Northern Soul

Oct 4, 2024 11:27 AM

Author:Elaine Constantine,Gareth Sweeney

Northern Soul

The story of Northern Soul is one of practically total immersion, dedication and devotion, where the plain concept of the ‘night out’ was elevated to sacramental dimensions. Where devotees pushed their bodies, their finances and sometimes their minds to brutal and unforgiving extremes. For those who went through that involvement every test of faith or endurance was worth bearing.

- From Northern Soul: An Illustrated History.

‘It was a drugs scene, it was a clothes scene. It was about dancing. It came out of this thing. It was about pills that made you go fast. To go fast to make the scene happen.’ - Chris Brick

In the late 1960s, a form of dance music took a feverish hold on the UK, finding its heart in the north of England. The music of 1960s-70s black American soul singers combined with distinctive dance styles and plenty of amphetamines to create what became known as Northern Soul – a scene based around all night, alcohol-free club nights, arranged by the fans themselves – setting the blueprint for future club culture. Northern Soul tapped into a yearning for individual expression in northern teenagers, and exploded into a cultural phenomenon that influenced a generation of DJs, songwriters and designers for decades to come.

Acclaimed photographer and director Elaine Constantine has brought the movement to life in her film Northern Soul – and that film was the starting point for this book, Northern Soul: An Illustrated History.

However, what started out as a project largely comprising of Constantine’s stunning on-set photography, featuring her young, talented cast and highly authentic production, has turned into a unique illustrated history of Northern Soul. In its final form, the beautiful new photography holds the book together thematically, but its real depth lies in the material from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s that Elaine and Gareth have researched and pulled together.

Of course, no book can claim to represent everything about a culture. But Northern Soul: An Illustrated History concentrates on individuals’ personal stories from that heady era, as well as being crammed full of truly atmospheric contemporaneous photography – not from press photographers, but from the kids themselves. Be it snaps of soul fans in car parks, hitching a lift or mucking around in photo booths, the combination of real people plus real (and often very dramatic) stories – not to mention the complete absence of label scans and DJ’s top tens – means that the book stands out as a very different proposition from anything yet published on Northern Soul.

We would like to think that above all, this book attempts to give you a feel for what it was really like to be there at the time.

Reviews

Northern Soul makes fascinating reading – tracing the development and explaining the appeal of the music with incredible in-depth input from a carefully chosen array of DJs, collectors and aficionados, all of whom were either there at the time or who were personally involved in making things happen, taking the scene forward to what it is today.

From the great unknowns, discovered and popularised by DJs such as Ian Levine in the early 1970s, to the insightful thoughts of today's movers and shakers. From the DJs, the record dealers and collectors, and those who are still out there each and every weekend, the ones who keep the Northern Soul torch burning so brightly today.

For myself, this book brings back so many memories of venues, events and characters I'd forgotten about. And I know this book will be well received as a true reflection of how it was back then by all those who experienced its formative years, and also by those who are fascinated by the scene and want to understand more about the music, the people, the venues and the associated way of life.

—— Richard Searling

Most books about Northern Soul – of which there are groaning shelves worth – convey the scene's purism, obsessiveness and trainspotter-ish detail, but nothing of the passion this glorious sound evokes. This one does.

A gritty social history, a beautiful artefact; it’s a labour of love that reflects the music’s joy, significance and its cultural place, with the people who love it at its heart. You will not find here the usual canonical lists, the catalogue numbers or the minutiae of dates and labels, but you will get a real sweaty, pungent feel for the music's thrill and power, and how it has always sat within a historical and cultural context; music made by young, black, working-class Americans elevated to a near religion by young, white, working-class Northern kids who embraced the songs’ ecstasy, energy and despair as their own.

—— Stuart Maconie

Great photography totally sets the scene.

—— Telegraph

A true icon of situation comedy and character comedy and there was nobody to my mind to touch him

—— Nicholas Parsons

[Ronnie Barker] had this extraordinary ability to make the nation laugh, probably more often than anyone else I know

—— Michael Palin

In an industry full of so called script gurus and snake oil salesmen, at last there's a book about story that treats writers like grown ups. This isn't about providing us with an ABC of story or telling us how to write a script by numbers. It's an intelligent evaluation into the very nature of storytelling and is the best book on the subject I've read. Quite brilliant

—— Tony Jordan, screenwriter, Life on Mars and Hustle

Even for a convinced sceptic, John Yorke's book, with its massive field of reference from Aristotle to Glee, and from Shakespeare to Spooks, is a highly persuasive and hugely enjoyable read. It would be hard to beat for information and wisdom about how and why stories are told

—— Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director, The Globe Theatre

This book is intelligent, well written, incisive and, most of all, exciting. It is the most important book about scriptwriting since William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade

—— Peter Bowker, screenwriter, Blackpool, Occupation and Eric & Ernie

Part 'How-to' manual, part 'why-to' celebration, Into The Woods is a wide-reaching and infectiously passionate exploration of storytelling in all its guises ... exciting and thought-provoking

—— Emma Frost, screenwriter, The White Queen and Shameless

Into The Woods is an amazing achievement. It has a real depth and understanding about story, a fantastically broad frame of reference and it's interesting and absorbing throughout. Full of incredibly useful insights, every TV writer should read the first chapter alone

—— Simon Ashdown, series consultant, EastEnders

Testing the adage that "in theory there's no difference between theory and practice but in practice there is", this is a love story to story -- erudite, witty and full of practical magic. It's by far the best book of its kind I've ever read. I struggle to think of the writer who wouldn't benefit from reading it -- even if they don't notice because they're too busy enjoying every page

—— Neil Cross, creator of Luther and writer of Dr Who, Spooks and currently NBC's Crossbones

Books on story structure are ten a penny but Mistah Yorke's is the real deal

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All script-writers will want to read Into The Woods. All plots and archetypes BUSTED

—— Caitlin Moran

Got to say Into The Woods by John Yorke is marvellous. The prospect of another screenwriting book made me yawn, but its terrific ... It's a great read, wise and cogent, and a must for all screenwriters

—— David Eldridge

A mind-blower ... an incredibly dense but very readable tome about the art of storytelling ... Really worth a read

—— Lenny Henry , The Independent

I don't always enjoy books on writing, but Into the Woods by John Yorke is brilliant on story structure.

—— Ken Follett, author of 'The Pillars of the Earth'

This is a wildly seductive love letter to what Thomson concludes is a 'lost love' ... he rapturously recalls a lifetime's enchantment with the big screen

—— Metro

A startling analysis of what happens to us in the darkness as we dream with eyes open

—— Observer BOOKS OF THE YEAR

There's one standout in this year's slew of film literature, The Big Screen written by David Thomson, a giant in the world of film criticism. His book is erudite but readable, delightfully tangential, and surprisingly polemical. He provides a fascinating ride through the past century of mostly American cinema and posits a theory that 'the shining light and the huddled masses' of yore will be replaced by digital anomie, as the big screen is replaced by YouTube on an iPhone

—— Kate Muir , The Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR

[The Big Screen] works both as an engaging primer on film history and as a map for more numinous shifts in the path of popular art ... Thomson offers a nuanced portrait ... the details of his narrative glimmer with offbeat insight

—— Nathan Heller , New York Times Book Review

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