's: Keb Darge (Stafford and Deep Funk and beyond), Billy Davidson (Southport Weekender) and Steve Aggasild who hosted the longest running soul radio show in the UK running for some 30 years until he recently had to curtail his activities. Not forgetting Irvi Milne and Neil 'Speedy' Allen. Before long regular coach trips were running to all-nighters in Dundee, Edinburgh and of course Wigan Casino and in April 1978 Aberdeen held it's first all-nighter at the Music Hall. At the same time regular up-front soul nights were being held in local night clubs labelled as 'The Soul Ticket', so as they say 'every cloud has a silver lining'.
In addition to attending the soul nights I became a club DJ in 1979 with a 6 night residency so bought most of the new soul and dance releases from late 70s to mid 80s before moving to London in 1987. At this point, for various reasons, I withdrew from the soul scene, a new career, marriage, kids and let's be honest the quality of the music being produced during this period. I attended the 100 Club a few times but didn't like the music being played at the time as it was too 60s / R&B oriented for my taste. I was fortunate enough by living in London to see many of the greats in concert during this time such as Bobby Womack, The Temptations, The O'Jays & Levert, The Whispers, Luther Vandross, Anita Baker, Phyllis Hyman, Teena Marie, Bill Withers, Jean Carn, Roy Ayers, EWF, George Benson, Peabo Bryson, Natalie Cole, Regina Belle, Freddie Jackson, Alexander O'Neal, Al Jarreau & Joe Sample, Herbie Hancock, Sade, Chapter 8 and many others at venues such as Wembley, Royal Albert Hall, Hammersmith Odeon and The Dominion.
It wasn't until 1998, after another move to East Anglia, that I discovered that the Northern Soul scene was still very active in the area. I attended an antique fair in Kettering in Northants and noticed flyers on the notice board advertising several events. With trepidation I attended the first one thinking I would be the oldest person there, but to my surprise it was full of people my age or older and hence my love of the music was rekindled. It was 20-25 years after the 'heyday' of NS and I guess many had got married/divorced, and their kids had grown up and they were out to relive their youth. Since then of course the scene has gone from strength to strength and has broadened and spread beyond the UK.
In the mid 70s the NS scene diversified (some may say 'splintered'), as Ian Levine and Colin Curtis, the DJ's as Blackpool Mecca's Highland Room, began spinning what was termed as 'modern' records. Modern meaning 70s releases and even brand new releases and they also began playing New York disco records at the same time or even before New York. This caused ructions on the scene with the die-hards who wanted to remain stuck in the 60s. The 'rift' is still there to this day with some who refuse to accept anything released after 31st Dec 1969! A very narrow minded outlook in my view, but each to their own. Some sections of the scene have taken this to an extreme with raw R&B and popcorn tunes being the order of the day, I wonder how long before obscure rockabilly and rock 'n roll tunes will be played under the auspices of rarity? That will be time for me to leave again!
That brings me to modern soul, what is it? Well as stated above when the term was first introduced it meant just that, new 70s releases, however, it was in the early/mid 80s that it really evolved and meant new independent soul releases. There was an awful lot of poor music produced in the 80s so the search for 'real' soul meant finding releases by independent artists on independent labels - very similar to the NS ethos but not looking for 60s obscurities but seeking out new material.
Another evolution of the scene is 'crossover'. This is a term first introduced by Rod Dearlove in his Voices From The Shadows magazine in the late 80s. So what is it? In it's literal form it means records released at the crossover of the decade between the 60s and 70s (approx. 67/68-72/73 sort of post Motown 'heyday' and pre-disco era) that were not played on NS scene as they were regarded as too slow when the scene was at it's height. As we have aged and mellowed these records have been revisited and are now more fully appreciated. Personally, I love this genre as the records are generally far more soulful - no white garage bands here!
As alluded to above, Popcorn records are now also played. This evolved from the Belgian popcorn scene. It is a difficult one to define, it's one of those you know it when you hear it, but not to put too fine a point on it, it is records generally released in the late 50s and very early 60s (1960-63/64) a lot of them by white pop artists. I believe that this was a transition period from rock n roll, R&B and doo-wop into what we regard as soul music which for me didn't really evolve until 1965 - I suppose with the evolution of Motown, Stax and Atlantic. Obviously, there are always exceptions, but for me, there aren't many records before 1964/65 that I would regard as soul music as I know and appreciate it, but that's just my take as I grew up with the strings, horns, backing harmonies and Motown and Philly productions so the earlier sparse and gritty 60s and Popcorn is just not to my taste.
In more recent years the UK has begun to warm to the sweet soul group harmony tunes played on the Lowrider scene in California starting in East LA with the Chicano community. A whole new 'Sunday Soul' scene has sprung up where the dancefloor is not the driver, just good quality soul music where the deepest of the deep soul, sweet soul and soulful crossover tunes can get a long overdue airing.
Also, in recent years an appreciation for the more funky tunes that wouldn't have got a look in previously are actively being sought out. There was a period from around 1976/77 where some funky tunes crept in, tunes like Black Nasty - Cut Your Motor Off, The Rimshots - Do What You Feel for example and there are many others, but in general funky tunes back in the day were a 'no no'.
To dispel a myth, Northern Soul has never 'really' been about 'soul' music. Certainly around 1978 in particular there was an awful lot of pop music and instrumentals played at the Casino masquerading as Northern Soul - cringeable tunes like Theme From Joe 90 and Muriel Day - Nine Time Out Of Ten, records by mainstream white pop artists like Paul Anka, Len Barry, Jackie DeShannon, Jackie Trent, Helen Shapiro and even Radio 1 DJ Tony Blackburn and lesser knowns such as Lorraine Silver, Judy Street to name but a few and even some by more respectable white artists such as Dean Parrish, Bobby Paris, Dana Valery etc. and some dreadful tailor mades on the Casino Classics label were being shamefully plugged by a certain DJ! As long as it had the right beat it got played regardless of any 'soul credibility'!
In conclusion the NS scene today is nothing like it was back in mid 1970s where 100mph 60s stompers were the order of the day. The scene has, by necessity, diversified. To give credit, a lot of the change was instigated by The Top Of The World venue in Stafford in the 80s which, along with The 100 Club, became the top venue after the closure of the Casino in 1981 and these venues pioneered a different, slower, sound, whereby crossover and beat ballads were given airtime. At an 'across the board' event now could hear records from the very early 60s, Popcorn, R&B, Motown, Crossover, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and even brand new releases being played. The underlying theme though is still ever present - obscurity and rarity! That is to say that the record has to be relatively unknown before it can be played.
A trend that I do not agree with is the one where it is not acceptable to play CD tracks or Digital only tracks at some venues, but it is somehow acceptable to get a vinyl 'carver' (which is essentially a bootleg) pressed and play it. This stems from the 'misinterpretation' of OVO policy (original vinyl only) and in my view suits the 60s only brigade as nothing from then, apart from unreleased material featuring on a recent compilation, would originally be CD / digital only. Some more 'enlightened' venues specify OFO (original format only) otherwise many great tracks would be side-lined because they are not available on vinyl. There are a lot of new releases from new artists which are limited edition 7" viny runs owing to finances which become 'in demand' when the limited-edition run is sold out. This 'apparently' constitutes 'rarity' and qualifies the record to get played ... which is nonsense in my view as it is still available as a digital download for 99 cents which, if I were pedantic, is arguably the original as the vinyl, to my mind, is a reissue of the digital to meet demand for those that want it on vinyl! There are of course also many CD only tracks (either CD singles or album tracks) which get excluded. A classic example of the hypocrisy of this policy is a modern soul classic from Corey Glover 'Little Girl' which was played from CD as this is the only format it is 'officially' available on.
