Greetings JK,

Could you and/or someone on the board educate me on "Northern Soul"? About all I know is that it's a love of Soul music from the 1960's and 1970's. I realize there are still big fans of Northern Soul today, but was it originally a youth movement like the Mods? Were they a reaction to the Punk movement, like the Mods vs. the Rockers?

The reason I ask is because Kent Records in the UK have just released on a compilation the one an only single on my dad's Soultime label from 1966. The single is "Sh' Mon" by Mr. Dynamite and it apparently became a Northern Soul cult classic because Chris Blackwell and Guy Stevens licensed it and released it on Sue Records back then. The Kent compilation is entitled "New Breed R&B With Added Popcorn" (maybe I'll work up the nerve to ask what "Belgian Popcorn" is in a future post).

The story behind the single is also somewhat interesting because everyone originally thought the singer/artist must be Black (if not James Brown even), when he was just a young White Rock'n'Roller in a popular local Washington, D.C. group called The British Walkers. OK, so The British Walkers weren't British and Mr. Dynamite wasn't Black - they still put out some great music. "Sh' Mon" being arranged by the Musical Director of The Howard Theater (Washington's premier Black music venue back then), with the Howard Theater's Brass section also on the track certainly added some "Soul" credibility.

Anyway, another reason I'm asking about Northern Soul is since the release of the Kent compilation, we're getting a lot of interest from Northern Soul-related sites on MySpace. I've even come to find there are US Northern Soul nights/dances, which I assume must be put on by expatriate Brits.

Any enlightenment would be appreciated. Mr. Dynamite on MySpace.

Best Regards,

Bobby Poe, Jr.
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Essentially, Northern Soul was a huge movement, which revolved around "Wigan Casino", a venue in the town of Wigan in, oddly enough, the North West of England. It was mostly white, working class kids who just wanted to dance until the morning light to "soul" records, most of which were imported from the USA. "Ghost in my House" was one of their anthems. The DJs that spun the records had also "discovered" them.

Later, there were a few English acts that began to record home grown music that was tagged "Northern Soul". "Skiing in the Snow", was one such hit, but they never measured up to raw energy that blasted over from the US.

There is a radio programme on Saturday night, hosted by one of the Casino DJs, on Smooth FM in Manchester that relives the halcion days.

"Soul" music is enjoying quite a revival in the UK with a whole new generation becoming involved.

This is a very potted version of the story and I'm sure other posters can fill in a few blanks.

Down in the south of England, it just did not happen.

I recall scores of DJ`s expecting us as kids( at the time) to know what was happening.

It was the first major musical north /south uk divide for me.

Down my end, we wanted Quo and Sabbath and we were being introduced to what sounded like old "non hits" to us.
We were , of course very wrong, without the Northern Soul boom, I believe there would be no Amy or Duffy.
I also feel that JK`s policy of finding what was in the back catalogue of Decca, when he took over ,is an important part of the story.
Any readers that think I`m back slapping my mate here are wrong, without the 70`s(Decca etc) re-issue program , Northern Soul , I believe would not have happened.
As for the dancing stuff, I never got that either, we did the kind of thing you saw Mud do on TOTP.

Thank you Mart and here you go Bobby...

Northern Soul was the explosion of some obscure American soul tracks which never happened in the States due to promotion or marketing reasons (you well remember that era of radio hype) but warranted airplay - especially in clubs.

Many were indeed by white guys rejected by American black radio.

We had a Northern Soul hit on UK USA with Dean Parrish and I'm On My Way.

You can see a terrific Northern Soul hit on You Tube if you search Jonathan King Ernie K Doe - his Here Come The Girls was a Northern Soul hit picked up by Boots for a recent Christmas TV commercial campaign.

The secret is - even second rate US soul was often superior to UK soul and northern club DJs spotted that.

Search My Space for Ian Levine (the godfather of Northern Soul).

He has lots of rarities on his site.

Thanks everyone for shedding some light on Northern Soul. Now that I've looked into it, there are TONS of blogs and websites devoted to it (though no one seems to go into the history of it much).

Thanks for the tip on Ian...I've put in a "Friend" request to him. Last, but not least JK, you have me dreaming that someday someone might want to use "Sh' Mon" for a commercial. Stranger things have happened, right?

Bobby Poe, Jr.
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poekat wrote:
Thanks everyone for shedding some light on Northern Soul. Now that I've looked into it, there are TONS of blogs and websites devoted to it (though no one seems to go into the history of it much).

Thanks for the tip on Ian...I've put in a "Friend" request to him. Last, but not least JK, you have me dreaming that someday someone might want to use "Sh' Mon" for a commercial. Stranger things have happened, right?

Bobby Poe, Jr.
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The track is very Northern Soul.

I'm rather a fan of the up-tempo soul stuff.

poekat wrote:
Stranger things have happened, right?
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Didn't Coke use Reet Petite - or was that Levis ?

Fascinating...

From Wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reet_Petite

"Reet Petite" by Jackie Wilson

Written by Berry Gordy and Tyran Carlo, a pseudonym of Jackie's cousin Billy Davis[1], and produced by Carl Davis, the song is one of the classics of rock and roll music. Taking the title from the Louis Jordan song Reet, Petite and Gone, this was Jackie Wilson's first recording as a solo artist. The song peaked at #62 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1957 and reached #6 on the UK singles chart. With the success of the song, Gordy was able to fund the launch of Motown Records.

In December 1986, more than two years after Wilson's death, the song became a #1 in the UK for four weeks following its use in a commercial for Levi's.[2] In the commercial, a claymation version of Wilson sings the song. This held the record for the longest time between a song's debut on the chart and it finally reaching number one (29 years, 1 month, 11 days) until it was overtaken by Tony Christie's (Is This the Way to) Amarillo in 2005.

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Wow! I'm now officially shopping "Sh' Mon" for a UK advert (my dad owns master rights and part of the publishing). If it happens I promise to give The Tipsheet Messageboard all of the credit!

"Sh' Mon"

Bobby Poe, Jr.
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Check out the Craig Charles Funk And Soul Show on BBC 6 this Saturday between 6pm and 9pm. I had just contacted Craig when he mentioned that it was quite a coincidence, since he was already planning to spin "Sh' Mon" during this week's show. Who was it that said, "There ARE no coincidences"...

Bobby Poe, Jr.