Hi - I am just curious if anybody knows ?

Where & when was the first ever Northern Soul All Nighter held ?

Bearing in mind that the Twisted Wheel Club preceded Northern Soul Music.

I went to Bletsoe All Nighters in the early seventies also the Cats, Leeds Central, Torch, VaVas etc

But what came before these ?

Can anybody point me to a chronological list of all nighters ?

Thanks - Scobie

Edited March 22, 200916 yr by northern beats

QUOTE (topcatnumpty1 @ Apr 16 09, 11:19 AM) Hi Julian--we,ve spoken b4 on here about Plebs--but as i now live in BD12(Wyke) i have a great intrest in old 60,s and 70,s clubs---canyou tell me where these were?

L,aMBASSADOR

String of Beads

Pink pussycat(run by same lads as Plebs)

Tony Coleby

Hi Tony

was on Melbourne Terrace ( I think) near the University - Kegsy will probably be able to confirm the exact address as we were both there when it got 'raided' and we ended up in the cells all night!! Think this was the night that Swish played the record deck without putting a 45 on first! I wonder why?

String of Beads was on Manor Row

Julian

Well remember the L'Ambassador as I was the Dj there...and of course the night it got raided.Nothing would supprise me anything that Swish did (come to think about it I was at 2 other places where he was that got raided...hmmm.

The String O Beads has always been one of my favourite clubs and yes it was on Manor Row.

Steve Grimshaw

QUOTE (Kegsy @ Jun 7 09, 09:00 AM) If The Wheel is being disqualified as a "northern Soul" venue then

the first northern allnighter has to be The L'Ambassador club in Bradford which opened

very shortly after The Wheel closed.

Regular DJ's were Steve Grimshaw and Swish.

Guests included Ian Levine and probably Julian Bentley.

I cant be sure as the memories from that time are

a bit blurred due to things zipping by at a pace.

It lasted about a year and closed down when the Old Bill

arrived, arrested and locked everybody up including the owner !!!!.

We held an impromptu allnighter in the large day cell under the Town Hall

as Swish had not been relieved of his records or discotron !!!!!!!!!!!.

Happy Daze

Kegsy

mmmm thats interesting did it get busted a few times then. Me and some other reprobates went once and the DS raided it (with dogs I think) and it carried on whilst they were inside and eventually they went.

But......memories are a blur as you say

Yes they did make a another venture in one night but as I remember they came too earlyand there was too few in...think everybody was at another gig that I was doing...BIngley?? or something that Graham Slater was doing?

QUOTE (professorturnups @ May 28 09, 06:17 PM) I heard a a slightly different theory to how Dave coined the phrase Northern Soul. In the late 60s groups of lads used to travel down to London from Manchester for the football and made a detour to his shop. They were always after the Wheel-esque records hence he set up a new section and called it "Northern Soul"

Mark C

This was one of the first all - nighters to gain noteriety - The Metro in Wakefield ........

Malc Burton

I'm sure that's not the entrance to the Metro....hmmm my memory is not all it used to be though...noterriety first in the North must surley go to Harrisons Hoist at Earby.what a cracking place that was(the top floors of 4 or 5 terace houses knocked through and made into a club ..poor memory or not I loved that place (god another place i was at when it got raided..........'what me guv? naw...never touch the stuff...LOL)

jJulian and Malc----yeh Kim later lived in Bradistan--he was a fireman and married Donna(nee Jowett)who works behind a bar now in Bradford city centre--Hernies is where i thought and is now an irish bar(as it would be round that part of Leeds!!lol)

T,C,

Just to be fair to Kim...he did not die of an overdose as one might assume in the context of our lifestyle at that time...he died of a serious bronchil condition....not helped by taking too much of his medication that he needed at that time

Steve

PS....Fireman???...LOL...LOL he couldn't put cat out never mind a fire...LOL

Well remember the L'Ambassador as I was the Dj there...and of course the night it got raided.Nothing would supprise me anything that Swish did (come to think about it I was at 2 other places where he was that got raided...hmmm.

The String O Beads has always been one of my favourite clubs and yes it was on Manor Row.

Steve Grimshaw

Bloody hell, Steve Grimshaw, how are you? still in Bradford, going to soul do's??

Julian

thankyou so much for these kinds of threads they really do make fascinating reading , this really is music history and i could read stuff like this for hours . i feel like an awestruck student again.

*raises hand* can i ask a question please sir ? . he he

c. 1960 my mum used to go to a trad jazz club at "the bottom of manningham lane" , manor row ? could this be the string o beads ? and was there also a string o beads in dewsbury or am i getting it mixed up with another club ?

thankyou so much for these kinds of threads they really do make fascinating reading , this really is music history and i could read stuff like this for hours . i feel like an awestruck student again.

*raises hand* can i ask a question please sir ? . he he

c. 1960 my mum used to go to a trad jazz club at "the bottom of manningham lane" , manor row ? could this be the string o beads ? and was there also a string o beads in dewsbury or am i getting it mixed up with another club ?

That was The Bin Lid ......

Malc Burton

learning all the time .

Sarahleen-----i.m with you ----i love all this sort of stuff ---i,ve always said i wished i,d been born 10 or 15 yrs earlier!!!

Tony C.

URL=https://www.soul-source.co.uk/index.php?app=gallery&module=images&img=69256]

Edited August 3, 200915 yr by sarahleen

Sarahleen-----i took the very same picture in Halifax about 3 yrs ago(but mine didn,t come out as well as yours!!) the day i was there i was sat in the beer garden about where the Plebs dance floor would have been ,and got talking to a guy about mid 60--65 YRS. old. and he was telling me that about 3 weeks b4 -----5 guys had been sat in the beer garden with a c.d player listening to 60,s soul for about 3 hours and having sort of a flashback!!!! to 1967 ish!!!

Who were they--are they on here???

Just proves i,m not the only saddo!!

T.C.

topcat - they allways play some soul on a weekend in the brass cat pub and people have a dance even though there is no dancefloor. a freind of mine who stayed in halifax said they coudnt believe that everywhere you went in the town centre they allways seemed to be playing soul , the pubs , shops ect . its allways had strong northern soul links . yes the pubs are full of old soulies . i love listening to them too .

hope my pic has loaded all right x

Nice one sarahleen...I also love a bit of good old nostalgia and often wish I'd been around a bit earlier to experience some of it...feel like I've missed out on summat good

Nice one sarahleen...I also love a bit of good old nostalgia and often wish I'd been around a bit earlier to experience some of it...feel like I've missed out on summat good

thanks jill . i love all the history of it too . and that old york in the photo too

Julian---you,re doing it again--"Hernies" was that on Roundhay Road somewhere ----Swish has mentioned this one b4

Regards

T.C.

The first recognised allnighter was the SCENE club in Soho DJ Guy Stevens of SUE record fame DAVE KIL

No the Scene opened after the Flamingo (which on checking up actually opened in 1952) - the term 'Allnighter' (in reference to our type of thing) was coined by the Allnighter Club that was held at the Flamingo. BTW according to Brian Rae the two girls who DJed there were playing newly released Okeh tracks on Okeh there in 63-65 coz they were going out with a couple of black GI's who were record collectors themselves, it tended to be much more soul oriented than the Scene, specially later on.

Though why has the statement been made that the Twisted Wheel pre-dates Northern Soul at all????

After all the late lamented DG used the term (arguable whether he or Mr Bellars could claim its actual invention) specifically in reference to the music being played at the Wheel (we all know the story) and from what I know of TW music, the core direction of the Northern sound was pretty well formed by about 69 (though of course there was still a fair amount of proper RnB mixed in - Duke/Peacock/Chess/Kent/Modern type stuff, not that jump blues crap)- with a lot of our stalwarts already being spun there in the last 2-3 years (some of which are pretty surprising - Brian Philips played Patti and the Emblems there for instance).

Dave

PS Don't forget the Cats too.

Edited August 24, 200915 yr by DaveNPete

The original topic of this thread was the first "Northern soul" all nighter.The Scene in Ham yard (off Oxford St) opened in Late 1963 about the same time as La Discotheque(17,Wardour St) and altho both very cool mod clubs--the music could no way be termed "northern --due mainly to the fact most of "all nighter music wasn,t recorded by then(if you get my drift)--likewise as i said earlier the Brazennose St. Wheel.I think you,d have to look at something like The Night Owl in Leicester--as most clubs gradually evolved to playing what we now term "Northern" between 1965--70.

Just my opinion as this history of old clubs has always intrested me

(wish i,d been born 10 yrs. earlier!!)

Tony Coleby

That just means you would be 90 now instead of 80

Hope you and Rani are both well m8.

Rick

QUOTE (professorturnups @ May 28 09, 06:17 PM) I heard a a slightly different theory to how Dave coined the phrase Northern Soul. In the late 60s groups of lads used to travel down to London from Manchester for the football and made a detour to his shop. They were always after the Wheel-esque records hence he set up a new section and called it "Northern Soul"

Mark C

This was one of the first all - nighters to gain noteriety - The Metro in Wakefield ........

Malc Burton

That picture is definitely NOT the Metro Bistro Club in the Bull Ring Wakefield. The real entrance was simply a plain doorway to steps down to the cellar.

That snap it a relatively recent picture taken of a closed club on Westgate Wakefield

I, for my sins, was the DJ at all the soul gigs at the Metro. We ran normal evening shows and some all-nighters prior to the Wheel closing,

but in the immediate aftermath of the Wheel closure, at the beginning of February 1971, we began running all-nighters every Saturday.

The eventual end was VERY abrupt, to say the least. The first I knew of it was seeing a large hand leaning across my decks, grabbing the

stylus arm, and wrenching it backwards! When I looked up, the owner of the arm was just one of bloody loads of unifomed coppers filling

the place.

It took them hours to sort everybody out, and eventually, I put some sounds back on, although I now had to weight down the stylus arm with

a couple of coins to get it to stay in the grooves!

It had been a short but sweet time, but we helped to keep the scene going for alot of Wheel fans, so, in retrospect, it was well worth it.

Edited September 12, 200915 yr by soash

The original question was "Where & when was the first ever Northern Soul All Nighter held ?". The clue is in the question i.e. 'Northern Soul'. Until it can be agreed what Northern Soul means, then we can only speculate on the answer. Of course Northern Soul means different things to different people, therefore it is unlikely there will ever be a satisfactory answer for everyone. I frequented the Mojo in Sheffield, the Twisted Wheel in Manchester and the many others that existed around the North Midlands, Lancashire & Yorkshire from 1967 - 1970.

Setting aside the debate about how Dave Godin may or may not have coined the phrase, there was a definite shift in the scene around 1970. The smaller basement soul clubs of the sixties were beginning to disappear and the scene seemed to shift to much larger, ballroom type venues. The fashion changed to those baggy trousers, vests, beer towels for the men and those voluminous skirts and ankle socks for the girls. Although many of the sixties soul music played in the basement clubs migrated to this newer scene, a new, more stomping type of soul music became popular. For me, this is what defines Northern Soul - as much the shift in the scene as the music, which just happens to coincide with Dave Godin being credited with coining the phrase.

If my assessment is accepted, then the answer to the question would be one of the larger soul venues that sprung up in the early 70s (e.g. Wigan Casino, Blackpool Mecca) but as I dropped out of the scene around the time the Wheel shut, I couldn't possibly say which was the first one!

The original question was "Where & when was the first ever Northern Soul All Nighter held ?". The clue is in the question i.e. 'Northern Soul'. Until it can be agreed what Northern Soul means, then we can only speculate on the answer. Of course Northern Soul means different things to different people, therefore it is unlikely there will ever be a satisfactory answer for everyone. I frequented the Mojo in Sheffield, the Twisted Wheel in Manchester and the many others that existed around the North Midlands, Lancashire & Yorkshire from 1967 - 1970.

Setting aside the debate about how Dave Godin may or may not have coined the phrase, there was a definite shift in the scene around 1970. The smaller basement soul clubs of the sixties were beginning to disappear and the scene seemed to shift to much larger, ballroom type venues. The fashion changed to those baggy trousers, vests, beer towels for the men and those voluminous skirts and ankle socks for the girls. Although many of the sixties soul music played in the basement clubs migrated to this newer scene, a new, more stomping type of soul music became popular. For me, this is what defines Northern Soul - as much the shift in the scene as the music, which just happens to coincide with Dave Godin being credited with coining the phrase.

If my assessment is accepted, then the answer to the question would be one of the larger soul venues that sprung up in the early 70s (e.g. Wigan Casino, Blackpool Mecca) but as I dropped out of the scene around the time the Wheel shut, I couldn't possibly say which was the first one!

This is a very astute post mate and it opens the door to perhaps a possible answer to this question that everybody may accept. I stress 'may'!

If for instance we count all those seminal 63-70 venues as being the 'roots' of the scene, perhaps it would be fair to take the coining of the prhase 'Northern Soul' as a collective descriptive as the key...

In which case we can rephrase the question:

Yes, we all know lots of clubs played 60s Soul Music and lots of clubs stayed open very late or all night etc and there are a thousand legends from each one...BUT...

Which was the very first club to actually ADVERTISE PUBLICLY its ALL-NIGHTER EVENTS and SIMULTANEOUSLY include the term 'Northern Soul' within that advertising, to describe the music that would be played?

Surely that place would have to be the first official, true 'Northern Soul' All-Nighter, being that it would be the first venue to unite and encapsulate the social side of the scene and the music within a singular identifiable term, which would gradually enter the mass vocabulary of a nation and indeed eventually the wider world.

Surely the first ALL NIGHTER to advertise and play what we recognise as 'Northern Soul' by NAME has to take this crown?

If people are happy to accept that proposal - which Niter was it then?

Edited September 12, 200915 yr by chorleysoul

Which was the very first club to actually ADVERTISE PUBLICLY its ALL-NIGHTER EVENTS and SIMULTANEOUSLY include the term 'Northern Soul' within that advertising

I can see where you are coming from, my friend. But you are missing the point.

The term "northern soul" was, as many folks have talked about over the years, coined by Dave Godin. I know this to be true, because he was a friend of mine, and he explained it to me, back in 1970.

He had a record store in South London, and, so that his staff could differentiate between the regular "funk" sounds popular with his regular London clientelle, and the punters from "oop north", who

were asking for older "soul" tracks - he shoved a label on the rack which read "NORTHERN SOUL".

Now this was when the Wheel and the Torch et al were on the go - and frigging YEARS before the likes of Wigan .....

BUT - and here is a great big BUT - all those years later, in the 70's the term began to be used retrospectively - historically if you will - to describe what was now happening at Wigan........

So how the hell could those early clubs have used the phrase - when it's use was restrospective.......If you hadn't been in Dave's shop, you wouldn't know the words!

It's like saying that the first Mod clubs couldn't have been Mod clubs cause they didn't use the word "Mod" in their adverts and marketing. NO, because the media took that phrase and bastardised it....

(in 66, I was a stylist - divs called me a Mod!).

So please don't take probably the most bastardised phrase in modern music - "northern soul", and try to put it's roots in the 70's

I'm sure there are lots of Casinoites who would love to say they had started "northern soul all-nighters", but the FACTS are plain.

The Wheel in Manchester, The King Mojo in Sheffield - in the mid 1960's - they were "oop north" - they played soul - and they had All-nighters - advertised ones - end of story!!

Edited September 12, 200915 yr by soash

I can see where you are coming from, my friend. But you are missing the point.

The term "northern soul" was, as many folks have talked about over the years, coined by Dave Godin. I know this to be true, because he was a friend of mine, and he explained it to me, back in 1970.

He had a record store in South London, and, so that his staff could differentiate between the regular "funk" sounds popular with his regular London clientelle, and the punters from "oop north", who

were asking for older "soul" tracks - he shoved a label on the rack which read "NORTHERN SOUL".

Now this was when the Wheel and the Torch et al were on the go - and frigging YEARS before the likes of Wigan .....

BUT - and here is a great big BUT - all those years later, in the 70's the term began to be used retrospectively - historically if you will - to describe what was now happening at Wigan........

So how the hell could those early clubs have used the phrase - when it's use was restrospective.......If you hadn't been in Dave's shop, you wouldn't know the words!

It's like saying that the first Mod clubs couldn't have been Mod clubs cause they didn't use the word "Mod" in their adverts and marketing. NO, because the media took that phrase and bastardised it....

(in 66, I was a stylist - divs called me a Mod!).

So please don't take probably the most bastardised phrase in modern music - "northern soul", and try to put it's roots in the 70's

I'm sure there are lots of Casinoites who would love to say they had started "northern soul all-nighters", but the FACTS are plain.

The Wheel in Manchester, The King Mojo in Sheffield - in the mid 1960's - they were "oop north" - they played soul - and they had All-nighters - advertised ones - end of story!!

With all due respect mate, I know all of that about DAVE GODIN, the history etc, in fact I walked past the spot where his record shop used to be yesterday....I've spent long nights defending DAVE GODIN on here in various threads but never mind that now....All I was trying to do was present a rational proposal whereby the question could possibly be settled lol! The trouble with your theory is that whilst it is historically correct, it leaves us still with no clarified conclusion and being that the very same arguments or should I say suggestions/positions re-surface every single time this question is discussed, perhaps the only real answer is....

Impossible to define.

PS - The closure of the Wheel in 1970 was only 3 years before the opening of Wigan so lets not make out that it was a decade i.e 'All those years later'.

It is also funny how on here there seems to be a definite kind of split nowadays - people who were into the scene before the Wigan years, quite often adopt a tone which dictates some kind of superiority. Those of us who came in from between 73-76 have been seriously involved or committed to this music for over 35 years now, we are not 'johnny-come-latelys', 'kids' or whippersnappers!

When you talk about facts, the reasons the music was not advertised as 'northern Soul' in those earlier Clubs was for exactly the reasons you have defined. I think its fair to say people involved then might not have even realised that 150 miles away some geezer was defining their taste in music by regional terms. To me the birth of what we actually really and truly recognise as the 'Northern Soul' scene as opposed to the Soul Scene 'up north' comes at the moment when everybody put all the pieces together and the jigsaw became complete. That would be when whatever people concerned realised that the music they were promoting was exclusive - relatively - to the north of England and as such could be classified both as a musical genre and a social scene by use of that phrase, which you rightly point was coined by DAVE GODIN. From then on, the scene advanced as a definable entity - albeit with many splits and feuds! - and it has to a certain degree, remained intact ever since. As such, I'd still like to know who first promoted an All-Nighter advertising 'Northern Soul'...

That would be when whatever people concerned realised that the music they were promoting was exclusive - relatively - to the north of England and as such could be classified both as a musical genre and a social scene

I still think you have missed my point, my friend.

At the Mojo in Sheffield, at the Wheel in Manchester - we knew full well that we we part of a unique scene.

The music was unique, the dancing was unique, the friendships were unique - and we knew full well that folks travelled from all points of the

UK to get to that "north of england" underground scene.

But how the hell could we have used a generic term that hadn't been invented yet?

History often uses terms to describe things that happened in the past. We now call the 1914-1918 war the "First World War" - cause they had

another one in 1939 - but they never used that term while it was going on - they just called it "Great".....Does that make it any less relevant?

Did those battles not count?

I have lots of friends who, cause they are a bit younger than me, who discovered the scene in the 70's. That's cool - all power to them. I'm just

happy to dance with them every weekend now.

But to try to claim that the 60's scene is irrelevant to "northern soul" because of an historical impossibilty is, to say the least, misguided, and verging

on the bizarre.

As we both agree, Dave Godin coined the phrase to describe a scene which already existed . It came into more general use when DJs needed to explain just

what the scene was about, to folks who didn't understand it, and needed a label for it.

The fact that folks had simply been calling it "soul" for years before cannot make what those guys did less relevant.

As I said before, in 1966, both the Wheel and the Mojo ( and no doubt some other places, too) were playing black american music, they had regular all-night sessions, and they were full of guys and gals doing a unique style of dancing, and fuelling their efforts with bombers and bluies.

So apart from not having a time machine to find out what was gonna happen a number of years later, what we these guys doing that doesn't warrant being included?

When the Mojo closed in '67, Stringfellow went on the road, organising "All Night Raves" at various places, notably, the Tin Chicken in Castleford,

which I had the great pleasure of attending.

Is there anything on this poster that suggests the night is gonna be any different to what you would expect on a "Northern Soul" night?

Is "U.S.A Import and Classic Soul Show" not explicit enough for you?

Edited September 13, 200915 yr by soash

All-night American soul nights where held at The Dungeon in Nottingham , I believe in 1966 .On one occasion Stevie Wonder appeared there

Yeah. One of them. Harrisons Hoist. Earby.  

The soul club scene in the UK in say 1967 was starting to diverge between what was played in the north & elsewhere. Most clubs in Yorkshire, Derbyshire & Notts (Donny, Leeds, Barnsley, Selby, York, Hull, Goole, Lincoln, Grimsby, Newark, Nottingham, Derby, Chesterfield, etc) took their lead from the Mojo in Sheffield. BUT, I'd still say that they weren't yet NS clubs.

Come 68 / 69, the playlists at clubs like the Wheel and Pete Stringfellow's 'on-tour' promotions in Sheffield, Castelford, Nottingham, Leeds were beginning to develop  a playlist that was (IMO) the emergence of NS .... probably other clubs in the region of Manchester (taking their lead from the Wheel) were doing the same ...

We'll never be able to point to one club / one month when the 1st real event we could term as a NS niter took place ... it all just evolved that way. Certainly the Wheel was very influential. I went there a lot from late 67 thru to 69 (& on a more infrequent basis into 70) ... I never bothered to find out who the DJ's were at the club but would regularily ask what the last record they played was ... LOTS OF TIMES YOU'D BE TOLD ... (say) .. oh, that's the O'Jays "I Dig Your Act" but it's just been deleted on British Stateside. So some sounds were already being 'held back' till the 45 was more difficult to get (imports were still quite rare & expensive) .... was that the true start of the UK rare soul scene, well maybe. 

In the print media, B&S / Contempo were just about the 1st (probably taking a lead from DG & the Soul City shop) to reflect the new trend in their 'records for sale' ads .... still recall that in each edition of the mag around the late 60's (& in 70), the most expensive import 45's they'd be selling in the Contempo ad would all be current NS club in-demand sounds.

Edited June 18, 20186 yr by Roburt

The Room at the Top in Wigan started all night soul nights in 1965 till 68 sometimes twice a week every week till 8am then you could have coffee downstairs still listening to soul music till around 10am then it was wigan baths for some and trains buses and cars home for the rest I know I was there

Mick L

12 minutes ago, Hooker1951 said:

The Room at the Top in Wigan started all night soul nights in 1965 till 68 sometimes twice a week every week till 8am then you could have coffee downstairs still listening to soul music till around 10am then it was wigan baths for some and trains buses and cars home for the rest I know I was there

Mick L

I forgot to mention even then we all thought we were part of a fantastic unique scene which was better being kept secret and underground

ML

" Speakes Volumes " the  Slat Lad (HYDE ) .

Bit of a pattern here Julian?

 

"Hi Tony

L'Ambassador was on Melbourne Terrace ( I think) near the University - Kegsy will probably be able to confirm the exact address as we were both there when it got 'raided' and we ended up in the cells all night!! Think this was the night that Swish played the record deck without putting a 45 on first! I wonder why?

String of Beads was on Manor Row"

Julian

"It was the night the Metro got closed down that many of the soulies arrived at Lord Jim's in Huddersfield ( the queue stretched around the corner of the building) that the management decided to 'sack' me as the DJ as the music I and others like Les Cokell, who helped me out, were championing, was attracting the 'wrong sort' of clientele - ah well, all good things come to an end - it freed me up to be able to do the Hernies allnighters in Leeds ( before that got raided and closed as well)."

Julian

"Hi there T.C.

Yes, it was one the corner of Roundhay Road and Harehills Lane - run by Dennis Billingham - I have/had a handwritten poster for this venue ( but can't bloody find it) think it was dated sometime in 1972 - there was alot of press coverage in the Yorkshire Post at the time following the 'raids' - Kim Dent ( I think that was his name) from Blackpool was always being quoted about the 'drugs'and soul scene and how they travelled the country attending different venues. I believe Kim died of an overdose not long after, but I may be wrong on this one."

Julian

"Pretty sure it was an Irish bar then ( although the soul 'do' was upstairs) remember when it got 'busted' - I was DJing at the time and the DJ area was behind wooden poles ( you had to lift up the left hand poles to remove them to gain entry) the cops couldn't figure this out, so whilst the 'raid' was going on, I kept playing tunes - they were seriously pissed off at the time. Seem to remember I finished with Bob Brady's Goodbye Baby on Chariot ( green label) before they finally decided how to get at me!!

Great days."

Julian

 

 

I'm glad I never followed you around back in the day Julian. I could have ended up doing serious time for my recreational habits!!

Ronnie

We used to go to a nighter called the Blue Moon in Farnborough, Hants. I went in ‘69 and it had been going for a couple of years at least. They played all soul tracks, mainly imports and most would be classed as Northern. My fave they used to play at the time was O’Kaysions, Girl Watcher. The DJ had less than 100 records as they were so hard to get. It was a den of iniquity and got raided many times. The manager even brandished a shotgun when idiots tried to force their way in. There was a similar place in Southampton called the Marina, I only went once and can’t remember a thing! Good old days.

Edited June 25, 20186 yr by Rocky

Just found this post whilst looking for the date of the last all nighter at the Metro Bistro in Wakefield. As far as my memory goes, as I worked there  doing the door, helping on the bar and occasionally covering for my mate Flash on the decks whilst he went to the toilet, the night lasted about six weeks before it was busted. The picture which Malc Burton posted of the front door isn't the entrance to what was the club. A month or so after the Metro closed my good friend and I, Denis Billingham, started a gig on a Friday night, with a Saturday night all nighter at an old club in Leeds that we rented called Hernies. We only lasted a few weeks before we were also busted but, on this occasion, only two of our customers got busted, even though the floor was awash with gear. Happy days.

Surely the first  'Northern Soul'   Niter was at the Twisted Wheel ?

    The phrase wasn't coined until a certain Mr Godin paid a visit .  

 

  I know its a daft statement,  but before that it was Rhythm & Soul ,  R&B/Mod clubs...  same music obviously,   but no 'Northern' 

   

On 14/06/2009 at 11:13, Julianb said:

 

It was the night the Metro got closed down that many of the soulies arrived at Lord Jim's in Huddersfield ( the queue stretched around the corner of the building) that the management decided to 'sack' me as the DJ as the music I and others like Les Cokell, who helped me out, were championing, was attracting the 'wrong sort' of clientele - ah well, all good things come to an end - it freed me up to be able to do the Hernies allnighters in Leeds ( before that got raided and closed as well).

Julian

It Seems To Me That The D.S. Liked Your Music Policy ! - Or Was There Another Reason ? , Did You Have Smith Kline & French Canister Lids Stuck On Your Record Cases ??  or  a RIKER T-Shirt Like " Joey Hullian "  ( Hooligan )  Not Julian - I Recall That Tee Shirt @ Lord Jim's .

Edited March 11, 20205 yr by earlvandykes6
Recolection/Memory Of Huddersfield

On ‎28‎/‎03‎/‎2009 at 21:28, kimbo said:

 

Bletsoe just up the road from me. Northants has a rich vein of soul often overlooked. What about earls Barton Dog Track niter, The red house, Frollocking kneecap. Get in touch with Kevinkent or Malc Gibson aka Gibby (an original in all aspects of soul a very intresting guy and an ace face in his time), See his thread elswhere on here. also the gaff at Banbury all early niters before the term northern.

hi ya kimbo I am using my new name but I am sure you will recognise me don't forget mkt harboro,Gibby indeed a top bloke with a wealth of knowledge from the earl innovator days of thee scene where caps and pills fell like rain from the skies

There was a massive scene in Rotherham in the 60's. Charade's Club in Rotherham was playing Jazz, Mod, R&B Mid 60's. Also Rawmarsh Baths hosted loads of live acts including R&B acts in the 60's.  There was also the MOD, Ska and R&B nighters at the assembly rooms in the 60's. All this was happening way before the Clifton Hall Allnighters.

My view is that most mod clubs in the late 60s played a high percentage of soul but it wasn’t until about 1968 that the Wheel played all nighters of virtually all old soul records. In fact Old Soul was the name given to the scene round my way (Northants crowd). The Wheel was the leader but other areas had their own thing. My home town Market Harborough ran all nighters like this in 1970 at the Lantern club in the Frollocking Kneecap discotheque. The night the Wheel closed, a lot of blocked customers who had been rudely interrupted drove down to Harboro for it. About May The previous year I went to a similar Nighter in a disused railway station in North Northants so the Nighter scene was well established around our way by then. There had been one earlier at Earls Barton racetrack but I don’t think it would have been exclusively old records. 
All these clubs were largely illegal so none of them advertised, it was word of mouth. The Northern Soul rag was given to the scene after it was established so largely irrelevant as to the beginning