Quote:
Originally Posted by barbarella
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RT I would like to ask- These Northern Soul tracks. They were being released by Americans; Were they aware of The Northern Soul market and react by producing more records like that? Surely it can't have been a coincidence that there were so many?. |
No, not really.
After a visit to The Twisted Wheel club, David Godin (Blues & Soul magazine) coined the term 'Northern Soul' because of the high tempo soul that was being played in the north of England. Motown Soul wasn't usually that upbeat so the DJ's took the records from smaller, lesser known U.S soul labels.
After the closure of The Twisted Wheel and The Golden Torch club the scene moved over to Wigan Casino and The Mecca etc.
Throughout the seventies the DJ's continued to take records from the small labels.
Some DJ'S and enthusiasts (Levine and Soussan?(sp) would travel to the U.S. and visit the warehouses for 1960's uptempo R&B.
They'd even take along a small record player and go through piles of singles giving each single about 30 seconds play...if it was danceable...they took it back with them to England
Basically, you had a Northern Soul scene taking place in the 70's that would be playing, almost exclusively, rare 1960's soul records. Some of these records never even charted.
In some cases they only ever got as far as Radio demo's and never even went into production.
Take Frank Wilson's 'Do I Love You' as a perfect example. This record went to press with only a limited run.
Gordy wanted Wilson to be a songwriter and not a singer so the record was shelved and most of the pressings were destroyed...all except a few.
Maybe 2 or 3 at the most. Only two copies (as far as I know exists) and are worth a small fortune to a collector.
Some NS tracks weren't even released as demo copies, but only exist on a master tape.
Most of the songs only enjoyed a limited, 'local' success in the areas that the labels were based at the time they were recorded during the 60's, but would go on to become Northern Soul standards during the 70's.