The Story of Northern Soul: A Definitive History of the Dance Scene that Refuses to Die

by David Nowell

The definitive insiders account of the longest surviving scene in the history of British music contains rare interviews with artists from Motown right up to Fatboy Slim  What began as an underground 1960s Mod scene in unlicensed, no-frills clubs in the northwest of England became a youth craze that confounded its critics by surviving and growing into an adult dance phenomenon whose followers share a passion for black American music unrivaled anywhere else in the world. This book takes the first-ever, in-depth look at the culture, the music, the artists, and the people frequenting the all-night venues which are synonymous with the British Soul Scene. Packed with memorabilia and anecdotes from the Twisted Wheel in Manchester to the mighty Wigan Casino, this is the definitive history of a dance scene that refuses to die.

Genres: Music

330 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2011

Reviews

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book. Very informative and a good overview of the history of Northern Soul.

I wish I could've given it 4/5 stars, but I did have a few niggling problems. First of all, it's quite dated, which is understandable considering when it was initially released. The final chapter updates the story to 2010, but it still felt dated considering I'm reading it in 2014.

Secondly, the book becomes very repetitive in the latter half. Nowell seems to run out of things to say, and instead just repeats anecdotes and random stories from the 80s and 90s. It just gets a bit tedious. I don't want to read 15+ stories about how such and such went to the US and collected records. I wanted to hear more stories from the scene itself. I also found the story from "Barbara" at the end of the book to be melodramatic and unnecessary.

Lastly, the elitism and snobbishness of some of the major players on the Northern Soul scene is unsurprising but utterly annoying. The constant criticisms of modern soul / mainstream soul / pop soul became tiresome quite quickly. By definition the Northern Soul scene is snobbish - it was a genre of music developed from Motown that focused on lesser-known records from other smaller soul labels. Still, I found some of the bashing of mainstream soul records unnecessary. It felt as if some of these characters would exclude people from the scene just for not knowing a certain record. There was a constant theme of oneupmanship. It's no surprise to me that there was so much in-fighting between Northern Soul DJs, both in its heyday and since. Many of the DJs featured in this book come across as self-absorbed and arrogant. Whilst I appreciated Ian Levine's willingness to expand Northern Soul and include more modern records, he comes across as a bit of an egomaniac who never had to work a hard day in his life to amass the fortunes and successes he has had. I also despaired of the sexism of some of the current scene, as was described in some of the later chapters. One DJ made a sweeping statement about "handbaggers" and suggested that women on the scene - even veterans - were all about having a good time, whilst the men were the serious collectors and the ones most knowledgable about labels / artists / vinyl. What a bullshit statement!

Despite those criticisms, I learned a lot from this book, and I will go back to it often for reference. The lists of people's favourite NS tracks were particularly useful.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stuff. A little snotty at times though, (the Northern Soul crowd is often accused of that ;) Still, it was great to cop the DJ's playlists. Makes for good record shopping!

[Chris Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first encountered Northern Soul at the Bowlie Weekender, Belle and Sebastian’s music festival at an old holiday camp in the early spring of 1999. On a personal level it was a disastrous weekend, but the music was wonderful and part of that was the hefty amount of Northern Soul classics played between performances. You can see why the genre appeals to the indie pop crowd, because god knows there’s nothing an indie/ twee fan likes to do more than balance out the relatively big names like the Sarah or Subway Records types, with an absolute obscurity like Hey! Paulette or the Cudgels or someone whose only song was on the Corrupt Postman tape. Similarly, Northern Soul is a genre that puts obscurity as almost of equal importance as the music itself - it’s a world where Motown and Stax are a bit obvious, and something like Don Ray’s Born A Loser (which is as much a pop song as it is a soul song) is seen as a mainstream single. So it’s a world that I get on that level, being as I am someone who loves nothing more than spending hours scraping through bargain bins for something strange and wonderful

It’s also telling that although the music is wildly important to the story being told here, it’s also somehow secondary. Much of the music recommendations come from lists - Nick Hornby must have sighed with satisfaction at this - and the details about the musicians mainly come in rather sweet bits where someone like Edwin Starr sounds proudly and sweetly puzzled that a bunch of spoddy white British kids consider him some sort of godhead. Otherwise it’s a fascinating, labyrinthine tale of fans, fandom, drugs, petty snobbery, dancing and geographical rivalries. It’s a joyous celebration of a form that obviously means the world to everyone involved, even if the behaviour of the collectors is a bit on the extreme side at times. I’m someone who loves this music but hates public dancing, so the likelihood of me seeing Northern Soul in the wild is next to zero, but it’s lovely to read about it. It’s also nice to see it dovetail into my own life a couple of times - Selectadisc, the greatest record shop of all time, is mentioned and two of the figures here are from my home in Todmorden

There’s also a fantastically funny subplot about one particular DJ, and huge Doctor Who fan, whose name I won’t mention because I’m sure he googles his own name (and it’s bad enough when someone who wrote a not very good book on a beloved SF film series keeps badgering me with messages here, let alone getting The Fan In Question turning up). The Fan In Question’s contribution to Doctor Who and Northern Soul is fantastically similar: gatekeeping, a bit of snobbery, using his huge resources to try and dominate fandom, turning those resources into trying to remould the subject in question to his own image and then alienating fandom with the end product which is weirdly tin eared and synthetic and doesn’t really understand why other people don’t appreciate him. The Fan In Question is bitter, entitled and full of rage at those he thinks do not appreciate him, both here in the book and in real time on twitter with regards to Doctor Who. It’s very funny

And finally, the book gets a point knocked off for proof reading issues (again, because of the SF franchise writer’s long standing beef with me I’m going to be a bit more detailed in discussing these - I can’t tell said writer about his Simian SF franchise book errors because I got rid of it quickly because i didn’t like the book). They’re very basic, but almost certainly a combination of lazy editing/ proofing and some spellcheck corrections which lead to musician’s names going a bit AWOL. It’s taken me a bit of time to track down some of the songs mentioned because of this, although it does give the book an air of an extended fanzine which is really no bad thing. It’s also a very funny parallel to how Northern Soul DJs tried to protect the identity of their obscure songs from potential bootleggers, by making up new band names/ labels for the singles when being played. If the intention was to throw people off the scent while trying to track down these original songs then it’s a very, very funny joke indeed

[jimmyjams · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
I think this is a perfect introduction into how motown and northern soul was both introduced and maintained within the UK with first person accounts providing a sense of personality to the book

I think that including a list of songs that are enjoyed and played at the different venue is a nice touch along with the fact that many bases surrounding northern soul where covered, from the normalcy of amphetamines to its influence in other countries

I think at times however it could get quite repetitive and the different venues often resulted in the description being similar, so I feel that it could have been shortened somewhat

Despite that, it has allowed me to develop an even greater appreciation for this underground movement and long may it continue

[Jack Benjamin Verweij · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting read, a real eye-opener for someone who doesn't remember a time where music was hard to source and collect! It gets a bit repetitive but for someone who loves the music but wouldn't class themselves as a "hardcore Northern Soul fan" I enjoyed it nonetheless. Would have liked the book to have more analysis of the cultural appropriation aspects of the music as well. Wouldn't read again but would definitely look back into it to dig out a fact or two!

[Polly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin. A total definitive history of northern soul, and a fairly interesting read. However, I did feel it required a certain base level of knowledge, as it was clearly written by a fan of the music scene for other fans, rather than for just the vaguely interested like myself. It also felt dated at the end (“the internet is set to be massive”), and the final chapter’s attempt to bring an update fell somewhat short of the mark.

[Debra Flynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off so well, giving a real feel of the clubs, times and movement. Also had some great playlists listed. But became very repetitive and guilty of the judgement and arrogance that the Northern Soul scene is so often accused of. Would have benefited from editing and could have been half the length. You probably had to be there to really enjoy this book.

[Jackie Northall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, aand a reminder of how good the Northern soul music is.

[Funky Beanz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent read, although for long time NS fans not much you wont know already.

[Richard Ewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read about the music that, as it says on the tin, refuses to die. Good insight into some of the personalities and their rivalries. Fantastic playlists, but thank god for the Internet and the blogspots or my credit card would be maxed out!