This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.com Welcome to the 21th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond. This time out, we truly straddle the Atlantic with an energetic discussion of Northern Soul, the long-running British dance movement fired by the uptempo sounds of (mostly) obscure soul and R&B singles from American cities like Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Growing out of the British mod scene and legendary 1960s venues like Manchester’s Twisted Wheel and Sheffield’s King Mojo, the Northern Soul scene exploded in the early 1970s, with thousands of young working-class people crowding hot spots like the Wigan Casino and Blackpool Mecca’s Highland Room to enjoy the social connection and euphoric uplift of dancing the night away to their favorite songs. These songs weren’t the pop hits of the day, however — Northern Soul DJs would typically spin older US soul and R&B songs, many of which bore a decided Motown influence, and most of which had never charted or even been released in the UK. Though both the Casino and the Mecca had shut their doors by 1981, the Northern Soul scene continued to morph and grow, with its music influencing a number of British artists of the 1980s, including Dexys Midnight Runners, The Jam, Orange Juice and Soft Cell. Indeed, the Northern Soul scene grooves on to this day, with young and old devotees alike still “keeping the faith” at all-nighters modeled upon the original dancefloor gatherings of the 1960s and 70s. In this episode, Tony talks about his own experiences at Northern Soul nights from Southport to Hull to London. The movement has inspired several documentaries (including 1977’s Tony Palmer-directed Wigan Casino episode of the ITV series This England, which gave many British viewers their first real look at the Northern Soul scene), a feature film (2014’s Northern Soul, directed by Elaine Constantine), numerous books, and countless compilations of Northern Soul dance favorites. Northern Soul is a deep, complex and fascinating subject, one with tendrils extending in myriad directions, and arguments over what constitutes “proper” Northern Soul sounds (and fashions, dance moves, etc.) rage to this day in every corner of the internet. We make no claims to being Northern Soul experts, and this discussion is in no way intended as a “definitive” summation of the movement. We both love the music, however — so much so that we talk about its genesis for best part of a full hour, after which we conclude the episode by pulling out and discussing 10 of our favorite Northern Soul singles, which our paid subscribers can here on our special YouTube playlist, linked below the fold. (And while it doesn’t exactly qualify as Northern Soul, there’s an undeniably soulful element to our podcast’s current theme song, “Put It Down” by Tony’s transatlantic band THE DEAR BOYS. Released last month, you can find it on Bandcamp and all good streaming services.) As always, this full CROSSED CHANNELS episode is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available above for all to listen to. To hear this episode in full, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one of our Substacks — or, better yet, sign up for both of them! CROSSED CHANNELS can be heard both here on our Substack pages or via your preferred podcast app: just follow the links and instructions on the right. In addition to the podcast, Jagged Time Lapse and Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith regularly serve up previously unpublished interviews and other exclusive content to our paid subscribers. To those of you who have already shelled out for paid subscriptions to either or both Substacks, we’d like to express our deepest thanks for continuing to support our work. And if you have some favorite Northern Soul songs or memories that you’d like to share with us, please feel free to do so in the Comments section below!
