REVIEW by Phil Thornton (Casuals)
Way back in the early 00s I was sat in a basement at Granada TV’s headquarters in Quay Street, Manchester watching an ancient video pulled up from the vaults. A crestfallen Anthony Wilson was sitting down there too just after he’d been declared bankrupt. The video I was watching was the seminal episode of ‘This England’ that explored the impact of Wigan Casino on the northern/rare soul sub/culture that was at its height before punk stole a lot of its thunder in 76 and 77.
The northern scene was largely undocumented and so when I saw hours of unused ‘rushes’ from the short documentary I thought I’d hit the motherlode. Yet sadly (for me) the same footage was being used for Paul Sadot’s play ‘Once Upon A Time in Wigan’ as a backdrop to the action. I only recognised Sadot from his role as one of the bullies in Dead Man’s Shoes so his history within the northern soul scene was unknown. I’ve always been intrigued by northern and dabbled in it a few times but never to much of a degree. We regarded soulies as dinosaurs by 78 but within a year or two ex punks were back doing footsie on youth club dance-floors thanks largely to the mod revival of 79.
Of all the aspects of northern soul undoubtedly it was the dancing that became the most extraordinary manifestation. A stylised evolution of black soul steps (see Tommy Hunt) it was an amphetamine fuelled precursor to many breakdance moves. Think of it like this; in 1974 who else in the world was dancing in this fashion to obscure soul 45s dredged up from musty boxes rotting away in cellars and vaults? The best dancers became legendary such as Widnes man, Frank Booper. These were lads (it was largely a male performance scene) with tough lives, doing tough work in tough industrial towns like Widnes, Wigan, Preston, Warrington, Manchester, Nottingham, Stoke. Their release came in dance. It became their religion. That’s not cheap cliche or hyperbole, it’s a fact.
Keeping the faith over the next 40 years after the closure of the Casino was an act of pilgrimage. To visit these holy sites where the scene continued across Britain was itself a devotional exercise and that’s why Sadot is so pissed off at what has happened to his beloved scene. This book is a beautifully written, excoriating polemic against those who have become the self-appointed ‘faces’ of the ‘revivalist’ northern soul scene. You’ve seen the videos, the dance classes, the Proms, the karaoke fashions and Sealed Knot recreations of a palimpsest soul scene that is as manufactured and shallow as any Simon Soussan bootleg.
Sadot takes no prisoners. He names names. His swipe at the BBC in particular is brilliant. We live in a culture of instant and relentless nostalgia. Every movement, every music, every fashion, every dance, every pose is a copy of a copy of a copy and somewhere the original has been lost, decayed, defaced. Do you remember ten seconds ago? Wasn’t it great ten seconds ago? I wish it could be ten seconds ago all the time. Do you remember ten seconds ago????
EXTRACTS
‘Why am I writing this? It’s a question that I asked myself many times, and after much reflection and soul searching, I returned to the answer that I must. My soul needs to set things straight, to put it down in writing before the scene that changed my life’s trajectory forever, disappears for good in a sea of online curation, parody and product placement.’
——————————————————————————————————————--
‘As the title suggests, the arrival of ‘Insta(nt) Souls’ around a decade ago changed everything, and upon closer examination it has the markings of a well-produced cultural heist. The newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst suggested that “News is something somebody doesn't want printed; all else is advertising.” It is the incessant advertising of a parody version of Northern Soul dancing that has led to the creation of this book. Is it news? Let’s take a look shall we…’
——————————————————————————————————————--
‘So, what happened? Why, since 2014, have we been constantly bombarded by trite, superficial online videos of smiley ‘happy’ dancers prancing about on their own and declaring it Northern Soul dancing? Some even going so far as squeezing the very term ‘Northern Soul’ into their online name, like a square peg into a round hole. Or, perhaps more like an imperialist power claiming to have discovered a new land that had, prior to their heroic arrival, no former inhabitants, no history and no soul.’
——————————————————————————————————————--
‘The space of Insta(nt) soulebutante dance teachers is one of insta(nt) gratification. No time and no connection or soul is demanded from them or the gullible punters who believe the manufactured hype. Just turn up online, or in a village hall, arts centre, theatre or kitchen, and step about to some cynically conceived product that has nothing to do with dancing to Northern Soul music. More often than not, it bears an uncanny likeness to a fitness class…’
——————————————————————————————————————-
‘The concept of Northern Soul dance lessons is a new space that has been manufactured to meet a market that never previously existed. The proponents have gaslighted people into feeling that they need to have lessons to attend a Northern Soul event, which is a totally disingenuous lie. For decades before these marketeers emerged, no lessons were demanded, needed or offered. So why now? Well, it’s a market that, like all capitalist markets, responds to the needs and desires that it creates. It is a self-perpetuating model. The soulebutantes bombard the online space(s) with carefully curated films that attempt to define their soulfulness in order to market a product.’
——————————————————————————————————————--
The BBC – Auntie does Northern Soul
“The BBC embraces the gentrified versions of Northern Soul that have sprung up, cleansed of the history and more easily packaged and commodified. Even some opportunistic record companies have latched on to this neatly packaged smiley, cup of tea version. A struggle free, history free, world of smiles and Ker-Ching-A-Ling soul step gurus. But, to quote the title of a questionable, youth club, Northern Soul 45, ‘Many’s the Slip Twixt the Cup and the Lip’! Often, when you listen to the highly questionable Northern Soul interviews on the BBC, you realise no research has been done, nor any checks performed on the provenance of the interviewees or the stories they are fabricating. In fact, this appears to be the usual modus operandi for the BBC. The Same Old Song by the Isley Brothers comes to mind.”
——————————————————————————————————————
WTF is a World Northern Soul Dance Champion?
“Before I go I have to include a quick note about the absurd notion of a World Northern Soul Dance Championship.”
“To these business-motivated soulebutantes, it all appears to be just some clumsy steps to music, devoid of context, commitment, community, connection and soul. It can materialise as an online course for cash or as a stage(d) event where club goers are forced to watch as the soulebutante and her ‘chosen ones’ prance about on the stage to ‘show punters how it’s done’. Or it could be an endless stream of insta(nt) videos of soulebutantes dancing inanely in a space where no soul could ever emerge or exist. It’s all so dazzlingly delusional, pretentious and narcissistic, and like all promotional advertising it is created for one reason only, and that is to sell their product(s).”
“So, for the record, there is no such thing as a World Champion Northern Soul Dancer. It is a figment of narcissistic imaginations, a comedy event, a bit of a giggle, a stocking filler, and no federation or organisation presently exists to administrate or endorse such an event on a worldwide scale, or even a national one.”
About the Author
Paul has been active on the Northern Soul scene since 1976 as a dancer and a record collector.
He commissioned the writing of, and was the director and producer of the original stage play Once Upon A Time in Wigan (2003-2005). He was the movement director for Elaine Constantine’s BAFTA nominated feature film Northern Soul (2014). He was the movement director for the groundbreaking Gucci Soul Scene campaign (2017). Paul is an ‘outsider’ academic scholar who specialises in how vernacular dance culture is gentrified, legitimised, and corporatised for financialisation. His doctoral work focussed on the co-optation of hip hop dance culture within the space(s) of elite contemporary dance institutions in the UK and the resulting commodified and legitimised Hip Hop Dance Theatre products that emerged from that context. He has written for Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Dance Studies as well as contributing a chapter about Northern Soul dance culture for the Equinox Northern Soul Scene book. Paul works globally as a Movement Director for fashion, cinema, dance and theatre. He is a Capoeira Professor.
Some readers might say he is a pretentious Cunt! But, as Marion Black sang so soulfully, “Who Knows.” Read the book and make up your own mind!
Publishing date November 2025: Limited First Edition Hardback.
Order at https://5767.co.uk/shop/
