12 yrs old , mates brothers bedroom , kidding on that we're shooting each other and singing along , still love this classic oldie today , but underplayed nowadays !!

Archie Bell & The Drells - Here I Go Again somewhere around 1970/1

Listening to my old tranny under the bed covers about midnight. Didn't know it was "Northern" then but I knew it was the best thing I'd ever heard up until that time.

Why? Dunno, a sound either hits ya or it don't.

Yup, still like to hear it now and again.

time - edwin starr, probably

storm warning the volcanos,arctic. id heard motown and some stuff at the youth club, little anthony , dobie gray,out on the floor, and the in crowd.But me mate les ,who id known then since a was ten, now 12, used to argue wi me about football all time we went different schools , suppported different teams, played different positions, competed for everythin, but les had records, real records they didnt play at the youth club.Bobby womack what is this on keymen was another, lorraine chandler another.the poets one of ma all time favourites another. topped by , f***in frank wilson , we both loved hearin it ,but not as much as the grapevine album, with tony hestor,, eddie parker and eula cooper on there. i even had chairmen of the board on invictus , and the temps and jr walker, of my own , but storm warning sounded different to me, sounded heartbroken spoke the language of it too, so even a twelve yr old could get it spelled out for them.id bought other records i liked too, i even had some rock and roll on the that,ll be the day album and i like that , viv stanshall and the big bopper, The volcanos though, even the name sounded unlike everyone else,Sort of important , then i heard laws of love and realised they bloody were to me anyway.My love of northern soul started properly with that tune. The Volcanos ,Storm warning.

TAMS - HEY GIRL DON'T BOTHER ME from around about 1967/8, and you could only hear it when the two guys did the local village youth club, fell in love with it, and was so chuffed to get my re-issue copy in 1970, played it to death. Finally got a HMV demo many years later, still a great tune when you hear it out and it got to number 1 in the uk charts, but still in my top ten records of all time.

I can't remember in which order I heared them so Im going to have two.

The youth club I attended circa 72 had an old battered biscuit tin in which a pile of very distressed un-sleeved 45s lived.

Amongst this neglected bunch was.... Jamo Thomas I-Spy & Edwin Starr S.O.S both on white polydor DEMOS!

come to think of it most of the other stuff were green TMGs....... Time Machine anyone?

Debbie - Heard quite a few tunes on the Mod scene in the early to mid 80s, but the first one that stuck in my head was The Ivories-Please Stay, still love dancing to that today! , some of my friends stayed with the Mod scene & some of us moved onto the Northern scene, & my skirts became longer & full!

Edited October 21, 200915 yr by parkash

In 1972 a tune I heard at a local youth club was Bobby Hebb - "Love Love Love.

I bought a copy from Starpic in Blackpool & played that record all Summer long in the school holidays. It became a favourite of my late mums - like to play it every now & again just to remember her singing along to it - wonderful tune & memory of a very special person in my life.

I remember hearing Al Williams- i am nothing- for the fist time in my beloved clouds all-nighter... 1978 i think-it really hit me... before that time, it was "how can i forget" joey dee, and "you got your mind on other things", "tears" was a biggie at that time.. happy times

12 yrs old , mates brothers bedroom , kidding on that we're shooting each other and singing along , still love this classic oldie today , but underplayed nowadays !!

see you at the Soul for heroes all dayer . If you ask i'll play it in the oldies room

12 yrs old , mates brothers bedroom , kidding on that we're shooting each other and singing along , still love this classic oldie today , but underplayed nowadays !!

Macdonna Hall monthly disco in West Kirby Girl, Why You Wanna Make me Blue played by the lads of Basement Disco Twisted Wheel goers I believe would have been 1970

Edited October 21, 200915 yr by sjclement

Archie Bell & The Drells - Here I Go Again somewhere around 1970/1

Listening to my old tranny under the bed covers about midnight. Didn't know it was "Northern" then but I knew it was the best thing I'd ever heard up until that time.

Why? Dunno, a sound either hits ya or it don't.

Yup, still like to hear it now and again.

Just read this and had to laugh i have just replied to "Where were you in 72" and put the same thing -

Local youth club - Seven days is too long

Through the mists of time...

The fist proper Northern record (i.e. not Stax, Motown etc)

Frankie Beverly & The Butlers - 'If That's What You Wanted'

On the Inferno re-issue catalog# HEAT 4 (clear vinyl copy).

The year 1979 and the location was our youth club disco.

Totally blew me away...

Forever!

1st visit to a northern soul venue in 1972 Four Larks Grooving at the go go....................................

never to be forgotten.....................

Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up from dad's record collection in early 90's when i was getting more aware of soul music. I absolutly told people that it was the best example of Northern soul at the time if they asked what it was. I still love today cause it's still a classic

i was brought up ( in yorkshire ) partly by my grandparents and my young uncle (who went to the wheel and other venues of that time) who used to babysit me and play his records on a dansette record player . i guess some people are just born lucky .

whenever i hear the intro to - saxie russell - psychedelic soul - i get a flashback to those times and i think this must be because the intro is so similar to the showstoppers - aint nothin but a house party - .

so any of the early stuff from that time , but showstoppers seems to have stuck in my mind particulally . i still love it to this day and never seem to tire of hearing it

ps theres a photo of us in my album

Edited October 23, 200915 yr by sarahleen

The song that got me into soul music in general was "7 Rooms of Gloom" by the Four Tops, when I was about 13. I was aware of Motown and suchlike because of the mod revival sweeping the school (this was 79/80). My aunt had been a mod in the 60's, so I asked my nan if I could root through her records which were still at my nan's house. Put on "British Motown Chartbusters", B side by accident, and Levi Stubbs and co blew me away. As I dug around a bit more I found her UK issue of the Showstoppers "Houseparty", which also knocked me for six, and I suppose was the first "Northern" record I heard, although I didn't care about the distinctions then. 7RoG would still be on my Desert Island Discs as the sound that started the soundtrack to the rest of my life.

Great idea for a thread, by the way...

i was brought up partly by my grandparents and my young uncle (who went to the wheel and other venues of that time) used to babysit for me and play his records on a dansette record player . i guess some people are just born lucky .

whenever i hear the intro to - saxie russell - psychedelic soul - i get a flashback to those times and i think this must be because the intro is so similar to the showstoppers - aint nothin but a house party - .

so any of the early stuff from that time , but showstoppers seems to have stuck in my mind particulally . i still love it to this day and never seem to tire of hearing it

LOL - great minds Sarahleen...

LOL - great minds Sarahleen...

yup and we posted at exactly the same time

Contours - just a little misunderstanding - 14 years of age at the Starlight in Stoke with Johns (John Johnson) DJying, playing Walk On By as the final record of the night. Prior to that Longton Youth Club and Mr Bang Bang Man, Apple Peaches Pumpkin Pie,Groovin With Mr Bloe and From the Teacher to the Preacher - 54 years of age now and memory still intact!!!

Archie Bell & The Drells - Here I Go Again somewhere around 1970/1

Listening to my old tranny under the bed covers about midnight. Didn't know it was "Northern" then but I knew it was the best thing I'd ever heard up until that time.

Why? Dunno, a sound either hits ya or it don't.

Yup, still like to hear it now and again.

With you all the way on this one, my older brother and his mates put me in a crombie and a trilby and smuggled me into the Brit, I don't think it would have been called northern at the time, they just referred to it as a 'soul club' - I have dim recollections of hearing Edwin Starr (Headline news) and Robert Knight (Love on a mountain top) as well.

best,

RB

12 yrs old , mates brothers bedroom , kidding on that we're shooting each other and singing along , still love this classic oldie today , but underplayed nowadays !!

This is played reguarly at the present Twisted Wheel.

KTF.

Drew.

Archie Bell & The Drells - Here I Go Again somewhere around 1970/1

Listening to my old tranny under the bed covers about midnight. Didn't know it was "Northern" then but I knew it was the best thing I'd ever heard up until that time.

Why? Dunno, a sound either hits ya or it don't.

Yup, still like to hear it now and again.

The TRANNY under your covers..............Wasn't Paul O'Grady was it?

I can't really say a specific tune stuck in my head as a "FIRST" northern tune. I'd heard lots of "northern" through my older brothers and there mates on tapes and ting. That was in between the age of 9-10...and don't really remember specific tracks.

Then there was the Parish hall disco....11 years old...dancing to Jimmy mack....9 times out of ten.....better use your head...And all sorts of rarer tracks brought in by some amazing dancers before they went onto the Casino or wherever. Didn't happen too often that....At first. Then as i got older...more stuff would be played. In between the specials, the jam, david bowie, ac/dc, the beat, madness,the clash,sham 69, stiff little fingers, merton parkas,sex pistols...spirit in the sky........Mods in one corner, smellies in another,punks in another, goths in another( i say goths, don't know if they called thenselves that back then. they used to stand in one spot and dance to david bowie with there hands to the lyrics, and they wore HEAVY make up and dark clothes). Oh! and casuals(townies) were starting there way in too. Wedges and trackies innit our kid!!

back to the point......I would say paris blues tony middleton...and suddenly the cherry people...the only reason i remember is an old rough book of mine from 1 B (bronte) had them written on. In between the two tone guy...and the Jam with the tail of the M.

I remember Ian wood(jolce) playing a reel to reel in his house with Breakaway Tony Middleton on it for one, and a whole host of others.

Would have to say though it wasn't until i was 14-15 i thunk. that my brother Geoff brought home the Kent compilation "FLOOR SHAKERS" which was what actually turned my ear FULL TIME to Northern Soul. Tracks like soul self satisfaction, determination, something beautiful, call me, darkest days. I would say from then i started collecting albums from the then Soul supply....kent etc then Charley records before the Parr Hall in warrington started...and my vinyl addiction really started to kick in.

I'm waffling again. Nice memory jerkers from this thread...GOOD post.

Mike

Archie Bell & The Drells - Here I Go Again somewhere around 1970/1

Listening to my old tranny under the bed covers about midnight. Didn't know it was "Northern" then but I knew it was the best thing I'd ever heard up until that time.

Why? Dunno, a sound either hits ya or it don't.

Yup, still like to hear it now and again.

Yes this was the record that got me into the scene and still think is a fantastic sound. First heard it at Mirrion St Youth Club in Crewe

Also the first record i ever heard walking into Wigan Casino about a month after it opened was Darkest Day - Jackie Lee and is my all time favourite record.

Brav