Hi my first post,here goes,

Being a relatively new follower of Northern soul/soul over the last 18 months and over 60 years old(I missed it when I was younger,girls,disco,playing squash)

Some of it I remember from Motown and I am afraid 3 certain adverts made me aware of it and I started checking the music out,I found some brilliant tracks from various artists,started buying CD's and then ventured to Northern soul/soul events locally to here my favourite tracks and learn to dance to them(after watching youtube videos)

   Then came a slight disappointment,I did not here them.I did here music that I had not heard before and some of it I liked some of it I did not but that is down to individual,2 events I did not dance at all.

   I then found out about Big Sound Snobbery,most DJ's wanting to play rare and obscure sounds which,ok can be good or bad and that's how you find new track's you like but what about filling the dance floor which they do not seem to be concerned about.

  I know have about 150 tracks that I would be on the dance floor to but very rarely hear them.

I do appreciate and understand the vinyl ethos and DJ's doing the tables etc and long may it continue,but why not have events that use other forms of media like CD's, mp3 in a room with a big dance floor,play the BIG Sounds and have the dance floor full,I would go because the music will be playing,would any body else.

  Look forward to constructive replies.

 

As I thought Grahame, all Top 500, all very good sounds in my opinion.

Try The Flirtations 'Stronger than her love', The Demures 'Raining Teardrops', couple of Girl group dance records, the kind of sounds grouped under 'Girlie Dancers' my personal favourite group of sounds.

Edwin Starr 'Time' massive, Lou Pride 'I'm comun home in the mornin' Don Thomas 'Come on train', Salvadors 'Stick by me baby'...

You have some good taste there in that list, I'll put you some lesser knowns up later, I promise!

A cracking list of oldies classic tunes that were for the most part massive forty odd years ago , since then the scene has evolved and embraced many different styles and tempos .

All good stuff though a lot depends on context , atmosphere , venue and company etc . 

Above all enjoy what you like but dont be afraid to dip your toe into the murky world of the more obscure and underplayed stuff you might just suprise yourself .

We don't know your location but if you are ever around the Manchester area you will hear a lot of them being played as well as the not so well known or the forgotten. I usually mix them up into my sets but try to add something different too. I know for a fact that I will hear some of them this evening and did so last night too because I danced to quite few of them. I hadn't heard Les Chansonettes so bought that to add to my box which shows that in 50 years of collecting there are always more. The bricomaligno and other well known YouTubers are good sources for finding and checking stuff. Good luck

If its not on your list try these by big Maybelle

96 tears

Quitting time

I just can't wait any longer

And baby Washington leave me alone

 

Edited December 8, 20186 yr by soundsOKEH

Thanks for all your replies,I will listen to your suggested records and uploads to this thread as as you say carrie on discovering.

I am in the Northampton area,bit of a way from Manchester and St Ives for a night out.

We are going out tonight but not NS I am afraid and don't laugh either,golf club Christmas party with,drum roll,ABBA  Tribute band.

No answer to that is there.

6 hours ago, grahame c said:

Well I have just listened to the above tracks and even more confused as to my perception of Northern soul/soul music,

Love bandit and Does your mama know I would not class as NS/S,they are certainly more funkish and not for me at the moment

Grahame, I posted Love Bandit for a laugh to see what reaction it got on here as it's an Otis Clay record that I suspect only a handful on here may have been previously heard. It's style is a heavy vocoder electro-funk track from 1983. It demonstrates how an artist can go from making a catalogue of 60's soul tracks, to a random release quite the opposite.

The best example I can think of for consistency in multiple styles is writer and producer George Kerr, phenomenal talent, look him up on Discogs. https://www.discogs.com/artist/189456-George-Kerr

The bunch of overplayed titles I listed are 70's/80's funk/soul/boogie. The Jackson Sisters was the only one in that bunch that might be veering towards Northern.

Great list Grahame, I'd dance to nearly all of them - In Orbit and Going To A Happening in particular I'd drop whatever I was doing and run to the dancefloor. 

I'd echo SoundsOKEH; you'd hear a good number of these played in the West Midlands on any given night. In fact I was out last night at a small soul night in a village about 15 miles away and tonight at a larger event with two rooms and some bigger name DJ's (just got in actually) and from my (bad) memory I would say the following were played at one or the other: Wade in the Water, Tony Galla - In Love, Long After tonight Is All Over (a classic set ender), Hide Nor Hair, Soultime, Duke Browner, Tomangoes and The Younghearts. Of course that's only 8 so 5% of your list so I could see you may think that people are not playing popular stuff but go out every week and by the law of averages you'd pretty much hear the whole lot over 20 weeks.

There is a lot more out there though and as BabyBoyAndMyLass says these are all top 500 so some people, particularly those who do go out every week, will have heard some of these played to death. I think the more you go out the broader your horizons will become and you'll see that these do get played but some have become so hackneyed that much of the audience will not be delighted to hear them - the ones that spring to mind are Frank Wilson (you sometimes hear it but it really depends on the venue), Afternoon of the Rhino - which I don't think I've ever heard played out and Sliced Tomatoes which seems to be taboo after the B&Q advert!

 

 

Edited December 9, 20186 yr by Timillustrator