Reviewed by Chris Mountford

If like me you have only the haziest knowledge of what the Northern soul scene is all about, then this newly released documentary is a great way of informing you about one of the strangest footnotes in the whole of pop music history. Northern soul, where deejays from the north of England began playing obscure soul records of the '60s and '70s featuring that pounding, four-on-the-floor old school Motown beat and in doing so developed a whole subculture with its own fashion, dances and larger-than-life personalities, has been the subject of a few books down the years. But it's this original film, expertly directed by Joe Boy, which is the best way of getting a handle on this most colourful of music scenes. What keeps you engaged is the exhilarating soundtrack with plenty of demonstrations that the deejays knew what good dance music was while the talking head interviews with the seminal deejays Russ Winstanley (Wigan Casino) and Ian Levine (Blackpool Mecca) and record label execs Neil Rushton (Inferno), Ady Croasdell (Kent), Tim Brown (Goldmine) and Dave McAleer (Pye/RCA) contain plenty of colourful reminiscences including McAleer's tale of dubbing a cheering football crowd onto Wigan's Chosen Few instrumental circulating on the scene. Cross Rhythms' very own Tony Cummings, who back in the '70s was a journo writing about the scene and who co-wrote and produced Diane Ducane's "Better Late Than Never" (one of the many "Wigan classics" featured on the soundtrack), is also interviewed. There are a few small quibbles. We could have done with a couple more artist interviews (Edwin Starr is the main singer quizzed) and the interview with BAFTA-winning director Tony Palmer about Grenada TV's Northern soul documentary This England rather goes off at a tangent and would have been better put at the end of This England which the DVD sports as a bonus feature. But the dancing is wild, much of the music is great and everyone involved should be congratulated for putting together a documentary which is not in the least patronising (the same can't always be said of Palmer's piece) charting a unique counter-culture.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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