Paul Mason – A Northern Soul

A couple of years ago, Paul Mason contacted me to point out that we shared two passions – Political Economy, and Northern Soul. So I was keen to watch his documentary about the latter on BBC's  Culture Show  last night. I wasn't disappointed.

There have been several documentaries about Northern over the years, many of them by the same talking heads that have done programmes about a past most of them are too young actually to have been a part of, or to have known much about. That was what was different about Paul's. Though he's not as old as me, and some of the older generation that started at the Wheel, Torch, Catacombs, Dungeons, Up The Junction and so on, back in the 60's, he was part of that Casino generation, when if anything, Northern was at its peak, and he was, like me, part of that generation as a young, working-class man, fully immersed in the music, the dancing and the culture. In fact, what came out for me, watching Paul puffing and sweating, having pulled off a few decent spins – that I reckon he'd be practising for some time before filming, else he did a bloody good job for someone who says they haven't done any for 30 years – and a valiant attempt at a back drop, was that as much as anything, this film seemed to be about him reconnecting with his youth. For those of us, who were there back then, the time in between does not matter. As soon as you hear the first few opening bars, of some decent dancer, as soon as your feet touch that dance floor, you ARE 16 or 17 again.

It would be good to see a real in depth documentary about Northern, going back to the roots in the 1960's, because far too much has centred around the heyday of the Casino. It would be good to go back and interview people about how clubs like the Torch emerged from being Mod clubs, and so on. A year ago, I started writing a novel that sets that time as the background, and I keep coming back to it, when I have time. But, in terms of what it set out to do, this was a good documentary.

There were one or two things I'd disagree with though. For example, about where the actual dance style came from. One contributor said she thought it was from Bruce Lee. I can see what she means, but its wrong. We were doing all this stuff back in the 1960's at the Torch, and similar stuff before that at the Twisted Wheel. The Bruce Lee phenomena didn't arise until the mid 1970's. That was when all the Kung Fu, clubs started to be set up. Before that all martial arts in Britain were focussed on karate and judo, with a bit of aikido. 

In fact, I picked up one of my main steps back in the 60's from one of the girls who worked in the cloakroom at the Torch. One night I saw her dancing round, looking like she had rubber legs. I couldn't work out how she was doing what she was doing. After watching for some time, I had to ask. In nearly every dance step, it involves moving one foot, and then the other with some kind of beat and rhythm dictating the pace of each – for example slow, slow, quick, quick slow. But, the secret to what she was doing was that both feet moved at the same time. They changed place almost through a jump. In fact, later many people exaggerated precisely that aspect of the move.

Once you'd got the grasp of that you could dance at virtually any pace you liked. No matter how fast the record, provided you had the stamina, and your legs would move fast enough you could keep pace. In fact, one night when I was having a dance off at the Top Rank with another dancer, the DJ put the record on at fast speed, and both of us just kept going! But, one you'd got the grasp of the step, you could ad lib all sorts of other steps into it, you could change direction at will, you could throw in foot slides, spins, reverse spins, as well as all the back drops etc.

But, I picked up lots of steps simply from watching old films with classic dancers like Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and especially all the black jazz dancers like the Nicholas Brothers. Pretty much all the moves are contained in what is still the best dance sequence in any film provided by the latter.

There were lots of other sources. Lots of the moves, including the back drops, spins, slides and so on were developed by Jackie Wilson. In fact, Michael Jackson, said most of his dancing had been learned from watching Jackie. But, you only have to think about all of the dances that come from Northern classics. I'm sure I'll miss some, but just off the top of my head:

Temptation Walk, The Duck (Jackie Lee)

Slow Fizz (Sapphires)

Cool Jerk (Three Caps)

Humphrey Stomp (Earl Harrison)

Uncle Willie (Astors)

Barefootin (Robert Parker)

The SWIM (Bobby Freeman)

Monkey (Major Lance)

The 45 (Sharpees)

The '81 (Candy and the Kisses)

and so on.

All of these had bits that were picked up and ad libbed to a developing style. But a lot had to do with where the music came from that was picked up in Britain in the 1960's. It was largely black US, servicemen, stationed in Britain, who brought it with them. Some of them even were singers and musicians who performed here in clubs while they were stationed. That's one reason why some of the music that was picked up was not even mainstream Motown. Along with the music went a history of dance steps going back some time.

The basic steps for Northern dances can be traced back to the Lindyhoppers, jitterbuggers, and jivers, though where these often danced as couples, in Northern the individual elaborations took full flight. As well as in the moves of people like Jackie Wilson, and to some extent James Brown, many of the steps, and certainly things like the back drops can be seen in the 1960's in the stage performances of people like Sam and Dave. But, like every phenomena it developed according to its own dynamic from those roots.

Anyway, whatever it was, it was great, and continues to be great as Paul showed in his film. Today, Northern has become once again a global phenomenon, with clubs all over the world, attracting a new generation of devotees. Its perhaps not surprising that both my sons are into it, but after my youngest son worked as camera crew on the Northern Soul film “Soul Boy”, filmed in Stoke, a number of his friends have also got into it, whose parents never were.

I hope Paul is encouraged to renew his membership of the Northern Soul Church. Keep The Faith.