This week I’ve been to see the Northern Soul Orchestrated Tour at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
Northern Soul really is the bop that just won’t drop. It’s a subculture that developed in nightclubs across the North of England in the 1960s and 70s. DJs played mostly lesser known singles and B-sides by American soul musicians that had been put out by Motown, Chess, Vee-Jay and other independent labels.
It was uplifting music, with soulful lyrics that celebrated the joy and elation to be found in everyday experiences. It resonated with northern working class life, and tapped into the Mod scene that was also prominent at the time.
Clubs like the Blackpool Mecca, Manchester’s Twisted Wheel and the Wigan Casino soon assumed legendary status on the Northern Soul scene, staging all-nighters where afficionados could forget their cares by dancing Saturday night away into Sunday morning.
The scene has never really gone away since, with the music influencing numerous others over the years, from Dexy’s Midnight Runners to Amy Winehouse and Fatboy Slim, to name a few.
The current wave of popularity began last year, when the Proms Season at the Royal Albert Hall in London held a special Northern Soul event, bringing together some fabulously talented soul singers, a rhythm and blues band and the BBC Orchestra.
The performances celebrated and breathed new life into a roster of Northern Soul classics, with orchestral arrangements by Joe Duddell and Fiona Brice. Songs included Hold Back the Night (by The Trammps), Out on the Floor (Dobie Gray), and Tainted Love (Gloria Jones), amongst others. The event was so successful it has now been taken out on the road on the Northern Soul Orchestrated Tour.
Which is how Northern Soul came to be at the Royal Festival Hall. All the hits were here, with beautiful strings, euphoric trombones, booming, passion-filled vocals and sparkling xylophones. It’s the equivalent of taking those old scratchy vinyl 7-inches and B-sides you once loved playing on a mono turntable, and hearing them afresh, performed live and completely digitally remastered.
The Night, originally by Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, was received rapturously by the audience, as was There’s a Ghost in My House (by R. Dean Taylor). Punters were invited to dance in the aisles, and plenty obliged, many sporting 60s fashions, Small Faces haircuts, Harrington jackets and Fred Perry T-shirts.
I liked hearing Sliced Tomatoes, an instrumental originally performed by Just Brothers, now instantly recognisable as the guitar track sampled by Fatboy Slim in Rockafeller Skank.
Host and curator, Stuart Maconie, from 6 Music, introduced the 3 before 8 – the 3 tracks that signalled the ending of the all-nighter at Wigan Casino back in the day as 8am approached. I have to say, as a sleepy head who values a good night’s kip, a dancing all-nighter would have been my worst nightmare. I once tried a horror film all-nighter, having to leave to go home to bed, practically falling asleep after only the second movie, and forgoing a 1960s Peter Cushing classic (which is saying something) in the process.
So the Wigan Casino all-nighter would not have been for me – I’d have been tucked up nice and toasty in bed, well before the first round of pep pills was being handed out.
Thankfully, this show finished on the right side of midnight, allowing ample time to get to nearby Waterloo Station and then home. There was a real buzz of elation as everyone filed out of the arena.
There are so many tracks I could choose to add to the ADK Playlist, but I will settle on this one, which opened the show and typifies the Northern Soul sound. This is The M.V.P.s with Turnin’ My Heartbeat Up.
A Different Kitchen 