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With
the close of Wigan Casino in 1981, a chapter ended in the life
of a whole generation of young men and women all over the
country. Northern Soul had died.
Well if it did die in 1981, it's the healthiest corpse I've
ever seen ! Northern Soul is alive and well, all over the
Black Country.
In fact the Midlands played a crucial part in keeping the
Northern Soul flame burning because as Wigan Casino was
closing, the now legendary allnighters at The Top Of The World
club in Stafford were opening. Only running for five years,
the allnighters set a standard of playing 'Sixties Newies'
(Sixties records that had not been played on the scene before,
so as opposed to Oldies, they were Newies) that has continues
right through until today.
To find the beginning of the story though you have to go right
back to the late 1960s, when Soul clubs were beginning to be
set up all over the country. The Twisted Wheel in Manchester
is probably the most famous of the early clubs, simply because
that's the venue that Soul music journalist Dave Godin wrote
his famous 'Soul Of The North' article about.
Due
to the popularity of the Merseybeat sound in America, the
Musicians Union had negotiated a deal whereby for every
British group that toured the States, an American group could
tour the UK. This meant that venues like The Twisted Wheel
played host to a huge number of live acts, it seemed like
there was a US Soul group touring every week back then. It was
by no means the only club though, and virtually each town had
it's own club by the early Seventies.
By 1971, the Twisted Wheel was closed at the insistence of
Manchester Council, the focus then moved to the North Midlands
and The Golden Torch Club in Tunstall, Stoke On Trent. It was
at The Torch that Northern Soul allnighters really took off
with numbers far exceeding those seen at The Twisted Wheel.
Live acts were still featured, and there was even a live album
recorded by Major Lance at The Torch.
The
first club in the Black Country to gain a reputation was The
Catacombs in Temple Street, Wolverhampton, and by 1974 that
reputation was such that records first played at 'The Cats' as
it was known locally, were being taken up to Wigan Casino to
be played at the bigger venue. By the mid Seventies The Queen
Mary Ballroom on Dudley Zoo was also beginning to become
popular for it's alldayers.
Of course from 1973 through to 1981, Wigan Casino dominated.
It took Northern Soul from an underground cult into the full
glare of publicity, with Television cameras, their own record
label, and countless inches of column space in local and
national newspapers. Numbers at the allnighters reached the
2000 mark on occasion, and Friday Oldies allnighters were
introduced as well as the regular Saturday allnighters.
Looking back now, and remember it's over twenty years since
the Casino closed, it was a fantastic achievement to run at
least one allnighter every week for eight years, and so much
of the music discovered in that period has stood the test of
time and is still regarded as classic examples of uptempo
Sixties Soul music.
But of course, it had to end. Wigan Council initially placed a
compulsory purchase order on the Casino in 1980, and leased
the building back to owner Gerry Marshall until their plans to
build a new Civic Centre were complete. Sadly this meant that
the building itself deteriorated, and to be honest by 1981
when it finally closed it was probably a health risk anyway. A
fire completed the job of demolishing the building in late
1981. Controversially, Wigan Council never did build that new
Civic Centre, and the site became a car park for a while and
then some Social Services offices were erected on the site,
which I believe are still there.
Returning to the Midlands though, as previously mentioned,
Stafford, and to a lesser degree Leicester's Odd Fellows
Club, moved things on. The emphasis was to stay away
from the same tunes that Wigan had played and find new
discoveries, a tradition that has remained in the Midlands
ever since. By 1986 though, Stafford had gone as well, and the
Northern Soul scene was at it's lowest ebb, and had truly
returned to being an underground scene.
Hundreds of supporters stopped attending venues during the
Eighties, it was the time when most people were busy getting
married, having children, and advancing their careers. If you
looked hard enough though you could still find the odd Soul
night or allnighter in the Midlands. Wolverhampton played a
crucial role at this time, with Wolverhampton's own DJ Pep
seemingly running venues all over the Midlands. By the early
1990's The Black Horse pub in Thompson Avenue was hosting a
monthly Northern Soul night which really prompted the
resurgence of interest in Northern Soul in the Black Country.
It
was at The Black Horse that a small group of people came
together for the first time as friends, and over the next ten
years would prove to be influential throughout the Midlands,
and Dudley in particular.
Dave Rimmer, from Dudley, John Weston, Mick Nold, Bill Randle,
Ted Massey, and Dave Allen, from Birmingham, and Brian
Fradgeley from Wolverhampton, formed the core of the group at
the time and started running Soul Nights at Bentley's Night
Club on Constitution Hill. This led to the live appearance of
J J Barnes in 1994, and as far as can be ascertained is the
only live appearance of a US based Detroit recording artist in
Dudley. Perhaps more importantly, all were prepared to travel
for their fix of Soul music, in search of new sounds and Soul
nights. Trips all over the Midlands led to new venues and new
friendships.
By 1992, the most popular night in the Midlands was Bretby
Country Club, near Burton On Trent. Virtually all of the key
players and DJs in the Midlands attended on a monthly basis.
The music policy was to seek out new (Sixties and Seventies)
records rather than relying on the tried and tested. This was
understandable, because the promoter of the Bretby soul nights
was a mere 21 years old at the time. Chris Anderton, from
Burton was far too young to remember Wigan Casino, so didn't
have the memories associated with it.
It was also around this time that people started coming back
onto the Northern Soul scene. It was a situation of the kids
had grown up, the career was settled, or the divorce had come
through ! Soul music gets to you like that. Although people
might have stopped attending venues for anything up to almost
twenty years, the love of the music never goes away, and the
pull of the scene has gradually attracted more and more people
back.
Further associations, certainly between the East and West
Midlands, were created at Bretby, and when it finally closed
in 1995 there was a very strong loosely knit group of people
who didn't want to stop going out. So Albrighton's Lea Manor
became the next venue.
Promoted by Martyn Bradley from Cannock, and Tate and Lin
Taylor, from Wombourne, the Lea Manor concentrated on using
local Midland DJs mixed in with the best of the rest from
around the country. By the mid '90s, the venue was recognised
as being the best Soul night in the country for hearing new
discoveries and also as a social scene. It also meant that not
only could you hear the rarest of records, but also cheap
unknown things that were fairly easy to find. The emphasis was
always though, on quality rather than value.
The East / West Midlands friendships were cemented at
Albrighton, and a new element was added with regular
travellers from the North West. Regular DJ's at The Manor were
Martyn Bradley, Chris Anderton, Dave Rimmer, Ted Massey, John
Pugh from Wolverhampton, John Weston, John Wilkinson from
Nottingham, John Mills from Bolton, (That's a lot of guys
called John), Chic, Kiddo , and Neil from Shrewsbury, Steve
and Lee Jeffries from Leicester, and Len Cook. By the time the
allnighters started in 1998 there was a waiting list of people
wanting to DJ at the Club.
The allnighters put the Club into a different league, and for
a few years it was without doubt, the top Soul venue in the
country with people travelling from all over the country to
listen to the music that was being played by Midland DJs. A
two room venue, it meant that not only could Sixties beplayed,
but also the new Modern tracks could be played as well in the
smaller room.
This brings us back to Dudley. In 1996, the promoters of
Albrighton teamed up with Dave Rimmer and Mark Wills from
Kingswinford to start a Soul night at The Station Hotel. The
emphasis at The Station Hotel was to be quality Sixties Soul,
from a core group of local Midland's DJs, two guests every
month, at least one of whom was to be a top allnighter DJ from
out of the area. Over the three years that the Soul nights ran
at the Station Hotel there were 52 guest DJs from as far
afield as Scotland. London, Norfolk, North Wales, Bolton,
Stoke, Nottingham and Derby. The Station Hotelcertainly put
Dudley back onto the Soul map, and through a combination of
his DJ spots at Albrighton and Dudley, Dave Rimmer has become
one of the country's top Northern Soul DJs, playing all over
England and Wales, and venturing into Europe to DJ in Italy
and Germany on a fairly regular basis.
The
Station Hotel Soul nights closed in 1999, and although other
venues have been tried on an irregular basis, none have
achieved the success of the Station Hotel. That is until
September last year when Col and Gaye Kidson, with Phil
Richards, all Dudley residents, decided to start a new local
Soul night. Where, you might ask ? At the Station Hotel of
course.
Phil Richards had already promoted successful Soul nights at
The Queen Mary Ballroom on the Zoo, unfortunately though, the
outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease in 2002 meant that the Zoo
closed, and with it the Soul nights, for several months. Col
and Gaye Kidson, more recent returnee's to the Northern Soul
scene, have a long history of attending clubs throughout the
Seventies, and came back with renewed enthusiasm about five
years ago. The music policy of the Club is again quality
Sixties Soul, from the rarest of the rare, mixed in with the
best Oldies of the past thirty years. Col and Phil are the
resident DJs, and again the policy is to use one local DJ, and
one top allnighter DJ as guests every month. From a moderately
successful start in September, 2003, the first two nights of
this year have been a resounding success, with well in excess
of 120 people at each one. Especially encouraging is the
number of people who had travelled a fair distance to be
there. DJs are told they can play what they like, with a eye
on the dancefloor. It must work because a full dancefloor each
time also generates an atmosphere all of it's own. It looks
like The Station Hotel Soul nights will be around for a long
time.
Surprisingly
enough, there are probably more people who attend a Northern
Soul venue on any given weekend now, than there were back in
the heyday of the Seventies. Soul nights and Allnighters run
all over the country every weekend, and whilst none attract
the huge regular attendances that Wigan Casino did all on it's
own, collectively it probably does add up to more. Certainly
the forthcoming Northern Soul Weekender in March at Prestatyn,
has more than 2700 people booked in for a whole weekend of
Soul music.
Northern Soul dead ? I don't think so !!
The
Soul nights at The Station Hotel run every month (With the
exception ofDecember) and the next few dates are March 12th,
April 16th, and May 14th, 2004. Further information can
be obtained by ringing 01384 859529 or 07887
886804.
Further information about Northern Soul, both nationally and
in the WestMidlands can be obtained from Dave Rimmer's
excellent website at www.soulfulkindamusic.net
A Station Hotel Top Ten Records
Dee
Dee Sharp - Deep Dark Secret – Cameo
The Five Royales - Catch That Teardrop - Home Of The Blues
The Oxford Knights - I'm Such A Lonely One – Delphi
The O'Jays - I'll Never Forget You – Imperial
Ann Heywood - Crook His Little Finger – Hondo
The Brooks Brothers - Looking For A Woman – Tay
Gerri Hall - Who Can I Run Too – Hotline
Carol & Gerri - On You Heartache Looks Good – MGM
Matadors - Say Yes Baby – Chavis
Joe Douglas Crazy Things - Playhouse
Dave Rimmer.
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