Do I Love You, Northern Soul? (Indeed, I Still Do)
- India De Rocha Humberstone
- 8 minutes ago
- 4 min read
“Northern Soul. Blimey … how do you describe it?”
Alan Byron’s documentary excavates the archives of post-war Britain to celebrate the ecstatic youth subculture of Northern Soul.
Through a combination of contemporary footage and archived material, present-day interviews and reflections, Northern Soul: Still Burning resurfaces the story of the underground scene as it erupted through (and beyond) the Northern towns of England.
Celebrating the fact of a working-class culture - created by working people for working people - Byron’s film commemorates the joyous and euphoric power of music, dance, and cultural identity to unite millions of young people. For a 21st-century audience, consumed by digital culture and online connections, Northern Soul: Still Burning is a potent reminder of the IRL energy generated in a swarming mass of sweaty bodies, and the divisions that can be melted as people come together over a fundamental passion for music.
Originating in Soul City, a record shop in London, “Northern Soul” was a term coined by Dave Godin. Co-owner of the shop, Godin noticed the particular tastes of Northern commuters as they passed through his shop, largely searching for American Soul of the 60s. Filing records he deemed for the liking of these visitors from the North under the label “Northern Soul”, the name of a generational cultural legacy was born.
Northern Soul was essentially a practice in music sustainability. Scouring record warehouses in America for one-of-a-kind vinyls, UK DJs and record-store owners like Godin were all about finding music that wasn’t “popular”. The scene completely subverted popular consumerist culture. Often picking up and circulating records that had been dropped or discarded by major record labels – deemed not “hit” worthy – Northern Soul recycled the American soul music of the 1960s for the enthralled pleasure of 1970s British youth.
Byron’s film focuses on Wigan Casino as the thumping heart of the Northern Soul scene. Through interviews with regular dancehall-goers, along with the DJ “celebrities” of the subculture, a vivid image is created of the all-nighter venue, reverberating with the beats of exclusively discovered records and the dancing masses of the “children of the night”. Characterised by incredible feats of (*amphetamine-fuelled*) dancing (a point of the centrality of the drug scene to the subculture is touched on in the documentary), with sweat literally dripping from the ceiling, an idea of the “otherworld” that was forged in Wigan is imparted. A subversive and more unifying kind of social order is narrated to emerge on the Northern Soul dancefloor. “It was a different world”, one of the regular participants in the scene comments.
“It was inside of you – it was your heart and soul”
Backdropped by economic and social crises – with inflation, strikes and power outages a common occurrence – Northern Soul provided a space of relief and unadulterated celebration for working-class young people. Interviewees narrate personal experiences (that sometimes differ), delivering an authentic and diverse portrayal of the scene that brings the historic story of Northern Soul to the forefront of an audience member’s contemporary experience. While individuals debate the “politics” of the subculture, some arguing it was mostly concerned with “nostalgia”, not reflecting its immediate political landscape like that of the preceding and following MOD and Punk scenes, the fact of collective identity forged amidst divisive social hardship counters this.
Described as an almost “homo-erotic” scene, Northern Soul (whether intentional or not) transcended, and worked to redefine, social constructs. The forefronting image of Northern Soul, for myself at least, as well as the advertising visual of Byron’s film, is the spectacular feats of dancing unique to this underground culture. Reflecting on how the scene celebrated the “feminine” traits of masculinity, the documentary’s interviewees also recall a kind of androgynous space that transformed itself in the dancehall. Seeing beyond sex, race, and gender, Northern Soul was simply and purely a space of young people coming together to let off steam, bond over a shared love of music, and forge a space for themselves beyond the outside, often isolating, world.
Perhaps this is the aspect of Byron’s film that most resonates with a modern audience: a young generation desiring collectivity and a sense of self-discovered identity beyond the stifling nature of “typical” society. In the underground “otherworld” of the Northern Soul all-nighter, this could be realised. The film also explores the contemporary collectives that are “reviving” Northern Soul for the youth (and wider society!) of today. Byron’s archival narration of the story of Northern Soul situates itself in a continuum with attempts to combat the “individualism” and consumerist culture of today … with a resounding ethos of the importance of keeping youth and bottom-up subcultures alive, that sometimes requires a nostalgic look back to the celebrations of our past.
“Northern Soul is the music that loves us back …
it’s the music of our lives”.
Northern Soul is now showing at Rio Dalston, Bertha Dochouse, Peckhamplex, and more. See here for more information.
Edited by Lara Walsh, Co-Film & TV Editor
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