Check out a better, and more full story of the history of Northern Soul by clicking the Northern Soul links in my links section.
In England in the 1970s, glam rock and 70s funk ruled the music scene. All except in the Northern part of England. In Northern England, everyone dug 1960's soul that was up-tempo and fast, but with one catch...the rarer the better. The fans dubbed this music Northern Soul. Fans of this music would go to such clubs as the Twisted Wheel and the mecca of Northern Soul, the Wigan Casino. DJ's would often scour the used 45's of 2nd hand record shops for the extremley rare records. They would even go as far as to go to the source of the music, the USA. Some of the most popular singers were Edwin Starr, Dee Dee Warwick (sister of Dionne Warwick), Jimmy Castor, The Four Tops, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Honey Bees, Jackie Wilson and many many others. The singers weren't Northern Soul singers though really. The Northern Soul scene is about songs, not singers, because Northern Soul is not really a set type of music, like say reggae and pop music is. For a song to be Northern Soul, it had to be fast, and unique. Some labels which have Northern Soul is Tamla/Motown, Kent, Okeh, Blue Rock, and Stax. The reason the fans liked the faster numbers was because of the wild dances they would perform on this type of music. Dancers would fly across the floor with the greatest of ease, doing back drops and high kicks like no one would ever imagine, all on the motivation of the music they dedicated their lives to (also, the amphetamines the dancers took didn't hurt either). These kids called themselves Soulies. Soulies had a little in common with Mods of a decade earlier. They all had their kicks out on the dancefloor of clubs where soul and R&B was played, they took amphetamines, and also they fancied scooters, filled with lights and mirrors to get around. The clothes were quite different though because the soulies wore pants with wide, wide flares, flat shoes, wide collared shirts and sweaters. They also carried bags with the patches of clubs and events they attened, and int he bags theyd carry records, a change of clothes or whatever else they needed. the Northern Soul scene never really died. It caught on with the Mod revivalists of the late 70's as well as the scooter boys of the '80s. It also spread across the atlantic to America, and all over Europe.
