Northern Soul: The Film Soundtrack

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Northern Soul is one of the most important youth movements in British history, even though it doesn't get as much attention as the punk or mod movements. You Didn’t Say a Word was originally only released as the b-side to Yvonne Baker‘s 1967 single To Prove My Love is True, on Cameo-Parkway Records, yet it soon became one of the former Sensations singer’s best loved songs. Despite the name, most Northern Soul music actually came from the States, where DJs dug up obscure singles and limited releases from pretty much unknown artists. In fact, the term Northern Soul was coined by a London record shop owner to describe the obscure requests of Northern football fans.

The opening riff sounds transported straight from a Bond film in which 007 ditches the casino for a sprung dance floor and dances with his enemies (someone should make that film… Wigan Casino Royale?). It has a cool and mysterious feel, yet is still a real stomper. Winstanley says 500 vinyl demo copies of the song were produced to send to radio stations, but then all but one were destroyed when it was decided not to release it.

It felt like I’d been through an emotional storm,” Ashcroft would later tell the NME. “But I got something out of it. Out of all the torment, I had a diamond. And that’s what great groups survive on.” As it happened, the band, in this incarnation, would barely survive the year. A Northern Soul, however, would go on to become of the defining albums of the mid-90s: soul music, palpably real, torn from the core of something intangible. Originally intended to be recorded by Gloria Jones and the Tiaras, Jones‘ vocal was eventually replaced by new Dore Records signing Rita Graham following a disagreement with management. Few scenes in the history of popular music have endured and inspired as much dedication and devotion as Northern Soul. Yet the Jersey Boys hitmakers showed off their differing colours with their all but forgotten 1972 LP Chameleon, released on Mowest, the West Coast division of the legendary Motown label. The album flopped initially, but Northern Soul enthusiasts unearthed it later on, with The Night finally charting at number seven in the UK, three years later in 1975. Searling says only six were produced. Other sources claim 250 were made. Whatever the truth, only a tiny handful of copies were put into the Motown vaults in Detroit, and forgotten about, until almost a decade later when someone – either Soussan or Winstanley’s unnamed soul artist – liberated one or more.

Whittling down the thousands of singles which have become cult classics amongst Northern Soul fans is an almost near impossible task. Everyone has their favourites they’d argue for days upon end for its inclusion, but there’s some that simply cannot be ignored when discussing the scene. It’s a bold claim to make about the man responsible for some of the greatest soul records ever made, but This Love Starved Heart of Mine (It’s Killing Me) might just be the best song Marvin Gaye ever released, and almost certainly one of his most under appreciated.Although The Twisted Wheel was the birthplace of Northern Soul, Wigan Casino was its most popular venue. It was once named the best disco in the world by Billboard magazine and at one point boasted over 100,000 members. Its all nighters, which began at midnight and ended at 8am, are the stuff of legend. Searling, author of a northern soul history called Setting The Record Straight, says: “The copies of the record that were in the Motown vaults were … borrowed. Then Soussan sent one to the Casino in about 1975. He’d already put a new label on it, saying it was Eddie Foster. Nobody had any idea it was Frank Wilson until a long time later. It was Soussan who discovered the song.” And where is he now? “Out there somewhere,” says Searling. “Probably.” Playing live became our forte,” Jones says, recalling how A Northern Soul was largely written in six weeks on the road, the group firing on all cylinders, treating audiences to new songs the day they were written. “We’d read about The Stooges going in and recording an album in six days and that was what we wanted to do.” It’s hard to imagine now that the song was almost lost as it feels as instantly familiar as all great pop songs should and is well and truly cemented as a dance floor classic. It’s the ultimate stomper, and impossible not to move to.