The Story of Northern Soul


Book Description

What began as an underground 60s Mod scene in unlicensed, no-frills clubs in the North West of England became a youth craze that has long surpassed all others. The Northern Soul scene has confounded its critics by surviving and growing into an adult dance phenomenon whose followers share a passion for the music of Black America unrivalled anywhere else in the world. The Story of Northern Soul 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, The Story of Northern Soul is the definitive history of a dance scene that refuses to die.




Northern Soul


Book Description

The story of Northern Soul is one of practically total immersion, dedication and devotion, where the plain concept of the 'night out' was elevated to sacramental dimensions. Where devotees pushed their bodies, their finances and sometimes their minds to brutal and unforgiving extremes. For those who went through that involvement every test of faith or endurance was worth bearing. - From Northern Soul: An Illustrated History. 'It was a drugs scene, it was a clothes scene. It was about dancing. It came out of this thing. It was about pills that made you go fast. To go fast to make the scene happen.' - Chris Brick In the late 1960s, a form of dance music took a feverish hold on the UK, finding its heart in the north of England. The music of 1960s-70s black American soul singers combined with distinctive dance styles and plenty of amphetamines to create what became known as Northern Soul - a scene based around all night, alcohol-free club nights, arranged by the fans themselves - setting the blueprint for future club culture. Northern Soul tapped into a yearning for individual expression in northern teenagers, and exploded into a cultural phenomenon that influenced a generation of DJs, songwriters and designers for decades to come. Acclaimed photographer and director Elaine Constantine has brought the movement to life in her film Northern Soul - and that film was the starting point for this book, Northern Soul: An Illustrated History. However, what started out as a project largely comprising of Constantine's stunning on-set photography, featuring her young, talented cast and highly authentic production, has turned into a unique illustrated history of Northern Soul. In its final form, the beautiful new photography holds the book together thematically, but its real depth lies in the material from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s that Elaine and Gareth have researched and pulled together. Of course, no book can claim to represent everything about a culture. But Northern Soul: An Illustrated History concentrates on individuals' personal stories from that heady era, as well as being crammed full of truly atmospheric contemporaneous photography - not from press photographers, but from the kids themselves. Be it snaps of soul fans in car parks, hitching a lift or mucking around in photo booths, the combination of real people plus real (and often very dramatic) stories - not to mention the complete absence of label scans and DJ's top tens - means that the book stands out as a very different proposition from anything yet published on Northern Soul. We would like to think that above all, this book attempts to give you a feel for what it was really like to be there at the time.







Northern Soul


Book Description

Northern Soul features 90 recipes for Southern cooking influenced by star chef Justin Sutherland’s upbringing in both the Northern Midwest and the South, and by his mixed African-American and Asian heritage.




Too Darn Soulful


Book Description

Northern Soul has been described as the longest running fad in the history of British music culture. What began as an underground 60s Mod scene in unlicensed, no-frills clubs in the north west of England became the youth craze of the mid-70s. Northern Soul has confounded its critics by surviving, and growing into an adult dance scene whose followers share a passion for the music of Black America unrivalled anywhere else in the world. Packed with memorabilia, behind-the-scenes facts, and interviews covering artists from the Motown days right up to current chart acts like Fatboy Slim, Too Darn Soulful is the definitive history of a dance scene that refuses to die.




A Northern Soul


Book Description

Get acquainted with a northern soul . . . Jimmy Nail has been a household name since Auf Wiedersehen, Pet hit our screens in the 1980s. Since then, his career as an actor and a musician has put him on the silver screen alongside Madonna and given him a No. 1 hit single. Success on this astonishing scale was beyond the wildest dreams of the working class lad whose harsh childhood and brutal schooling put him on a collision course with Strangeways. But a short spell in prison helped propel Nail onwards and upwards. With the support of his friends and family, it wasn't long before Jimmy's unique talents and single-minded determination brought him attention of a different kind - and changed his life for ever. In A Northern Soul, Jimmy Nail tells his own vivid story in this intriguing, inspiring and sometimes confounding account of how one man rose to fame and fortune by refusing to be anything but himself.




They Danced All Night


Book Description

A story of one man's journey from the orphanage to his discovery of Northern Soul. Through the turmoil of violence, racism and drugs he found a love for music and dancing as he swept through the 1970's in England. Finding true love and Soul music helped him erase the torment of his childhood.




In Crowd


Book Description




Soul Survivors


Book Description

During the 1970s, the Casino Club in Wigan became the centre of the Northern Soul movement. Now, many years after the club's closure, the music and lifestyle created by Wigan Casino are enjoying a revival. This book tells the story of the club.




The Northern Soul Top 500


Book Description