So who did coin the phrase "Northern Soul" then........

[Chatty]

So who did coin the phrase "Northern Soul" then........

[Solidsoul]

14 hours ago, Chatty said:

So who did coin the phrase "Northern Soul" then........

Dave Godin.

That's why one of the scenes biggest characters of the past,  Pete Lawson, called his magazine "The Gospel According To Dave Godin!"

Edited June 24, 2021 by D9 Ktf

[Chatty]

11 hours ago, D9 Ktf said:

Dave Godin.

That's why one of the scenes biggest characters of the past,  Pete Lawson, called his magazine "The Gospel According To Dave Godin!"

Yes that's the tried and tested answer,  I was wondering why in the Doris Troy blurb Manship attributed it to Roger Eagle in 1964??

[Keamus]

Got to say that one puzzled me. I’ve read Roger Eagle’s biography and don’t recall any mention of him coining the term when he worked at the Wheel.

[Tomangoes]

Well I can't remember a name....but I was in a bar at the Detroit agogo...2017 do, and this senior Manc guy absolutely defended the theory that the term NS was in place long before DG coined it in his record shop.

Who was I to argue, as I was not on the scene before 76...

Ed

[Dobber]

I thought the answer was obvious and well documented that a chap who reguarly visited a record shop in london was taking soul records up north in the early seventies because the kids were playing soul in the clubs,and he or the record shop owner said “call it NORTHERN SOUL” this is before the likes of the casino etc...

[Mike]

the above posts talking about an quote in an auction description are all split from the Manship auction topic 

[Timillustrator]

There are two other documented theories:

One is in Neil Rushton's book and states that it was an employee of Dave Godin's. I'll get it out of the loft.

The other is from a poster for the Manchester soul band St. Louis Union in 1965 which apparently  billed them as "THE Group in the Northern Soul Scene". Although that's further disputed here:

 

 

Edited June 28, 2021 by Timillustrator

[Timillustrator]

Found it:

"My dad 'Cliff Clifford' was secretary of the Otis Redding Appreciation Society and he went on to be a Saturday helper at Dave Godin's Soul City store in Covent Garden in London. They used to get all these football fans from the north coming down to London on a Saturday asking for uptempo records with a Motown kind of beat whether they were new or old records. 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"

Paul Clifford - Northern Soul Stories, Neil Rushton 2009

[Chalky]

8 hours ago, Timillustrator said:

There are two other documented theories:

One is in Neil Rushton's book and states that it was an employee of Dave Godin's. I'll get it out of the loft.

The other is from a poster for the Manchester soul band St. Louis Union in 1965 which apparently  billed then as "THE Group in the Northern Soul Scene". Although that's further disputed here:

 

 

Is that more to do with where they came from rather than a group on a scene?

[Mike]

Off topic posts removed

Member given warning for repeated off topic posts

 

 

[Timillustrator]

9 hours ago, Chalky said:

Is that more to do with where they came from rather than a group on a scene?

That's what was said on the other thread. On the other hand they were a (British) soul band, which demonstrates that there was arguably some kind of "soul scene" in the North whereas in the south maybe it was more mixed in with R&B, blues, psych and early rock. 

[souljoe]

Another they from the sleeve notes of this Cd

Sorry, theory

[Hooker1951]

19 hours ago, Timillustrator said:

There are two other documented theories:

One is in Neil Rushton's book and states that it was an employee of Dave Godin's. I'll get it out of the loft.

The other is from a poster for the Manchester soul band St. Louis Union in 1965 which apparently  billed them as "THE Group in the Northern Soul Scene". Although that's further disputed here:

 

 

Seen the band live on many occasions, What used to be said prior to the term NS from people who weren’t from the North was ( That they Play a lot of Soul on those Northern Dance Floors) if you take this forward in its Context you end up with the term NS eventually down the line.

Stay Safe

Mick L

[Timillustrator]

Sounds like a lot of things that there were multiple threads all involving the word "soul" and all pointing to the "north" of England or the UK and they just came together at some point. 

There's an interesting story in one of Bill Bryson's books about the origin of the hamburger - there are two restaurants in New York that both claim to have been the first to serve it but he points out that the first mention in print in a newspaper somewhere didn't refer to either and the context makes it clear that it was not a new thing but something that was generally known about.

I think my point is that by the time the phrase was first written down in a magazine (or on a patch) it was probably fairly well known already by word of mouth. 
 

 

[Frankie Crocker]

22 hours ago, Timillustrator said:

There are two other documented theories...

The other is from a poster for the Manchester soul band St. Louis Union in 1965 which apparently  billed them as "THE Group in the Northern Soul Scene". Although that's further disputed here:

 

Good spotting Tim. If the poster is from 1965, the reference to ‘northern’ surely pertains to a regional compass point. Similarly, the reference to ‘southern’ on the badge featured elsewhere in the thread, relates to the bottom part of Britain. The Dave Godin claim has substance and has entered into Northern Soul folklore; can anyone name the artists and tracks who featured on records in the legendary box in the shop? Were the records in the box just soul records that travelled northwards, or were they indeed sounds that truly exemplified the Northern Soul genre as it came to be known?

Edited June 28, 2021 by Source
edited as the post was 'hidden' in the quote boxt

[Rocky]

On 24/06/2021 at 14:07, Chatty said:

So who did coin the phrase "Northern Soul" then........

As far as I can recollect it was Dave Godin