Hi Soul brothers, I joined LBR some months ago, but for technical reasons was always unable to sign on.
Recently Bumblebee told me of this thread, so I made an effort to resolve the technical problems...well I got on to Larry and he sorted things out.
I've been catching up on vaious rinteresting topics, but this and the Club 131 thread demand my first responses.
I had to skip ahead from about page 4, watching every You Tube clip before joining in would just take two long, I will certainly go back and enjoy them at leisure.
My Soul heydey was a bit earlier than for most of you, around 67/68, that would have made me 15/16, old enough to dance and take pills (They didn't even call it speed back then), young enough to be treated as a naughty boy, copping a conditional discharge on the only occasion when the cops caught me in possession.
To the best of my knowledge the term Northern soul had not been coined either, although it was mainly Northern soul that we listened too.
A question Jim, you said the term Northern soul came about because it was primarily in the North of England that the music was popular. That was always my understanding too, but along the way I read that it had more to do with the geographical origins within the US, ie Northern soul was from artists based in Chicago, Detroit, Philly e.t.c. whilst Southern Soul was out of places like Muscle Shoals.
Our stomping grounds were mainly in Lncashire, although I came from West Yorkshire, The famous Twisted Wheel in Manchester, a place in Burnley, who's name for some reason eludes me (senior moment). Probably the favourite venue was the Birdtrap in Nelson, only 13 miles from home and you were soon accepted as a regular.
Now I've got to take that You Tube tutorial and go searching for some of my old favurites to share with you.
BTW Jim, you mentioned to me in another place that Otis would not have made your top ten (male soul singers. after a short reflection I agreed,I thought for a minute more and concluded the guy that really capture the beauty of soul was Jackie Wilson, it was good to read, back up the thread that we are now in agreement