Northern Soul

Like her contemporaries, Anton Corbijn (Control) and Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy), Constantine has moved effortlessly from photography to film making, and like those directors has chosen to create a story around a moment in the British pop music scene. Constantine however has created a traditional story of friendship focusing on musical obsession, and the darker side of of a scene that has now become legendary.

What makes this movie different from the work of the other directors is its obsessive attention to detail. Just read the credits at the end to see how much work was out into creating the authentic feel of the northern soul scene and its music and fashion. Shoes and clothes sourced from original manufacturers, dance teachers and dance sponsors. The cinematography reflects the grimness of 1970s England, post power cuts and pre- punk. The acting is top notch and to be fair the cameos from the likes of Coogan and Tomlinson are a bit of a distraction.

The narrative flow is a bit uneven and characters sometimes having little or no backstory, and the predictability of the story arc is somewhat uninspiring. However, this is definitely one of the best British films of recent years. A fun if rather safe British drama, it entertains and I left the cinema with a smile on my face and a few dance moves in my head.

Not enough around the music and too much around the fighting and the drugs which made the film largely messy and all over the place tonally.

No real character developments or dynamics made the drama also fall flat. Could have been great but ended up very average.

Before the emergence of the house and rave music scenes in the late 80's, there was Northern Soul. This phenomenon happened in the north of England where several clubs emerged where DJs played obscure American soul records. It may not sound like much now but I am guessing it meant a lot back in the mid 70's, particularly when you take into account the state of music in Britain at the time. Watch re-runs of Top of the Pops if you need proof that popular music in the UK was pretty dire on the whole at the time. These northern soul clubs offered up something energetic and joyous. From the perspective of today when everybody can get access to any music at the click of a button, it's amazing to think that some of the songs back in the day only existed on one solitary record owned by one DJ; so if you wanted to hear it, you had to go to see his set. The competition between DJs became intense but sadly such a retro scene was always going to have a finite existence because eventually there were no more obscure soul records left to find. Its details like these that I find most interesting about the northern soul movement, a music scene I am too young to remember.

The film itself is strongest in its early stages when it focuses on the music scene more. It's such a specific phenomenon, it's fascinating in itself. Unfortunately, it does lose steam a bit in the second half as it concentrates more on the inevitable dramatic down-side that the narrative in these types of films seem to demand. In truth it's not entirely unreasonable to broach the subject of drug abuse as by all accounts a few northern soul fans died as a result of this and the scene was fuelled to a large extent by narcotics just as the dance music scene of the last twenty-five years has also. It additionally portrays 70's Britain as a beige hell, with fashions, haircuts and décor all of a remarkably appalling standard; in fact everything seems to lack any joy at all, aside from the music itself. But there is much humour in the script to alleviate the grim state of affairs somewhat and the young cast do good work alongside a selection of well-knowns including James Lance, Ricky Tomlinson, John Thomson, Lisa Stansfield and Steve Coogan. All-in-all, Northern Soul has a fairly generic story-line but it is made more interesting on account of the interesting scene it is based around.

This was a long time coming and rumours that it was going straight to DVD point to the level of expectations by the industry and producers. Thankfully the film largely delivers .. and the Soul fraternity pushed the distribution industry into showing it . it certainly portrays the sense of excitement and adrenalin that came with the scene. Sadly by the time the lead characters get to Wigan they become emersed in a drug fuel binge and feuds and rather dark , rather than celebrating the joys of embracing such a powerful force . The female characters are sadly rather superficial but there is no denying the quality of the new young acting talent. As a committed Soulie for over 20 years I loved it .. but Im biased. I so much wanted the general public to embrace this film in the way they did with ... say The Commitments , sadly Im not sure they will. There will always be arguments about the sound track..personally I would have liked a touch more diversity and some Jackie Wilson,Major Lance ,.Congratulations Elaine on getting more recognition for one of the few truly grass roots led music scenes often overlooked in this country.

John Clark lives in the working class North West of the 1970s. Just as he is feeling disillusioned with school and falling out with his parents he is caught up in the new music vibe of Soul imported vinyl from America, soon him and his friend Matt are starting their own music night, swinging hip moves on the dance floor and embracing the new Northern Soul scene but drugs seem to play a major part of it all too, will that take over from the music?

Having seen the trailer for this movie, I was quite excited. I grew up in the 1970s and remember everything about the era and was hoping this might be similar to Good Vibrations which covered the rise and fall of a record label of the same era.

What I got was a realistic depiction of working class Northern England, with new music giving young people an outlet away from their dull lives which was great but then quickly became a story about drugs dominating the scene and their lives. Though I was a kid at the time my older friends who were on that scene never embraced the drug aspect of it which seemed to me far less dominant than as portrayed in the movie. The production design and depiction of the old school dance halls of the North are spot on and the acting all round by an energetic cast very worthy indeed with special mention going to newcomer Josh Whitehouse whom I am sure has a successful career ahead of him. Antonia Thomas is also very believable giving another effortless performance.

Where the film disappointed was in the drugs subplot which almost anchored the whole film. It began to fell more a film about drugs, drug taking and the extreme characters within that world rather than a film about the period, the halls, the Soul and the music. This wouldn't be such a bad thing but certainly from the PR for the film I was not expecting the 1970s version of Human Traffic. The film also felt as if it needed more humour - but these gripes aside, this is still an extremely well made and well acted piece which I am sure will gain a cult following over time.

If 1970s Northern Soul was your thing, then you really do need to check it out.