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What is Northern Soul?

Tony L said:
You could stick me in front of a tub of old 7” singles with a few ‘northern soul’ hits worth £800 a piece and I’d likely not spot them. That knowledge gap doesn’t often happen with me! I don’t deal in 7” singles, which is part of it, but even so I’d not be baffled by any similar tub of psyche, garage or whatever.
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I sometimes see peeps going through the 7" boxes of reggae dealers at record fairs and the size of the wads being handed over for a handful of records can be quite something.
 
paulfromcamden said:
Lots of record collecting is like this though. People love a rediscovered rare grail.

Jungle, techno, free jazz, early death metal, punk, old blues 78s. You name it. There's always a bunch of records that sold three copies in their day and are now worth £££.

Though I'll admit the Northern Soul thing with DJs playing out the only known copy of some obscure 7" is an extreme example!
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I used to work sometimes in the second hand department of a record shop and I came into contact with a lot of rare vinyl (at the time it was rare late-60s, early-70s stuff that took the mega bucks). I learned quickly that they were rare for a reason and for 99% of the time, that reason wasn't that they were a brilliant band / artist overlooked by major labels. 😜
 
paulfromcamden said:
I sometimes see peeps going through the 7" boxes of reggae dealers at record fairs and the size of the wads being handed over for a handful of records can be quite something.
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Some of this stuff is worth £thousands. It is astonishing and as stated upthread a real blind-spot for me as I’ve never had much if any interest in 7” singles. Just not my format as 12” singles were widespread by the time I started buying in the ‘70s and just sounded so much better.

I’ve a hundred or so 7” singles in my collection, mainly new-wave stuff that never got a 12” release, Zoo Records, other local stuff etc, and some later DIY obscurities from the late-90s or early ‘00s I found new in three for a £1 bins at Vinyl Exchange way back when it was good. That said I’m knowledge enough about psych, garage etc that I’d not miss say a Wimple Winch 7” were one lurking, but to be honest I don’t even check 7” singles in most places as I don’t collect them myself and they are a tough sell here on pfm. I’ve actually got a few waiting to list that came in with a donation (mainly VG-VG+ grade blues & rock, early Fleetwood Mac, bit of Hendrix etc, good titles). I’ll get them up at some point.
 
I like Edward ‘Apple’ Nelson, something of a cult figure for northern soulers, who once played drums on rare funk 45s for Arthur Monday and others. This slowie is always over £1000 on Discogs now…


As for ‘Apple’, he has had a colourful life, from being abandoned at birth in the projects of New Orleans to moving to the projects of Watts in LA, where he perfected his bayou-meets-the-beach brand of funk in session work for everyone from Etta James to Dr John.

His band Apple & The Three Oranges didn’t take off and he tried to fund his own label by robbing rich folk in Beverly Hills and Bel Air.

Returning to New Orleans in the Eighties, he spent the next 15 years in prison and, after losing all his master tapes in Hurricane Katrina, was last heard of living in the California desert and drumming in his local church.
 
Tony L said:
Yes, that’s my understanding, though I admit it is one of few musical genres I have no real knowledge of. I think this is because it isn’t a genre, it is more a scene that found new life years later in obscure and largely forgotten old soul and funk records. I think this is why I don’t understand it as I wasn’t part of that scene and it isn’t a coherent entity the way say punk or new-wave, which happened at a certain time in a certain place, was. You could stick me in front of a tub of old 7” singles with a few ‘northern soul’ hits worth £800 a piece and I’d likely not spot them. That knowledge gap doesn’t often happen with me! I don’t deal in 7” singles, which is part of it, but even so I’d not be baffled by any similar tub of psyche, garage or whatever. It is a different thing somehow. A retrospective scene.
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I was never part of the scene either although I do remember as a teenager one of the under 18 clubs dedicating an hour to obscure 60s - 70s soul; was always very popular with the post Jam mod crowd.

IME the tracks are often quite similar in terms of beat, probably a lot commonality in the rhythm section with prolific session men holding sway.
 
The talcum powder was used to chuck on the dance floor so your feet could slide and didn't stick with all the spilt coca cola .....
 
Early 70s .. imported American stuff. No Abba ...soft cell etc .. it sort of morphed into Jazz Funk in time ..
 
You could buy mix tapes at the venues .....a copy of a copy of a mates copy etc .....used to bomb around With my mate in his cooper s with it playing.....my job was to sort the cassette out after the car cassette player had chewed it ....
 
Went to a couple of Northern Soul do's a couple of years ago with my then new girlfriend, I wasn't too impressed at all!
The P.A. system they were using was probably the worse sounding I have ever heard.
Not my type of music, I loved Motown when I was younger but Northern Soul, no!

I really did try to enjoy myself but just couldn't!
My relationship ended shortly after and so did my Northern Soul. 'thank god'
Couldn't get my head around men twirling around like ballet dancers.
The beer was awful too!


Not for me I'm afraid!
 
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My experience is of the all nighters at Samantha's in Sheffield....I'd say 1975 ....my friends went to Wigan Casino ..Torch etc all nighters .. I worked away at the time so only made the Sheffield venue...
 
Isobarik said:
Went to a couple of Northern Soul do's a couple of years ago with my then new girlfriend, I wasn't too impressed at all!
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I suspect like just about any revival type thing it would have been awful and not at all like being there at the time. Especially as it was such a drug-fuelled scene. You’d need to be young, agile and chemically enhanced to really understand it, much like psychedelia, disco, hardcore, acid house etc. A load of old people attempting to recreate decades later would be pure cringe.
 
Tony L said:
I suspect like just about any revival type thing it would have been awful and not at all like being there at the time. Especially as it was such a drug-fuelled scene. You’d need to be young, agile and chemically enhanced to really understand it, much like psychedelia, disco, hardcore, acid house etc. A load of old people attempting to recreate decades later would be pure cringe.
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Yes ....I think this sums it up ... you were so into the music ...also rare new stuff brought over from the US by UK DJs made it quite a thing when they were played. I remember waiting for our favourites to play ... The ones we'd been hammering on our mix tapes. Also the bowling shirts with the venue patches on them.

I wouldn't go to any modern day revival type things.
 
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