lots of people seem to be missing the point on what northern soul actually is...

Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consisted of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound. The most-prized recordings by collectors were from lesser-known artists which had been released only in limited numbers by small regional US labels such as Okeh, Cameo-Parkway and Roulette. Initially, these were sometimes not new releases, and the movement was sustained by prominent DJs discovering rare records and playing them at certain venues. Later on, certain clubs and DJs began to move away from the 1960s Motown sound and started playing new releases with a more contemporary sound.

Northern soul is associated with particular dance styles and fashions that emanated from the Twisted Wheel club in Manchester and spread to other dancehalls and nightclubs, such as the Golden Torch (in Stoke-on-Trent), the Highland Rooms at Blackpool Mecca, and Wigan Casino. Northern soul dancing was usually athletic, resembling the later dance styles of disco and break dancing.

EPITOME OF SOUND - "YOU DON'T LOVE ME"



LAVERN BAKER - "I'M THE ONE (TO DO IT)"

I LOVE THIS TUNE SO MUCH...



RINGLEADERS - "BABY WHAT HAS HAPPENED (TO OUR LOVE)"

GRRR GOOSEBUMPS



MICKIE CHAMPION - "WHAT GOOD AM I (WITHOUT YOU?)"


JOY LOVEJOY - "IN ORBIT"

SERIOUS TUNE.....



Seriously now... I wanna get up and dance...

This music seriously creates emotion within you when you hear it... If you don't feel this tune then i doubt you'll ever appreciate northern soul

EMMANUEL LASKEY - DON'T LEAD ME ON


THERES SOME FOR NOW.... ILL POST MORE LATER ;)

KRISSI

You obviously know your subject really well! :)
I've always liked the sound of Northern Soul, but at heart my first love is Funk and Disco Funk. So plz can I just say Welcome to MB and if I don't give the impression that I know all that much about Northern then it's because I'm still learning! :D

quality bro. keep it comming, jackie wilson also cut i'm the one to do it , with equally the same magic. joy lovejoy so simple so enjoyable, first iv'e heard the mikie champion, tune , it's got it all, oh yes...

jackie wilson
 

jw deserves his own thread really as does edwin starr and jj barnes... brenda holloway... george clinton pre funkadelic.... there are so many people you should wikipedia lol

jackie wilson is amazing! check out "because of you" and "nothing but blue skies" if you dont know them... they should be on youtube!

a few tunes.....
 

Where/what/who did the dancing style originate from? It's unline anything else from it's time (that I know of) and very distinct.

Interestingly, I've seen footage from the 70s where some of the break dance type moves are done by teds at Crazy Cavan shows and whatnot. It's safe to assume they learned those moves from the soul kids!

The dancing styles originated in the early soul clubs of the north during the 60's.
The soul music preferred was faster, more upbeat soul than the type of soul listened to mainly in the south.
It's the reason why the term Northern Soul was coined.
The faster uptempo music led to some pretty fancy footwork including spins.
It's pretty unique to Northern Soul that the dancers dance alone. In other words they won't dance with a partner like a girlfriend or a mate for example.

During the 70's at places like Wigan Casino the dance styles included back drops, back flips and all manner of gymnastics. The kung fu craze of the 70's (Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris etc) crept in to the styles (I'm not joking) and the dancers began to compete with each other.

Keb Darge still doing it after all those years.



And here he is, younger, trying his hand at a bit of disco :laughing:
You can see the martial arts influence.



I've seen guys take three steps, go into a double spin, do some kind of weird body corkscrew that ends in the splits, slide their legs together to a standing position and immediately pull a back drop, back up onto their feet and carry on stepping like nothing just happened.

^^ Wow, I never would've thought of the martial arts influence. Ha!

So this guy was one of the inventors of the dance style?

Not really. He's just one well known name among many.