Local History

We want to celebrate that here on BBC Radio Sheffield and give you the chance to share your memories and hear some of your favourite tracks.

How to listen

:: Wednesdays, 7-9pm, and Saturdays 5-7pm throughout the summer (and online for a week after first broadcast!)

:: Tune in to BBC Radio Sheffield:
104.1 94.7 88.6 FM, 1035 AM, DAB digital radio

:: Listen Live and Listen Again online, via this website! Just click the link on the right of this page. You can listen to the programme for a week after it's first broadcast. It will then be over-written by the next programme.

What it's all about

We'll focus mainly on the classic Northern Soul sound, but with a sprinkle of modern soul and crossover tunes.

Steve White

Listen out for some very special guests on the show as well, ranging from legendary names that have been part of the Northern Soul scene over the years to local DJs that have played a big part in keeping the faith all across South Yorkshire.

We look forward to hearing from you on the show. Email me with your comments and requests via the link below...

Messageboard

We want to hear your memories of the Northern Soul scene in South Yorkshire on the Memoryshare messageboard.

Follow the link below to register with Memoryshare where you can submit your memories and comment on other people's.

The history of Northern Soul

Nobody could have predicted that records people had no or very little interest in in the USA would eventually be picked up by record collectors from the UK, cross the water and become massive underground anthems for a whole generation.

Many people assume the “Northern” addition to the genre name comes from the areas of the US that these records were recorded and discovered, when if fact it was the music’s popularity in the North of England that eventually lead to the naming of this incredible music scene.

The first real “Northern Soul” venue is believed to have been the Twisted Wheel club in Manchester, although the music played didn’t pick up the Northern Soul tag until a few years later. The early records to be played were simply unheard Motown tracks that had failed to make the Singles Chart.

Later on, more venues opened across the UK - including the famous Mojo Club in Sheffield.

Jimmy Ruffin performing live

:: Share your memories of Northern Soul at the Mojo club and across the rest of South Yorkshire with BBC Memoryshare...

Soon more record companies were willing to open their vaults for UK record collectors to explore, labels such as Stax, Mercury and Atlantic, and suddenly more and more of these unheard of Soul sounds were becoming ever-popular in the UK.

Hot and sweaty venues

However, the Northern Soul scene had quite a number of down sides too. The venues themselves were always quite run-down and because of the huge amount of people that would attend, very hot and sweaty too.

In some venues you could find in excess of 1000 people, all crowded together dancing on one big dancefloor. Although there wasn’t huge amounts of alcohol consumed at these venues, there was quite a severe drug problem within the Northern Soul community.

These venues would usually open at 11pm, to a huge amount of people that would be lining the streets, and stay open until 8am the following morning. As the crowd were mainly there to dance, there was usually quite an easy supply of amphetamines (commonly known as Speed) within the crowd, to give them the energy to dance until all hours.

The area in which these venues were located were usually built-up residential areas, so it wasn’t long before the authorities were under pressure from people living nearby to close them down.

Because the clubs were attracting a large number of people, mainly young people, and the venues would always be strict on capacity the crowd would usually build from early evening to ensure entry to the club, and therefore be occupying the surrounding streets beforehand.

Vinyl Records

The authorities in Manchester did finally get their own way however and the Twisted Wheel was eventually closed down in 1971. But this didn’t stop the younger generation of Soul fans, and by this time the Northern Soul boom had exploded.

The Mojo, Wigan Casino, Blackpool Mecca Ballroom...

It didn’t take long before there were more venues opened across the UK, and over the next ten years venues such as the Mojo Club in Sheffield, Golden Torch at Stoke, the Mecca Ballroom at Blackpool and, probably the most famous of all these venues, the legendary Wigan Casino would regularly attract thousands of people every weekend who would descend and dance until the early hours.

And of course, thousands of never-before-heard Northern Soul tracks were discovered and became more and more popular within the scene.

DJ’s were becoming more and more legendary as the Northern Soul machine moved forward too, DJ’s such as Russ Winstanley, Kev Roberts, Richard Searling and Soul Sam who were becoming more in demand than the artists themselves.

Its not unheard of for these DJ’s to pay in excess of £1000 for a record that would prove to be so obscure that they could double their money by selling them on. One DJ who started the Blackpool Mecca revolution, Ian Levine, himself went on to become a successful songwriter/producer, producing for artists such as The Pasadena’s, Curiosity Killed The Cat and a certain band by the name of Take That!

The Mojo Club logo (Sheffield, 1960s)

During the period 1961-1981 Northern Soul was an unbelievable phenomenon and venues were opened, became popular and closed by authorities almost every two years.

The last of these venues to close its doors was the Wigan Casino – initially closed for a full refurbishment but, shortly after the closure, the building suddenly became victim of a huge fire which damaged the structure beyond repair. Shortly afterwards the Wigan Casino, which had been the focul point of a young generation for so long, was demolished.

The 1980s and beyond

The Northern Soul scene did die down slightly during the 1980s, mainly because the people who had dominated the scene throughout the 1960s and 1970s were now moving forward with life, getting married and raising children.

However, in the mid-1990s there was suddenly a massive revival of Northern Soul and the people who had abandoned it in the early part of the previous decade were now enjoying many Northern Soul all-nighters and even full weekenders, enjoying all the records that had been so popular many years previously.

Some would say that Northern Soul is more popular today than it was previously, proving that these records really were made to stand the test of time...

Steve White