Does anybody actually like 'Northern Soul'?

The words of a failed sessioneer too unable to play anything except ironic, commodity-fetishising "country" music (which as we all know, from the DQ Bumper Book of Snap, Unresearched Opinions, is just crap anyway for KKK rejects and Unabombers) and, in addition, unable to spell the word "minutiae."

Someone whose life is so bereft of joy and purpose that, instead of drinking a strong cup of coffee, or visiting the gents and pounding upon the walls/screaming for 15 minutes, or taking deep breaths, or counting to ten, he has to use ILM as his toilet paper upon which to wipe his pitiful phlegm.

Someone who has to do NINE TO FIVE AND DOESN'T LIKE IT!

Someone who HATES the idea that SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, IS HAVING A MUCH BETTER TIME AND A MUCH BETTER LIFE THAN HE IS.

Someone who is so sad and lonely that he has to spit on, belittle and rubbish other people's lifestyles to make himself feel better - and of course, subsequently excuse it with the words "I was only winding you up."

Someone who is in such desperate need for a scapegoat to excuse his own failure that he resorts to racism.

Oh well. No doubt he will do the decent thing, face up to his own pointlessness and embark upon a journey to the "next world." Because on this one he's just a waste of oxygen.

Hey Dave, they could be like YOU instead, whiling away the hours airing your nasty, ignorant opinions on the internet. Nice one.

attacking northern soul as a genre is a bit of a no-brainer, kind of like loving it uncritically as a genre. Like garage punk there are many gems hidden in a lot of generic averagness. It's only indie kids and soho media types who evangelise about NS these days anyway, tho' aint it?

I like Dave Qs nasty ignorant opinions and long may he express them here.

Accusing soul sessioneers of being too morally bankrupt or incompetent to play fusion is the funniest thing I've read all week. An accusation of complete lateral genius.

Laura and I were big BIG Northern Soul fans, not for any spurious reasons of cultural tourism, but because WE LOVED THE MUSIC. It was a major part of our lives - which does not, repeat NOT, mean we didn't have lives. OK, without doubt the scene attracts trainspotters, but we weren't that obsessive.

Towards the end of her illness she kept asking me to bring in the Northern Soul compilations to listen to because they made her feel happy (or as happy as she could feel under the circumstances).

I listened to the Northern Soul allnighter thing on Radio 2 on Saturday evening and had to switch off, crying, after about 20 minutes because of the memories the music brought back.

Next Sunday it will be a year exactly since all the shit started.

And what do I read first thing on ILM on Monday morning but some dumb jerk rubbishing something that my wife and I believed in and were passionate about.

So you've actually hurt and upset me with what you said, Dave. Does that make you feel satisfied now? Has that made your week? Because it's fucking destroyed mine.

So that's the support I get from you lot. Fuck this shit - I'm out of here for good.

You know that in nature yellow and black stripes mean 'keep away'? I think this is the internet equivalent, I mean how likely is it that anyone making or supporting the above statement will have anything interesting to say?

I suppose I'd be offended if I had any idea what this meant.

It fed into House and other things like Acid Jazz and Hip Hop. Almost all of the big-name DJs of a certain age came from the Soul scene eg Jazzy M, Paul Oakenfold, Tim Westwood. Those that were older maybe didn't want to make the transition so faded out or moved into different areas eg Robbie Vincent, Froggy, Greg Edwards. You're right that Indie was a parallel universe until 1989.

Before he moved on to Kiss and then Radio 1, Dave Pearce had a very good show, every night (I think) on BBC Radio London (now GLR) which I used to listen to a lot in 1987. Things were right on the cusp because he would be playing Public Enemy and a lot of really wild early House stuff (Suzy & The Cubans have always stuck in my mind as an example - really primitive stuff with just a beat and some crude sampling), but then he would pull it back and play Maze or something, but there was an almost tangible sense that it was paying lip service to what the scene had been and that he (and probably most of his listeners) were far more excited by the new stuff.

The Northern scene was older but it was also completely different. I remember reading Blues and Soul and Black Echoes and getting a sense of this completely alien scene that was still going on in the North (diehards dismissing Funk etc.). However there were also established DJs in the North playing Funk who were affiliated with the Southern scene.

and. was northern soul audience mainly white? but southern soulboy weekender scene more mixed?

I don't know about the Northern (non-funk) scene - it's a complete mystery to me though I find it v. interesting trying to fill in the gaps/connections. The Southern scene was pretty mixed - more so in Brixton than Crawley obv.

go to manchester's 'funkademia' soul/funk nightclub for instance on a saturday night , where the participants are 70-80 % working class (the rest are students some of whom may be also ) and then go to somewhere in london full of exclusively middle class 20somethings and YOU TELL ME who's having the best night out, the most fun by a country mile and - yup - the best life. look at the faces of the kids in cargo/plastic people - they're not smiling !!!

IT'S ALL ABOUT HAVING FUN DAMMIT !

speaking of 'funkademia' - in the first hour every week, they make a point of playing 'i know you got soul' - and that's the point.

'i know you got soul / if you didn't you wouldn't be in here'

well exactly.

For the purposes of this discussion there are no Midlands. Anyway the Midlands are (or were) part of the North (where is the North said to start? Watford Gap?).

Wait I'll go and write an animated romantic paragraph about cargo last week and then will other people believe in my fun.

The north of England, especially the nasty little mill towns around Manchester as far as Liverpool have created some of the best most uplifting music ever so, while your comments on the actual musical genre may have some relivance your ignorant and grossly misinformed comments on the cultural situation and the attitudes the people up here in the north have towards their lives are just plain dumb.

Try reading a book (I would recommend "Manchester England" by Dave Haslam if I thought you would be bothered enough) But until then. Shut the fuck up.

I might hate where I live but I will defend the people with my life cos we seem to get everyone else's bullshit.

Kris.

Your right about the house prices too, we paid £20,000 for our 3 bedroomed terrace 9 years ago, It's now worth £12,000, If it wasn't for the negative equity I'd be in London as well.

Still, best place in the world to appreciate music.

Sockist.

"Shit-ass bargain Motown retreads." Honestly!