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Article Scan - Blues & Soul Magazine June 1970


Reg Scott

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It is part of soul folklore that Dave Godin was the first to coin the term "northern soul" but ... was he really the first ?

 

Nowhere in this article is the phrase "northern soul" used by Dave, it is only the headline which states "Up-North Soul Groove".  And it's not unreasonable to suggest that editor John Abbey may well have formulated that headline himself , not Dave ?

 

Having looked closely at Dave's other Blues & Soul pieces of the time ,  he didn't use the term "northern soul" in that famous report on his first trip to the Wheel either.

 

Not doubting for one moment Dave Godin's great legacy to soul music but just trying to establish the precise facts.

 

Anyone ?

Edited by sunnysoul
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It is part of soul folklore that Dave Godin was the first to coin the term "northern soul" but ... was he really the first ?

 

Nowhere in this article is the phrase "northern soul" used by Dave, it is only the headline which states "Up-North Soul Groove".  And it's not unreasonable to suggest that editor John Abbey may well have formulated that headline himself , not Dave ?

 

Having looked closely at Dave's other Blues & Soul pieces of the time ,  he didn't use the term "northern soul" in that famous report on his first trip to the Wheel either.

 

Not doubting for one moment Dave Godin's great legacy to soul music but just trying to establish the precise facts.

 

Anyone ?

 

I think the key point is where Godin distinguishes between the 'scene' in the South (London specifically) and that in the North. So the term Northern Soul could be argued to be a derivation of that in the popular imagination and vernacular.. In print, as far as I know, Godin lays claim to uttering the term in the Chris Hunt Mojo interview 2002 and on film here:

 

 

SO, for completeness I would really appreciate help in 1. A scan of the Mojo interview with Dave Godin from 2002 and 2. Attribution and dates for the above video

 

Thanks again..

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The name "Northern Soul" was dreamt up by Cliff Clifford. At the time he was working as a Saturday helper at Dave Godin and David Nathan's Soul City store in Covent Garden. Cliff was at the front line dealing with the lads down in London for the day with their football teams asking for uptempo records with a Motown kind of beat, whether they were new or old records. His son, Paul Clifford, who is a leading Modern Soul DJ, says: "My dad had a brainwave and scrawled Northern Soul on the boxes where they kept the records for these people coming down from the north of England. That moment of inspiration started it all off".

In the book Northern Soul Stories I managed to get a photo of Cliff Clifford in London with Berry Gordy. Cliff, who sadly died some years ago, was secretary of the Otis Redding Appreciation Society and was due to leave the UK and move over to the USA, starting off with a stay with Otis. Otis's plane crash happened just before Cliff was due to go. If he had quit the UK, he would never have worked at Soul City for Dave Godin, and the phrase Northern Soul might never have been thought up. So Cliff had the eureka moment and came up with the phrase, and his boss and friend Dave Godin popularised it.

 

Great story - thanks for that. 

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Guest turntableterra

I have all three magazines with the articles in discussion and it doesn't exactly say words like "this is northern soul"  but rather as julien says it "sort of says there is a diff sound up north.

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I have all three magazines with the articles in discussion and it doesn't exactly say words like "this is northern soul"  but rather as julien says it "sort of says there is a diff sound up north.

Exactly what I was alluding to above that Godin distinguishes between the 'scene' in the South (London specifically) and that in the North and the term is 'derived' from that..

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:hatsoff2:  HI ALL As many people who met DAVE, PERSONALY I can't remember him using the term Northern Soul when I spoke to him the time of his trips to both the Wheel & Blackpool MECCA the term us to describe the up-tempo records was "RARE SOUL" DAVE USED THIS TEARM, NORTHERN SOUL was not in common use until 73,

I have gone through loads of B&S to-night and still can't pin point when the term was 1st printed, it's there in some issue but not in the ones that are folk law, however B&S #50 IS THE ICONIC ISSUE OF ALL TIME, with the EARL VAN DYKE cover :yes: DAVE K

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I think the key point is where Godin distinguishes between the 'scene' in the South (London specifically) and that in the North. So the term Northern Soul could be argued to be a derivation of that in the popular imagination and vernacular.. In print, as far as I know, Godin lays claim to uttering the term in the Chris Hunt Mojo interview 2002 and on film here:

 

 

SO, for completeness I would really appreciate help in 1. A scan of the Mojo interview with Dave Godin from 2002 and 2. Attribution and dates for the above video

 

Thanks again..

Super video - can someone edit Jimmy Saville out though ?  :)

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Guest Garry Huxley

speaking to mr Godin at a record fair in luton about 1999 ish after he had sold me some of his contempo collection I asked him the big Q?

he just smiled.

even if he diddent he is still one the main contributers  to the soul music scene and a real gent

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