I liked music a lot, as most early teens do, and this was the time of “Glam Rock”. I had early flirtations with the likes of David Bowie, Sweet and Slade, but my mostly ‘scattergun’ collection of singles & albums was populated with chart hits and novelty singles. Among them though were a small selection of ska / reggae & Motown singles collected over the previous couple of years from when I’d started to attend a Monday night youth club disco. “Al Capone” by Prince Buster was always a favourite played among the chart hits and became the first 7” single I ever bought for myself out of my paper round money. I was 14 and it sparked a love for Jamaican music that remains today. The Motown influence was all my elder sister, who used to play me her “Chartbusters” L.P.’s almost constantly. And it was she who, recognising my growing passion for black music, suggested on that night back in early ’74, that I come with her to a ‘soul do’ she and her friends were going to in the town centre.

We fetched up at the local “Central Hall”, which was just around the corner from the youth club I’d gone to and that gave the occasion a sense of me ‘growing up’ a little bit, leaving the ‘youth’ behind… The venue itself was the kind of large, old Victorian dance hall that I’d always associated with hosting  genteel, but fusty, ‘tea-dances’ during the day and ‘Big Band’ music in the evenings. But, crucially, (as with most old dance halls of that era) it was furnished with the sprung wooden dance floor that became so beloved of the Northern Soul dancer.

The poster on the doors said “Soul Sounds: 8 till late” and there was quite a queue despite it being a chilly evening in a small Midlands town. I remember feeling warmed, surrounded by the slightly older (than me) crowd, bustling around the entrance, eager to get inside. I was excited and nervous. Nervous, because ‘they’ all knew what was waiting inside and I felt like the conspicuous ‘greenhorn’.

Once the doors were opened, there was the usual crushing and shoving to be first in. (A nation of queuers? Not at this door matey!) and it took us some time to get up the steps. Eventually we got up to the entrance and I started to hear muffled booming from inside, punctuated by sharp short busts of music and voice as the inner doors to the actual dancefloor let another cold body through. After ‘shelling the shilling’, we walked quickly across the large, cold entrance area and I heard the low muffled boom of music get louder and louder as we neared the double swing doors. My sister, who was in front of me, pushed through first and the low muffle instantly exploded into a huge tidal wave of heat and loud sweet soul music that engulfed me. I was momentarily stunned and stopped to take it all in, to let my eyes get used to the large dark room. The sense of warmth and welcome from inside was like being wrapped in a ‘Central Hall’-sized hot soul duvet and the sound of this ‘Motown-style’ uptempo music ringing out loud and proud - music that up till then I’d only heard played on a small, tinny  record player at home – made my pulse start to race and my heart thud with excitement.

My eyes began to acclimatise to the low-lit hall and the few ‘disco’ lights they’d bothered with, then the real ‘frying-pan-in-the-face’ moment hit me…dancers were already packed onto the dancefloor, feet and handclaps in perfect time to the music and, what??….mostly MALE dancers!! On their own! With amazing moves! No ‘can’t-dance-and-don’t-want-to-but hoping-to-cop-off’ pathetic shuffle in front of some (un) lucky girl after the night and the drinking are over. No regimented “1-2-3 step, 2-3-4 step” ex-ballroom patterns with partners. These were proud, accomplished, athletic dancers who danced for themselves and for the thrill of the music and I looked on with bottom jaw swinging freely.

Then, hang on…who’s that over there dancing? That’s Mick Brown! I know him!! He was in the year above me at school! My sis said “Yeah Mick’s into Northern Soul – didn’t you know?” Mick ‘back-dropped’ and all I could think was “How can all of this have been going on without me knowing about it…in my own town...with people I know??”

I had a great time that night taking in as much as my ears and eyes would allow. My first introduction to a true ‘underground scene’ was complete and I was instantly hooked.
 
I was too new on the scene to have had a chance to go to the early influential clubs of The Twisted Wheel in Manchester, or The Golden Torch in Stoke, so I began modestly, cutting my teeth at the ‘Soul Nights’ that I discovered were on twice a week at my local working men’s club. It’s a cliché to say you practised your dance moves in your bedroom at home, but it was true. I’d watch dancers at the club and try to remember bits of their steps (sometimes nipping into the toilets to try out foot movements when no-one was looking) then attempting to re-create the moves at home with some of mine or my sisters more uptempo Motown tunes playing in the background. As I got to know more of the music being played and classed under the ‘Northern Soul’ banner, I was thrilled to find that I had in my record collection a few of the Motown records that did get played on the scene. Tunes I didn’t know, but sounded great, I’d ask the DJ about, then go looking for them on market stalls.

In a ‘bridge-burning’ moment, I sold most everything else in my record collection to a guy at work who ran a mobile disco, but then snuck back to dig out a couple of singles I’d forgotten I left in the box!! My greatest stroke of luck came with my sister’s partner bequeathing me his quite extensive ‘Northern’ collection. He HAD been a regular at The Golden Torch, and his record collection was full of classics from that era. He’d decided he was ‘settling down’ and thought, generously, that I would get more out of having the records than if he just let them gather dust at home. True or not, they in turn became MY classics and remain among my favourites today.
 
I was lucky enough to have visited, on a few occasions, the legendary Wigan Casino and danced on that hallowed floor to tunes spun by the equally legendary Russ Winstanley a fact for which I am eternally grateful. I made fantastic friends, heard fantastic tunes and had a fantastic time, and though I’ll never get ‘frying-panned’ again, the thrill that courses through me when I hear a favourite tune is still with me.

Togetherness

To my mind, the Northern Soul scene & Fred Perry are inextricably linked. The popularity of both born and nurtured by the “sharper-than-thou” mod movement. The mods created their own look, their own style & their own soundtrack. And like all ‘street’ movements that generate themselves, from Rock ‘n’ Roll to Punk and Hip-Hop, they become historic. They survive long beyond their beginnings and ‘hey-days’, because people who understand, will always recognise ‘authenticity’. That essence that comes from the emotions and the heart, not from a contrived ‘next-big-thing’ attempt. And what ‘authenticity’, by its own nature, bestows is the much-coveted ‘cool’.
 
Today, dress styles of once youthful dancers, who, like me, came up through the scene during the early seventies have changed and mellowed somewhat. Many are now 50 plus (and more!), mostly with grown children and all the adult responsibilities modern life brings. But they still make their moves at soul gatherings alongside more youthful – and energetic – dancers. And always in evidence will be one style item they can still feel cool in – a Fred Perry polo shirt. (Mine had to be the black with gold piping!) And one great thing about Northern Soul and Fred Perry is that they remain ageless. Both current and retro in a truly unique way. You’re as ‘sharp’ today whether an 18 year-old wearing Perry and dancing to Northern Soul, or 50 year-old doing the same.
 
The Northern Soul scene was and is friendly and inclusive – if you have the love, you are always welcome! Despite its working-class roots, your background meant nothing if you truly loved the music. Not to say there wasn’t snobbery, there’s always snobbery in any ‘scene’. From who has the best clothes and who the best dancer is, to who’s been on the scene longer and who has the rarest records. But these days maturity has taken the scene past those days of good-natured rivalry. And in its place is an unspoken understanding and friendliness from other ‘soulies’ that tells you ‘We’re in this thing together’. White, black, young, old, rich, poor, male or female…Northern Soul is “Togetherness”.

Paul Brown, 2008

MY TOP 10
(NB: this could change from week to week with so much great stuff to pick from, this is my list for now)
 
The Younghearts – A Little Togetherness
The Superlatives – I Still Love You
Gloria Jones – Come Go With Me
The Isley Brothers – Tell Me Its Just A Rumour Baby
Checkerboard Squares – Double Cookin’
Little Richard – I Don’t Wanna Discuss It
Lynne Randell – Stranger In My Arms
The M.V.P’s – Turning My Heartbeat Up
Tony Clarke – Landslide
Frank Wilson – Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)