Northern Soul

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.

Firstly, it's helpful to have watched the recent BBC4 documentary about Northern Soul. It's obvious to see that the film's director - who appeared in the documentary - made the film to bring the story of Northern Soul to the big screen. As such, the music, the style, the dance halls, and the dancing are the prime focus of the film, with the fictional drama and characters being of a secondary concern, and it feels they only exist on which to present the phenomenon of Northern Soul, least of all the drugs use which accompanied it.

It's a pity that not the same amount of effort was put towards the drama aspect of the film as was put towards the music, the fashions, and the dancing, as it would then have felt a more cohesive whole, but it's churlish to pick such faults in what is otherwise an most enjoyable film. Naturally, the added bonus is the soul music, even though its brilliance does tend to outshine other aspects of the film. The local indie cinema in which I watched it this pm (October 17th) was fully booked for the entire week that they're showing this film, which goes to show it's been highly anticipated. Recommended.

I was really looking forward to seeing this film. I am and always have been a Soul music lover and Northern Soul fanatic. I was hoping to see how the Northern Soul culture developed alongside the pop scene in the 1970's. The beginning certainly started like this and reminded me of my youth club days. It showed how the music and scene became infectious and more and more people wanted to be involved. Unfortunately, for me, it went downhill very quickly. It is basically a film about the drug scene, with a Northern Soul theme running in the background. I went to Wigan several times and many other all nighters. I accept that some people did take drugs but in my opinion it was nothing like what was portrayed in the film. Having said that, the music and dancing scenes were terrific, although there are some of my favourite songs on the released CD set that were not in the film. At the end of the day it is a fictional film, based on facts from individuals from the time and if it was a film purely based upon the music and culture, then I suppose it would not have a very wide audience. Well done Elaine and thank you for allowing me to fondly reminisce about the wonderful memories of my younger days.

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.

It's 1974 Lancashire in northern England. John is a meek student bullied at school. Mr. Banks (Steve Coogan) is his teacher. His parents force him to attend the youth club where outgoing DJ Matt is dancing to northern soul. When the school bully attacks, John joins Matt to stand up against him. The two fast-friends rebel against the small town ways and lose themselves to DJ for a growing audience. John falls hard for black nurse Angela.

The two guys are not the most engaging. I think the characters are suppose to be 18. One guy looks like he's trying to be younger while the other isn't even trying. There is a danger of too young that is missing from these guys. The drama isn't really here and the plot is pretty thin. There is subplot of drugs that isn't that appealing. There is still some fun. I love the music and the flare pants. I love that the dance hall audiences struggling to figure out Matt's wild dancing. I applaud the commitment. It's not as much fun as one wants in a movie of this nature.