look to the north
russ winstanley, kev roberts and richard searling
Please send me your experiences, over the years, of places and spaces that have affected you in and around the soul scene. Age means nothing here. No North / South divide either. It's just where, when, and who you are that counts. If you want to write around 500 words (or less, but not a lot more! LOL), I will post them here. You might reside in London, Edinburgh, Wigan, Stockholm or Los Angeles, an ex-pat, who was somewhere at sometime in the past. Doesn't matter. You have your story, so let's hear it! I will not publish e-mail addresses. If you want to talk to a contributor, mail me and I will put you in touch with the relevant parties.
What you need to add to your articles here are the following:
Your name - The Era - The clubs you went to - The music you loved - What you are up to thesedays.
I will post your contributions on this page. If you have a scanned image (JPEG/GIF) of the time (yourself, a club etc) , that would be great. Makes your piece more interesting, that's all. Boring looking at a whole bunch of text, that's all. O.K., so here goes....
wigan casino - station road, wigan (1973-1981)
Joanne - Seventies and Eighties - Various clubs
'I was born in 1968 so I wasn't old enough to go the Casino (but my sister and brother did even though they were really too young). However that said I remember it fondly, my bus stop was just outside too. So it's safe to say I was brought up on soul music (whether I like it or not being the youngest)
When we were kids my mum and dad would go to the club around 8pm and my brother would put on all his soul records and we would practise our soul dancing up and down on the living room carpet doing the splits (I think I can still do them......at a push) etc. Then we would go to the local disco with our circle skirts on and they would play the more popular/commercial soul records, because they obviously couldn't afford the rare stuff at the youth club:-)
Anyway I still love Northern souls and the scene is bigger than ever with many young un's coming to the soul nights.
To us when we were kids it made us feel like we belonged especially to the town too. That is hard to describe because to me having the best music in the world linked to your town is the best feeling in the world.
I now have kids so can't immerse myself deeply in the soul scene but I drown myself now and again just to keep me going.
How can you describe what soul music does, well I am listening to a song that my brother has just sent me on msn. I haven't heard since I was about 18, so 20 years ago. It is a modern soul rather than classic as I like both and I have tears streaming down my face because of the memories soul music brings. Heaven in the afternoon by Lew Kirton..............ah yes sheer heaven!!
Anyway up north we all still love Northern Soul and now the council recognise the mark the Wigan Casino left on the music scene and we have a few 'memorials' to the casino and the fashions of the time. I just wish people would dance like that now. You wouldn't have fat kids then eh!!
Joanne Bradley'
