Re: Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: northern soul

From: heikki@enalahyysalo.fi
Date: Wed May 15 2002 - 09:03:09 CEST

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    >
    > My favorite chapter in the book, Northern Soul, tells of a movement so
    > underground and pure all based on the "need and desire to dance". No
    > egos, no rush to be the first the chart the "new" white label, no
    > "trends" as none of that mattered. What they wanted was something that
    > was "theirs" It was a race to find the grooves no matter how old or even
    > who wrote them, a lot of the time no one knew or even cared who wrote
    > the songs.

    except the northern soul dj's who were all eager to find even rarer records
    and new discoveries all the time. "cover ups" -i.e. the record label covered
    with a piece of white cardboard to keep the track id secret - on new
    discoveries were - and are - very common.

    keb darge - yes, the deep funk man was a northern dj before he got
    interested in funk - on discovering records:

    this is a long quotation and contains a bit explicit expressions, so if
    anyone might feel offended, skip this part and go to the end of the mail
    wheere you'll find some excellent northern resources if you're interested.:)
    anyway, i think this one explains very well the northern enthusiast's
    fanaticism for obscure soul 45's.

    "So I started a scene going there, and eventually it got to the point where
    we had all-nighters in Aberdeen, around '77, with about 800 people. And they
    wanted to hear what they'd been hearing at Wigan. So I had to get the tunes
    that were played there so you know, I remember going to The Mecca. And there
    was this record, Ron Holden, in this guy's box for 7 pounds. And I remember
    thinking 'Shite! That's a weeks wages for christ's sake!' And it was then! -
    'I must have it'. So I walked away, then I saw some other cunt going up and
    pulling it out, so ran back - 7 pounds. So on the way back, I thought 'my
    mother'll kill me.' But when I went to this club in Aberdeen and I played
    the fuckin' thing, and the response was like 'Fucking hell, he's got Ron
    Holden!' I thought hmmm, I like this feeling. So from then on I was going to
    Wigan and I got to meet all the big dealers and 'Right, I want all the big
    tunes', and that was after I was into it for about three years. And then I
    sussed that if you really want to get noticed, you've got to find tunes of
    your own, you've got to find new discoveries, ken. And I started talking to
    folk, and finding out 'Oh, we go to Detroit, and there's this guy called the
    Coachman, who used to be a gangster in the sixties, a fucking drug dealer
    and pimp and all that, and he knows all the fuckin' folk who've got all the
    records'. So I thought 'I'll go to Detroit and meet this Coachman, ken, so I
    got all the numbers and I went out there, and I found records, and I did
    Chicago, all the fuckin' places, ken, and then I was playing stuff from
    there."

    "All Northern, aye. Funk, when I went out I didn't know much when I started.
    And you would look at labels, and the fuckin' title, and the artist, and
    think yeah, 'cos there were no Soundburgers, no portable record players in
    them days, which makes it so much easier because otherwise you're just
    buying blind. But everything was 50-75 cents. So anything that looked good,
    you'd buy it. And you'd get home and listen to the fuckin' thing: Shite.
    Shite, shite, funk, shite, shite, funk, shite, Ooh, Northern! And I got a
    great buzz when I played my first discovery, you know, boom. First time out
    in Britain for this thing. And it was the Scottish crowd that heard it
    first, I just got the buzz. 'I'm making this big, this is my tune!' And that
    was it, whoom, I must find new discoveries, ken."

    "And the DJs, Winstanley and the likes at Wigan were playing absolute shite,
    there was only a few playing good stuff. But because Wigan had such a hold,
    every club started playing shite 'cos of the Mods, and so the shite was
    played. About 1980, I met this guy Guy Hennigan, and we said Fuck it, no
    one's doing anything about this, we'd better do something'. So me and him
    made this decision. We said 'Look, we're going to play nothing but new
    discoveries, sixties and that, and if people don't like it we're gonna tell
    them to fuck off, get out the fuckin' scene."

    "So where's your rare stuff? 'That is my rare stuff'. 'No, you know, the
    obscure ones. I thought 'What the fuck are you on about? I was climbing over
    these things trying to get to the good stuff in America. What're you on
    about, son? So I said look, what's the biggest tune on this Rare Groove
    scene. And this was like at the start of it, 1982. He says 'Oh, you won't
    know it.' 'Just tell me what it is.' 'Oh no, I've got the only copy. He says
    it's a tune called "Gwan". I said 'Oh, on Wingate, number 106Š

    He pulls it out the back of the shop, and he was like 'Fuck Me!' I says how
    many copys do you want? And it was a bit of a fluke 'cos my mate had been
    over in Detroit with fuckin' Popcorn Wylie and his mates who had owned this
    label, and they had about 800 copies that they didn't know what the fuck to
    do with. So I gave the number to fuckin' Roy the Roach, and he was like 'Oh
    my Fuck!' So from then, he was coming round here every week, and Norman Jay
    used to come round here, ken, and I didn't care, I was just looking for
    Northern. All this funk, seventies soul, I didn't care for it at the time,
    because I didn't listen to it properly, so I was 'A pound; fifty pence' and
    they were going 'fuck, what's this, Leroy and the Drivers, fucking hell'.
    And away they went. "

    i would hav put a url instead, but the old big daddy site where this
    interwiew is from doesn't work that well.

    >The most inspiring story in dance culture I've ever heard.
    >
    > Below is a pretty good link on the Northern Soul movement, though I
    > think Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton did a great job explaining
    > Northern Soul in the book.
    >
    > http://www.localdial.com/users/jsyedu133/Soulreview/Northernpages/whatis
    > .htm

    btw, if anyone's interested in northern, here's a pretty good - and detailed
    - history of the scene told by a person who was - and still is - there.

    http://soulfuldetroit.com/northern/index.html

    and for anyone interested in soul musi's history in general the
    soulfuldetroit.com -site is essential and interesting reading.

    a few other sites about northern/rare soul:

    http://www.soul-source.net/
    -the best northern resource on the net, methinks

    http://www.soul-a-go-go.demon.co.uk/

    http://www.soulcitylimits.com/

    so, thanks 4 patience

    heikki kiviluoto | turku soul mafia | finland | europe
    "turku is not just a town, it's a state of mind"



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